'Redemption' by Gakt
Chapter Thirty - Six
"Shadow!" Tails screeched "Shine!" He dodged a falling tree that a giant robot knocked over. Tails jumped up and started hovering his way through the forest, trying to call for his friends. "We're being attacked! Come quick!"
"Tails, where are you?" Shadow's voice came from the edge of the forest. "Tails!"
Shadow and Shine ran side by side towards Tails, who was panting, beads of sweat dripping into his eyes. Shine stopped. "What is that?" She gasped.
"It's a Meterax." Shadow growled, stopping too. "Tails, go get the X Tornado and get Knuckles and Amy over here. We need as much help as we can get." Shadow ordered. Tails nodded without a word and hovered off in the direction of town.
"How do you know what that is?" Shine asked as the Meterax robot started to drill into the ground.
"It doesn't matter, right now, Shine!" Shadow barked. "We need to distract until we have more help!"
Shine nodded and both brother and sister sliced through the air, aiming straight for the Meterax. They collided into it, feet first, with tremendous force.
The robot only took a step back. It turned it's head towards the twins. "This is laughable, you pathetic animals. You think you can stop us?" Cords with sharp metallic pincers on the ends shot out from the Meterax's arms and snapped at Shadow and Shine.
Shine pushed Shadow out of the way as the pincers snapped at him. Instead, they wrapped themselves around Shine's waist, pinning her arms to her hips.
"Shine!" Shadow called to his sister. "Chaos Spear!" Shadow commanded, piercing the cords with dozens of Chaos Spears, which caused the Meterax to drop his sister.
Shine landed beside Shadow, stretching her arms. "Thanks." She muttered before jumping towards the Meterax again. She punched it's chest, as Shadow sent a forceful kick to it's head.
Shine whipped 'Celeste' out and started sending rounds of bullets into the robot's chest.
Shadow heard engines and looked up at the sky. Tails was flying the X Tornado towards the ruined forest, Amy, Knuckles and Kat on the wings of the plane. Cosmo was inside, watching the battle in horror.
Kat, Amy and Knuckles jumped off the plane, landing beside Shadow.
"What are you doing here?" Shadow demanded of Kat, who cracked her knuckles.
"I've come to help you fight, what else?" Kat's lilac-blue eyes glinted with determination. "I'm not backing down, Shadow, so don't even start. Besides, I had a great teacher."
Shadow turned his head to look at Shine, who was dodging a giant metal foot and still shooting at the same time. The he looked back at Kat. "Amy, keep her safe. Don't get in the way, Kat." Was all he said, before jumping back into the battle with Knuckles.
Above their heads, Tails was sending repeated shots at the Meterax with the plane's guns.
Knuckles sent an epic punch at the Meterax's foot in an attempt to knock it down - Which, of course, only managed to piss the robot off more and dent it's metal ever-so-slightly. It raised it's foot to stomp down on Knuckles.
"Knuckles!" Shine cried out, just noticing the Meterax's motives - Right when it brought it's foot down on the red Echidna.
Shadow watched as the foot started to raise, revealing Knuckles. He was sweating beads and grunting, but he managed to lift the foot high enough for him to escape. He rolled out of the hole the foot made and lay there for a couple of moments, panting.
Suddenly a large pink hammer lodged itself in the arm of the Meterax. Then another. Then another. Amy was throwing hammers at the Meterax, distracting it long enough for Knuckles to get away.
Shadow teleported to the back of it's head, slid his fingers into the gap where it's head and torso are supposed to connect, and started to pull up.
He was suddenly accompanied by an unexpected ali - Kat was there, tapping Shadow on his shoulder. "I need you to get that open." She pointed to an unnoticeable door on the back of the Meterax's head. "I have to see something." She said.
Shadow abandoned the gap. "Chaos Spear!" He hollered, sending a single spear into the door, which flew off and landed on the ground far below them. He turned to the rest of his battling friends. "Keep it up, you guys! We can't lose this!"
Kat moved towards the hole that used to be covered by the door. Inside the hole, were cords and a screen with several tiny buttons.
The Meterax heaved beneath them. It's hands recoiled into it's arms, only to be replaced by giant drills, which tore into the ground below them.
"It's harvesting the Planet Egg!" Cosmo called out from the plane.
"Shine!" Shadow called, looking for his sister. She was dragging Knuckles away from the robot, keeping him out of danger. He was still breathing hard.
"Stop this thing, Shine! Destroy the drills!" Shadow ordered before turning back to Kat, who was typing stuff into the tiny buttons. "What are you doing?"
"I'm trying to hack into it's memory files." Kat mumbled, concentrating on her self-assigned task. "I can find out why it's doing this."
"Forget that, we need to know how to stop it!"
"Yeah, well, I seriously doubt there's a file for 'Weaknesses' on this thing, Shadow."
Shadow grounded his teeth and jumped off the Meterex's shoulders, landing beside Shine. His sister had managed to almost destroy one of the drills already, but the other was already far beneath the ground.
"Knuckles, can you use Shovel-Claws to get that other drill?" Shadow demanded, turning to the Echidna - Only to find him unconscious. "Damnit." Shadow muttered.
The magnified sound of metal grinding brought Shadow's attention back to Shine. The drill was knocked off the Meterax, and lying on the ground. Shine was breathing hard, her eyes narrowed.
"Go for it's arm, Shadow!" Shine hollered after a moment. Shadow nodded and teleported to beside the Meterax's arm. Just as he raised his hand to throw Chaos Spears at the robot's arm joint, pain pierced Shadow's head.
"Gah!" Shadow dropped to the ground, putting his hands on his head - As if that would actually help. He scrunched his eye shut and clenched his teeth.
"Pathetic creatures!" The Meterax's voice echoed throughout the area. "This fight was pointless - My victory was inevitable!" Shadow opened his eye and looked up at the Meterax, still grinding his teeth, with his hands over his head.
The robot had a bright sphere in his hand. Inside the sphere, was a green, blue and brown ball of matter.
"Oh no!" Cosmo's voice came from above. "It got the Planet Egg!"
The trees and grass around them started to gradually turn brown. The planet was dying.
Kat jumped off the broad shoulders of the Meterax, just as it's feet suddenly erupted with fire, allowing to escape with the Planet Egg.
"No!" Shadow called, attempting to get to his feet, but failing. He fell back to his knees as more pain shot through his head. "Agh!" He cried out in pain.
The dead forest was suddenly silent as the Meterax disappeared and everyone watched, except for Shadow, who was grinding his teeth in pain, trying not to scream.
Well, well, well. My fabricated friend seems to have come straight back to me, it seems.
This battle would have been won if you'd join forces earlier.