STH © SEGA
Sarah belongs to me, BlackPetals23. Flame and Sunny belong to Phantomask. Alicia belongs to aliciathewolf45. Thanks, guys.
(Villains including Kassidy, Laurie, Christopher, and the gym guys belong to me, BlackPetals23.)
Edited.
Enjoy!
Chapter Seventeen:
Confrontation
Amy was still crying even as Shadow untied and hugged her, kissing her cheeks and wiping away her falling tears.
"Oh, my sweet Rose," Shadow whispered and kissed her forehead before planting a soft kiss on her lips. Amy whined and wrapped her arms around his neck, not wanting to let him go in fear it was just a dream. "I'm here…" Shadow held onto her though, both sitting on the ground as she bawled into his chest. "I'm here."
"C'mon," Rouge said to the others. "We don't have much time. We still need to help Alicia and Charmy. They've probably been kidnapped by now."
Espio frowned. "Why did I volunteer Alicia again?"
Vector only shrugged in response as they helped untie Sonic. The blue blur got out quickly with their help and he immediately raced towards Sarah, shoving Knuckles to the side. Red echidna grunted and glared at him. "Hey! I'm the good guy!"
Sonic made a growling sound before untying Sarah and getting the gag out of her mouth. The female coughed as she came to and looked up. "Sonic?"
He held her face and cooed, "It's okay," while hugging her. Sarah looked like she was rather uncomfortable and Sonic looked like he had finally found his pillow.
Knuckles rolled his eyes and stood up, brushing himself off. "Is everyone good?"
Blaze helped Silver stand until he nodded that he was fine. Flame kissed Sonia's forehead and muttered words to her that no one understood. Sonia was just glad someone rescued her. Scourge had easily gotten Fiona free and was helping her up hurriedly when he spoke, "Remind me to keep an eye on you for the rest of my life."
Fiona took it as gesture that he was keeping the both of them. Her and their child. She was right.
Scourge took her smile as a gesture to kiss her. And he totally did.
Knuckles looked at them and groaned, slumping his shoulders. "If they act like this, we're never going to get out in time to save Alicia and Charmy."
It didn't seem like Alicia needed help, but the babysitter knew that if anyone needed help it was a tie between Charmy and Lenny.
Charmy was injured. He needed a hospital.
Lenny was insane. He needed an asylum.
Thankfully, Charmy had dragged himself closer to the door and away from the fight. Unfortunately, Lenny wasn't giving up. He charged Alicia and knocked her into one of the treadmills. She screamed and slipped, dragging Lenny with her though.
She had figured that if she was going to fall, he was going down with her. She had to distract him for as long as she possibly could—who knew how long her friends needed?
Alicia could only hope they would soon have everyone rescued, including her and Charmy.
Please, Espio…C'mon.
She gritted her teeth and spat into Lenny's face. The fox snarled as he walked backwards, suddenly stumbling as he got the spit out of his face. His foot hit a weight and twisted awkward, causing him to yelp in pain as he went over a bench and hit his head.
There was a short silence in which Alicia thought it was all over. She peered over at Lenny and saw the white fox sprawled out on the floor, a pool of blood around his head. The wolf gulped and stood up, taking small steps towards him.
Charmy was whimpering. "…Alicia…Is he dead?"
She looked over the bench, a little sympathy in her eyes. She hoped he wasn't. She didn't know if she could take having someone's blood on her hands for the rest of her life.
There was a longer pause and she saw him take a breath. Alicia exhaled in relief. "No, he's not." She turned to the door and instantly yelled, "Charmy, look out!"
The door opened in a flash and a badger raced through, knocking Charmy out once more and snarling at Alicia. She squinted and tried to remember who he was.
His hazel eyes looked over to his friend and dread washed over them. He took a step back and hit the wall, his hand looking for the door knob. "Lenny…" he whispered in fear before glaring at Alicia, "You monster!"
"No, I didn't—he's not—"
The badger let out an unearthly roar and grabbed Charmy's throat, the bee's mouth dribbling blood still. He tried to open his eyelids, but he was slowly losing oxygen.
"No!" Alicia screamed, "STOP!"
The badger grinned like a maniac. "Sorry, sweetheart. An eye for an eye."
With such power that Alicia had only ever seen from Knuckles, the badger flung Charmy into the wall. There was a large thud as his body made contact. With horror, Alicia watched as Charmy slid to the ground quickly and blood followed his path.
He was just a teenager…
In all the times Alicia had to babysit, this was by far the worst she'd ever done. Espio and Vector would probably never forgive her if Charmy died.
Alicia glared at the badger coming towards her. "He's not dead!" she yelled. "Leave us alone!"
He continued advancing but all he said was, "Good."
Shadow had decided that there was hell to pay for whoever touched Amy. Scourge had simply growled something about tearing their limbs apart still.
They walked out of the room in single file, holding onto each other's hands most of the way. Rouge looked out into the hallway and breathed out unevenly as Knuckles looked over her shoulder. "The guards are gone. Be careful."
They made their way down the hallway silently and quickly. They weren't even to the first corner when someone stopped them. Amy clung onto Shadow immediately while he held out a protective arm.
Silver's gaze hardened at the black hedgehog standing by himself. "Christopher."
Christopher only stood there, not even acknowledging them. Silver walked forward even as Blaze protested with a small squeak. "C'mon, Christopher. You don't want to live this life. Just let us go and we'll put in a good word for you. You won't go to jail."
The black hedgehog's jaw tightened as another figure stepped out beside him. It was Kassidy, wearing nothing but black and staring at Christopher proudly before looking at Silver as if he were making a bad decision.
"Hello, Silver."
"Kassidy." Silver curtly nodded once and stepped back to align with Rouge and Knuckles just in case.
The others watched silently as Kassidy took a step around Christopher and circled him once before speaking. "Your proposition astounds me, Silver, honestly. But you'd be making a huge mistake if you let Christopher go. You see he's in this just as deep as I am."
Black vapor started to flow around as she walked towards the group. Amy looked over her shoulder and met Christopher's gaze. The pink flower looked down to his hands and gasped, tugging onto Shadow even more.
Christopher was creating the black, thick cloud. It was at Kassidy's feet now, dancing around her as she walked. Knuckles glared at the two. "He's at the top of the organization like you, then?"
"I give the orders," Kassidy growled, flicking her tail. "Christopher. Oh, he's special. I honestly thought I would never find anyone as special as he is, considering most Mobians don't have powers these days. Especially his powers. They're what make him so special."
"And I thought it was his good looks," Sarah sarcastically said. Sonic gave her look that told her to be quiet, but the female shrugged it off.
Kassidy met her gaze and looked her up and down. "You're not a hero. Dating one perhaps…" she raised her hand and the vapor started to form higher towards her thigh, "but not for long. Chris…"
Christopher's dark eyes met Sarah's and the black vapor started towards her.
"Stop!" Rouge yelled. "Whatever you're doing, don't! She didn't mean it."
Kassidy smile at Rouge. "Oh, don't worry. Those two will be next seeing as they're the least important here." She turned to look at Flame and Sunny individually. "Now, Christopher, take your time. I have business to attend to." She patted his arm as she walked back towards him and around the corner. "Tata, my little heroes!"
"She's insane," Silver muttered and looked at Christopher. "C'mon, man. You can't do this. You can't be a murderer."
"I'm not." It was the first words he spoke as the vapor reached Sarah. He met her unruffled gaze again. "They eventually kill themselves."
Sarah breathed in and held her breath as the vapor traveled up her body. Sonic walked backwards, making a clearing for those who couldn't see before. Shadow walked beside him. "What's it doing?" he whispered.
Sonic shook his head and frightfully looked at Sarah. "I don't know."
Christopher took a step closer, focused on Sarah, as his cloud of black thickened and traveled towards her, sending more and more vapor her way. "You can hold your breath, but it won't ever work. You'll need to breathe sometime. Besides, I've enhanced my powers to play with your mind. It doesn't matter if you breathe it in or not. It'll find you. And it'll get you."
It was silent for a couple seconds. Nothing but the movement of the vapor was actually heard. Half of them wondered what Christopher's power could possibly be, others wondered how bad it was.
It was only when Sarah went to her knees did the screaming start.
Kassidy got to the elevator when the screams started. The doors closed as she smiled sweetly with closed eyes, just imaging that female hedgehog in pain.
Yes, Christopher's powers were special. But she didn't know the half of it. She didn't really know what he was capable of, that was why she took the genius of the group right from under their noses. It was shocking really that none of them noticed Tails was gone. But Tails had put up a fight as he protected his girlfriend, so Kassidy decided to bring her too.
After all, Cream would be perfect as a ransom.
She entered another room a floor below and walked into it. It was bare besides a metal table. Tails was handcuffed to it, but at least he looked better than the other prisoners had. She wasn't surprised they were free though—she expected the heroes to be heroes.
"Mr. Prower," Kassidy sat across from him while he glared. "It's so nice to see you again. Have you made your decision?"
"Your offer consisted in me joining you so you can run tests on your little lackey, Christopher. That or I die," Tails gritted his teeth. "I'm not quite sure you understand how to make a deal."
Kassidy leaned back calmly. "Au contraire, Mr. Prower. You do not know how criminals make deals. I suggest it's about time you learned. Your decision?"
"I have questions first."
"Shoot." Kassidy shrugged at him. "I've got all day."
Tails only hardened his stare. "What exactly does Christopher do?"
"His vapor is unleashed from his hands and once into someone's system, he can get into their minds and see everything they've ever done. He sees their fears and makes them terrified. So you see, I didn't kill anyone. Neither did Christopher. He just provoked it. They eventually killed themselves one way or another and we have to dispose of the body or else we'd be in jail after so many deaths."
Tails' eyes narrowed. "It sounds like you know everything there is to know about his power."
"Yes, but…" Kassidy has a distant look on her face before she blinked rapidly and smiled at Tails. "He's dangerous. Everyone knows not to mess with Christopher, though he listens to my commands. I just want to see if he's capable of anything else that I'm unaware of. I didn't know he could see everyone's memories until last month. It was quite a surprise and it would be utterly helpful when I attack the ruler of Mobius."
Tails' jaw clenched and he leaned back, scanning Kassidy's face. She was here to rule Mobius. She was going to use Christopher to get higher power. This cat was nothing but power hungry. "You're going to use him and when you're done with him, you're going to dispose of him."
"Unfortunately, yes. Once he is of no more use, he could betray me. I can't have that. So I want to see if his own powers can work on him," her eyes glittered with evil, "just to make things exciting and see his stone posture finally break down. Oh, you should see him, Tails. He thinks I actually care for him, how sweet is that?"
Tails swallowed nervously. "Of all the evil people out there, I must admit you're the most stupid of them all."
Kassidy raised an eyebrow. "We'll see. But seeing as you're so good," she stood up and leaned towards him, "why aren't the good heroes winning this time? Why are your friends in desperate need as I speak? Because Christopher is powerful and he can do things I cannot but that I need. I'm going to be the most powerful being ever on Mobius. Everyone will assume I am the one under all of the mysterious deaths and they'll either die or respect me. Then Christopher will be of no use to me. So what's your decision?"
"If I join you, you'll just get rid of me once you have no use for me," Tails snarled. "I could lie about Christopher's powers and turn him against you."
Kassidy tsked at him. "That wouldn't be fair, now would it? But I don't think you'll do that, Tails. You wanna know why?" She caressed his cheek and he shuddered, inching away from her. "Because we have your precious little girlfriend who will suffer the consequences of your mistakes. That's how a criminal makes deals," she hissed. "And seeing as the heroes aren't winning this time, Mr. Genius, I think you should take me up on my offer. It may be the best thing you'll ever do for Miss Cream, hm?"
Tails glared at her with loathing. He smirked suddenly as she leaned closer still, towering over the table and cocking her head to the side in interest. "You know, I've been in sticky situations before."
There was a clinking of chains together and suddenly hands were at Kassidy's throat. Her eyes widened as she looked down. The handcuffs were off and Tails was holding her throat firmly as he squeezed. She stared back up at his blue eyes dreadfully.
"But like you said, I'm a genius."
It wasn't Sarah screaming any more. It wasn't Sunny either.
Flame was rolling around on the ground, yelling and shouting for all he was worth as the vapor consumed him. Everyone watched in horror. They couldn't do anything. Sonic had raced towards Christopher when Sarah was being held by the black cloud, but Christopher had only turned on him and made him shake and tremble in fear.
Everyone's worse nightmares were coming true. Shadow was trying to figure out a way to defeat Christopher but he knew it was no use. Besides the fact that Shadow knew what he most feared, he didn't exactly want to be fighting himself.
But as soon as Flame had gone down to the ground and the vapor had left his side, Shadow knew it was going to be no use. Everyone feared something and Shadow feared his powers and what he was capable of. But right now, the heroes needed a monster.
Shadow walked forward, ripping away from Amy's hold. "Shadow!" she shrieked and it tore him apart. He didn't want her to see him like this; he didn't want his love to fear him. But this was the only thing anyone had come up with and Shadow had thought of it—he just hadn't said it to anyone.
Christopher looked rather surprised but he straightened up and let the vapor go towards the ebony hedgehog. Shadow was glad Christopher only had some similar appearances, but he figured that if he could trick his own mind that Christopher was him, he would be fighting both Christopher and himself. So Christopher's powers would still work, but so would Shadow's.
Shadow was positive that if he tried to explain his idea to anyone, they wouldn't get it. But it worked perfectly in his mind. The one thing the Ultimate Life Form feared most was his powers. He was sure of it.
The vapor did something to his body. When it got to his head, Shadow stumbled and felt like he had made a huge mistake. He glanced up at Christopher and felt his memories being picked apart. He saw them all flash before his eyes.
Racing Sonic. Going on dates with Amy. Hanging out with friends. The camping trip.
What he had planned on doing.
Shadow had never felt so embarrassed and ashamed while Christopher smirked down at him. Shadow was a mere five feet away from him. But the unfortunate part was that Christopher knew exactly what Shadow had planned on doing. And it was then that Shadow realized Christopher picked the fear to show the person.
Christopher's smirk grew. 'That's right.' His voice invaded Shadow's mind and Shadow clutched his head, groaning in pain. 'Just like I showed the first girl everyone around her dying. Then her dying. Her greatest fear was death. Then the younger girl who you call Sunny. Her fear was rather fun. Spiders crawling around her the size of cars, snakes slithering around and hunting her. Then the boy's. Oh, his was pleasure to me. His greatest fear was of his second power.
'He doesn't know it yet, but he has the ability to control fire. Not create it like your feline friend, but control it. He had a bad accident when he was younger with fire. Fire consuming him as the house burnt to the ground. His mother screaming in the background, his father trying to stay calm. Oh, it was a great reenactment, you should've seen it. But all you saw was him rolling on the floor. Such a shame.
'Now you…The Ultimate Life Form. Your friends think you fear nothing—at the least the three crying on the floor think that. I picked away their memories like I did you. And I know just what to make you fear. And it won't be your powers. You don't fear your powers specifically, you fear that you won't be able to control your powers and become a monster. And who do you not want to see you become a monster?'
Shadow tried hard not to think of Amy, he really did. But he knew it was useless. Christopher had already ripped apart each memory and scrutinized their relationship to the core. He knew perfectly how both of them felt in their relationship.
'Such a sad time now, honestly. I'm sure she would've said yes when you would've proposed, but frankly, that won't be happening. You might want to get comfortable. This will hurt.'
Shadow yelled and scratched the floor while a new fear consumed him. They all consisted of images of Amy. Amy being hurt, Amy being killed, Amy being with someone else, Amy rejecting him, and the worst of all: Amy seeing him as a monster. Shadow whimpered against the floor while his friends looked in horror and shock.
The Ultimate Life Form was cowering and whining. Rouge looked up at Christopher with tears in her eyes. "You son of a bitch…You monster!" Knuckles held her back as she tried to help her best friend.
Amy was on the verge of helping Shadow, but Silver held her back tightly with Blaze. Amy could only flail around in the white hedgehog's grasp, crying and screaming to be let go. It only made Shadow's nightmares worse.
Amy's real screams matched what Christopher showed him. Shadow realized just how cruel and wicked the male truly was. He found this to be a sport. He found it to be entertainment and amusing. Shadow could only despise him even more.
"STOP!"
The vapor went away and Shadow breathed out evenly, gasping as he clutched the carpet and cried in relief. Tears streamed down his face as he tried not to cry anymore. It was over. The nightmares were gone. He didn't think he could face everyone though.
But as warm arms hugged him with such ferocity, he knew Amy wasn't going to make him show his face to his friends.
Instead, the pink hedgehog clutched onto him as he buried his face into her stomach and hugged her there. He was shivering and trembling, trying to tell himself that all the images were just nightmares. They weren't real.
They weren't real.
Knuckles let Rouge go at the scene before them. Amy was on the ground now, hugging Shadow to no end. Christopher was staring beside him in fear.
He held out his palms. "Let her go."
Tails came into view, clutching onto Kassidy. A knife was at her throat and a gun pointed at her side. Tails was definitely not screwing around anymore. Cream was beside him with another gun. Knuckles had to blink and make sure it was really Cream and Tails as realization finally hit him that they weren't there all along.
"Hey, guys. Miss us?" Tails growled, glaring at the red echidna. "You know, it's really nice being forgotten, Knuckles."
"You forgot about my best friend?!" Sonic growled, hugging onto Sarah protectively. "What are you, an idiot?!"
"ENOUGH!" Cream shrieked. It was her that had yelled stop. Her voice was shrill and her words were to the point as she held the gun to Christopher. "You can't do two people at once. We know everything thanks to your friend here."
Kassidy whimpered, blood coming out of her nose, as she reached towards the black hedgehog. "Chris, help me."
He raised his hands and glared. "I'll repeat only one more time—Let her go."
"I'm afraid you'll be making a mistake," Tails calmly stated now. "You'll be able to see her rise to power as she takes over Mobius, but you won't last long after that."
Christopher's eye twitched. "What are you talking about? Let her go, damn it! LAURIE! LAURIE, GET OUT HERE!"
"It's over!" Tails hissed. "Laurie won't be here to help you. Kassidy wants nothing but your power. Once she's gotten everything she needs and wants, she'll dispose of you, Christopher. She'll use your power against you if possible. For entertainment. She doesn't care about you. She only fears your power as much as she wants it. She's using you."
Christopher took a step back and blinked enough that it made him look like he was trying not to cry. "You're lying. Kassidy has looked out for me ever since—"
"Ever since she knew your powers," Tails growled. "You were a guard at her organization. When she figured out you had powers, you immediately moved up because she saw her chance to power. The idea,"—he tightened his hold and Kassidy coughed—"is using you, Christopher. Think about it. She never cared for you. She's going to kill you."
"Don't listen to him, Chris," Kassidy held onto Tails' wrists, trying to pry him away though it was no use. "Don't listen to him. He's lying."
Christopher glanced between the two. Tails narrowed his eyes at him. "Do you really think she cares about you or anyone in this joint besides Laurie? Laurie is the only one that she cares about here. She confessed everything to me."
"LIARS!" Christopher yelled. "LET HER GO!"
"Christopher, we can help you," Tails whispered as the knife edged into Kassidy's throat. "Just let her go. If you don't, she's going to get rid of you as quickly as she can."
Christopher staggered in his movements. It was long enough to be attacked by the side. Amy watched as Shadow leapt up in a flash and tackled him from the side easily over a hundred miles per hour. So, she didn't really see it. All she saw was Shadow and Christopher lying on the floor.
Shadow straddled his enemy and growled menacingly. "You will pay for what you've done. For what you've ever done."
Christopher glanced to Kassidy long enough to see Knuckles block his view. He screamed and thrashed against Shadow. He went to put his hands on Shadow's face, but Sonic flashed over and held them back. "Knock him out!"
The ebony hedgehog was glad to oblige.
Knuckles glanced at Tails and looked at Kassidy with a scowl on his muzzle. "You should be ashamed for what you've done. Though I'm sure the people you killed were just as bad as you."
Tails let go, taking the knife and gun with him. Kassidy didn't have time to react while Knuckles snapped her neck. Black dots invaded her vision as she went into unconsciousness. She slumped to the floor at their feet and lay there for several minutes before Knuckles picked her up. He glanced over Tails and nodded. "Sorry for not noticing you were there, Tails."
The fox only grinned. "No problem. If it wasn't for her kidnapping me, I would've never known about Christopher."
"Shadow would probably be broken by now," Rouge joked while staring at the tear-stained face of the ebony hedgehog. She ruffled his quills. "Huh, you big baby?"
"Perhaps I should lock you and Christopher in a cell and see how you like it when he's picking apart your brain," Shadow growled at his friend. Rouge raised her eyebrows in surprise.
Flame groaned as Sonia kneeled beside him. "Trust me, Rouge, it isn't fun…"
Once he sighed in relief, everyone else did too. There was a long silence before anyone spoke. Tails walked around Knuckles. "Let's get these two to the police. We'll find the others and get them too."
"Laurie?" Knuckles questioned. "What happened to her?"
Tails shrugged. "She wasn't anywhere in sight."
"She might've gone to help kidnap Alicia and Charmy," Scourge suggested.
"Shouldn't they be here by now?" Blaze asked.
Espio's eyes widened. "Oh, no. We forgot about Alicia and Charmy…"
Tails rolled his eyes and glanced at Knuckles. "Really?"
Alicia was drained of energy and drenched in sweat. The badger, who she recalled as Marty, was still doing his best to get even with her. Lenny had yet to come through into the real world and so had Charmy.
She hadn't gotten a chance to check up on the teenager and every time she glanced at him, there seemed to be more blood surrounding him.
Alicia was just honestly surprised no one else walked into the gym yet. Maybe they really did own the hotel. But she wasn't exactly sure how much a criminal made, so it was likely they owned the hotel.
Marty kicked her to the wall and she stumbled over a weight, falling down. Her eyelids drooped and Marty smirked, knowing she was only seconds away from being unconscious.
The she wolf wasn't really sure if her mind was playing tricks on her. But she could've sworn a ninja star flew right across Marty's nose. The badger yelped suddenly as Alicia's head drooped and eyes closed. He looked at the treadmill beside him. The screen was shattered a ninja star was stuck in the middle.
He turned just in time to see Vector hop up and yell, "SURPRISE!" before the crocodile sent him flying to the wall with one hit by his foot. Vector landed and charged Marty, sending a punch in every direction to the badger's face until he was finally out for the count.
Vector put his hands on his hips and looked into the distance with a satisfying smirk, "Vector for the win!"
"Vector!"
He turned sharply to see Espio near Charmy. He leaped over several gym objects before he got to the teenager under his care. "Great, the medical bills will cost a fortune."
Espio gave him a blank stare but then softened. "Alicia?"
Vector turned and squinted at the wolf lying against the wall, knocked out. "Yeah, she looks fine." Vector waved her off and instantly looked back to Charmy. "This is so coming out of his college fund."
Espio could only face palm at his friend's stupidity.
Next chapter's title:
I Hate Police Stations
Arrivederci!