4Mobius - Year 3268
It has been a year since the battle against Tikhaos and a training of a new team of Freedom Fighters in the Kingdom of Acorn. The whole city was celebrating this anniversary that day.
The most important events that occurred in that day were: Tikhaos mysteriously disappeared a week after her defeated with no one coming to hear of her again since, Salma and Juanita had joined the Team Liberators, and Castle of Mobius, which was ruined during that battle against Tikhaos, had restored in its entirely.
There was the large crowd of people gathered around the castle for the grand celebration of that year. That had excepted nothing happening out of the ordinary as of what happened in the previous year in celebration of the five years of peace.
The news reporter, Sasha Cat, was presented doing a report of everything that was happening, even got to interview with several people about how they had been helped by the Team Liberators. That report was going to spread on the news that night.
The celebrating party ended without a hitch and everyone was happily retired to their home.
Almost all residents of the kingdom were presented at the party, except for the following people; King Sonic, Knuckles, Vector, and Espio. Those four were out for two weeks on a special mission of Team Chaotix that involved the imprisoned king. And that day, those four eventually returned the same day at 9:15 PM.
...
Castle of Mobius - 9:00 PM
Gathering in the main hall of the castle were the following; Sally and her kids, the Prower family, the D'Coolette family, Julie-Su and her daughter, along with Argyle, Salma, and Juanita. All were wearing their best dresses and hoped to surprise the males that were away from the castle for two weeks with the welcoming party they had planned.
The room was beautifully decorated for the occasion, had even put several flags around it with the emblem of the kingdom. In the dining room, which was decorated in the same way and the meal were cooked and prepared.
"Then, Sally-sugah, yah should think of a way to break the news to Hog-sugah that yah are expecting another baby," Bunnie conceived.
"Of course, I do. You want to see their reaction when they took the news," replied the chipmunk.
"Surely, once he figured, he will run out and blah to everyone in the kingdom one by one," Antoine added.
"No doubt he will, but he's not tired of repeating the same thing to each of the inhabitants," Julie-Su replied cheeky.
"I know him very well - he not get tired of it," Tails nodded with his fists on his hip.
"I feel the same. That's it," Mina supported.
The Liberators were also discussing the same topic.
"I cannot wait for the baby. Yeah, I wanna be a big sister," Sonia exclaimed excitedly.
"Say it for you. I already have enough to put up with you, now I have to put up with a new baby," Manik said with a little cranky.
"But you were also a baby," Skye countered, trying to hide his smile and look serious.
"That's true. Everyone here have been babies on occasion," Melody supported her brother.
"Well, I do not. I do not want to have a younger brother," said the prince.
"Leave him in his world. When he get a time, he will get used to it," Argyle replied playfully.
Lara-Su, Jacques, Belle, Salma, and Juanita nodded while smiling.
Nevertheless, Manik kept on insisting and growled, "I will never get used to it and that's my last word."
That comment caused others to laugh uncontrollably, which frustrated him.
...
Castle of Mobius - 9:50 PM
"This is very strange. Already been delayed so much - I wondered what happened to them?" Antoine brought up the topic, looking at the big clock in the room.
"Someone should go and get them. Something must had happened somewhere," Bunnie suggested.
"Tails, could you go and get them. As you can flight to find them faster," Sally asked.
"Okay, I'll go. If you had not asked, I had offered to do it anyway," the fox said, nodding.
He turned to his wife and asked, "Would you accompany me, Mina?"
"I'd rather stay here, plus someone should look after Melody and Skye," said the mongoose, having declined the offer.
"Okay. I won't be long," he assured, kissing her cheek.
Then he climbed the stairs that led to the balcony. From there, he flew out using his twin tails.
Everyone in the castle looked out the window and watched him flying away.
"I hope they're not too late. I am very concerned now," Julie-Su said, shaking her head.
"Ah'm worried, but y'all have to wait," Bunnie assured.
"While we can anticipate and go to the room, to get the party ready," Sally encouraged.
All agreed.
Sonia and Manik easily got to the room first due to their inherited speed from their father. Following them were; Skye, Jacques, and Belle, due to their athletic. Then Argyle and Lara-Su coming in while holding hands. After them were; Melody, Salma, and Juanita.
When the parents came in, they all sat at the table; obviously leaving the seat empty for Sonic, Knuckles, Vector, Espio, and Tails.
Now all they had to do was to wait for the five to come in. They hadn't suspecting that something bad was about to happen.
...
At that very moment, on the roof of the building, which was right next to the castle, a group of beings were watching their targets with their x-ray binoculars. That allowed them to look through the building to see people inside.
They could see the group gathered in the dining room of the castle, right where they would have a surprise.
"Everything is going as planned. That fool fox finally left the castle to look for others," one of the beings replied.
"Now we can proceed with the next part of the plan. Is that seem so, boss," suggested the other of beings.
"Yes. Put the timer on 10:00 PM, so anything happens exactly at that time," the boss said, smiling mischievously.
"When Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Vector, and Espio have realized of what happened, they would know what the real pain is."
"For my part, I want to see their face when they learn of what happened."
"You are ready. Just in five minutes, we will see a great show ever."
All of them were looking at Castle of Mobius, beginning to laugh at a very macabre way.
...
Castle of Mobius - 9:59 PM
"Well, dear. They do not delay after all," Mina reported, closing the phone.
"What did he say?" Sally asked.
"They're on the way. He said he'll be here in fifteen minutes," replied the mongoose.
"That's good. Now, we do not need to worry," Julie-Su cheered.
"Fox-sugah said yah were delayed because?" asked Bunnie
"He said that when they arrive, we would have the party started."
Everything was perfectly normal until all of the sudden, Lara-Su, who was conversing with Argyle, began to have a bad feeling. She blinked, feeling a strange dark presence all around, but she didn't know what or where it was.
At that time, she began to whisper to herself as she looked in each direction, "Something's not right here."
Argyle noted the concern of his echidna, and before he could say anything, she rose from her seat with a face of fear and alerted, "Hey, I feel that there is something not fit well here. We have to leave now."
All of them stared at her very strangely.
"Why? Is something wrong?" Antoine asked.
"What do you feel, my daughter?" asked Julie-Su.
"Can't explain it, just get out of here quickly," urged the very agitated echidna.
With that tone, no one dared to doubt her and all of them rose from their chairs rapidly with the intention of leaving the room.
The clock struck at 10:00 PM at that point.
Suddenly, a huge explosion popped in the dining room that caused almost everyone falling down involuntarily. The only exception was Juanita… who got her chest pierced by a flagpole and was sent to the wall, nailing there.
All of them rose quickly and approached her in shock, seeing her as her life slowly drained with the blood flow out of her mouth and her chest wound. Salma started sobbing when she saw her young sister in that state.
Juanita took her last breath and eventually died.
Salma, very sad, closed her eyes and began to mourn to her sister without control; at that moment, she mumbled that all she wanted was to die beside her sister.
Julie-Su took Salma and gave her a comforting hug; then they began to slowly take the exit… for there was nothing more they could do to get out of there.
Meanwhile on the building roof, all of them saw the smoke had begun to come out of the castle and they were laughing and imagining of what might be happening inside.
"We are going to charge the number two," the boss said.
"Yes, sir," said one of the boss's companions as that one took control, pressing a series of buttons.
...
The group moved quickly through the room with the intention of reaching the stairs when a bomb suddenly exploded on the outside of the window. That caused the window shards shattering all over the place. A shard flew toward the ceiling, hit the cable that connected the lamp to the ceiling.
On the other hand, the vest majority of window shards flew directly to the group and almost all of them dodged the shards, except Julie-Su and Salma. The victims got buried up to their necks, gaining various wounds piercing by the shards. That left them in the mortally wound. Once the fire below them started to ablaze, they were burning alive and died from there.
Lara-Su looked up to her mother, beginning to mourn upon seeing her mother being consumed by fire. This echidna did not know what to do at that moment while Antoine came to comfort her and conceived her that if Julie-Su was still alive, she wanted her to survive. The red echidna nodded and joined the rest of the group.
"Let us continue - we have to get out of here," Mina said, having positioned under the lamp.
Suddenly, the ceiling light finally came loose and dropped on her. That attached her son's attention.
"Mom!" Skye yelped, walking to where his mother was.
Melody grabbed her brother's shoulder, "No, Skye. I'm going to make sure she's okay. You stay with others."
The fox nodded and stayed back as told. Melody, who was accompanied by Lara-Su that offered to help, approached her mother; Mina. Upon a closer looking, they saw that she was still alive, gesturing some pain expressions. The two tried to get the lamp moved, but they hadn't realized that the cable transmitting power to the lamp was still working. A single spark shocked through their bodies, creating a short circuit inside their bodies and they dropped onto the floor, instantly dead from being electrocuted.
Upon seeing their bodies collapsed, Skye began to mourn sadly; Argyle felt compassion for him, laying his arms and decided to take Skye for safekeeping.
All of them ran toward the stairs and they were a little traumatized after they saw the death of several innocent people.
They went down several floors, trying to avoid the fire that already spread everywhere and the smoke was beginning to become dense. So everyone had to crawl on the floor to go down to the next floor.
Suddenly, the castle began to shake as various debris began to fall.
That separated Skye and Argyle from the rest of the group, which put the former in trouble due to the smoke becoming denser. That made them no longer seeing where they could going. Suddenly, they heard a loud snap in front of them then a sound of something falling. Before they knew it, a wall crushed them without any warning.
Upon reaching the thin smoke, the others crawled their way out of the area that was loaded with the smokes and stood up. The D'Coolette family were already ready to go down the stairs to the next floor.
The Acorn family, meanwhile, decided to remain where they stood up; as they were waiting for Skye and Argyle to join them from the smoke.
"Sally sugah, we hafta go," Bunnie called out.
"Wait! Argyle and Skye have not left the smoke," the chipmunk alerted.
After that, a loud explosion that sent a blaze of fire across the hall. The D'Coolette family was downstairs, avoiding the fire. Sonia and Manik got caught by the fire and were burned alive while their mother got thrown over the stairs. Sally banged and flopped over the stairs, breaking each and every bones in her body. By the time she hit the floor, she was already dead.
Gasping at what happened to their friend, the D'Coolette family approached the lifeless body of Sally. Finding that she was dead with slightly fur burn, they decided to take some of her things and give them to Sonic once they came in contact with him. They took her crown lying beside her, the necklace she was wearing, and her engagement ring that hadn't burn at all.
The only survivors were running down to the ground floor and found that the first floor was already in flames; so they had to find an alternate exit. Jacques drew his family's attention to the window then they approached their new destination. Upon peeking through the window, they saw that the distance from the window to the ground was not much.
The parents had to use something to break the window while their children used their cybernetic limbs. Once the window finally broken, Antoine picked up Bunnie in his arms while Jacques took his sister, Belle. Despite their advantage of using the extra boosts, they jumped out of the building onto the outside street.
Once they all stood up, they turned and saw the fire consumed the floor where they were standing a minute ago. After that, they attempted to call the fire department to come and put out the fire.