Based on the song Danger Line by Avenged Sevenfold
Characters belong to SEGA
"At your command, Lord Robotnik."
Welcome to the world of Mobius, a thriving planet home to the anthropomorphic creatures dubbed Mobians. They are a civilization very similar to our own: wondrous cities, a well respected hierarchy, and even massive armies, but they also have something we do not. On the impenetrable armor of the Kingdom of Knothole is a tear that continues to grow, threatening the rip the armor in two. This tear appeared in the form of a single man once named Julian Kintobar, however that was long ago, long before the first Great War and the start of the Robotnik Wars. A well liked man turned murderous traitor and tyrant, the now Doctor Robotnik seeks to be the sole controller of the planet and will achieve that goal no matter the consequences.
Such acts include the forceful Robotization of others, turning them into people held prisoner within their own bodies, forced to watch day after day as their body, no longer under their control, does the bidding of a madman.
"Hold on, Ant!"
For a long time it was thought that the use of Robotization was long dead, but an odd twist of events erased that idea from everyone's minds. Permanently.
"P-P-P-Princess?"
As long time foes and self-proclaimed fighters for freedom, a small group of Mobians has taken the task of beating back Robotnik and his armies of robots, many times they have achieved immense success and have single-handedly stopped the tyrant from ruling the world. With names such as Sonic Hedgehog, Bunnie D'Colette, and Tails Prower in their ranks, the Freedom Fighters are a force to be reckoned with.
That is to say...they were.
"Well, well, well...looks like the tables have finally turned, hm? And in quite a shocking fashion I must say, I never would have guessed that your little Princess could be such a fighter. Let alone a worthy member of my ranks."
Sonic growled and marched where he stood, unable to move due to the robotic arm clasped on his shoulder as the half-roboticised Bunnie pulled him back and hissed in his ear how SWATbots were already in the rafters above their heads.
"Let 'em try and shoot me! They've missed before, they'll miss now!" The angry hedgehog hissed back.
"It's not you I'm worried about - it's them!"
Hating every second she saw them, the rabbit nodded towards the two figures merely feet away and then quickly turned back towards Robotnik, the less frightening of the two groups.
"I'd bet ma' life Robotnik wouldn't even have a second of doubt shooting 'em both! I know ya' want to go and save her but you have to wait this time." Or else she'll kill you. The rabbit bit back the last part and slowly let her hand fall off the hedgehog's shoulder, knowing that he knew the same.
Chest heaving in sheer anger, the blue hedgehog took a daring step towards the tyrant Robotnik and was almost horrified to the point of recoiling at the man's ecstatic look of glee on his face. Taking a second to collect himself, Sonic then spat out a curse at the Overlander. "What did you d-!"
A small, all too familiar terrified squeal cut off the Hero as the claw around Antione's throat closed tighter for a few long seconds before relaxing again, leaving both Mobians frozen from just the violent act. In the dreaded silence that followed, if their could be such a thing inside a factory, a small voice pipped up behind Sonic.
"B-Bunnie? I-Is Aunt Sally going to be okay?" The small two-tailed kit's wavering eyes was almost too much, but all the rabbit could do to comfort Tails was to simply hug him closer to her side.
"Ah, ah ,ah." The smug Robotnik waved a finger at the group of terrified Mobians. Oh yes, they were terrified, he could tell. For once the mighty Freedom Fighters were scared. He had to revel in that moment. "You had better watch your words more carefully, Hedgehog. You are speaking to your Ruler " - A snort of laughter from the blue Mobian in question made the man stop and angrily glare at the interrupter, making him cease his laughter immediately. Good. They were learning. - " and unless you want blood on your hands it would be wise to st- Oh, wait. On second thought, continue. I'm sure your Princess would b eagerly willing to extinguish that whiny little bug. Wouldn't you, Sally?"
The brown robotic creature simply replied with an almost joyous reciting of, "Of course, Lord Robotnik. " and slowly raised the whimpering Antione higher into the air until he was feet off the ground and hands scrambling at the claw around his neck in search for air. Eyes bulging and with tears freely falling, the coyote wheezed out a reply for mercy to the leader he was sworn to protect.
After an agonizing moment of thought, Dr. Robotnik simply waved his hand and the mechanized Sally dropped Antione gasping for breathe onto the floor, where he lay slumped up and coughing at her feet. Without even a second of hesitation Bunnie raced towards the weak Coyote only to have him fly directly at her, knocking them both, painfully, to the ground.
With his laughter filling the air, Robotnik clasped Sally on the shoulder with a congratulatory hand for her sudden act. It was all programmed, all an act, a ploy, but it sure was affective. The kick to Antione not only destroyed the little strength he had left, it also left the Freedom Fighters open and their powerhouse defenseless.
Surprisingly swift for a robot, the mechanized creature of Robotnik's lunged forward greedily toward the two Freedom Fighters now trying to pull themselves up off the floor. With sights locked on Bunnie D'Colette, Sally simply swatted the weak Antione away with a flick of her wrist and was upon the rabbit before either Freedom Fighter knew what had happened. The robot clutched Bunnie by her jacket lifted her into the air, never ceasing to run even for a second. On instinct the Freedom Fighter swung her robotic fist at her attacker, only to have it caught by Sally's own metal claw.
Red eyes glaring hungrily into Bunnie's own, the robot stopped and then forcefully threw the rabbit into a pile of metal barrels on the opposite side of the room. With a crash the Mobian landed against the barrels and cried out in pain. Yet before she could even begin to get up the same red eyes were staring down at her, the same hunger glowing from them. A claw shot out towards Bunnie and the rabbit shut her eyes fearing the worst.
It was the small cry that shook her out of it. Eyes flying open she scrambled up to her feet and stood where the robotic Sally should have been, calling out in fear, " Tails!"
But it was too late, the fox had already flung himself onto Sally's back and was still holding on for dear life on her back. He knew he shouldn't have, he knew Sally wasn't herself, that she wouldn't hesitate to kill him...or worse. Yet he couldn't stand there and let Bunnie be brutally attacked by Sally, especially not with Sonic preoccupied with trying to get to Robotnik. He had to help, he had to...had to..
He had to save Aunt Sally.
So, with eyes shut tight and lips pulled into a thin line on his face, Tails clung with arms and legs around Sally, hoping that, in some way, he was helping. And in a way he was, but not in the way he had hoped for.
Suddenly a cold claw dug into one of his tails and as the blood began to flow the fox screamed and let his limbs go limp for just a second, long enough for Sally to pull him off. Without any regard to who she pulled off or as to how badly they were hurt, the robot simply flung the boy off into a corner full of scrap metal and resumed its' assault on Bunnie.
The Freedom Fighter was just a step ahead. With much guilt she sent her roboticized fist flying towards Sally, connecting just at the side of the robot's jaw. From the force of the blow it was enough to make the robot take steps backwards to steady itself and be ready for another attack which, by knowledge of Bunnie's fighting technique, was bound to happen.
Moving its' head just slightly to the right was enough to make the rabbit's fist fly past the robot. As Bunnie quickly tried to bring her arm back Sally grabbed it with both hands and by using their combined momentum was able to pick the rabbit up by her arm and fling her onto the ground just behind Sally.
With arm still clutched in its' claws, the robot angrily glared down at the rabbit who cursed in pain on the ground.
"Fool." The voice. It didn't even sound robotic. It sounded like her own voice, by Chaos it sounded just like Sally!
"Sally girl...please." It wouldn't work, Bunnie knew it wouldn't. Sonic had tried it with Uncle Chuck. They didn't know reason or mercy, only what Robotnik wanted and this time it wouldn't be any different.
"You don't deserve to use such power against His Majesty." Sick and venomous resentment laced the robot's words as it placed a foot on the rabbit's robotic shoulder with enough pressure to being breaking the circuitry within.
Seeing as holding the arm was no longer necessary, Sally simply let Bunnie's robotic arm slip out of her claw and onto the floor where it lay, motionless, with palm facing the ceiling. All the while the Semi-Robotic Freedom Fighter stared on in silent horror as she realized that she could no longer move her roboticized arm from the shoulder down.
It wasn't enough, Lord Robotnik wanted them to suffer.
Slowly and deliberately Sally slid her other foot towards Bunnie's robot hand and placed the heel directly on the palm and began to push down. Even with the circuits crushed in her shoulder, the rabbit could still feel the pressure, the slow cracking of her hand, the pai-
CRRUNCH.
White hot and flaming pain shot up her arm and into her body, where it spread like wildfire and set every nerve in her figure alight with screaming pain.
/spanThe rabbit instinctively tried to pull her shattered hand back but only managed to have part of it torn away even further under Sally's boot. She resisted the urge to cry out and simply bit her lip to stop the scream: she wasn't going to let Robotnik know she was losing, not to her own friend.
With nothing but adrenaline keeping her going, Bunnie raised her normal hand and grabbed the boot still on her crushed hand and then pulled. She pushed and pulled and tried everything to get the metal foot off, but the only thing that changed was a soft metallic laugh that began to emanate from somewhere above the rabbit. Not even daring to look, the Freedom Fighter simply continued her vain attempt at freeing herself.
"It won't be long now." The robotic squirrel hummed as it bent down to get a better look at her target.
"Maybe we will start with you, hm? No? How about the fox, he would make an excellent scout. He could assist in the destruction -"
The Robian twisted her hell on the shattered hand.
"of"
And again.
"Knothole."
On the last twist the final wall broke and Bunnie moaned in pain. Almost instantly the robot reacted viciously: it stepped off the rabbit's arm, turned, quickly picked her up neck and brought the Freedom Fighter to eye level.
"You've lost, sugah."
If robots could show any emotion, this one would be grinning sickly as it turned and violently threw the already weak Bunnie back across the room once more. As the Mobian hit the ground with a thud and rolled over onto her back, the robot was already there, glaring, as it reached down to pick her up again.
"Halt!I think they have learned their lesson."
With something that would be akin to reluctance, the Metal Sally twitched her claws in anger but left the rabbit alone. After one final glare it simply walked away back to Dr. Robotnik, the Overlander now sporting a good few cuts on his face. The two were almost instantaneously surrounded by a dozen SWATbots, all of their visors humming and pointed towards the group of battle-weary Freedom Fighters.
"Is that it, Hedgehog? Is that your best? And here I was hoping we would truly be able to test out the Princesses fighting capabilities. "
The blue Speedster, with his right armed burned by blaster fire and a nice deep gash running down both legs, simply spat towards the man as the others gathered around him on impulse. Behind him and to the right shook Antione, his eyes darting between the SWATbots lasers and the Princess and squeaked in terror at every little noise around them. Equally as terrified but far better at hiding was Tails, who stood a little behind Antione and was hastily trying to stop his bleeding arm. Lastly there was Bunnie. Her robotic arm hung limply by her side, the gnarled remains of her hand just barely attached to the rest of her. She was looking directly at Robotnik, not even able to bring herself to look at Sally.
"Well?" The Doctor urged with a small chuckle.
Sonic lurched forward slightly but halted himself. Even that small movement sent all the SWATbot guards to ready their wrist-lasers and while he could outrun them, he wasn't sure the rest of the group could.
"We're coming back for her. Mark my words, Robuttnik, we will."
In a blur of blue of the defeated Freedom Fighters vanished from view, leaving the dictator to his laughing.
"I hope you do, Hedgehog. I hope you do."