The Malicious Metropolis Masquerade
Part 2: Bull Fight
The sleek, shiny, speedy hover car continued to speed down the path and on through the woods. While Mandy concentrated on the driving, Wilson consulted the map to see if they were going in the right direction. A short while later the car pulled up at a road that led two ways. Unfortunately there was no sign post telling them which road led to where so they had no idea which way Grand Metropolis was. Mandy looked left and right, trying to make a wild guess but she didn't dare to in case she sent them down the wrong way.
"So Wilson, which way do we go from here?" asked Mandy.
Wilson peered down at the map and studied it to see if he could decipher if it was the right way or not.
"Um…according to the map…it might be right." said Wilson a few moments later "But I'm not fully sure. The map's not very clear on this part."
"Let me see that." said Mandy, taking the map off Wilson and looking at it herself.
She soon found out what Wilson meant. The map unfortunately had a coffee stain on it and the stain was in on the spot they were at now so it was hard to make out which way Grand Metropolis was. Mandy groaned heavily.
"What kind of lame-brained moron spills coffee on a map?" she grumbled "And what kind of lame-brained moron gives us a coffee stained map?"
"I dunno." said Wilson "So what do we do now since we can't tell which way is Grand Metropolis?"
"I'm gonna take a wild guess and go right." said Mandy "I'm sure it's this way anyway."
So Mandy turned the steering wheel to the right, stepped on the pedal and the car turned to the right.
"I think when we get back to Mobotropolis we should get a different map." said Wilson, folding it up and putting it away since he didn't think he would need it right now "So next time we need to get to Grand Metropolis, we won't have any trouble getting there."
"I'll say." said Mandy "And we'd best keep any maps away from anyone who drinks coffee so they can't stain any more maps."
"Hey Mandy, what's that in the distance?" cried Wilson, leaning forward in his seat.
Mandy leaned forward to see what Wilson was looking at. In the distance they could see a cloud of dust coming towards them. The cloud of dust was being caused by something running extremely fast and it was coming towards Wilson and Mandy. The thing came into view, revealing itself to be a huge robot shaped like a bull with wheels in place of legs. The bull robot was silver and gold with a few red stripes here and there and its armour looked incredibly tough. Its head was black and it had two ferociously long and sharp horns. Its optics were blood red, it had two Gatling guns on it's back and two on either side of it's neck and the robot looked furious. It bellowed loudly as it thundered towards Wilson and Mandy.
"HOLY CHEESECAKES!" screamed Mandy, swerving madly to get out of the bull's way.
"It's a robotical bull!" cried Wilson as the car jerked violently to the right and the bull-bot roared right past them.
The giant bull-shaped robot swerved around, making loud screeches as its tyres scraped across the path and then the bull-bot charged at Mandy's car again. Mandy slammed a button on the steering column with her fist and the hover car levitated even higher off the ground so the bull-bot charged straight under it and past it. Mandy lowered the car and she drove it into a safe patch in the woods on the side of the path and she and Wilson scrambled wildly out of the car. Wilson opened the boot and pulled out a long pole with two slots on either side and he pressed a button that made two long silver blades pop out of the slots. This was a bladed weapon that spins around when you throw it at the attacker and Wilson was the only Royal Fighter equipped with one. Mandy equipped herself with a belt full of bombs and the two fighters ran out to face the bull-bot. But the bull-bot was nowhere in sight, it appeared to have gone. Wilson and Mandy looked around wildly for the bull-bot but they couldn't see it anywhere. They kept their senses alert for the slightest sound as they searched for the robot. Wilson began to shake terribly, the spinning blade weapon shaking in his trembling hands. His ears drooped back against his head and he looked around nervously. Mandy however kept perfectly calm and watching Wilson act like a big chicken was making her mad.
"Wilson will you stop shaking?" said Mandy crossly "It makes you look like a wimp!"
"Sorry Mandy but that bull-bot is terrifying and the thought of it charging at us from behind is making me shake terribly." whimpered Wilson.
"Wilson, remember what Geoffrey told us." said Mandy "Don't let the scary things bother you in battle, the enemy can sense fear and if it senses fear it'll use your fear to it's advantage and destroy you so please try to be brave little Wilson."
She put a hand tenderly on the dog's shoulder and Wilson immediately stopped trembling. Her touch felt so warm and friendly to him and he loved the feeling he got from it.
"You know what Mandy, your touch makes me feel braver already." said Wilson "I'll try and think of that in battle, that'll keep my courage up."
"That's a good doggie." said Mandy teasingly "Now let's find that robot and destroy it shall we?"
But they didn't need to. The bull-bot had been hiding in the woods and lying in wait and once it found the perfect moment to strike, it charged out of the woods, bellowing loudly. Steam billowed out of its robotical nostrils and its horns glistened like a long gleaming sword. Mandy leaped out of the way but Wilson threw the spinning blade weapon at the bull-bot and then leaped out of the way. The spinning blade just pinged harmlessly off its incredibly thick armour and spun away. The weapon impaled itself into a tree high out of reach and the bull-bot swerved around and screeched to a halt. It remained where it was and glared at Wilson and Mandy with its red optics. Then a hologram of a person in a robe with a hood over her face emitted from the bull-bot's eyes and the person spoke.
"Hello there Royal Fighters." said the robed figure "I am the Mistress of Darkness, leader of the Eggman army in Grand Metropolis and I've sent this marvellous machine to prevent you from arriving at Grand Metropolis."
Wilson and Mandy glared at the hologram and they clenched their fists.
"Do you think you can stop us Mistress?" scoffed Mandy.
"Of course I do you mousey moron." sniffed the Mistress "Egg-Taurus is very powerful and without Sonic the Hedgehog on your side you are powerless against this machine's brute strength."
"How do you know we don't have Sonic with us?" asked Wilson.
"Never you mind you nosey dog." snapped the Mistress "Have fun playing with my little pet will you? And do be careful of its horns or you'll end up skewered like a kebab on a stick. Ha, ha, ha!"
The hologram faded away and Egg-Taurus bellowed loudly. Its wheels revved up, causing massive burnouts on the path and the huge bull-like machine charged at Wilson and Mandy. The dog and mouse leaped out of the way, leaving the machine to thunder straight past them and screech to a halt. Just as it was turning around, Mandy threw a bomb at it as hard as she could. The bomb hit Egg-Taurus just above its head and it exploded upon impact. Unfortunately for Mandy though, the bomb didn't destroy its head like she hoped it would. Mandy threw another bomb at Egg-Taurus but it's incredibly thick armour withstood the blow yet again and the bull-shaped machine had finished turning around. It charged at Mandy at top speed and roared loudly. Mandy jumped out of the machine's way but not quite fast enough. Egg-Taurus' left horn just scratched her left leg as it thundered past, causing Mandy to land rather painfully on her front and grimace in pain. The horn had left a horrible bloody cut on her leg and her trouser leg had ripped. Mandy's leg hurt so much she was having trouble standing up so she decided to lay low until she could stand again. As for Wilson, he was trying to retrieve his spinning blade weapon but it was much too high for him to reach and he couldn't climb the tree since dogs aren't very good climbers so he couldn't get it. Unless he got a leg-up or something. Then the dog had an idea. If he could get on top of Egg-Taurus and jump as high as he could then maybe he would be able to reach the weapon. The only problem was how was he going to get on top of something that moved so fast? Wilson had to stop Egg-Taurus and then climb on top of it. But was there was a less dangerous way of retrieving his weapon? Wilson thought for a moment and then he had another idea. This one was risky but what choice did he have? He needed to retrieve his weapon so he had something to fight Egg-Taurus with so he had to try whatever he could. Egg-Taurus had just finished turning around after its last charge and it looked around for Wilson and Mandy so it could charge at them. Then Wilson stood in front of the tree his weapon was stuck in and he began dancing about merrily and blowing raspberries.
"Yoo-hoo! Mr. Silly-Bull! Come and get me!" he jeered.
Egg-Taurus roared a loud frightening roar and steam billowed out of it's nostrils in the manner of a real bull. Then Egg-Taurus revved its engines, its wheels screeched and it thundered at Wilson with its optics blazing and its horns pointing at the dog, ready to skewer him alive. Wilson bent down as if he was ready to run for his life and he began saying under his breath "Wait for it, wait for it…" Once Egg-Taurus was close enough, Wilson leaped out of its way and the giant bull-bot crashed into the tree headfirst. It knocked the tree over and it landed with a crash on the ground. Wilson was pleased to see his plan had worked. Now the tree had fallen over, he could retrieve his weapon easily. Wilson ran over to the tree and he pulled the long bladed pole out of the tree. He ran up to Egg-Taurus, who was beginning to back up and he tried to stab the robot with the spinning blade weapon. But the blade just bent against the robot's tough armour. This robot's armour was strong enough to withstand bombs and even Sonic's spin-dashes so you can imagine it was very tough. Wilson shrieked in terror at his bent weapon. One of the blades was now useless since it was bent but the other blade was good to go. Egg-Taurus continued backing up. Wilson had to bring it down and fast or it will charge again and it will be harder to stop it once it began charging. Then Wilson had another idea. True its armour was tough but maybe its optics weren't. He raised the weapon and he threw it like a javelin at one of Egg-Taurus' optics. The blade plunged neatly into the bull-bot's eye, cracking it and putting it out of function and leaving Egg-Taurus blinded on one side. Egg-Taurus screamed loudly and it shook its head wildly to get the blade out of its optic. Wilson ran over to the robot and he grabbed the weapon but Egg-Taurus jerked its head so hard it lifted him off the ground and he flung up so violently he almost let go of the weapon. Egg-Taurus continued jerking its head around madly to get the spinning blade weapon out of its optic but it couldn't shake the weapon off and since Wilson was being tossed about like a towel on a washing line in the wind, he couldn't pull it out either. Then Egg-Taurus gave an almighty jerk of the head and the only remaining blade on the weapon snapped in two as Wilson was flung over its head. The dog spiralled through the air and he landed sharply on his side. He picked himself up and stared in despair at the broken weapon. One blade was bent and the other had snapped, it was practically useless now so Wilson needed another weapon. As for Egg-Taurus, it turned around and stared Wilson down with its only remaining optic. It pointed its neck mounted Gatling guns and it began shooting at Wilson. Wilson yelped and ran like mad as he tried to avoid being shot by the Gatling guns. To make things more difficult, Egg-Taurus decided to fire its back mounted guns as well so Wilson had four guns to avoid being shot by. Wilson nearly got hit multiple times but his agility was paying off and he managed to avoid being shot. But he had a feeling he wouldn't be able to keep it up for long. As for Mandy, she had recovered from Egg-Taurus' onslaught and now she was back on her feet. She saw her friend in trouble and immediately ran over to help. She pulled out a detonator from her belt and set a timer on it. As Egg-Taurus began rotating around in an attempt to blast Wilson, Wilson ran rings around it, trying to avoid being shot. Mandy ran over to the bull and she attached the detonator neatly onto one of Egg-Taurus' guns. Then she climbed on top of the robot and attached two more detonators to the two guns mounted on its back. Then she attached one last detonator on the other gun on the other side of its neck and she climbed off of Egg-Taurus and ran like mad. The detonators all went off at once and Egg-Taurus' Gatling guns were all destroyed in an instant. The detonators didn't do any harm to Egg-Taurus' bodywork but its weaponry had been reduced to nothing but its horns now its guns were gone. Wilson was relieved Egg-Taurus didn't have its guns anymore but that didn't mean the battle was over. Egg-Taurus still had its unstoppable charging attack and now Egg-Taurus was getting ready to charge again. It charged at Wilson and Mandy at top speed and yet again, missed them as they jumped out of the way. They felt the robot whooshing past them as they leaped clear from the robot. Before Egg-Taurus could stop and charge again, Wilson and Mandy ran for cover. Egg-Taurus rotated around and stood still, waiting for it's victims to come out and fight it so it could skewer them with its horns. Wilson and Mandy had hidden behind Mandy's car and they sat down against the car as they thought on what to do.
"That thing is unstoppable." said Mandy "We need a plan and we need it now or we'll be finished."
"How do we stop something that goes so fast and has armour so tough?" asked Wilson "I mean look at my spinning blade!"
He showed Mandy the now useless spinning blade which had a bent blade and a snapped blade.
"My spinning blade can slice through almost anything and yet it didn't do any damage whatsoever to Egg-Taurus!" cried Wilson "The only thing I can do is destroy it's optics but I've only managed to destroy one and now my weapon's in no condition to destroy the other one!"
"In that case we need to change our tactics." said Mandy "We'll need to take a sneakier approach if we want to destroy that thing. But what are we gonna do and how are we gonna destroy that thing?"
"I dunno Mandy girl." said Wilson sadly "I just don't know."
The two fighters needed a plan and fast. If they didn't come up with one sooner or later, they would never make it to Grand Metropolis…
Meanwhile, the Mistress of Darkness had been watching the whole scuffle on her monitors and she laughed at the dog and mouse's futile efforts to stand up to Egg-Taurus.
"Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha! Good work Wilson and Mandy, you're putting up quite the show now aren't you?" she cackled "Watching you two run for your lives while Egg-Taurus tries to run you over is giving me great entertainment right now! It'll only be a matter of time until Egg-Taurus finally manages to flatten you two! Hee, hee, hee!"
Her fun was interrupted by the unwelcome arrival of her annoying servant bot BECK-E. She whizzed up to the Mistress and saluted her.
"Mistress, I have a status report." she said.
"Explain it then you screechy little tin can." sighed the Mistress, not happy her entertainment had been interrupted.
"Set up to Operation: Drill-For-Oil is 70% complete Madame." reported BECK-E "The main drill is stationary and the drill-bit is full functional."
"That's the best news I've heard all day." muttered the Mistress "That operation must go off without delay, Eggman is counting on me to get all that oil for him."
"I know he his Madame." said BECK-E "We won't fail him, I'm sure we won't."
"Well I know we won't fail." said the Mistress "I command possibly the strongest portion of Eggman's army and Grand Metropolis fell to us so quickly we've practically conquered it so nothing will foil this mission. Even the resistance appears to have surrendered since they haven't done a thing about it since we drove them away the other week."
"We really are impressive aren't we?" said BECK-E.
The Mistress ignored her.
"You're dismissed BECK-E." she said "Now leave me to enjoy watching Wilson and Mandy struggle against one of Eggman's finest machines ever."
"OK." said BECK-E, trundling away on her one wheel as fast as she could go.
The Mistress put her metal hands together and she started wiggling her clawed fingers as she watched Egg-Taurus sit and wait for Wilson and Mandy to come out and fight. Egg-Taurus had been sitting there for a few minutes now and nothing had happened so it was clear that Wilson and Mandy were hiding or they had retreated. Nevertheless, the Mistress didn't know if she didn't find out so she decided to order Egg-Taurus to start searching for them. She pressed a button on the control pad and gave the order.
"Egg-Taurus, commence search mode."
On the monitor she could see Egg-Taurus had obeyed her and it deployed a searchlight from the top of its neck and a sensor beam emitted from its only remaining optic. Egg-Taurus trundled very slowly across the path, its head turning from left to right to see if it could find anything. If it found anything, the sensor beam from its eye would glow green and Egg-Taurus would attack immediately. Wilson and Mandy would have to be very subtle now because if Egg-Taurus found them, they would be mincemeat. The Mistress sat back in her throne and twiddled her claws.
"Alright Wilson and Mandy, if you're both so smart then think your way out of this one." she purred to herself.
Egg-Taurus patrolled the woodland, looking for Wilson and Mandy. Its spot light rotated from left to right every few seconds and its sensor beam swept across the path in attempts to find the hiding Mobians. Wilson and Mandy kept low behind Mandy's car and watched as Egg-Taurus went back and forth with its spotlights and sensor twitching beam every few seconds to see what it could find. Its spotlight pointed at the silver hover car that was parked in the woods but Egg-Taurus didn't bother with the car since it wasn't looking for a car and it trundled away. The moment Egg-Taurus trundled away, Wilson and Mandy began whispering to each other.
"That thing's got spotlights and sensor beams at the ready." whispered Mandy "I think it's trying to find us."
"So what do we do now?" whispered Wilson "If it finds us we're done for!"
"I think I know how to stop that thing." said Mandy, pulling Wilson close to her so she could whisper in his ear. "You see, Egg-Taurus is built to run on smooth ground right?"
"Right." whispered Wilson.
"So if we can get that thing to topple over, we can attack it from the underneath where it'll be vulnerable and then it's out of commission." whispered Mandy "I'm sure it'll work."
"But how do we get it to topple over?" asked Wilson "Should we trick it into coming into the woods where the ground isn't very smooth and hope we can get it to topple over?"
"That's precisely what I was thinking." said Mandy "Now you stay here while I catch its attention. When you see me coming, you run while Egg-Taurus chases me and then me and you will try to get it to tip over."
"OK Mandy." said Wilson, holding her hand and giving it a gentle squeeze "Let's hope this works or we're dead meat."
"I hope it works too." said Mandy, giving Wilson's hand a gentle squeeze back.
Mandy got up onto her feet and she crept out from behind the car. Then she tip-toed ever so quietly (well she is a mouse after all) out of the woods and onto the path. Egg-Taurus was far down the path with its back turned so it wouldn't see Mandy unless it turned around and came back. In order to catch its attention, Mandy called out to it.
"Hey! Egg-Taurus! I'm over here!" she called out to the machine.
Egg-Taurus had excellent hearing. Its hearing so great that it could be sitting in the middle of London and it would have heard a call all the way from Scotland. Egg-Taurus spun around and its spotlight fixed straight ahead of it. It couldn't see Mandy because it was far down the path but it knew she was there because she had called to it. Egg-Taurus snorted loudly, steam billowing out of its nostrils, it's only remaining optic went red with fury and it charged down the path at a thundering speed. Mandy saw it coming and waited until she was sure she was in Egg-Taurus's sight. Egg-Taurus was half-way away by the time she finally decided to run for her life. She dived into the woods as fast as her legs would carry her. Egg-Taurus swerved loudly to the left and it followed Mandy into the woods. Wilson saw the two of them coming and he ran for his life as well. The two Mobians ran as fast as they could from the giant bull-shaped machine that was hot on their tails. The one advantage they were having over Egg-Taurus is that the woods didn't have level ground like a smooth path did so Egg-Taurus was noticeably going slower then usual when chasing them through the woods. Not to mention trees kept getting in the way so Egg-Taurus ended up crashing into a tree and knocking it over which stopped for a good amount of time only for it to continue the chase shortly afterwards. Egg-Taurus tried to pick up speed but the uneven ground wasn't helping much so Egg-Taurus could only get up to half speed before being slowed down by the uneven ground. Wilson and Mandy looked over their shoulders to see where the bull-bot was only to see they were pretty far from it. They stopped and stared at the machine.
"I'll give you one thing Mandy, you picked a good place for it to chase us." said Wilson "It can hardly keep up with us on this uneven ground."
"I hadn't anticipated that." said Mandy "But that's one thing in our favour. I hope there's something in the ground that's so uneven it will topple over."
"Maybe this will help?" suggested Wilson, pointing to a tree-stump that stuck out like a sore thumb in the ground.
If Egg-Taurus bumped into that across the side, the tree-stump would easily topple it over. Mandy smiled at Wilson.
"I think that'll work perfectly." said Mandy "All we need to do is get Egg-Taurus over here."
They heard Egg-Taurus trundling and wobbling through the woods not far behind them. Wilson and Mandy turned around to see Egg-Taurus heading away from them with it's spotlight sweeping the area in search of them. Wilson cupped his hands around his mouth and he called out to Egg-Taurus.
"Hey bull-bot, come and get us!" he jeered.
Egg-Taurus' head turned to one side and its spotlight shone over Wilson. Wilson shielded his eyes from the bright light. With its prey in sight, Egg-Taurus bellowed loudly and its wheels revved up and it charged straight at the dog. Wilson immediately ran for it, squealing like a girl as Egg-Taurus thundered after him. Wilson ran past the tree-stump that he was trying to bait Egg-Taurus into running into. Egg-Taurus continued thundering after Wilson but it struck a large bit of tree trunk that stuck up from the ground and the entire front end of the robot went upwards. When it came back down Egg-Taurus bounced slightly and then it landed straight on top of the tree-trunk. It landed rather awkwardly on the tree-trunk and due to the position of the tree trunk it landed on, it overbalanced and toppled onto its side with a thud. Wilson and Mandy beamed at the sight of the toppled over Egg-Taurus and they did a high-five.
"Yes! It worked!" exclaimed Mandy "That robot won't be getting up anytime soon!"
"Agreed." said Wilson "Now let's destroy it so Dr. Eggman or the Mistress of Darkness can't use it anymore!"
Unfortunately, their moment of triumph was short lived. Wilson and Mandy advanced on Egg-Taurus but they stopped dead in their tracks after the bull-bot snorted at them. Then one of its side compartments began to slowly open and in doing so, it began to lift Egg-Taurus back onto its wheels! The robot fully self-righted itself and it glared at Wilson and Mandy angrily. The two Mobians leaped back in horror.
"I don't believe it!" cried Wilson "That thing can get back up?"
"We topple it over and it's still able to come back at us!" shrieked Mandy "We need a change of plan and fast!"
But Egg-Taurus' ability to self-right wasn't the only thing shocking about it. Seeing as it couldn't catch them on uneven ground, Egg-Taurus's wheels slid neatly inside its sockets and the whole robot lifted slightly off the ground! Egg-Taurus had the ability to hover as well as charge at fast speeds and self-right! This made Wilson and Mandy worry even more.
"Great, it can hover?" shrieked Mandy "So much for uneven ground giving us an advantage over it!"
"Now we'll never defeat it!" moaned Wilson "It's bound to catch us if we run for it now!"
Egg-Taurus charged at the two Mobians in mid-air as fast as it could go. Wilson and Mandy dropped to the ground so the bull-bot hurtled over their heads. It turned around sharply but it crashed into a tree and knocked it over. This shook the bull-bot slightly but not much. Wilson and Mandy got to their feet and ran for it before Egg-Taurus could charge again. Egg-Taurus recovered from it's collision with the tree and charged at Wilson and Mandy. The two Mobians ran by a tree but Egg-Taurus crashed straight into it, causing the tree to fall straight over. Mandy climbed up a tree in an attempt to hide from Egg-Taurus and launch a counter attack but Egg-Taurus saw her and it charged into the tree head-first. Its hard head bashed against the tree and knocked it over with Mandy on it! The tree crashed against some other trees but it didn't knock the other trees over so Mandy was saved from a nasty fall. But the collision with the other trees shook her so much she almost fell off but she held on tight. Egg-Taurus prepared for another attack, an attack that was guaranteed to spell doom for Mandy. Wilson saw Mandy was in trouble and he decided to do something quickly in order to save her. He picked up a stone and threw it at Egg-Taurus. The stone pinged harmlessly off its thick steel body armour but Egg-Taurus's attention was diverted from Mandy to Wilson now. Before Egg-Taurus could even twitch, Wilson immediately ran for his life. Egg-Taurus roared loudly and it hovered through the air after Wilson, its horns ready to skewer him. Now she was safe, Mandy climbed down the tree and ran after Egg-Taurus. Seeing as how the giant bull-bot could hover, Mandy had an idea on how to take the giant machine out once and for all. It was a risky move but Mandy knew she had no other options so she had to try her idea or Egg-Taurus would kill her and Wilson. Mandy kept running behind Egg-Taurus as it chased after Wilson and she pulled a detonator off her belt. She knew that bombs had no effect on it's bodywork due to how tough it is but she had a feeling the underside wouldn't be as solid as the rest of the body so she decided to try and attach the detonator under Egg-Taurus and hopefully destroy it. The only problem was Egg-Taurus was hard to catch due to how fast it was in flight and it wouldn't stay still for long enough for Mandy to catch up to it. Then there was another problem. Egg-Taurus had chased Wilson out into the open so now it didn't need to hover anymore so it deployed its wheels and rolled after Wilson, who was still running like mad. Since Egg-Taurus wasn't hovering anymore, Mandy couldn't get underneath it and attach the detonator to it. If she were to destroy it, she would have to change tactics and she had the perfect tactic change. Wilson kept running as Egg-Taurus thundered after him with its horns glistening and waiting to skewer him. Unfortunately, the dog was beginning to get tired and he began to slow down. Egg-Taurus began to catch up to the slowing dog and it prepared to wallop him head-first. Wilson just had enough strength in him to leap out of the way of Egg-Taurus just before it could hit him and the robot hurtled past him at the speed of a charging rhino. Before Egg-Taurus turned around to charge again, Wilson crawled away from the path so he could find a place to hide and catch his breath. Egg-Taurus rotated back around and was about to charge until it realized that Wilson had gone. But it spotted Mandy further up the path and it decided to charge at her instead. Egg-Taurus snorted loudly, steam billowing from it's nostrils as it did so; it revved its wheels up and roared loudly. Then it charged at full speed at Mandy Mouse. Mandy set the timer on the detonator to six seconds and she placed the detonator down on the ground as Egg-Taurus began roaring towards her. Mandy ran for it as Egg-Taurus neared the detonator. Egg-Taurus ran over the detonator but it didn't get any further. The detonator went off and exploded right underneath it before it could finish running over it and the explosion tore straight through the vulnerable underbelly of Egg-Taurus and erupted straight out the top of the machine. Egg-Taurus screeched loudly as smoke billowed out the top of it, fire blazed out its nostrils and mouth and its head went up in flames. Its wheels fell off and it collapsed to the ground in a smoking, smouldering wreck of scorched steal and frying machinery. Wilson, who had just gotten his breath back, ran over to Egg-Taurus and was surprised to see the bull-bot in flames. Mandy picked herself up and laughed joyfully at her brilliant success. She punched the air and whooped with joy.
"Yes! Whoo-hoo! That was brilliant! Egg-Taurus goes up in flames!" she screeched "What a triumph!"
"How did you do that?" asked Wilson "I thought bombs had no effect on it."
"I know." said Mandy "But I guessed the underside would be the weakest part since that's usually the case on a robot and I put a detonator on the ground and set the timer just right so it would explode the moment Egg-Taurus ran over it. The explosion tore through the underside of the robot and completely destroyed it! Brilliant isn't it?"
"Mandy, you're the most brilliant girl I've ever met." said Wilson, grasping her into a hug and the two shared a quick kiss with each other.
This was the first time since they'd met that Wilson and Mandy had kissed and they were so amazed they were doing it they didn't want to stop this loving moment but they had to since they had a mission right now. They broke up the kiss and laughed nervously to each other.
"Well…" said Mandy, trying to shake off the loving tender moment they just had "Now Egg-Taurus is down, let's get to Grand Metropolis and do the duty we've been assigned for."
"I do hope no more trouble comes." said Wilson "I'm getting enough of this as it is."
"After a failure like that, I don't think Dr. Eggman will even bother to send anymore robots after us." said Mandy "Once we arrive at Grand Metropolis, we'll teach him a lesson or two."
Wilson and Mandy ran over to the hover car that was still parked in the woods and they climbed into it. Mandy started the car and the car hovered out of its hiding place and hovered down the path and continued its way to Grand Metropolis. Wilson looked over his shoulder to see the blazing wreck of Egg-Taurus and then he turned his attention back to what was ahead of the car. He pulled the map out and studied it again. The path was beginning to look more like the directions on the map so they had been going the right way all along.
"Hey Mandy, you were right to choose to go right." said Wilson "Because this way looks more like the way the map's depicting the way to Grand Metropolis so we're on the right path."
"That's good news." said Mandy "Once I get to Grand Metropolis, I am going to make that Mistress of Darkness person pay dearly for delaying our journey. I wonder who is she and why she's working for Dr. Eggman?"
"Beats me." said Wilson "I do hope she won't be too powerful for us."
"Wilson, good triumphs over evil in the end." said Mandy "That stupid Mistress person won't stop us from saving the city from further destruction and capture."
"I second that." said Wilson "Me and you are gonna make her pay big time!"
He cupped his hand around his fist and put on a brave face. Mandy giggled at him.
"That's more like it Wilson!" she said "Your team spirit is back! I can tell you're looking forward to this aren't you?"
"I am." said Wilson "I'm looking forward to foiling whatever plan that Mistress of Darkness girl has in mind."
And that plan was to drill oil and Wilson and Mandy would soon find that out when they arrived to the city…
The Mistress of Darkness roared in fury at Egg-Taurus's defeat and she blasted the computer monitors to pieces with her laser claws. She thumped the arms of her throne angrily and she growled to herself. She had been enjoying watching Egg-Taurus make things difficult for Wilson and Mandy and now the bull-bot had been defeated, it made her shriek with rage.
"Curse those stupid Royal Fighters!" she screamed "Egg-Taurus was one of my strongest machines on offer! How did they defeat it?"
"I did warn you it wasn't ready yet." said BECK-E smugly "If you waited until Egg-Taurus was ready, they wouldn't have defeated it so easily since it would be armoured everywhere, including the underside and it would have had more weapons to use…"
"Oh will you shut your annoying mouth up you obnoxious little pipsqueak?" snarled the Mistress, trying to blast BECK-E with her laser claws but missing by inches.
BECK-E squealed and whizzed out of the room as fast as she could before the Mistress could zap her. The door closed shut behind her with a loud clang that echoed around the room for a few seconds. After BECK-E left, the Mistress sat back down in her throne and twiddled her claws.
"Wilson and Mandy's resourcefulness is to be commended." she said to herself "But those robots I sent were just a test. Let's see how well they do in battle against me and my whole robot army under the command of Dr. Eggman! I bet they won't feel so lucky then will they?"
And with that she let out a sinister, evil, witchy sounding cackle that filled the entire room from top to bottom. Despite the two failures the Mistress had, she had one opponent that was sure to destroy the Royal Fighters…herself…