CHAPTER 10

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Gone Are the Cold Wars

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Robotnik heard the shot and felt the bullet bite into his shoulder. Shocked, his knees gave out and he fell, landing heavily on the muddy ground. He hurriedly fumbled for the override he kept in a pocket as the robot lowered the weapon to become level with his head. He finally found the small box he was looking for and pulled it out of his pocket, pressing the button with his thumb.

Instantly, both robots collapsed, sparking, on the ground.

Robotnik struggled back to his feet and hurried back toward his factory, hand pressed over his wound. It wasn't fatal, but it would slow him down. He clumsily fell into the main room, scanning over it quickly for any more rogue robots that the Enterprise had taken over. It was clear.

He quickly climbed the stairs to the balcony and entered into another room, quickly walking over to a control panel and activating a few switches. Blood stained a few of the computer keys.

"You've driven me to desperation, Kirk. You must be very proud," Robotnik hissed. "Now I will kill you all. Every Mobian and every human aboard the Enterprise and those still on this planet!"

He pressed another button. A popup appeared on the monitor.

20%...40%...49%... Robotnik grinned.

He would not go down without a fight.

XxXxXxXx

"Captain, is he gonna be all right?"

Kirk glanced at the shut door in the back of the Sick Bay and then back at Tails. "Of course. If McCoy could save Shadow, then he can save Sonic."

"I sure hope so..." Tails said, sitting on an empty bed. "Spock's got a huge group of people ready to beam down and finish this. With Robotnik's robots out of commission, this should be easy. Spock said we should be able to finish this in a few hours."

Kirk nodded. "I sure hope so." his throat still hurt from the effects of the poison, but the antidote was working its magic, targeting the worst of the pain.

"I don't think anyone's more excited about this than Silver." Tails said. "Blaze insisted she could fight, so of course he wants to beam down to the final battle with her."

Kirk nodded again. "Is everyone on the ship protected from the poison?"

"Yeah. I hope so, anyway. We had to give it to a lot of people," Tails said. "Even if not everyone's yet safe from it yet, we'll be able to treat them. We have lots of antidote left."

"Good," Kirk said, reclining back in the Sick Bay bed. "How much longer do I have to be here?"

"Until McCoy says. I'm here to make sure you don't leave until he says you can. He said he'll pay me if I can keep you here until he deems you fit to go,"

"Brilliant," Kirk sighed.

A low rumble began throughout the room, steadily growing stronger, like an earthquake. Equipment on shelves rattled and fell, bottles of medicine and other liquids shattering on the ground and staining the floor. The rumbling grew stronger still until McCoy rushed out of the back room, using the wall as support.

"JIM!" he shouted. "What is blazes is going on?!"

Kirk shakily stood, fighting to stay upright as he made his way to a comm unit on the wall.

"Kirk to engineering!"

"Captain! We're caught in a tractor beam! We're being pulled toward the planet!" Scott shouted in a panic. "The source is coming from the factory! We can't break free!"

"Full reverse thrusters! All power to them, Scotty! Shields up, protect us from burning in the atmosphere!" Kirk commanded.

"I'm trying, Captain! I'm giving her all she's got!"

"Begin beaming down parties of five at a time! We need to take out the source of the probablem!" Kirk commanded.

"Aye, Captain!" Scott cut the link.

Kirk was thrown to the floor as the ship began shaking even more fiercely. Tails helped him up as McCoy ran over, shouting, "Captain, you should be in good enough condition to get out there and do something. I can't confine you here in times like this...!"

"I was planning on leaving anyway, Bones," Kirk unsteadily ran out the door and into the hallway, Tails flying on ahead.

He had made it to the elevators when the earthquake-like sensation stopped. It was as though nothing happened. Kirk located a comm link on the wall and pressed a button. "Kirk to bridge. What's going on down there?"

"I don't know, Captain," came Uhura's reply. "It just...stopped. Just as we were about to begin entering the atmosphere."

"Alert me as soon as you discover anything. I'll be in the transporter room, organizing battle groups. Kirk out,"

He continued to the transporter room without any trouble. There was already a huge group of Enterprise personnel and Mobians alike, many of then already in small groups.

"What happened? Did someone already reach Robotnik?" Kirk asked.

"No...we haven't started beaming down yet." Shadow said from nearby the control panel. "Whatever happened was not the result of us."

"Captain, if my suspicions are correct..." Spock blinked, an almost concerned look on his face. "Then we are in danger. The tractor beam wasn't to pull us into the planet, it was to draw us closer."

"For what?" Kirk asked. "He can't possibly—"

The earsplitting sound of twisting metal met his ears as the entire ship lurched. Everyone in the room lost their balance, falling on one another and sliding into the wall.

"Captain! Captain! Bridge to Captain Kirk! Our shields are out!" the comm said from the wall. "We can't take another full hit like that!"

"Damage report!" Kirk managed to stand and hit the reply button.

"Corridors 6A and 7C with the heaviest damage. Fifteen reported dead. Minor damage to engineering and major damage to shield generators,"

"Get us out of orbit!" Kirk commanded.

"There's no way we can escape the plane in time. From my calculations, the factory can only fire one more blast with that intensity. It is charging as we speak."

Kirk bit his lip. "Charge our phasers."

"Sir?"

"Charge our phasers and draw into our anti-matter supply. Lock on to the laser origin on the factory and fire as he fires!" Kirk said.

"Yes, sir. Charging..."

Kirk cut the link. "Is everyone all right?"

"We'll manage!" came a reply.

"Captain, begin beaming us down. Even if you fail with your phasers, we'll be on the planet as backup. We can destroy him," Shadow said.

"We have no choice. Either way we resort to brute force." Kirk sighed. "Shadow, choose four of your choice and prepare to beam down."

Shadow nodded. "Silver, Blaze, Tails, Sally! Come with me!"

The five of them accepted phasers from Spock and stepped on the transporter.

XxXxXxXx

Again...another shaking feeling. It was as though a miniature earthquake was shaking the room...but that was impossible, they were in space...His throat was burning, too...

Sonic opened his eyes and sat up, staring around the tiny room he was in. The door was open, and supplies and bits of the wall had rained onto the floor beyond the exit. Another rumble shook the ship.

Sonic stood, the shaking not adding to his ability to balance. As he neared the door, McCoy came running from another room and nearly bowled him over.

"Oh, good, you're awake. I've got to get you somewhere safer!"

"Why...?" Sonic broke off in a coughing fit. "What's happening...?"

"I'm not exactly sure. All I know is we're being pulled toward the planet with a tractor beam." McCoy pointed to the exit. "We need to get somewhere safer."

"I can fight," Sonic said.

"Not yet you can't." McCoy retorted. "You need at least a few more hours of rest. I even added a special catalyst to your dose of antidote to make it take effect faster."

"Where is everyone?" Sonic demanded.

"Half are taking cover somewhere more stable in the inside of the ship, and others are beaming down to try to take out the probablem at its source. Now move."

"I need to go down to the planet." Sonic said.

"Not now. You're in no condition to do so,"

"Give me a phaser and I can fight!"

With a terrible scream of twisting metal and snapping support beams, the ship lurched violently, throwing both doctor and patient into the corner. Debris rained down on both of them as the ship shuddered.

"What the hell was that?! Did he already fire the second shot?!" McCoy roared.

"This is the reason I need to go back to the planet." Sonic said, standing and coughing slightly. "I can stop him before he completely destroys you."

XxXxXxXx

Kirk stood again as the shaking subsided. A red alert was taking place now, flashing crimson lights lighting up the transporter room. "Is everyone alright?"

"Jim, there's no way he could have fired again already..." Spock trailed of as the comm link on the wall activated again.

"Captain Kirk! Report to the bridge immediately!"

"Spock, you're in charge of the landing parties." Kirk said before rushing out of the room toward the nearest elevator. He arrived on the bridge a few minutes later. "What is it? Damage report on the last hit,"

"Minor damage, sir. Engineering took the heaviest damage," Sulu said. "That blast wasn't half as strong as the last...we didn't see it coming in time to fire our own weapons."

"It's to damage us even further...scare us. Get ready; Sulu, Chekov. On my signal, fire phasers."

It was silent on the bridge as all eyes were fixed to the viewing screen, anticipating the next attack. A small pinprick of light appeared, growing bigger and bigger as it approached...

"Fire!" Kirk commanded. Sulu and Chekov activated the controls and a beam of green light shot from the Enterprise down to meet the oncoming attack.

In a brilliant flash of light, the ship shuddered slightly but otherwise took no damage. "Direct hit!" Chekov grinned. "Ani-matter phasers have deflected the other!"

"Prepare another shot, Sulu. There will be more attempted attacks on us." Kirk said.

"Aye, sir,"

XxXxXxXx

They materialized outside of Robotnik's base. Shadow, Silver, Blaze, Sally and Tails glanced around before deeming their location 'safe'.

"All right...we go in, we kill him, we get out. Simple as that. No questions, no hesitating." Shadow said, adjusting his phaser to 'kill'.

"But...Kirk said he should get a trial back at Starfleet..." Silver started.

"Living is too good for him." Shadow growled. "Have you seen what he's done to us?! Look around! He deserves death!"

"It would be a lot faster than a trial," Sally agreed. "No one would have to deal with him."

"Or transport him back by starship," Blaze nodded.

"We shouldn't be wasting time." Tails said. "We need this war over...now."

Shadow narrowed his eyes and headed for the factory's entrance. "Let's get this over with."

The others followed. They entered the base without any difficulty and followed the sound of machinery down a hallway. Buzzes, beeps and computerized voices all mashed together into a jumbled mess, masking their footsteps. Robotnik was sitting at the master computer. Something was loading on the screens; something that was rapidly approaching 100%.

"Give it up, doctor, and your death will be quick." Shadow hissed, leveling the phaser at the man's back. Robotnik turned, one hand pressed to his bleeding shoulder. Blood stained his white glove red, his uniform a rusty colour. He was pale and shivering, determination set on his face.

"If I am to die, I want to take a lot of you with me." he grinned.

"Uh...Shadow...? The thing's at 75%..." Silver said.

"Shut it down." Shadow commanded, staring daggers at the evil man.

"Or what? You'll kill me? You'll do it anyway."

"Shoot the computer." Shadow commanded to Silver.

"If you do that, not only will you direct the computer to fire another deadly shot at the Enterprise, it will detonate this base."

"Tails, find some way to get the Enterprise out of firing range," Shadow said.

"Ok..." Tails said.

Shadow backed Robotnik away from the master computer at phaserpoint, ignoring the man's warnings. "Don't touch a single thing! The slightest adjustment will condemn them all to the afterlife!"

Tails cast a look at Sally and Blaze. "Uh...it won't...will it?"

"Of course not." Sally said. "It's not directly wired in. Just ignore him and work quickly."

Tails glanced back at the screen, where the loading screen showed 82% and climbing. "Alright...if I can reverse the tractor beam...I can push the Enterprise away from the planet and throw off the laser's aim..." he began pressing keys and clicking buttons.

"If you want to live, stop what you're doing!" Robotnik shouted.

"Shut up, fat man!" Sally hissed.

He shot her a glare through his dark glasses, but it went unnoticed. They were all fixated on the fox...even Shadow was glancing from him back to the villain, holding his weapon steady. Robotnik's gaze settled on a small table about a yard from where he was standing. On it lay a phaser, set to kill. He slowly made his way over to it, shuffling over a few centimeters every five seconds.

By the time Shadow realized what had happened, Robotnik had the weapon in hand and destroyed the other the hedgehog had. "Do you surrender now?" Robotnik grinned.

"No. Drop it." Shadow said in an extremely unnerving, quiet voice. He could feel the others' eyes boring into his back.

"If you so much as switch the setting to 'Kill' from 'Stun'...This planet will be missing one of its warriors!" Robotnik's finger tightened over the trigger, staring at the others gathered at the computer.

"No," Shadow continued slowly. "In four seconds, this planet will be missing one criminal mastermind,"

"Yeah?" Robotnik snickered. "They wouldn't dare fire on m—"

Two phaser blasts to the back of the skull downed him. As he toppled forward to the ground, Sonic tossed the phaser he had used to the side and gave the group a weak smile.

"Sorry I'm late. Transporter troubles," he muttered.

XxXxXxXx

Sorry for the late, unexpected delay in uploading.

Holy crap, this chapter sucks...I hope I didn't tick off a lot of you...

I was having a really, extremely crappy two weeks. Hopefully it'll get better now that I have actually completed this chapter and stuff. One more after this one!

Also, I realized I wrote 'plane' instead of 'plain' in the earlier chapters...Sorry about that. I'll go fix them eventually.

One more conclusion-y chapter left!

Oh, and one more thing...

...Any of you guys excited for Time and Space VI?

Hasta la Vista, Readers!

Lordoftheghostking28