Chapter Fourteen: A robot generator...in a casino

"Whoa. I didn't know they could have a casino on this little planet!" Sonic said as he entered the only casino that existed on the mini-planet. He had figured out from numerous clues that a robot generator was built here, and that there was a possible chance that Eggman was there. If he could find Eggman, he would find Miles and be able to save her.

He ran in, and found several robots wandering around, not seeming to pay him any heed. He walked in casually, looking around for any signs of the generator. After taking a few glances, he decided that there was nothing around. He then figured that Eggman had hid it. After all, with Sonic around, he wouldn't want his machinery to get damaged. So, he most likely hid it behind a wall, under a pinball table, or somewhere else.

"Are you a newcomer?" he heard a robot ask him.

He turned to it and replied, "Yes." It was silver colored, with a multi-colored tie on its front, and it was egg-shaped. It asked, "May I have your name, sir?"

Sonic lied, "William."

The robot gave him a quizzical look, as if it had been expecting a different answer. Then, it said, "Okay, William. I almost mistook you for someone else."

Sonic asked, "Who did you mistake me for?"

The robot said, "Some villain named Sonic the Hedgehog."

Sonic didn't say or do anything, but inward, he felt relief flow through him. The robot had been planning on killing him if he had answered otherwise. Sonic said, "Oh. I've heard of him. Arch rival of Robotnik, correct?"

The robot replied, "Yes, indeed. He keeps foiling Robotnik's plans for world domination."

Sonic asked, "Is Robotnik here right now?"

The robot shook its head and replied, "No. His lair is elsewhere."

Sonic felt his hopes crumble. So, he isn't here. Dang, I was hoping that he would be here so I could finish this immediately, he thought.

The robot noted a kind of disappointed look on his face and asked, "Is there something wrong, sir?"

Sonic shook his head, and lied, "I was just hoping that I could talk with him about joining. I mean, I'm sure that he might need something besides just a robot army later on."

The robot said, "Ah! An eager recruit, eh? That's always a good thing."

Sonic began to become a little eager. This robot was easy to fool. Whether or not the robot could be tricking him; the thought never occurred to him. The robot continued, "If you want, I can have you sign a request form in our robot facility and see if Robotnik will accept it."

Sonic again lied, "I would love to do that!"

The robot, again fooled by Sonic's act, said, "Wonderful! Then, let's show you to the sign-up room here."

It took him into the shower room and turned one of the shower heads a particular direction. The shower stall went down like an elevator. Sonic thought, So that's where he was hiding it. Cool.

It went down and revealed a huge factory underneath the casino. Robots were quickly coming off the assembly lines and busily forming squads as soon as they off. Sonic said, "Wow! I never knew that he had this much resources!"

The robot said, "Yes. To anyone not familiar with Robotnik, his army might seem to be unreal because, to most, there is no way to get these materials so fast. Robotnik has perfected many methods of gathering, however, and in addition to that, he was perhaps the most wealthy man on the face of the planet."

Sonic wondered, How can a robot be designed to be this smart? Unless...

The robot interrupted his thoughts by saying, "Please follow me to the sign-up stand. Then, you may remain here for as long as you want, as long as you do not do anything that might harm the machinery."

As they walked over, Sonic thought, That's just opening up a free invitation for me.

It was not a robot at the counter, he was surprised to find. Instead, it was a young bird female with a security guard near her. She looked up, and said, "Another newcomer! It's been a while."

Sonic asked, "Has it?"

She was pretty, he decided. She had bright green eyes that almost matched his, light blue feathers, and had a very light and thin form. She was wearing a normal, white T-shirt with the word Robomania printed on the front, and khaki-colored jeans. She asked, "Are you here to sign up?"

Sonic replied, "Yes, I am." Her voice was rather high pitched, but just enough to make it sound beautiful. Sonic realized that he was almost letting himself be captivated by this woman's charm. He decided that maybe it would be better to hide his relationship with Miles for the moment.

She said, "Alright, sir. If you could sign here."

Sonic filled it all out according to the proper forms, truthfully. He only had to make up his name and his zip code, as he really didn't have a true home...yet. When he was done, the girl said, "Alright, we will send this form to Robotnik, and he can decide what he wants to do with you. It might take up to half an hour, so..."

A robot came up behind her and said, "Your shift is over, Emilia."

Emilia? Wow, that's a pretty name, he thought.

Emilia said, "Alright."

She left, and then the robot that had watched Sonic write out his form said, "Alright, William. I will leave you here until you get your response. You may leave at any time via the elevator that we came down. You are free to wander for now. Do not touch any machinery, or go into any restricted areas."

Sonic replied, "Alright. I won't."

The robot left, and Sonic began taking himself on a tour of the factory. Particularly, he looked for areas that seemed like they could be vulnerable to any attacks. After pinpointing a few, he began to look around for a way to get into the machine making all of the robots and destroy it one hit. There was a ventway that he could go through, but to get to it, he would have to have help from someone, and he doubted that Emilia was going to help him do it.

If only Miles or Silver were here...he thought, Then, this would be a piece of cake. But, since neither of them is here, I'll have to find some other way of doing it.

Then, he had a thought. One of the robots could do the trick. He could just jump off of one of the robots in the assembly line, and get himself up there just as easily as if someone were to give him a boost. Then, he could just dive into the machine, and stop it from the inside easily. However, it was getting out afterwards that would be more difficult. He would have to run through all of the robot sentries and still manage to get out unscathed. Then, there were the time stones, wherever they were.

He decided to try and find out where they were so that way he could snag them on his way. That is, if there were any there. He saw Emilia suddenly walk up to him and ask, "What are you looking at William?"

Sonic replied, "Oh. I'm just looking at the machinery. It's all very high tech and extremely complicated."

Emilia asked, "Are you a technician?"

Sonic, deciding that he had to lie to her at this point. He lied, "Yes, actually."

He knew enough about machinery to know which wires were which, and he could easily pinpoint which parts of the machine were most important, and which ones weren't all the vital. She said, "I see. That's why you're so interested in this."

Sonic lied, "Yeah! I mean, I've never seen technology that was this advanced before."

Then, he noticed that, in a ring on her finger, was another time stone. He, pretending like he didn't know what it was, asked, "Is that a sapphire you have in your ring?"

Emilia looked at it, and then shook her head and replied, "No, it's something called a time stone. Robotnik gave it to me and told me to keep it safe. So, I put it in this ring."

Then, she said, "You know, you look like someone that Robotnik told us to watch for."

Sonic replied, "Yeah. They said it was supposed to be Sonic the Hedgehog. I've met Sonic before, and I've seen how similar we are. It's creepy."

Emilia said, "I don't want to meet anyone that creepily similar to me, ever."

Sonic said, "I can see that. After all, if they look a lot like you, but act differently, that's probably one thing. If they act nearly the same as well...then that's something else entirely."

Emilia asked, "Is that how it is with you?"

Sonic was about to reply, when an alarm sounded. A mechanical voice said, "Warning! Sonic the Hedgehog has been spotted in the robot factory near Emilia Tallheart!"

Sonic knew that no matter what, the cameras would refuse to believe the name and would go for looks. He was lucky to not have been spotted before. But now, he was standing by a girl that would probably be hurt or eve killed after being accused of helping Sonic. He would have to get her out as well as himself. He said, "Sorry about this, but!"

He leaped up, and kicked off of her up to the damaged vent that led into the core. He rolled inside, easily avoiding the machine gun fire that was shot at him. He rolled inside and blasted through the core at such high speeds that he blasted out of the machine on the other end. Using his quick reflexes, he turned himself around and ran back around to where Emilia was. He picked her up and began running off with her.

Then, the voice said, "Suspects are getting away through secret elevator! Proceed with emergency lockdown!"

Sonic was already about halfway across the casino grounds when it issued the command for lockdown. He said, "No way you guys are going to trap me."

He saw the door beginning to close, slowly but surely, a little ways away. He kept running, and made it out way before it snapped shut behind him. Suddenly, he saw another blue streak begin running after him, and he said, "Great. Him again."

He set Emilia down, and said, "Get off of the little planet. Save yourself, Tallheart."

He slipped the ring off of her finger before she could say anything, and then blasted off to meet Metal Sonic in combat again. Now, he knew that Metal Sonic was a little faster and stronger than him, and he was prepared. He ran forward, and narrowly dodged a punch thrown at his face. He then threw his own punch and hit Metal Sonic in the stomach, knocking him back. Then, he kicked Metal Sonic in the face and sent him flying back.

He chased after him, determined to not let himself lose again. He leaped above Metal Sonic and kicked him into the ground. Metal Sonic bounced off the ground and delivered a stunning uppercut to Sonic, sending him up into the air. Sonic recovered rather quickly, and then braced himself for a barrage of blows from Metal Sonic. Metal Sonic began punching rapidly, almost too fast for Sonic to effectively dodge.

He kept dodging, not letting himself get hit. Then, when Metal Sonic went for a heavier, slower blow, he jabbed Metal Sonic in the gut again. This time, when he leaned over, he uppercutted him and then kicked him in the chest to send him flying. Metal Sonic recovered, only to be met by a series of rapid blows from Sonic. He began dodging, barely. He was using all of his skill and speed to keep up with the sudden speed of Sonic. Then, all of a sudden, Sonic went so blindingly fast that Metal Sonic couldn't dodge at all.

Sonic used the times stones power to Metal Sonic down, and he began pummeling him at a rapid rate. He maintained a heavy assault, not even daring to let up for fear that Metal Sonic would get a hit in. He watched with eagerness as Metal Sonic desperately fumbled to block his super fast blows, and then, even after his super speed wore off, he kept punching and kicking, gradually knocking Metal Sonic back.

Then, Metal Sonic managed to deliver a kick to Sonic's midriff. He said, "Come! Let's finish this, my inferior self!"

Sonic turned, and saw that Emilia had made it away safely. He grinned, and said, "Not today. You are way too beat up to fight back right now."

Metal Sonic had pieces of metal missing from him, revealing wires underneath. He was sparking heavily, and was panting as if he was extremely tired. Sonic said, "That's one problem with machines. They start to lose energy as they're beaten into scraps. Since you're a machine, that goes for you."

Metal Sonic then collapsed onto one knee and said, "I...wasn't expecting that."

Sonic said, "Yep, I caught you off guard. Next time, we'll have a fair fight. Me not using my time stones, and you using no cheap tricks."

Metal Sonic asked, "Why would you do that?"

Sonic replied, "For fun and a challenge."

He ran off, leaving Metal Sonic lying there right outside the casino heavily beat up. A robot came up and asked, "Are you alright?"

Then, a huge explosion totaled the casino. The robot said, "The generator that Eggman built here has been destroyed."

Metal Sonic said, "Get me a quick repair."

The robot said, "But, that would alter your-"

Metal Sonic replied, "Yes, I know. Now do it!"

Hope you liked the action in this part! I am really trying to make Sonic as kickbutt as possible, so I'm making the action more intense than it was in the Sonic games. Hope you like it so far! Well, next chapter should be coming sometime soon! See you then!