Launch Base Zone

[Gerald Robotnik]

[how many swatbots are there?]

He was still in slight shock from everything; and even though he was being shot at he still didn’t react. To his surprise a shot was stopped by a strange flash of light that seemed to stop the shot; but he couldn’t say the same for the other one. Thankfully it only hit the side of his left arm; and the sting of pain finally made him snap out of his state.

He stumbled back, and brought himself over to the wall where there was a small space to shield him. It wasn’t much, but it was all he had. He clenched the spot where the stun hit and gritted his teeth.

[Suddenly I’m having Star Wars flash-backs. The good Star Wars mind you.]

[Nail Strafer]

Chadin's bucket easily smashed right through the walkway, sending a few SWATbots plummeting to their doom in a vat of molten metal below them. They sank wordlessly and voicelessly rather eerily into the lake, just waving their arms around as they still struggled to get out before their electronic brains melted.

The bucket also made it to the outer wall as intended, and began pouring down the side. However, it appeared Robotnik had built this ship's crucial structures with the molten metal inside in mind. Instead of immediately melting all the way through to the outside, the wall merely deformed and lost its shape, but no daylight streamed through. It would require a couple more of Chadin's hot wax treatments for that.

But this had given time for SWATbots on the right to get very close to the cab. One of them unleashed a torrent of light with a rapid fire laser gun. Like Chadin though, he'd need a second to break through the door's window, as the lasers started melting the hard cabinet glass. In another instant the glass would break and lasers would begin pouring into the cabin.

Meanwhile more SWATbots down below started providing suppressive fire on the cabin's window and the other doorway Chadin had used to gain entry.

---

[Rose, probably about four SWATbots]

The firing from the stunguns temporarily let up, as the bots began to realize that their shots seemed to be bouncing off of some miraculous shield that had appeared around Gerald. For the moment, they waited in the doorways, hidden from view except for their heads and their gun arms.

"Target appears to have deflector shield," one SWATbot said, speaking via radio to his comrades. "But deflector shield does not appear 100% effective. Target is wounded. Recommend providing suppressing fire while other units move up for close range engagement."

"Roger!"

On the left, one SWATbot opened fire in Gerald's general direction to force him to keep his head down. Meanwhile, on the right, a SWATbot carefully moved forward with what looked like a police baton in hand. A slight hum echoed from the device, indicating electrical energy pulsing through it.

[Chadin]

[I think you may have forgot to mention what Robotnik himself was doing in those last few posts, but oh well, not overly important right now.]

I had to work fast. The bots were going to be on me in seconds. All the laser fire at the door I came in from meant that I was effectively trapped inside the cab, and that was about to get crowded with laser fire as it was.

It was against my better judgement, but I had to make this effort count for something, so I swung the crane around in the opposite direction and then promptly reversed its course, hoping to smash a hole straight through the weakened metal my hot magma bathe created. I jammed the control in that direction and trusted in the heavy vat's inertia to do the rest. If nothing else the impact should be strong enough to reverberate through the whole ship.

Now I had to figure out a way out of this mess. Outside the front window of the cab, I noticed a cable, probably for wiring to run to the crane boom. What it did made no difference to me however so much in that it dangled loosely from the cab area to a connection some place further in the middle of the room. I had no idea if the cockamamie idea I just thought of would work, but I didn't have much choice left for anything less risky now. I gave the cab's front glass a hard boot with my sharp cloven hoof and prayed the glass shattered more easily from blunt force than laser fire.

If the glass broke away successfully, I'd leap out the shattered window, with my knife in hand, and slice at the cable connection at the bottom and ride the cable like Tarzan and HOPEFULLY away from the large concentration of Swat-bot's around me.

[forgive me if I'm taking any liberties here. Just playing things up with limited descriptions, etc.]

[Gerald Robotnik]

“This isn’t good.”

Gerald looked over his shoulder, to once again see the ‘hallucination’ that had given him the bow.

“You do not have to speak. I can hear any thoughts you may have. It would be wise to save you’re breath. Right now, you need to be prepared for whatever comes your way. Hold the bow up as best as you can and get an arrow ready.”

Silently, Gerald complied, still wincing in pain from the shot done to his arm. He held the bow awkwardly. His arm kept in its position, his arm bent up so he could at least be aiming for the middle as he pulled back on the string with his right. It was at this time that the spirt (whatever he was) grabbed his right hand and left arm; like someone who was trying to show how to work a bow.

“Leave the aiming to me.”

[Dr. Robotnik]

[Oh, there's a reason I haven't done anything with Robo for a bit. You will see =D]

The impact from the bucket caused the ship to vibrate for a moment. Everyone on board would either need to hold their hands out to maintain their balance or they'd feel a slight rumble, depending upon their position. In Chadin's case it meant a brief cease fire from the shooting SWATbots. He would land safely towards the middle of the room.

"Not so fast, my little woodland friend..."

Robotnik's voice came over loudspeakers positioned around the room. And Chadin might hear a low hissing sound coming from a large industrial steel doorway off to the side. The door smoothly slid open, revealing Robotnik in one of his famous death machines.

His egg pod sat on top of a purple steel ball, covered with massive rivets and armor plating. Two smaller steel balls of the same construction flanked the central one, each mounted with gigantic flamethrowers. It appeared that (for nostalgia's sake perhaps) he'd chosen one of his older models to attack Chadin with. This one came from the first robot he'd used to attack Sonic and Tails during the first Floating Island incident, right before Knuckles had dumped the pair into the Hydrocity Zone.

"You've caused me a lot of trouble...almost as much as Sonic. And I think it's time you paid for your crimes. No roboticizer this time. I'll just have roasted deer meat tonight instead!"

Robotnik's giant pod began to ascend upwards into the room, as the flamethrowers rotated to fire at Chadin. He'd get a second to decide how to respond before the flames came pouring down upon him.

---

The lone SWATbot with the stun baton edged along the wall closer to Gerald's position, as his comrades continued shooting tons of stun bolts at the hiding spot. Finally though, the robot reached spitting distance from where the blonde-haired man hid. Immediately the suppressive fire ceased, as the SWATbot took a swipe with the stun baton at Gerald's chest.

[Chadin]

I landed hard on the hard steel floor, falling flat on my stomach and knocking the wind out of me. I was still recovering as Robotnik's voice boomed out across the vast factory floor, startling me back to reality.

"Not so fast, my little woodland friend...

Robotnik's voice came over loudspeakers positioned around the room. And Chadin might hear a low hissing sound coming from a large industrial steel doorway off to the side. The door smoothly slid open, revealing Robotnik in one of his famous death machines.

You've caused me a lot of trouble...almost as much as Sonic. And I think it's time you paid for your crimes. No roboticizer this time. I'll just have roasted deer meat tonight instead!"


My keen ears quickly picked up the sound of the doors sliding open down at the far end of the corridor. My eyes widened in terror at the sight of Robotnik himself poised to strike in one of his personal death machines drifting through the door towards me. Every fiber in my body screamed at me to run, but like a deer caught in the headlights I was paralyzed.

"You wanted to face Robotnik..." I muttered sarcastically to myself, my voice pitifully choked with fear. If I were someone like Sonic, this would be the part where he makes some clever come-back or snarky remark. Me? I was too darn scared to even think.

But as flames burst out of Robotnik's machine, instinct kicked in and I leapt behind one of the large vats of molten metal and out of the path of the flames. Even so, I plainly felt the scorching heat of the flames, even in this sweltering hell-hole. I crouched behind the vat, trying to catch my breathe and convince my heart to leave my throat and go back into my chest where it belonged. I still had my crossbow, but for the life of me it felt like I'd forgotten it was even in my hands.

[Gerald Robotnik]

The swipe caught the edge of the shield, which would bounce the baton away from him safely. All the while, Gerald released the arrow into the Swatbot with the spirit still helping him.


[I realized I should say in specific whether or not a shot is charged. In this case, it isn’t; he was just readying himself for whatever came his way. And forgive me for the lack of substance, but it’s hard when there’s not much else to do.]

[Dr. Robotnik]

[Oh Rose, why didn't you say you wanted more to do? =3]

"Not so brave when the heat is on, are you? Hahaha!"

The flames billowing out of Robotnik's jets briefly ceased, as Robotnik steadily increased his altitude. He wanted to get high up enough so that Chadin wouldn't have any cover.

However, the doctor had so much of his focus on Chadin that he didn't notice he was about to hit a giant steel girder overhead. Robotnik gasped in surprise when his contraption suddenly shuddered to a stop, as the girder bent with a tremendously loud screeching sound. Spiderwebs started to crack across the glass dome of Robotnik's egg pod from the hit.

Growling, the doctor made his craft go back down again, as he tried to circle around the barrel to get another clean shot at the deer. When he would see him again, the flames would come pouring down again.

---

Upstairs, Gerald's shot took down the SWATbot trying to melee him. Before the other SWATbots could form a plan, the floor in the middle of the hallway burst right open, revealing the steel girder that Robotnik had crashed into. The impact had pushed the floor and part of the walls of the hallway straight up with the beam, exposing a big hole to the factory room below. Just below the opening, Gerald would see a catwalk that he could try to jump to.

[Chadin]

Robotnik's biting remark tore into my already softened up sense of confidence. My heart was pounding in my throat, making it difficult to think. About the only thoughts pounding through my brain was my little negative voice berating me for my own stupidity. I couldn't disagree that this had been an extremely stupid move on my part. My desire for revenge blinded me and got me into this mess, so if I didn't start thinking smart, I wasn't going to survive.

That's about when Robotnik's ship crashed into the ceiling, knocking me back to reality. I suddenly saw my chance. I spun around and leveled my crossbow sights on the cracked glass of Robotnik's machine and fired. I already expected now that this wouldn't shatter it, but it would certainly soften it up.

As soon as I fired, I made a made dash from my current hiding spot to several vats over and ducked around behind a large vertical brace holding the vat. With any luck, between the impact with the ceiling and my shot to his windshield, it would distract Robotnik enough for him to loose sight of me. Now I had a chance of turning this fight into a hit and run-type fight; my kind of fight. If I could keep this up, shooting and scooting out of sight, I could slowly peck away at that windshield and get a clean shot at Robotnik himself. That thought alone gave me a huge boost in confidence. As did the sudden realization, that for all his fire-power, Robotnik's ship had limited maneuverability in here. If I could make that work to my advantage, I could turn this fight around in my favour even further.

"Hey, Robotnik! I should thank you, you're doing a better job wrecking your own ship than me!" I shouted out, boldly. If all else fails, get Robotnik mad and he'll make mistakes.

[Gerald Robotnik]

Gerald soon found himself off balance and cupping his hands over his ears as a loud screeching sound came from the crashing vehicle. His teeth gritted as he took a dew steps back from the initial hit, but once it was clear that things had stopped he looked into the hallway.

He looked out the large hole gapping in the hall way with a surprised look; and sprinted towards it. For now, it appeared that the SWATbots where out of order as he got up to the hole and looked down. At first he was hesitated to go through; but when he heard the sound of a familiar voice (and the prospect that the SWATbots may not be completely out) He changed his mind quickly.

He would have to admit though, as he got over the ruined metal and found himself dropping he felt regretful of that decision. He wasn’t the most adventurous, acrobatic person in the world; but this wasn’t a normal situation where he could just choose his options. It was either stay up in the hallway and get possible killed or try to go to the lower levels and possible not die from the fall.

As he suspect, he did manage to land on his feet; though he immediately fell over frontwards. He scrambled back up quickly, fearing of staying in the same place as he ran across the catwalk; hoping he wouldn’t be noticed yet.