"Oh no you don't!!" I shouted as I let my knife fly in a glittering arch towards the launcher wielding bot's dome-shaped head. I couldn't allow it to fire that thing at Ji. No telling how much damage it could do and Ji would never know it was coming either.
As soon as I'd thrown my knife I immediately made a made dash across the hangar and slid across the smooth metallic floor behind the relative cover of the maintenance bot I'd shot earlier. Laser shots came whizzing past my head, and I could feel a couple of them singe the fur on my left ear as it narrowly missed me. I reached over and snatched up the power cell lying beside it's smoldering hulk and tossed the cell into my pouch for later use.
"Yes!" Now with a fully charged cell in reserve, I drew my crossbow and prepared to return fire on the Swwat-bots.
(Posts are disappearing again. I found a workaround, though: preview your post and scroll down to the Thread Review. Everything's there.)
Anu saw everything, but knew he'd probably be killed if he tried to get involved.
Ji noticed the guard aiming its weapon at her, and made a spectacular jump up and over the 'bot, landing near its feet where it couldn't see her. She kept her flail ready in case it had any other tricks.
Frustrated with trying to hit Ji, the bot simply decided drag itself over to the control panel by the window. It reached a hand upwards for a very important-looking red button. It apparently had decided to take a third option since Ji's speed was too much for it in close quarters.
---
Chadin's knife hit home in the rocket SWATbot's domeski, causing the SWATbot's aim to briefly lurch upwards. In that little time frame, the bot clenched its finger around the trigger, sending a rocket flying at the ceiling instead of the control booth. Simultaneously, the backblast against the floor sent the bot flying, before it crash-landed on the floor covered in burn marks all across its backside.
However, the blast on the ceiling would start raining down shrapnel on everybody in the immediate vicinity, followed by the exposed support beams and duct work.
Unfazed though, the two remaining rifle SWATbots split targets (one for Chadin, one for Gail) and opened fire. Both of them would find torrents of laser fire flashing around them.
---
When the explosion hit on the ceiling, Gail winced as he shielded his eyes from the explosion's bright light. He only just opened them when he started to see giant beams falling his way. The wolf yelped, as he fell backwards just in time for a beam to land hard where his head had been a second ago. While relieved that his skull hadn't been caved in, he immediately felt so weak and pitiful for being terrified. Vanessa calling him a 'scaredy wolf' back at the beach immediately came to mind.
No one calls me Scaredy!
He foolishly jumped out from behind the cover of his barrels and attempted to put down the SWATbot targeting him. However, since there was a constant stream of laser fire flying his way from the bot, the wolf immediately took a blast right in the shoulder. Gail howled out in pain, as he let go of his revolver to clutch at the wound.
Knowing that he couldn't fight like this, he promptly jumped back into cover, landing in a rather ungainly heap since he had to do it in a hurry. That sure didn't help his wound, as the awkward impact sent a fresh jolt of pain through his body. As he lay there useless, Gail cursed himself.
"I'm such an idiot..." he whispered under his breath.
Meanwhile, the SWATbot shooting at him saw an opportunity. It immediately ceased fire and moved to get around Gail's cover while he was vulnerable.
I covered my sensitive ears in agony as the shock wave from the explosion threatened to pummel my ear drums into jam. Fortunately, my dive for the power cell had put me out of the immediate debris zone. Unfortunately, as I uncovered my ears, I could hear the gut rending sound of steel twisting and groaning with stress. I looked up to see a length of duct that the rocket blast had torn apart finally give up the ghost and peel away from it's ceiling supports like a big silvery worm. And I was right in it's path!
I immediately rolled to the side, but as the whole thing came crashing down, a part of it landed on my right ankle. Pain lanced up through my body, but alarmingly, I quickly discovered that my foot was trapped. I pulled and I pulled, but the thin metal of the duct had actually contorted around my hoof, making it impossible for me to pull it out, and the duct was too heavy for me to lift myself given the fact I was now stuck face down on the floor. I could twist around a bit, but I wasn't going anywhere.
"GNHH!! Gail! I'm STUCK!!!" I shouted, hoping the wolf, heck anyone might be in a position to help.
Ji had no idea what that red button did, but was pretty sure she didn't want to let the guard touch it. She jumped into position and slammed her flail into the guard's arm from the side, knocking it away.
Now that the ceiling was falling apart, there was no way Anu was going to stay where he was. He left cover and went for Gail and Chadin, hoping to help them but not really sure how.
Gail held a paw fast to his blaster wound, but moved it away briefly to see how bad it was. The blast went clean through his vest and fur, leaving a hole in the vest and a blackened burn mark with all of the fur burned away in that spot. It really hurt without him keeping pressure on it though, so he put it back quickly. How on earth was he going to keep up fighting like this?
"GNHH!! Gail! I'm STUCK!!!"
The wolf snapped his head up. Suddenly, things had just gone from bad to worse. Chadin couldn't move with being underneath that duct. Plus, an open space separated them. If Gail tried to run from his barrels to where Chadin lay on the floor, he'd get shot again. But if the wolf didn't do something, his friend would be captured. However, something happened to draw his attention away from Chadin's plight.
Gail thought he heard loud clumping footsteps coming around the barrels. Spinning around, he found himself face to face with the SWATbot that had been shooting at him before. It raised up its rifle once more to fire, but Gail instinctively reacted. His years in the underground fighting rings helped here. To avoid the high attack, he ducked down underneath the gun, and then lunged forward to tackle the SWATbot to the floor in its lower stomach area. The wolf was careful to use his good shoulder instead of his wounded one. The maneuver worked, as the bot was sent tumbling to the floor.
However, this gave Chadin's attacker the opening to make its own move on the deer. It started running towards Chadin's cover in order to close the distance. In just a few seconds it would get around the deer's cover and resume its attack in close quarters. Only Anu would be unoccupied to help him.
---
Ji's attack succeeded in smacking away the SWATbot's hand.
By this point, a flesh and blood combatant probably would have gotten frustrated and tried to hit Ji again. But the SWATbot, as a machine, simply pressed on as its programming directed. This time, instead of using a hand, the SWATbot simply got up to its knees and allowed itself (chest and all) on top of the button.
I could see Gail had his own problems as one of the Swat-bots rounded the corner and attacked. My own ears twitched upwards as the heavy metal footsteps of another Swat-bot was coming closer to me. I snatched up my crossbow in my hands, twisting my body around as far as my trapped leg would allow and leveled it at the edge of the duct, waiting for the bot to appear so that I could blast it's head off the moment it rounded my cover.
This whole ordeal had gone south in a hurry. Even faster than my own escapades with the MFF. Heck, even the last time I infiltrated Robotnik's HQ with Giichi went along smoother than this. At least that time we actually made it INSIDE Robotnik's HQ before we got into trouble. Guess this is what I get for agreeing to work with amateurs.
Ji literally jumped onto the control panel, not touching The Button, and blocked the robot with her flail held horizontally.
Anu had no idea what he was doing; he wasn't that good in a fight. Hoping he would go unnoticed, he dropped down to a spot right behind Chadin with the intent of helping him get free, as that was pretty much the only way he could help at the moment.
Gail didn't give his SWATbot a chance to get back up on its feet. As it started to try climb back up on its feet, the wolf brought one of its large feet down on its domed head and stomped. Then he did it again, and again, and again, cursing the whole time.
"Stupid ####### bot! You shoot me?! Then you get this, and that, and this, and this and-- WAAAAH!"
Suddenly, Gail found himself being pushed to the floor hard by an unknown force. He let loose another loud howl of pain as his injured shoulder took the brunt of the force. But still, being a trooper, he tried to get to his feet.
But now he realized he was covered with some unknown sticky substance. If Sonic were here, he'd call the substance Mega Muck. Gail growled as he tried to shake the goo off of him, but it simply stretched and then snapped him back into place on the floor. He couldn't move at all. As he looked around, he saw the lone remaining SWATbot walking towards him holding that strange tube weapon. Apparently he was the one who had gooed Gail.
"Someone help! I can't move!"
----
Now that it had disabled Gail, the SWATbot dropped its launcher and equipped its arm blaster. It promptly turned its attention towards Anu and Chadin. To stop the deer from getting free, the Mega Muck SWATbot fired a small volley to make Anu stop lifting up the vent off of Chadin's leg.
Meanwhile, Chadin's first crossbow volley grazed the rifle SWATbot on its shoulder as it rounded the deer's cover. This bot appeared to be a little more cautious, as it retreated back out of sight.
"Recommend we attack the Mobian simultaneously," Rifle SWATbot said to Mega Muck SWATbot over its radio, on the other side of the hangar.
"Agreed. I will attack from the left of his cover. You, the right."
---
In the control booth, Ji would find it rather difficult to keep the SWATbot from falling on the button, considering it was considerably heavier than her. However, the bot's red visor started flickering, before the red lights disappeared entirely. It fell over sideways to the floor, suddenly out of power.
If Jii looked where she'd struck the bot with her crook, she'd see sparks spitting out of the hole made by the weapon. While the strike hadn't taken down the bot immediately, it apparently had hit a crucial electrical component. Without its internals in proper order, the bot had been rapidly losing power over time.
"C'mon! Hurry!" I urged Anu as he came over to try and lift the duct off my leg. My ears shot up as a volley of fire came flying overhead from my right. I could only hope Anu didn't take a hit. Nevertheless, I grew suspicious when the Swat-bot that tried rounding the duct didn't come right back immediately. I didn't know what it was planning, but I could only assume it was planning to outflank me where I wasn't looking. I let my large ears go into overdrive, twisting and turning every which way like radar dishes trying to pin point the heavy foot steps of the bot. While my ears instinctively did that I started to concentrate. If it came down to it, I might be able to use those powers of mine to overload the Swat-bots. Heck, if I have enough time, I might even be able to arc my electricity through the metal floor of the building. I felt certain it would hurt like heck, regardless, but what other choice do I have?