ANDROID WARS

Series 1 - The Origins
Episode 4

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A pre-warning from the author: I wrote series 1 a very long time ago (two years! Wow!), so please forgive me if the thirteen stories of this series are nowhere near as well written as the future series'. These fics are shorter, and have bad punctuation and may have cornier or holier plotlines. They do introduce a lot of future characters and concepts, however.

CHAPTER ONE: HIGH SPEED CHASE

It was happening again. Sonic was running through the Great Forest with his bionic nemesis, Mecha Sonic, in hot pursuit. He weaved through the trees with Mecha blasting practically right through them. He was nearly hit by the incredible shower of laser beams and bullets. The robot had always wanted Sonic dead and gone. He considered himself the greatest warrior in existence, but his powers were shared by this mortal flesh- covered creature. Oh how he envied Sonic for his freedom. But Sonic was a true living being, and he was but a robotic prototype. A bionic clone. So he figured that if he couldn't have life, his "brother" shouldn't either. Thus he was constantly trying to murder Sonic, it was his life's goal, and so far he hadn't been able to accomplish it. He had developed such a hatred, that he even had great difficulty in uttering Sonic's name. He would call him "Hedgehog" or just "You!". If only Sonic could slow down just a tiny bit. If just one bullet would penetrate his body. It would ease his pain so much. But now things were going to get worse for both Sonic and Mecha. Much worse.

Sonic heard a voice as he ran. He raised his two-way radio to his mouth. "Um...Knux, I read you, but this isn't exactly a good time..." he said. "What's wrong?...over" replied the familiar voice of Knuckles on the other end. "Darn robot hedgehog is trying to kill me again... over" said Sonic. "Need backup?..over" asked Knux. "Nah" said Sonic. "I reckon I can handle this...over and out." Knuckles put down his radio and ran into the forest. "That Sonic is too confident" he said to himself. Mecha Sonic stopped firing randomly for a second. He was close enough to bring Sonic down with one direct shot, and the trees were thinning out. He put his rockets on turbo, and lined up a laser shot with the hedgehog's head. This time, he wasn't going to let Sonic get away.

Suddenly, Mecha heard Knuckles' voice behind him. "Hey, debris-for- brains!" he shouted. Mecha was distracted from his shot, and tried to shoot the echidna quickly, to get him out of the way. But the clearing in the trees was only a small one, and with Mecha's head turned, he didn't see the forest quickly begin to thicken. He sensed something was wrong, and turned his head back. He let out a shrill wail as he plunged into a very thick tree trunk with such force that he literally tore it out of the ground and took it fifteen meters before slamming into the ground. He lay there, lifeless. His glowing red eyes faded slowly to black. "Is he off-line?" asked Sonic, remembering that Mecha was very good at playing dead. "Yep" replied Knux, inspecting the robot. He had a hole in his head, with robotic parts spilling out. Suddenly, his eyes lit up faintly, and he jerked back into life. "Down secondary systems activating -- file cannot find turbo blast" he said. Sonic jumped up, expecting a fight, but instead Mecha just sat there muttering this gibberish. "What is he jabbering on about?" he asked Knuckles, who was just as perplexed. Mecha turned his head to the two. One of his eyes was glowing brightly, the other was flickering. "Creatures identified, searching memory bankssssss..s..s..s..ERROR! ERROR! File not found! Is frthdiydsldkhdsbggoisbgisubgigsdub" he said, his head starting to spin around in circles. He then stood up and started walking around like a zombie, jumping occasionally, head still spinning, and screaming out words at the top of his voice that didn't make sense. "I think we got him good" said Knux, giggling. "Let's just get outta here in case he explodes or something." said Sonic, a little paranoid. The two walked off and left the frazzled robot. Mecha bent over, did a forward roll then a handstand, and started his rockets, plowing him into the ground. He then stood up and flew away, his rocket spluttering occasionally.

Doctor Robotnik was sitting on his throne thinking of new ways of defeating the Freedom Fighters, when Mecha plowed straight through the roof and landed on his side in the middle of the room. "GUARDS!" shrieked Robotnik, before he realized it was Mecha. "What is the meaning of this?" he demanded. "I...I...I...FFFFFFFF....NOK..NIK" replied Mecha, doing a salute that nearly knocked him over. "What is wrong with you?" asked Robotnik, confused. "SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSONICCCC" screamed Mecha, his head starting to spin again. He then began to salute, but instead, operated his rockets and blasted straight through the wall. "PACKBELL!" shouted Robotnik, inspecting the holes in his roof and wall. The human-looking robot, Packbell, entered Robotnik's room. "Mecha is damaged" reported Robotnik. "Find him and fix him before he causes more damage." Packbell nodded and headed back out the door again. Robotnik sighed to himself. "I need a new robot." he said.

Sonic sat in his hut, thinking. He hoped that Mecha was permanently damaged. He didn't know how much longer it would be before his nemesis would get the better of him. He sighed and started to sing softly to himself. "When you're strong, you can fly, you can reach the other side of the rainbow" he sang. Sally heard him, and walked inside the hut. "You okay?" she asked. "I'm just sick of Mecha Sonic." Sonic replied. "I think I can even stand Robotnik more than I can stand Mecha." Sally sat down beside him. "One day, both Robotnik and Mecha will be long gone, and peace will once again flood over the face of Mobius." she said. Sonic smiled a little. He knew how determined Sally was to get the Freedom Fighters to fulfill their prophecy.

CHAPTER TWO: MECHA IS IMPROVED

A few days passed and nothing much happened. Packbell entered Robotnik's room once again, this time arm-in-arm with Mecha. "Doctor Robotnik!" he announced. Robotnik shifted his gaze to the two robots.

"Not only has Mecha been repaired, but he is also improved!"

Robotnik continued to stare. Mecha stared back. "That is correct, oh overlord." he said, his voice gloomy and one-toned. "Not only am I faster and more efficient, I am also perfectly loyal to anyone evil." He took a bow.

Robotnik grinned. "Overlord!" he said. "That has a nice ring to it! Mecha, you may leave the room." Mecha bowed again and he and Packbell started to leave. "Packbell, remain." said Robotnik. Packbell halted and turned back to Robotnik. "I need you to get the worker bots to build me another robot." he said to the droid. "An assassin robot. The best robot we can make. I don't care what it looks like, just as long as it's good." Packbell smiled. "Yes sir!" he said. Mecha walked (actually, marched) down the hallway, and came across Robotnik's cowardly nephew, Snively, coming the other way. He shuddered when he saw the robot. "Um...hello Mecha Sonic" said the shivering little man. "Good evening, sir" replied Mecha with a bow. Snively just looked puzzled.

"May I get you anything?" continued Mecha.

"Er...no thanks" replied Snively. Mecha bowed again and continued on his way. "I think I like the new Mecha Sonic!" said Snively to himself.

Meanwhile, in Knothole, Sally was having a problem. "Robotnik has reconfigured his systems" she said to the several other villagers in the meeting room. Not all of them were there, just Sally, Sonic, Petals, Bunnie, and Streak. "He has changed the main password and installed a new high-tech security system. It will take me some time to hack it" she continued. "Until then, we will not have access to the Robotropolis Main Computer. Or any computer in Robotropolis, in fact."

"What the hell do we need access to a stupid computer for, anyway?" asked Petals.

"So we can get information from Robotnik" replied Sonic, not looking up. "Well, maybe y'all hafta do a lil' spying 'till then, huh?" said Bunnie. "Pardon me?" asked Streak, still not able to get the hang of Bunnie's southern accent. "Ah just sayd, maybe y'all hafta do a lil' spying 'till then." replied Bunnie. "Oh" said Streak. He still didn't understand, but he decided that he better pretend he did. "Live next door to her for a year or so, and you get used to it." Sally whispered to him. "I guess that's what we'll have to do" said Sonic. "We'll have to do some old fashioned spying if we want to find out what he's up to. But it's dangerous, so we'll only do it if we suspect something." everyone agreed, except Petals, who was just daydreaming.

CHAPTER THREE: MECHA GOES MANIACAL

Robotnik was hard at work reconfiguring the main computer, when Packbell entered the room. "Ah, Packbell! How's the new android coming along?" asked Robotnik, swivelling around in his chair to face the robot. "It's good, Doctor, but that isn't the reason I came to see you." replied the strangely unhappy looking Packbell. "It isn't bad news is it?" demanded Robotnik. "Not really, well, maybe, you can be the judge" replied Packbell, not sure of how to put it. "It's Mecha. He's a bit strange sometimes." he said. "Strange" asked Robotnik, raising one eyebrow. "Yeah, like, insane" said Packbell. Robotnik continued his sharp gaze. "I see him sometimes talking in computer language to inanimate objects, or himself, or walking in circles, or even shooting guns straight up, and waiting for the bullet to fall back down onto his head." Robotnik looked confused. "He may have an error in his new programming." he said. "Keep an eye on him, and if it gets to be a problem, reprogram him again." Packbell nodded and left the room. Robotnik swivelled back and his thoughts wandered back to his newest plan. "I'm a genius" he mumbled to himself, as he began typing.

Sonic walked down the path to his hut, when Streak appeared behind him. "Excuse me, Sonic" he said. Sonic stopped and turned to him. "I think we should go on a spying expedition to Robotropolis." he said. "Like I said back at the meeting, it's just too dangerous" replied Sonic. "We'll have to save it until there is some sort of suspicious behavior at Robotropolis." He kept on walking, and Streak ran up to him. "But I think there IS suspicious behavior!" he said. "What do you mean?" asked Sonic. "Robotnik reconfiguring his systems" continued Streak. "He might be trying to keep us from discovering his plans" Sonic stopped and thought about it. He had not considered that, and it was a good point.

Meanwhile, Mecha Sonic was walking down the hallway, every so often stopping to spin in a circle. He had been commanded to collect a few weapons from the weaponry storeroom for installation on the new robot. He entered the small, musty room and looked at all the high tech weapons inside. As he searched for the ones he was to collect, memories began to seep through his tight programming. One of these memories was a name. And his feelings towards that name. Packbell should have reprogrammed him a lot sooner, but now the damage was done. As his eyes glowed redder than ever, his personality began to transform. It began to change him from a polite slave into something much different....

The lights in Robotnik's room dimmed to red, and alarms started to blast. "What now?" he mumbled to himself. He got out of what he was currently doing on the computer, and began searching through the surveillance images. He found footage of Mecha Sonic, laden with most of the weapons in the storeroom, blasting away any SWAT bots in his way, and heading for the front door. He was chanting something, but it wasn't clear through the security camera. Packbell burst into the room. "SIR! MECHA IS...." he began. "I know" interrupted Robotnik. "Leave him for now, we'll get him later. Just grab the remaining weapons from the storeroom and install them onto MegaBot, then send him out to find Knothole."

CHAPTER FOUR: MEGABOT

Mecha Sonic trudged through the Great Forest with more weapons than you can shake a stick at. He was rhythmically chanting "Sonic...Sonic... Sonic..." under his breath as he searched the forest. He had never been able to say "Sonic" properly, but now it seemed it was all he could say. He probed the forest for a certain blue hedgehog he wanted so much to destroy. Talking about Sonic, his timing could not be worse. He was also in the forest alone. He had decided Streak was right, and to venture into Robotropolis to find out what the eggy one was up to. Mecha picked up movement on his radar. He blasted into the sky and looked around. Sure enough, there was something blue moving around. He let out a deafening screech, and rocketed at full speed at it, letting rip about sixty weapons at once. After a few seconds, the area fifty meters around it was just a black hole.

To relieve the tension, I will tell you now that the blue moving thing he blasted was simply a blue SWAT bot transport vehicle to Robotropolis. Mecha landed in the forest and inspected the damage. He was upset that it wasn't Sonic, but it was obvious he meant business.

Sonic stopped in his tracks. He had just heard a huge blast a couple of kilometers behind him, like missiles hitting the ground. He instantly knew he was under attack, and began to run.

There was also a third being in the forest now. It was a huge robot, as big as the tallest tree in the forest, and it had writing across it's bulky chest. "MEGABOT". It was the new robot Robotnik had ordered to be built, and it's mission was to seek out and destroy Knothole. Not only Knothole, but every Freedom Fighter village on the continent. It was also very good at it's job, and it's high tech radar system picked up a large blip to the north.

Mecha suddenly picked up a very fast moving object on his radar. He turned on his jets and blasted straight ahead. Sonic could hear jets behind him. He darted behind some trees and over a bush. Mecha burst out behind him and he turned his head. "Mecha!" he yelled. "SSSSSSSSSSSSOOONIC!" Mecha screamed so loud it nearly knocked Sonic over. The robot aimed at least ten weapons at Sonic's head. "Crush... Kill...DESTROY!" he screamed. "Whoa!" yelled Sonic, darting at a right angle. He just managed to avoid ten thousand bullets, fifty laser blasts and a missile. Although the blast knocked him head over heels. Mecha blasted off again and began to chant Sonic's name faster and more excitedly. "He's gone off his rocker!" Sonic panted to himself. As he passed a large palm tree, it blew up like a time bomb. Mecha was hurling missiles straight ahead without bothering to aim like he usually did. And to make it worse, they were in quite a dense section of forest. Sonic kept tripping over things and stopping to hack through vegetation. He was slowing down and getting tired, but Mecha wasn't. If anything, the robot hedgehog was speeding up. Sonic got his leg caught in a weed. He struggled to untangle it, and resumed running, just as Mecha hit him square on with two laser beams, one on his leg and one on his shoulder. He toppled over into a ditch.

Sally was pacing back and forth at the entrance of Knothole. Sonic was taking an unusually long time to get back. She saw a flash of blue behind a group of bushes. "Sonic!" she said. "Thank goodness! What did you find out?" As she waited for a reply, the shadow from behind the bush grew bigger. Bigger than Sonic. Bigger than the huts in Knothole. Bigger than the trees that surrounded her. There, before the shivering squirrel, stood a huge figure with bright blue limbs, and a haunting white body and head. On one side of it's metallic chest he bore the word "MEGABOT", and on the other side was a small picture and another three words. They were just big enough to see. The picture was a small photograph of Dr. Robotnik's face, laughing hysterically, and the words burned a permanent memory into Sally's brain. They said "Gotcha this time!"

Sonic sat in the small pit, deathly still. He could hear Mecha slowly taking steps above him, searching for him. "SSSSONICCC" he hissed slowly in a terrifying voice. Sonic knew that if he as much as rolled his eyeball, Mecha would pick him up on radar and shoot him like a fish in a barrel. He was very lucky that Mecha had not seen him as he crawled into this relatively safe spot. He struggled not to cry out in pain from the deep gashes from the laser beams. Blood trickled down his leg. The wound wasn't too bad, so Sonic assumed he would still be able to walk on it, but the one on the back of his shoulder nearly reached the bone, and it was incredibly painful and rendered his right arm useless. Mecha heard a noise further into the bush, and went in that direction. Sonic decided that he would wait a bit longer for Mecha to venture further away, then he would make a run for it back to Knothole.

Rotor the Walrus wandered towards his hut. He heard a muffled noise, and Sally flew over his hut. "What the.......?" started Rotor, as he ran to her aid, but a giant steel foot squashed his hut in front of him. He stared at the robot for a couple of seconds, them he grabbed the unconscious Sally and dragged her further into Knothole to notify the others. MegaBot extended its arm, which became a cannon-like shape, and blew up a group of huts with a missile, then it brought out a flame thrower and began to torch the village.

Sonic was half-running, half-limping, trying to get his bearings as to where he was. He remembered the survival skills he learned long ago, and decided to trust his instinct and go north. He didn't know where Mecha was, he had run away when the robot had been away for five minutes, and his un-oiled squeaky robotic parts could no longer be heard. He hoped like heck that the evil droid had given up. His limbs hurt, and he just wanted to get home in the care of the villagers. He finally got to the hill that overlooks the village, but he stared not at the warm, inviting Knothole that he was looking forward to, but rather a blazing inferno with a huge robot in the middle. He asked himself one question, "Why me?"

CHAPTER FIVE: CATCH 22

He looked over the problem. If he entered Knothole, he'd be killed by the robot. If he stayed where he was, he'd die of his injuries, and if he ventured back where he came from, he'd be killed by Mecha. "Talk about a catch 22" he mumbled to himself. He heard a gun firing in the distance, and saw a distant tree shaking. He decided to move in the other direction. He limped for what seemed like kilometers, and finally reached the mountains. He knew he was safe from harm. He found a place to sit in the rocks. The bushes moved ahead of him, and he saw a gleam of metal. He nearly had a genuine heart attack. Mecha Sonic jumped out, let out a very long, dragged out "SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNIIIIII- ICCCCCCCCC!" and aimed a rocket launcher at Sonic.

Sonic just managed to move out of the way, but the blast when the rocket hit the mountain knocked him unconscious. Mecha, satisfied, slowly aimed a shotgun-like weapon at Sonic's head. But a rumbling noise distracted him. He turned to the mountain to see a wave of rocks and soil pour towards him. He had pushed the mountain too far by hitting it with a missile, and started an avalanche. He began to scream as he was covered by rocks and dirt.

CONCLUSION:

I don't know how long Sonic was there, but when I heard the avalanche I decided to run up and take a look. I'm not a particularly fit raptor, so it slowed me down a lot when I carried him back to Knothole. I used a couple of palm leaves as tourniquets to stop his bleeding. When I arrived at Knothole, I saw a horrifying sight. The giant robot had been stopped, and the villagers were taking it apart to prevent it from coming alive again. The village was completely burned down. It would have to be rebuilt. Again. There was just the meeting hall and, thankfully, the hospital hut remaining. I took Sonic into the village.

The next day, I returned to the avalanche site, and saw a hole leading through the rubble to Mecha's burial site. Someone had dug him out. I just hoped that they reprogrammed him back to normal, for all our sakes. But for now, this tale has come to...

THE END

SERIES ONE CHRONOLOGY:
1. Time and Space
2. I Am Your Evil Twin
3. Micro-Sonic
4. Android Wars
5. Chaos
6. Diary of a Mad Assassin
7. Fire in the Sky
8. The Guests of Honor
9. Time and Punishment
10. The Secret Past
11. Tale of a Rocket Knight
12. Cyber Sonic
13. Apocalypse