Hey guys! Alright so after thinking about it over and over again I've decided to do a sequel after this story so I won't have to stop writing about Illusion or Charcoal so yay! Until then though please enjoy another chapter of Last Stand and please tell me what you think of it. As usual everything counts.

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, Sherman the Raccoon, and Charcoal the Cat.

I present another chapter of Last Stand!

Chapter Fourteen

Frozen expressions, the lack of movement from both sides of the battle field left the white cat, Illusion unable to understand why everyone was so shocked. Sherman was the only exception to the shocked rule of course as he seemed more furious than surprised at her sudden appearance. Illusion watched for some sort of expression that would tell her why no one got up and asked how she did it, or even why she hadn't included them in the plan. But the one thing that caught Illusion off guard were the crystal tears that no longer fell from Espio's eyes, but instead lingered on his face.

"Wait… Espio can't cry… he can't but yet he is… was it my fault?" Illusion began thinking as she stared at Espio with sorrow filled eyes rather than proud ones.

Laughter erupted from one person in the dark tunnel and Illusion stared at the raccoon that tried to kill her. She saw how his eyes cast a horrible glint, one that thoroughly annoyed her.

"What are you laughing about?" Vector asked though it was more of a snarl than anything.

"Me? Why it should be obvious as to why I'm laughing. Illusion doubts herself. She believes that Espio crying is all her fault."

Vector looked at Illusion as though asking her mentally if that was all true; of course Illusion looked down at her feet, delivering her opinion without a single glance. The crocodile took a step toward Illusion until a gunshot pierced the atmosphere and a gun was pointed at Sherman swiftly just as a metal barrel was pointed at Vector.

Illusion's green eyes widened, and fear began pulsing through her as though it was her own blood. She saw Charcoal's eyes filled with bad intention, and saw how Sherman's eyes flickered between Vector and Charcoal's gun.

"Is the little boy going to shoot me?"

Espio stood up, no longer willing to stay down any longer and Charmy stopped crying and now just watched in horror. Illusion found numerous flaws with Sherman's plan of just aiming at Vector and not Espio who was the fastest of the trio or at Charmy who could fly above Sherman; she noticed this, but she couldn't find her voice to make a plan.

"Am I going to shoot you? You tell me, you seem to know everything."

"Here's what you're going to do. You're going to put down your weapon and I'm going to shoot you in the head without a single thought," Sherman replied in a cold tone.

"Wow, big words for someone who doesn't even have a clue as to what he's going to do when he gets rid of us all. You're not a perfect criminal uncle. In fact you made a lot of flaws in just the way you stand with a gun."

Sherman's eyes averted to Illusion and the cat shivered as she saw the glare mimicked someone who was insane, the look that she had at one time thought belonged to Charcoal when he pointed the gun at them in the restaurant. Illusion had put the pieces together after Sherman tried to kill her, Charcoal hadn't done a thing, that look that was painted on Sherman's face didn't belong to her brother.

"Like you're one to talk," the raccoon stated as he pointed the gun toward Illusion.

Illusion shook her head and seemed disappointed.

"What? What am I doing wrong?"

"I'll give you a guess," the purple chameleon replied as he turned visible behind Sherman and grabbed the gun.

This surprised Charmy and the honey bee flew over to Vector, "How did he do that?"

Vector smiled as he whispered his reply in Charmy's antennas, earning a surprised grin from the hyperactive bee. Illusion crossed her arms and smirked, this was too easy; Sherman would be in jail within a few minutes if this kept going on like it was.

But as things looked up, some twisted person named Fate decided to make things interesting right at that moment. As Espio got his hand around the gun, Sherman started to rapid fire upon anything that moved. Illusion covered her ears as she looked for a place to take cover; there was no place to hide or run to. Vector and Charmy realized this as well as they began running around like chickens with their head cut off. Charcoal tried to aim at Sherman but with Sherman trying to get Espio's grip off of the gun he couldn't get a clear shot, leaving him pretty useless.

"Get the hell off you good for nothing commoner!" Sherman yelled angrily at Espio as the chameleon was about to hit the raccoon over the head with a kunai.

A kick slammed into Espio's stomach and he coughed as he regained his composure, but by then one sound could be heard past the panicking Vector and Charmy.

Bang!

Everything froze as Sherman smirked at the splatter of red that was on the wall and no one moved even though Vector, Charmy and Illusion screamed the same thing, "ESPIO!!"

The chameleon stumbled backwards as he put a hand over the wound that kept bleeding heavily. Charmy looked about ready to cry again and Vector lunged at Sherman with a punch that screamed pure rage and fury. The raccoon dodged gracefully but realized he was in danger as Charcoal aimed at him and kept firing rapidly.

"Espio, please be okay," Illusion whispered as she camaflouged with her surroundings and followed Sherman gracefully as though she was his shadow, his unseen shadow. This worked to her advantage since Vector and the others had no idea where she was. She appeared behind Sherman and jumped in the air and kicked him in the back of the head, earning a fierce glare from the raccoon.

While the raccoon was distracted with Illusion's kick, Vector charged toward him and slammed a punch into his face. Sherman shot up to his feet and darted a little ways from the duo only to yelp at a pain that shot up his arm; Charmy laughed as he managed to sting the unaware Sherman in the arm. Sherman glared at the honey bee and shook him off and hit him as though he was a baseball with a metal pipe. When Charmy landed on Vector's face, Sherman pointed the gun at Illusion and everything froze again.

"If anyone so as moves, the girl dies," Sherman threatened as the murderous glint in his eyes grew into a massive sparkle.

Vector and Charmy froze on the spot but they shot every insult through a single dagger-like glare aimed at the insane raccoon. Sherman smiled; maybe he had this under his control like it should've been.

Bang, bang, bang…

Illusion waited to feel pain hit her and she waited to feel the warmth trickle out of the wound with her blood. But the white cat never felt what she expected. She opened her tightly closed eyes and saw Sherman on the ground, gunshot wounds in the head, shoulder and leg. Her eyes swiftly moved toward Charcoal who twirled his gun in his good hand and put it away, and she noticed that it was his bad hand that was hit.

Tears started to build up in her eyes, normally she would've been happy that she got lucky and Sherman momentarily forgot about Charcoal, but she ran over to Espio where she saw the pool of red growing. She collapsed onto her knees and attempted to stop the bleeding and so did Vector and Charmy as they rushed over. But when they got there and Charcoal was about to move toward them sirens filled the air and the rapid clicks of guns being prepared to fire at everything was heard echoing through the dark tunnel.

"POLICE! NO ONE MOVE!" a loud booming voice commanded.

Charcoal instantly could tell where this was going to go as he put his hands up as did everyone else. The officer saw Sherman's motionless body and the blood that was gathering around the raccoon and said something into a radio and he came over with handcuffs and used them only on Charcoal and then saw Espio, whose breathing was labored. Again the officer said something into the radio and Charcoal's ears drooped and all emotion faded out of his eyes.

Illusion walked over to her brother, "Charcoal? Are you okay?"

"It's just my hand… I'll be fine," he replied as he looked at Illusion. He smiled, "Make sure Espio is okay… it'd be a shame if Vector and Charmy were to lose him."

That's when the dusty black cat was forced into the police car and was driven away, just as an ambulance appeared and took Espio away. Illusion watched as Vector ran to be by Espio's side and the huge vehicle vanished into the darkness that shrouded the road.

"What now?" Charmy asked quietly as he remained by her side. She looked at him and saw that he was scared and confused, just like she was.

Illusion took a gentle hold of Charmy's hand, "I think we should wait at home… and then we'll decide what we're going to do when we know whether or not Espio is okay."

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Okay guys here's the chapter you've been waiting for. Sorry that the chapter is short and that there wasn't as much action that everyone hoped for. I couldn't think of what to write so I just put something down. The next chapter is going to be the second to last chapter of this story and who knows what's going to happen in it? I'm the only one that does. Until the next chapter comes though, I hope you slightly enjoyed this one.