Sonic and Co. © Sega
OCs © Respective Authors

Chapter 10: Double Tragedy

Recently, Amy, Rector, Emily, and Solar managed to defeat an entire battalion of Nega Pawns, and defeated another one of Nega's robots, the Nega Jellyfish. After Armand came down to help, Amy surprisingly used a Spin Dash to destroy the robot and send Nega flying. Afterwards, Solar took his leave as Amy, Rector, and Emily followed Armand to Future City.

On the outskirts of Westopolis, Armand had disappeared from the heroes' view. He had gone ahead to try and stop Nega. Hopefully, the heroes would get there before something happened to Armand. If Armand were to die, not only would they lose a great ally, but Emily would become distraught with grief.

The heroes were soaring over the forest that was between Westopolis and Future City. Down below, they could see a few rivers and lakes, as well as a few sunny clearings. They could also see some forest animals roaming around, minding their own business.

"It looks so peaceful." Amy said.

"And it would be, if it weren't for Nega." Rector said.

"I hope Armand's okay." Emily hoped.

"I'm sure he is." Amy reassured her.

They continued soaring over the forest, and eventually reached a gray metal road. This was the signal that they were approaching Future City. Now, they only hoped that they weren't too late to help Armand and stop Nega. But Future City was a large city, 3rd largest in the United Federation, so it wouldn't be easy. Then again, at this point, nothing really was. It would take a lot of luck to find him, and by that time, he probably would have caused a lot of damage to the city.

Of course, there was always the fact that Nega wanted everything destroyed, so they would most likely find him in an area where destruction had been caused, so maybe it wouldn't be so hard after all. As they entered the city, they saw that there was no rubble, no smoke…no destruction. Either they had gotten here before Nega, or he had yet to start destroying things. The sinking feeling in the pit of the heroes' stomachs had them betting on the second possibility.

And it was that second possibility that came true, because at the moment they were within the city, a tall black cloud of smoke emerged from the southeastern area of the city. They could see a tall metal robot starting to knock down buildings in the distance. This was the first attack on the city. The building that was first knocked down hit a couple of other buildings, which also fell. Those buildings also knocked over other buildings, which all fell like dominoes until the whole street was destroyed.

"Okay, he's gone too far already." Rector said before zooming off.

"Well, when'd you figure that out?" Amy silently asked before taking off after him.

Emily just shook her head and followed them. If they could reach it, they could at least stop it before it could do any more damage. But as they came close to it, the robot started to move away. The whole robot was dark blue in color, had two metal fists, yellow neon eyes, and was about 40 feet tall. The body was heavily armored, and the arms and legs seemed to be invincible. Which meant that the weak spot would be the head, as it had a small red node on top. If the robot weren't moving, it wouldn't be that hard to stop it.

Amy tried to throw her hammer at it, but it missed the head by a few feet. Rector dashed at it and tried to stomp it, but the robot moved its head, causing Rector to miss and fall down. Luckily, his board was nearby, and he managed to grab it and hop on it, breaking his fall. Emily tried her luck next, by forming an energy ball and throwing it. But the ball was deflected and hit the ground. Amy retrieved her hammer and moved closer, but the robot grabbed her and threw her down to the ground. Luckily for her, Rector was nearby, and he caught her.

"Thanks, Rector." Amy said.

"You're lucky I was around." Rector replied as he put Amy back on her board. He then turned to the robot. "You're scrap metal now!"

Rector charged at the robot, dodging every blow that it threw at him. He wasn't about to let this robot stop him. He reached the robot and started moving up, using his board to gain height. Once he reached the head, he saw the node. He landed on the head and ran to it, punching it as hard as he could. However, even with all of his might, he couldn't break it. Then he had an idea. He whistled to the robot, and it responded by smashing the top of its own head with its own fist. The resulting impact crushed the node, and sent a massive shockwave down the robot. Rector sped away as the robot broke down and collapsed.

"What'd I tell ya?" Rector asked. "I told ya you were scrap metal."

Rector then joined Amy and Emily. They had prevented that part of the city from being destroyed, but they hadn't found Nega yet. They would have to look in another part of the city if they wanted to find him. They traveled to the center of the city, so they could get a better vantage point of where Nega may be at. Once they were in the center of the city, it didn't take them long to find Nega. He was in a large robot at the northwestern corner of the city. What's more, was the fact that they could see someone battling Nega. They knew that it was Armand. They had to reach him before Nega did something to the purple tiger. As they moved closer, they could hear the two yelling.

"Why won't you just die already?" Nega asked.

"Because I'm trying to save the world YOU want to destroy, and I won't allow you to succeed. Nobody will!" Armand declared.

"Well, then, let's just end the possibility of YOU stopping me." Nega said.

Nega then brought out a claw from the robot's head, which grabbed Armand and threw him away. It then picked up a thin street light, broke the top of it off, and threw it like a spear. The street light headed for Armand at a very high speed, and shot through him as quickly as a bullet. What's worse was that the street light had went through him at the heart, which was fatal. Armand started dropping to the ground.

"NOOOOO!" Emily yelled as she started rushing toward Armand. She caught him before he hit the ground, then landed in the city and set him down. Armand's eyes were closed, but his heart had been pierced, which had killed him immediately. Emily tried to hold back the roar that was coming. Amy covered Emily's mouth, which managed to stop her from roaring out, but the tears had started.

"Armand…no!" Emily cried. "Please, don't leave me. Don't die!"

But it was no use. Armand had died, and there was nothing anyone could do about it. Rector stood strong, however, but Amy let a few tears go. Emily, however, wasn't holding back the tears. She had just lost not only her boyfriend, but the son of a legendary hero. If there was ever a time of despair for the heroes, this was one of them. Just then, Nega approached them.

"Aw, the poor cheetah's crying for her dead boyfriend." Nega taunted. "Too bad! He had it coming!"

Naturally, that didn't sit too well with Emily. "You…you killed him. YOU KILLED HIM!"

"Yes, yes I did." Nega said. "He was in the way of my goal, and I kill anyone in my way."

"I will make you pay for that." Emily told him. "I will, even if it means giving my own life."

"Then prepare to die." Nega told Emily as she formed her claws, Amy brought out her hammer, and Rector got into a fighting stance. The robot Nega was controlling shifted from its standard humanoid form to a beast form. It had four gray metal legs, a long robotic tail, and its head was the shape of Nega's head, complete with the mustache, and the head had a pharaoh's head-cloth, made of metal. This robot was the Nega Sphinx.

"Ugh!" Amy complained. "Nega's got a bad taste in designing his robots."

Rector and Emily both got a chuckle out of that, but they quickly snapped to as the Sphinx slammed down one of its paws, causing a small earthquake that knocked the heroes off balance. But they quickly recovered…and just in time, as the Sphinx swiped at the heroes, but because they had recovered, they managed to dodge it. The Sphinx did another swipe about two seconds after the first one, but it was dodged as well. But the robot was large, and it jumped into the air and slammed down, creating a shockwave on impact, which knocked all three of the heroes down. They quickly recovered, however, and started to look around for a possible weakness.

They spread out, trying to find a weakness that the robot had. But because it was so big, there was no way they could find it from the ground. But from the air…maybe. Apparently they were thinking the same thing, because all three of them hopped onto their boards and headed up into the air, trying to find that weakness. There was one obvious weakness, though, and that was the fact that because it was so big, it couldn't keep tabs on all three heroes at one time unless they were grouped together. This made it easier for them to take it on since they were spread out, but it was also more risky because it would then focus on one hero, increasing the danger.

Amy moved to the right side, Emily moved to the left side, and Rector got behind it. They would have to work together to find the weak spot while avoiding the Nega Sphinx and its attacks, which wouldn't be easy. The robot turned to face Amy, who hit it in the face with her hammer. The robot didn't take that too well, but before it could do anything, it felt its tail being pulled. It turned its head to find Rector using all of his power to rip the tail off. When he did that, it revealed a red node. Rector quickly punched it and broke it, sending a shockwave throughout the Sphinx. The node was destroyed, but the robot was still standing, which meant that there was another weak spot somewhere.

"Well, I suppose that's one down." Rector said to himself.

The robot turned to face Rector next, seeing as how he dealt the first blow. Rector got ready to fight. As the robot faced the red hedgehog, Emily was on the right side. She had stayed where she was as it turned, and was ready to attack. The resulting blow from the backside had revealed a cracked metal plate on the side. Emily slowly moved over to it as to keep attention away from herself. She got right next to it and slowly pulled it off, revealing another red node. She then formed an energy claw and drove it into the node, breaking it and sending another shockwave through the robot.

The robot then turned to face Emily as Amy moved to the side that had yet to be hit. She saw the red node, but it was very small, and there was no guarantee that she could hit it with her hammer. The space that the node was located in was too small for her hammer to hit. But the handle…it could do the trick. Amy turned her hammer around and thrust the handle into the node, which caused that one to break. Like with the other two nodes, when this one broke, it sent a shockwave throughout the Nega Sphinx. But this time, this shockwave knocked off the "head-cloth" on the head, revealing the cockpit that Nega was in. The Nega Sphinx never even had a chance to attack.

"Oh, darn it." Nega said to himself. "Whatever shall I do?"

Nega then hit a button from inside the cockpit, and the Sphinx armor began to fall apart, revealing another robot within. This one was about as big as the Nega Centipede that Emily faced a while back. Like all natural animals, this one had four legs, but the color was orange instead of gray. It looked like a tiger, except for the fact that this one, like the Nega Sphinx, had Nega's face instead of a tiger face. This was the Nega Tiger.

"Gah ha ha ha!" Nega laughed. "See if you can beat this one!"

The Nega Tiger leapt at the heroes, who all scattered as to not get hit by it. This tiger was fast, and one slip-up could mean a lot of hurt, or possibly, death, depending on the attack. It then started jumping around quickly, determined to get its metal paws on one of its three potential victims. But the heroes just dodged, because there was nothing that they could really do against this speed. Rector went for a punch, but missed and was knocked back by a swipe of the tiger's claw. Amy slammed the tiger with her hammer, but it didn't budge. Instead, the vibration of the hammer caused Amy to back away. Emily tried her luck by grabbing onto the tiger and steering it into a wall, which worked. The tiger sat there, dazed, as Rector headed for it.

"LEAF WHIRLWIND!" Rector called.

Rector then used a Leaf Whirlwind to kick the robot up into the air. He then jumped into the air and grabbed it, then did a pile-driver to slam it into the ground, causing some of its outer armor to crack. He then kicked it into the wall, knocking the cracked armor loose. He could see a small blue node, but there wasn't enough of it revealed to count as a weak spot, provided that's what it was.

"Emily, Amy!" Rector called. "Try to break the armor near the blue node! I think that's its weak spot!"

Amy pulled out her hammer again and bashed the armor just over the other side of the node, cracking it. She then backed off and did a Spin Dash, breaking that armor off, but some of the node was still covered. That's when Emily dashed at it with her energy claws extended. She slashed the armor a few times, slightly cracking it. She then charged up some of her energy in a ball and slammed it into the armor, cracking it even more. She then charged up energy in her hands and unleashed an energy wave, which broke the armor. The node was now exposed. Rector then moved in. He stepped onto Amy's hammer, and Amy launched him up. Emily then grabbed Rector's hand and threw him at the node. Rector reared back with a powerful punch and hit the node dead on before backing off.

"I think that did it." Rector said.

But the robot then started to rebuild its armor. The heroes were confused. If that was the weak spot, then why was the robot repairing itself? Nega just chortled.

"You thought that was the weak spot?" Nega asked. "Well, I deceived you all. You see, I made it look like the weak spot. When it's hit, the armor is restored and increased. The only way to beat this thing is to overload it!"

How were the heroes going to overload it? There were no electrical sources nearby. What was worse was the fact that the robotic tiger was charging an electrical bomb that would kill the heroes if it were to fully charge. That's when Emily stepped forward. Amy and Rector both knew what she was about to do.

"Emily, you don't have to do that!" Amy said as she tried to stop the cheetah.

"I'm sorry, but this is the only way." Emily said. "But look on the bright side. I'll be able to be with Armand."

"No!" Rector said, trying to stop her, but she walked to the robotic tiger anyway.

"Eggman Nega, if that thing can only be destroyed by an overload, then I think I might have something." Emily said as she started gathering energy all around herself. Nega immediately became worried.

"Wh-What? No! You…you can't! You'll destroy yourself!" Nega said, trying to stop her.

"That's what you want, right?" Emily asked. "Then I'll GIVE IT TO YOU!"

The energy gathering around Emily stopped, meaning that it was at a full charge. Emily started to transfer that energy to her hands, and aimed at Nega.

"ENERGY OVERLOAD!"

Emily then thrust her arms out, unloading all of her energy at the Nega Tiger. The robot tried to resist the overload, but Emily kept pouring the energy in. This attack was draining her life energy as well, but she didn't care. As long as she stopped Nega for now, it might be worth it. The robot exploded, and the energy threw Nega out of the city.

"I'LL BE BACK!" Nega yelled as he disappeared. Emily looked satisfied that she had stopped him, but she soon fell on her knees, then collapsed on the ground. Emily had just given her life to stop Nega and give Amy and Rector a chance to win. Amy walked up to Emily's now lifeless body and turned it over. The Chaos Gem embedded in her stomach started flashing, then dimmed out. At least whatever was trapped inside it wasn't getting out anytime. Amy let a few tears go.

"She…she gave her life to save us." Amy sobbed. Rector pulled her into a sibling hug.

"It's okay, Amy." Rector said to her. "At least we can keep fighting against Nega. Her death won't be in vain. Nor will anyone else's."

Amy picked herself up as Rector picked up Emily's body. He took it over to Armand's body and placed her body beside his. Amy checked her ammo, and saw that she had three shots left, despite not using one during that battle. Rector turned to Amy and handed her the Pink Rose before he hopped onto the Wild Thorn. They both headed off in the direction Nega had been shot off in, determined to stop him and avenge everyone's deaths.

End of Chapter 10.

Emily and Armand have both died, leaving Rector and Amy to face Nega alone in the upcoming battles. With only two left, they'll have to do everything they can to fight Nega. Will another hero join them? Are there any other potential heroes out there? Find out as the story goes on.

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