Chapter 3
Slash; Slash again and again, one giziod cut down while another ten took its place. Space was becoming an issue for Rob now. He slowly backed up into an alley still deflecting shots from the giziods. They weren't the smartest droids in the galaxy but they were a large number of them proved to be dangerous for any one person. Rob felt the weight of his sword starting to take an effect on his body. His body was now numb from slashing down giziod after giziod and taking a few stray shots when he attacked them. Rob felt his back press against the wall; he felt a sweat drop from his forehead realizing that he had nowhere else to run now.
He looked up and noticed numerous pipes sticking out of the walls of the alley. Still deflecting shots he crouched down planting his foot on the wall. He uncoiled from the crouch and sprung into the air. Extending his hand he grabbed the first pipe and swung himself up to the next. The giziods couldn't fallow his movements as he swung around each pipe getting higher and farther away from their range. He saw the nearest ledge and swung off the pipe in a summersault landing softly onto the ledge.
He took a sigh of relief and took a peak at the giziods that had now stopped firing at him. He flew back as they sprang up from bellow, hovering in the air from their feet thrusters. Rob eyes tightened and sweat trickled down the edge of Rob's cheek. "They just don't give up do they!" He needed to level the playing field with these mechanized terrors. Rob ran across the ledge to walkway the ledge came off of. The giziods opened fire again on the hedgehog, spraying him with a stream of blasters bolts. Rob winced as a bolt hit him square center in his left shoulder. His arm went limp as he cursed to himself.
He turned and jumped at the hovering robots. He brought his sword in a cross-arch, beheading the first giziod. Using the disabled body as a quick ledge, he jumped off the body towards the next one, deflecting a stream of bullets as he soared towards the next giziod. The other giziods decided to swarm him and engaged their thrusters flying directly at Rob. "Gotcha" Rob smirked. His sword separated into two blades, and spun the blades now an arc on light. The giziods were all slashed either being cut in two or having a gauge across their body. They all plummeted to the ground most smashing on impact. Rob spun as he fell to soften his landing. His feet connected with the ground as he combined his swords back together.
The scenery around him began to found, disappearing into computerized particles. The training room came back into view, Mark still at the observation window, DC waiting for him at the door, and Dash up on the control unit writing something on his clipboard. "Training complete" Dash said over the loud speaker. He didn't sound very impressed, though to Rob and everyone he always sounded serious. Rob walked to the door where DC was standing; she smiled brightly and opened the door for him. Mark still faced the now empty training room, his eyes now closed as if he were meditating.
He finally turned to Rob. "Excellent, your training is progressing nicely, but more will be explained at war meeting." Mark turned his cape that came down off his shoulder armlet sweeping the place he stood as he walked away.
"Will I ever get everything that needs to be said to me without a war meeting?" Rob cocked his head towards DC, a wide grin on his face. DC laughed a little at the joke. "It's just how things work around here I guess I don't fully understand it either." She continued to laugh. "But if Mark is calling a war meeting this means that whatever he has to tell you, is also information everyone needs to hear."
Rob shrugged "Well we've got some time to kill before the meeting, want to go for a walk?" Rob offered his hand. "I promise I will avoid getting into it with Zeke this time." He chuckled. She laughed a little more and nodded. She took his hand and they headed towards the lift. They got in and headed for the academy roof top. The Sonic Hero training academy was built long before the Sonic Heroes came. It wasn't even called the SH academy at first. It had just been a special ops training facility. When Mark had heard about the legendary Sonic Heroes he decided to name it in dedication to them.
They arrived on the roof top pavilion both taking a breath as they looked out at the immense view of Garland provided on the roof top. They started walking along the edge of the pavilion until they came to the pipe section that ran between some of the pavilions on the roof top. Rob looked at DC and smirked. "Race you to the top?" He was always up for a good challenge against DC.
"You're on." DC jumped up grabbing the nearest pipe and swinging to the next. Rob ran up to the pavilion wall, and pushed himself off to the closest pipe. There were four main complexes in the academy, all connected by a series of pipes and walkways that ran in between the roof top pavilions, and the underground sewers. All that lay between the academy complexes was clean space, it was advised not to jump using the pipes and walkways. But Rob was never one to follow that rule. Over the past few weeks a lot had changed for Rob. He had already accelerated quite quickly in the indicial training and was already preparing for his final test. If he passed he would be an official Sonic Hero general and assigned to his own team.
Though that part sadden him a little; he really enjoyed being with Team Chaos. He had met the other member Chris in the past few weeks. He was a little annoying for one thing but all around he was cool and an excellent pilot at that. He was still on opposite sides with Zeke. He had stayed clear of Zeke only getting into another fight with him one other time in the weeks of his training. But he really enjoyed being with DC, she was nice and kind to him. Still he felt like he knew her, like he had seen her in a dream once. In theory she was Rob's best friend next to Dash. But he felt a little deeper emotion towards her. She had gotten him to open up and talk about his past. She had really helped the pain Rob felt go away.
Rob sort of felt he was on the line of loving her, but he still wouldn't if he did. He still felt responsible for the death of his friends and his first love. He would never let go of that memory, the blades piercing her chest, the dark red blood seeping dripping from the sword tip, and the maniacal smile on the killers face. He shook his head as he swung to the next pipe, gripping hard and swinging himself higher but he still kept the same level with DC. Her species was light and nimble which gave her an extra advantage over Rob. But Rob always found a way to make up for his disability in the challenge.
DC got ahead of Rob and flipped over to the next pipe continuing her assent to the top. She landed hard catching the pipe off balance causing it to snap. She lost her grip and tried reaching out for another pipe but she couldn't concentrate on any one pipe long enough to grab it. Rob's eyes widened as he watched her fall. He swung over the next pipe, landing on top of it balancing with his feet. He launched himself towards the falling DC. She fell faster than he could fly. He missed her hand by an inch and swore to himself as she plummeted farther away from him. Rob looked up turning up and turned himself around; his feet connected with the bottom of the pipe and with the force of his own strength and gravity propelled himself towards DC.
With the extra shove he was able to catch up to DC, by this time they had plummeted farther away from where they even started. Rob extended his hand again pushing himself down as much as he could to reach her. She grabbed his hand and Rob pulled her into him.
"Hang on!" Rob reached for his sword still attached to his back. He flipped it around and stabbed it into the wall. They slid down the complex wall the sword still imbedded in the stone. The friction between the sword and wall caused sparks to fly. DC held Rob tight as the resistance started to slow them down.
Finally Rob swung from the hilt pulling the sword out of the stone and sending them flying back towards the roof. Rob threw his sword high above them; it stabbed the wall embedding itself in the stone. Rob grabbed the hilt again and swung himself and DC again. They flew high towards the pipes. With a mighty yank, Rob grabbed the nearest pipe and launched himself and DC at the roof top. They flew above the roof and landed gently on the edge. Rob placed his sword on his back and moved his hand back to DC's back. He was still carrying her bridal style. DC was in shock by what just happened.
"So looks like I win" Rob smirked. DC snapped out of a daze. "It was a tie" she pouted still a little embarrassed for falling. He just rolled his eyes and laughed. "You know you can let go of me now?"
DC noticed that she had her arms wrapped around his neck and was still clinging to him. She blushed a dark red and let go of him turning away in embarrassment. Rob gave another chuckle. This wasn't the first time something like this happened between the two, Rob still considered their friendship on the border line of love but he knew he still had a lot to atone for. Little did Rob know but so did DC. Rob's comlink alarm sounded which meant it was time for the meeting. He looked at DC and she nodded.
She stepped to head toward the way down but Rob grabbed her arm and scooped her up in his arms. "Where you going milady? The grand hall meeting room is on the mid level, and I know a good short cut." Rob winked taking a few steps towards the edge of the roof top they stood atop. DC felt a sweat drop forming on her forehead.
Rob leaped off the edge and dived for the landing platform on the mid level of the complex. "YAHOOOOO!" DC always hated it when Rob did this. It's not she didn't like flying but this was plain crazy! Rob felt the wind rushing through his face as he picked up speed moving farther down the complex wall. Rob had never liked to walk or go anywhere just with his feet. He always loved to do things the fun way, which he didn't get much of an opportunity to do in the past.
He was only ten when he became the ruler of Maynosha, all the fun he had before with the freedom fighters disappeared. It was replaced with paper work, meetings with advisors and the council of neutral systems. Tedious inspections on security forces, diplomatic missions around the planet with only the protection of a few freedom fighters was all Rob had done in the past four years. His age did not make things any easier, though the council trusted him, certain advisors and government officials did not. They felt him to be incompetent and too young to lead the entire planet. It partly saddened him that some of them had not been killed by the Pandorian army.
He felt his chaos energy surge around him as he slowed his decent. He landed softly on the ground DC still clutching him now shaking. Rob chuckled and set her down, kneeling down to meet her eye level. She stopped shaking and looked at him. She stared at him for a few moments her face a blank page, she then pounced on him. He fell to the ground with a thud and looked up at DC, her eyes now flaming with anger.
"You ever do that again and I swearIll…..." DC stuttered for a moment and just stared at him. "You'll do that hmm?" Rob smirked feeling a good opportunity to tease his angered friend. She felt more anger now as he teased her. "Ill…um…uh" DC fumbled with her thoughts trying to think of a good threat. Rob felt he was enjoying this too much, even when angered and dumbfounded she was still so beautiful to him. Before his brain could register his next actions he leaned and placed his lips on her forehead. DC's mind went blank; she blushed madly and just stared at him. Reality finally caught up with Rob's brain and he pulled away quickly blushing as brightly as DC was.
Rob felt embarrassed beyond all belief and he turned his head away from her trying to hide his blush. "I...I…I'm sorry." DC finally snapped back into reality and shook her head. "It's all right hon." she giggled a little getting off of him. 'Hon?' Rob questioned in his mind. He shook it off got up taking DC's hand and walking in the direction of the meeting room.
Everyone was assembled in the grand hall. From the lowest to the highest of the ranks of Sonic Heroes, everyone was gathered for a big announcement. Rob stood next to DC still holding her hand. Zeke glared over at Rob from his left. Rob glanced at him out of the corner of his eye and smirked. He then focused his attention back to the front where Mark and his sister stood.
"My friends we welcome are newest special ops team. Team Chaos has been reassigned to our special ops division in the Grand Army of Garland." Mark had team Chaos come onto the stage and roar of applause erupted from the crowd.
Mark waited for the applause to die down before continuing. "We also want to welcome our newest Sonic Hero general and member of team chaos Rob the Hedgehog." DC ran down off the stage and grabbed his hand. She was now smiling brightly, as she dragged Rob onto the stage. Rob waved to everyone in the crowd then turned to his new teammates. Dash and Chris high fived him, while DC shoved Zeke by the shoulder urging him to congratulate Rob. He sighed and stuck his hand out to Rob. Rob laughed and shook it.
Amy walked over to Rob and handed him his Sonic Hero emblem. This emblem was living proof that he was a Sonic Hero. But something about this one was different; it had a sleek gold rim around it and different indentations in the middle of it. Rob eyed it curiously deciding to ask about it later. He bowed the young princess and she walked back to her place by her brother. Mark raised his and so people would quiet down. "And I have one more announcement. For team Chaos I would like to welcome their new leader, their newest member." Rob's heart skipped a beat as the crowd finally erupted in a final cheer. Sonic Heroes all through the crowd were jumping up and down cheering shouting Rob's name as if he were a rock star.
Team Chaos gave him a round of applause; DC jumped on Rob and kisses his cheek. Rob blushed and smiled at her. She smiled back and hugged him. Rob was so happy that he got to stay with his new friends. He did wonder whose idea it was to make him team leader, first thought that came to mind was DC, but he'd worry about that later he said to himself. Chris handed Rob the mike as DC pushed Rob up to the front of the stage.
Rob gulped down wondering what he would say. "T-thank you all for this honor, I promise you won't regret it. So watch out Nega Sonic, Team Chaos is coming at you full blast." The crowd cheered more. Rob knew this is where the real fun would begin. He was now the leader of his own team, his new friends. His journey on discovering the truth of the attack on his planet had finally begun.
End of Chapter 3