Chapter Three: the assault (MATURE: violence)


The group approached the more mountainous portion of their excursion, each matching up with a companion to travel the narrowed path up the hillside.

Knuckles and Rouge headed the journey together as Tails and Cream followed closely, Sonic and Amy Rose trailing behind. Even though they had formed into their pairs, they finally started to converse as a group, talking of what each had going on in their lives.

"Me and batgirl here are working on remodeling the house to make more room for us." Knuckles spoke, pulling his enamored girlfriend tighter to him as he escorted her on their jaunt together. Rouge zealously gazed up into Knuckles violet eyes and passionately added, "We hope to settle into the finished home as a committed and paired couple".

Cream warmly chimed in, "Oh that's so wonderful! I'm sure you two will be so happy together!"

"Congratulations Knuckles!" Tails kindly added and turned his sights to Cream, who happily took the hand Tails had extended out to her.

Sonic looked up from his purposeless scanning of the terrain around them and with a considerate tone spoke "Yeah, way to go buddy! That's pretty cool for the two of you." He then quickly flashed a look to Amy, checking her reaction.

"Congrats Rouge. I'm really happy for you." Amy said in an appeased tone. She was happy for the two of them, but she couldn't help but feel a little envy for the two so fervently falling in love. She had always dreamed of that for herself and Sonic, and seeing that she was the last to find that sort of happiness, if ever, was not cheering up the female hedgehog at all. She couldn't help but feel a bit sorry for herself.

Rouge turned to look back at her over her shoulder, still remaining in the possession of her robust mate's arms. "Thank you Amy. It's really nice to hear that from you." The two girls had developed an affinity for each other after Rouge and Knuckles had begun their romance together. Amy had known Knuckles for some time before Rouge had met him, and what had started as simply getting to know the hedgegirl acquaintance of the beautiful bat's suitor had actually grown into a realistic friendship. The two females gossiped between each other consistently and had started to spend time together as friends, going out for lunches or shopping together, even visiting the others home to converse more.

Amy had looked down forlornly after Rouge turned back to her love's attentiveness, only to see a gloved hand wave in front of her, trying to get her attention. She looked up to her left to see Sonic smiling at her, the landscape and brilliant skyline surrounding the cliff behind him. His expression was as sunny and radiant as the sun beaming down upon him, and Amy couldn't help but feel warmed inside from her moment of sadness.

"Smile Amy, you look so pretty when you smile." He kindly stated to her in a soft inspiration as he continued to keep his eyes locked on hers.

Amy couldn't help but grin back to him as she found everything but his visage faded from of her concentration until only her and Sonic remained.


"LOOK OUT!!"


Sonic slammed Amy against the bank of the cliff as boulders and other rubble came barreling upon the path they were traversing. Knuckles command saved the two hedgehogs from being crushed by the landslide. "Stay here." Sonic said to her in a pleading demand. Amy nodded silently to her rescuer and then looked over to her right, seeing Cream and Rouge also against the rocky wall. Cream was visibly distressed with minor scrapes, but Rouge was grasping at one of her wings agonizingly- anyone could tell it was broken.

"Dammit! Where did they come from?!" yelled Sonic to his usual male teammates.

The girls looked up to see what the three boys were so worked up over. A battery of weaponized robots hovered just above the group. They were not his usual style, but it was discernable that Robotnik had created them. They appeared to be upgraded models- each had anti-gravity thrusters inside their feet, giving off a green tinted light from the ball and heel of each sole that matched the neon lime color of their eyes. The chassis were covered by polished black plating of their heads and torsos with galvanized steel limbs and laser targeting cites attached to cannons on their arms and shoulders. Instead of the usual separate reactions of Eggman's previous inventions, these worked as a unit and it was apparent that they were in a constant link with each other. They would be difficult to defeat, yet they made no offense toward the heroes.

"What the hell are these things Foxboy?" Knuckles questioned Tails as he gave an anxious look to his ivory lover. Seeing her in such pain had his temper as hot as the shade of red in his fur. He wasn't going to be able to hold his fury back much longer, and his blanched beauty needed medical attention fast.

Tails had no clue and he showed it is his lack of response. He was just as blindsided as the others were by this new onset of attackers. "I honestly don't know Knuckles, but I don't think it's anything good."

Sonic was getting antsy. For too long had he gone without any real action and waiting for the attack had him in a vehement state- he was raging to blitz the moment one of the machines even shifted.

Spontaneously, each mechaniod bolted to a corresponding Mobian. Sonic dodged the initial attack by his robot, and Knuckles was pummeling his, but the other machines succeeded in contact with their targets. Rouge wailed as one tore a fragment of her already broken wing and took a snip out of her ear. Cream shrieked in agony as she had a large clump of fur ripped from her left ear. Tails was fending off his assailant but lost a large chuck of fur and tissue was torn from each of his tails in the process. Amy cried out as one of her quills was ripped right out of the back of her head.

"Amy!" "ROUGE!"

Sonic and Knuckles yelled in unison.

The distraction by the girls was enough of a pause in their attention for their opponents to each retrieve a fragment from their bodies as well. Knuckles lost a dreadlock from the side of his head, as Sonic had his lower left back quill tore right out mercilessly.

As soon as the last machine procured its sample, the armament flew off faster than any of them could track the androids.

"What the fuck was that about?!" Knuckles bellowed as he ran back to Rouge. She was losing a profuse amount of blood from her ear and wing. "We gotta get back NOW!" Knuckles ranted to Sonic.

Sonic was supporting Amy in standing up. "I know." He asserted, taking recognition as the leader of the team once more. Sonic looked to Amy, who was a bit shaken from the experience and bleeding but was still in decent condition. "You gonna be alright?"

Amy nodded confidently and gave him an appreciative glance. "Yeah, thanks- but we better get Rouge help fast."

Sonic hurried over to the broken white bat and lifted her up into his arms, getting a good hold of her tightly. "I'll get her to the hospital. Watch out until I return. I'll come back right away for you Knux- this'll be fastest on my own." Knuckles had barely started to nod his approval before Sonic had already dashed off in haste.

Amy tried to calm the ruby guardian while Tails hugged Cream, consoling her as he wiped the tears from her eyes.

"She'll be okay Knuckles. Sonic will get her help faster than anyone can. And besides, Rouge is a strong girl- she can handle anything." Amy empathized to Knuckles. He only nodded in acknowledgement, internalizing his fury and fear as much as possible.

The sound of air rushing towards them could be heard, and in a split second Sonic had stopped and grabbed Knuckles by the arm, speeding off with him in tote.

Amy sighed and looked to Cream who still had tears running down her cheeks. She walked up next to the pair and softly stroked the back of the younger rabbit's head. "It'll be alright Cream. They got what they came for and I doubt they will be coming back anytime soon." Amy turned to Tails, adding "Let's start heading to your home so Sonic can catch up to us sooner."