Four elves stood before Sonic, Shadow, Blaze and Silver. Through the clear casing Sonic could see Amy, Rouge, Tangle and Whisper were unconscious. Their heads rolled listlessly from side to side with the robots movements.
Whispers elf made the first move, charging towards them like a Rhino at full speed. Silver used his telekinetic powers to lift her high into the air. This turned out to be one of his stupider ideas as it now meant that the robot had a vantage point. Bullets rained down on Sonic and his friends from the Gatling gun in the robots arm.
"PUT HER DOWN!" Blaze yelled as they dived out of the way.
Silver pushed Whisper backwards. She landed heavily in the grass several feet away. The young hedgehog flew after her to continue their battle as the other elves stepped forward. Blaze took on Tangle who lunged forwards with her fists raised. The purple cat sent a jet of flame burning at the creatures feet. The elf simply strode through it. Sonic and Shadow were left with the other two.
"I'll leave you and your girlfriend to it." Shadow grunted and launched himself at Rouge.
"Again, not my girlfriend." Sonic called after him.
He turned to face Amy. There were hundreds of tubes poking into her arms and stomach and a long tube was stuck down her throat. Sonic cursed himself. He shouldn't have let her come.
Amy's elf balled its fist and slammed it hard into the ground where Sonic had been standing. He dodged it and managed to get himself on top of the Robot. Looking down he saw a complex myriad of wires and buttons. He pressed his headset and a red screen appeared in front of his right eye.
"Tails? Doc? Are you seeing this?"
"Oh My!" Doctor Clover gasped. "That's far more complex than anything I've seen at the hospital."
"Any suggestions would be helpful." Sonic shouted as Amy's elf lifted him high above its head, ready to slam him back down into the dirt. The robot jarred slightly as it moved. Looking down Sonic could see the hundreds of buttons inside the robot were flashing read.
"I didn't do it!" Sonic said.
The elf swung him into the floor with one hand. The other hung limply by its side. Sonic looked over to the other robots. They all seemed to be pummeling his friends quite happily but Amy's elf was moving slowly and jerking. Inside the flashing red cockpit he could see Amy's face twist with pain and gag on the tube in her throat.
"What's happening?!" He called desperately into his ear piece.
"No, No no!" He heard Tails wail. "Doc somethings wrong. She's dying?!"
"WHAT?" Sonic screamed. "No! Doc help me stop this?"
He looked over to the robot.
"There's blood leaking out.!"
"She must have torn her stitches." Doctor Clover replied with amazing calmness. "You have to get her out of the robot immediately."
"But that will definitely kill her." Sonic argued. The Amy elf swung an awkward punch at him. Amy's face was pale. There was no wincing and no sign of pain anymore. She was fully unresponsive.
"It will stop her heart." The doctor admitted but hopefully we can get it started again."
Sonic didn't like the sound of 'hopefully' but what choice did they have?
"Tails you packed the first aid kit like I asked?" The doctor checked.
"Yep." Tails responded. "It's in the hold."
"Good, you need to land and get it to Amy now." Doctor Clover instructed. "Sonic there's no time to waste. Get her out of the machine. You'll have to do do CPR until Tails gets there."
Sonic was glad they couldn't see how pink his cheeks had turned. "Really I…"
"There's no time. Now Sonic" Doctor Clover yelled.
Sonic aimed a spin dash at the elf. He found it amazingly easy to break through the casing. Eggman had clearly banked on the Resistance not wanting to risk hurting the kids. He snatched Amy out of the machine and landed heavily in the dirt. The robot crashed down somewhere behind them. As Sonic pulled the tube from Amy's throat she gave a rattling gasp then stopped breathing entirely.
Over head Shadow rocketed backwards into a wall. Rouges elf clearly had some kick on it.
"Cover me!" He called desperately to the black hedgehog.
Sonic pressed the heel of his palm into Amy's chest in steady rhythmic beats. He counted the thrusts up to thirty. When it came to giving two breaths all of his nerves were gone. He tilted Amy's head backwards and pressed his lips against hers. They were soft and cold.
"No, please no." He cried desperately, seeing that there had been no effect.
He tried again. By the third round he was so absorbed with his task that he hadn't noticed Tails arrive. The fox moved into place and, unceremoniously tearing Amy's dress, placed the defibrillator paddles on her chest.
"Stand clear!" He ordered Sonic and shocked the little pink hedgehog.
Amy jolted but there was still no signs of her breathing.
Tails charged the paddles again.
"Look out!" came a voice behind them.
Tails turned with the charged panels in his hands as the Rouge elf swung at him. As her arms connected with the paddles there was an awful scream as the electricity shot through the panels and wiring. Sonic watched in horror as the elf fell backwards.
"ROUGE!" Shadow yelled. He ran forwards. As he reached the Robots cock pit the casing came flying up in the air and a white boot broke through it.
Rouge the bat emerged, coughing and pulling the tube from her throat. Thankfully she seemed otherwise unharmed.
"How?" Sonic gasped.
Tails had already turned his attention back to Amy.
"The electricity from the defibrillator must have stopped her heart momentarily." He theorized. "If the machine thought she was dead then it must have rejected her."
"We need to get that to the others." Shadow grunted, as he helped the white bat to her feet.
"After we've saved Amy!" Sonic snapped.
"There's a spare in the plane." Tails called to Shadow. "I brought it in case this one didn't charge."
The black hedgehog nodded and sped away to the plane. Tails shocked Amy again.
Rouge had stumbled over to join them. She crouched by Amy's head.
"Come on kid." She muttered.
As much as she loved her tough girl routine Sonic knew Rouge could be pretty kind when she cared about people. Sadly most of the time the bat cared about jewels more than she did people. On this occasion he could see tears forming in her eyes.
"Please?" Sonic muttered.
Tails turned to him. "More CPR Sonic."
Sonic was a little more embarrassed this time when it came to the rescue breath. Last time he hadn't had an audience. He pressed his lips into Amy for a second time with his best friend and occasional ally watching. He had to close his eyes and pretend they weren't there.
This time her lips felt warmer. They twitched as he pressed his against them and pulled him into a long lingering kiss. As he pulled away he felt Amy's breath against his face.
"Yes!" Tails cheered. "Thank goodness."
A voice Sonics ear reminded them that they were not out of the woods yet.
"You need to cauterize the wound urgently." Doctor Clover commanded.
Sonic pulled up some metal from the wreckage of Amy's elf. Nearer the town Shadow had shocked Tangle and Whispers elves. He, Blaze and Silver were helping them out of the wretched machines.
"Blaze." Sonic called urgently. "We need your firepower."
The purple princess flew over and took hold of the piece of metal. Sonic had to look away as she pressed it into Amy's side. He was glad the poor thing was already unconscious.
"Now Tails, give her a shot of adrenaline." Came Dr Clovers voice.
Tails followed the doctors instructions. He injected Amy and covered her wound.
Sonic watched her chest rise and fall peacefully at last. He couldn't put his relief into words and simply slapped an appreciative hand down on Tails shoulder.
"You did good bud." He smiled. "And you to Doc." He called to Clover.
"There's more to be done." Shadow grunted and held up the defibrillator. "There's a whole town full of children trapped in those machines."
Sonic looked up into the sky where the egg carrier was still moving into place.
"The main fights up there though." He reasoned. Once again he pressed his ear piece. "Knucks, Chaotix? Meet us at the north gate."
The red echidna and the detectives were them in moments.
"What is is?" Knuckles demanded. He looked around at the trashed robots and the injured girls. "What happened here?"
Sonic explained as quickly as he could. "Knucks, I want you on the carrier with us. We're going after the emerald so we can stop this machine. Charmy, Espio can you use the defibs on the elves and get the kids out?"
The chameleon nodded and the bee ripped off a smart salute.
"What about me?" Vector moaned.
Sonic lifted Amy and placed her in the large crocodiles arms.
"Guard her with your life." He said through gritted teeth.
Vector nodded. "Whatever you say mack."
Sonic was certain that he would take his task seriously.
With that he turned to the rest of his crew. "If you can fly grab someone who cant. Those left over head to the tornado. It's time to end this."
"We might want to hurry." Tangle gasped.
Sonic followed her gaze skyward. The emerald was starting to glow.