Chapter 8 - The Battle With Rahn
"Alright, guys! Listen up!" yelled Sally getting everyone's attention. "The senior freedom fighters and the chaotix are going to bring up the rear of the group, just in case any bots show up behind us while leaving. The rest of you are to proceed to the designated areas. We'll give you ten minutes before we follow, got that?!"
Everyone nodded and proceeded to exit the village, leaving behind the more experienced freedom fighters and the chaotix. Shadow checked the rifle he had to make sure it still had enough power. It still read 98%. Knuckles cracked his knuckles a little, getting them ready for any kind of attack. Antoine was polishing his sword a bit, just to keep his mind from overloading with fear. Everyone was doing something to get their mind off of the worst case scenario that most likely would happen.
Ten minutes finally passed by, and Sally ordered everyone to start marching out. Just as everyone had gotten up, they all heard a noise up above. It was getting closer and everyone looked up towards it, and a few of them gasped at what they saw. So far; Sonic, Shadow, Tails, and the chaotix were the only ones that had seen this weapon, and they weren't pleasant memories.
"Get down!!" yelled Sonic just as the photon burst collided with the ground in front of them. Mighty, Rotor, and Rouge were blown back by the explosion and landed a few yards away, trying to gather what had happened. They got their answer.
Decending from the sky and landing just a few feet away from everyone, was Rahn. As before in both encounters with him, he brandished the photon burst weapon, and put it back in the matter buckle from which it came. Everyone who hadn't seen Rahn before just stared in utter disbeleif at the mechabot in front of them. How could this have been Rahn?
"Greetings, freedom fighters. I see you've been busy" said Rahn, taking notice of the empty huts and lack of occupants.
"Back off, Rahn. We don't want to fight you" said Sally, trying to keep her voice from cracking.
Rahn looked at his gloved, clawed hands; as if inspecting them for dirt. "Really? Well that's a real damper on my parade" said Rahn, now looking towards the ground with hurt in his robotic eyes. "I was really looking forward to beating you to a pulp. Now what am I supposed to do? Wait, I know!" Rahn flew his hand back and withdrew the sword of chaos from its sheath. "I'll just go ahead and kill you all anyway!"
Rahn threw the sword at them just as everyone ducked away behind something. Sally had ducked behind a hut with Sonic and Rotor, and pulled out Nicole. "Nicole, can you do a scan on Rahn? We need to find out if he had any weaknesses."
"Affrimative, Sally." The small computer started to make a few beeps and groans as the hard drive worked on coming up with an answer. However, the hut behind the three mobians was blown away by yet another photon burst.
"Why did you even bother to hide? Your just making my job harder" Rahn was cut off when he was hit with a spindash to his side. Shadow uncurled and landed a few feet away from where Rahn had landed.
"You guys alright?" he asked over his shoulder.
"We're fine, Shad. Nice hit!" said Sonic.
Rahn slowly lifted himslef from the ground, taking noticed of the small gash caused by Shadows' quils. He looked towards his adversaries, who had now regrouped and were ready to fight. The odds seemed against him, as he was largely outnumbered by them. After contemplating for a moment, he came up with an idea. Yes, this should knock the wind out of a few of them. He got up and faced the freedom fighters and chaotix, revealing his evil grin.
"Now what is he up to?" asked Espio.
"Don't know, but it can't be good" said Bunnie.
Rahn brought the sword of chaos infront of his face, allowing the freedom fighters to see through it. "I think it's time I used my signiture attack" he anounced. He activated right hoverskate, lifting off the ground a bit. Not as much as he would if he had both activated. He brought his left leg up and placed his foot against his right knee. Then he brought his left arm to his chest, and stretched out his right army, holding the sword of chaos.
"What the heck is he doing?" asked Amy. It looked to her like Rahn was in a ballet recitle in the position.
"Looks like an attack position of some kind, but I've never seen one like it before" answered Rouge.
Rahn started to spin in a circle slowly, but gained speed faster thanks to the hoverskate his activated. In a few seconds, Rahn was a spinning tornado of death; and he charged towards the freedom fighters and chaotix.
"Everyone, get out of the way!" yelled Sally. But it was to late. Rahn tore into the small group. Antoine was sent flying into a hut, hitting his head on a support beam, and knocking him out. Espio, Charmy, and Vector were hit as well, and they went sailing into the trees, knocking them out as well. Mighty, Rouge, Tikal, and Bunnie didn't get knocked away, but they all were out like a light on the ground.
Tails had grabbed Amy and taken to the air just in time, and saved them from a clobbering. Sonic had grabbed Sally and jumped out of the way, along with Shadow. And Knuckles and Julie-Su glided out of the mechabots' path.
They gathered together and turned towards the direction Rahn had went. After looking around at who was out and who remained, Sonic noticed that Rotor was missing.
"Hey, where's Rote?" he asked. No one had time to answer, as Rahn was coming right back towards them. They were all ready to jump again, but a weapon fired from somewhere and struck Rahn, knocking him out o fhis spin and sending him to the ground once more. Everyone looked towards the direction of the weapons' fire came from and saw Rotor, holding the rifle that Shadow had put down earlier before attacking Rahn.
"Good job, Rotor!" yelled Amy over towards the walrus. Rotor gave her a thumbs up, and looked back towards Rahn. He had gotten back up, and he looked pissed.
"You insolent wretch! I'm not going to be so easy on you as I was your friends! Be thankful that I was using the blunt side of my sword when I used the 'spinning sword tornado attack!' Otherwise, they'd be dead!" yelled Rahn.
Rotor fired once again, but Rahn brought the sword of chaos up and delfected the blast. He fired again and again, but Rahn kept sending the blasts in another direction. Finally, Rahn knocked one back towards Rotor, right back inside the rifle, causing the weapon to explode. Rotor fell to the ground, his skin burned by the weapons' destruction.
"That takes care of you" said Rahn to the fallen walrus. He then took notice of some explosive tanks of fuel behind one of the huts. 'This should be interesting' he thought. He closed his eyes and concentrated on the fule tanks. A few seconds later, all six were lifted off the ground. Sonic and the others that were still up looked on in astonishment. He was a robot, and he still had his pychic abilities!
After the tanks were in the eir, Rahn had combusted the tanks with his mind, and the flaming contents were sent everywhere, catching many of the huts in the village on fire.
"Oh, that is not good" said Knuckles.
"There!" said Rahn, looking at his work. "Now it looks more suitable to be the scene for a battle!" he exclaimed. Then, something hit him. Not phyically, but mentally. Yes, he had seen this before. He remembered a burning village, and it looked exactly like this one did. 'What am I doing?! This isn't right!' he yelled to himself metally. Wait a second, where did that come from.
However, before he could contemplate that thought, he was hit upside the head, shattering his left eye and sending him to the ground for the third time. Knuckles was up and ready to rumble, as well was Julie-Su. She would have used her gun but, seeing what Rahn did to Rotor, didn't want to risk it.
Rahn had enough of this, and sheathed the sword of chaos. He'd beat them down the old fashioned way, like his master taught him to. Wait, that was another odd memory. Where the heck did he keep getting these things. Knuckles uppercutted Rahn, and Julie-Su joined in the fray.
Sonic, Sally, Tails, Amy, and Shadow looked on and watched. Then, the silence between them was broken by Nicole.
"Princess Sally, I've finished scanning Rahn, and things do not look good" said Nicole.
Sally flipped the small laptop open, and spoke to it.
"What did you find?" she asked.
"Everything about his schematics, weapondry, and some memory files' stated Nicole
"Display it all then' ordered Sally. Nicole complied and a hologram image appeared in front of them, just large enough for all of them to see"
"Subject - Rahn: Mechabot Seven of Seven in experimental mechazation process."
"Mechazation?" asked Shadow. "What the heck is that?"
"Only one out of seven test subjects to survive the process. Weapons include tetryon pulse dissruptor, sonic grenades, photon burst, hoverskates, hover flight capability, and recently, the sword of chaos" said Nicole.
"Well, now we know what he's armed with" said Tails.
"Nicole? Is there any possible weakness we can exploit?" asked Sally.
"From what I've received on his memory, he seems to be recalling past memories of his life, which explains why he was off guard when Knuckles attacked him. If he can recall his memories, his free will might return" said Nicole.
"Alright! So, all we have to do is make him remember who he is, and he'll be a o'kay!" said Sonic.
Just then, Knuckles landed right at their feet. He had a black eye, bloody nose, a few scratches and bruises on his head from Rahns' claws and fists, and a few broken ribs. A second later, Julie-Su landed next to him with almost the same treatment. Just with a broken wrist rather than her ribs. Worst of all, both were unconcious. Sonic looked up and saw Rahn giving the same scowl that Mecha gave him when they fought. Sonic scowled as well. He was really the only one who could fight him now. Shadow and Tails might be able to fight as well, but they couldn't go hyper like he could, and would eventually get the same treatment as everyone else.
"I'm going in" said Sonic. "You guys figure out a way to get his memory back while I fight him' directed Sonic. He walked forward towards Rahn, who was slowly drawing the sword of chaos from its' sheath.
"So..., the blue one is finally going to fight. I thought that since you hadn't so much as lifted a finger since I got here, you had turned yellow" said Rahn . Sonic just grinned his trademark grin.
"You want to see me turn yellow?" asked Sonic. Rahn just did the robotic representation of lifting an eyebrow as Sonic pulled off one of his gloves and pulled out the seven super emerald miniatures, which were recently shrunken down to pebble size by Knuckles. Sonic brought his hand out and smacked them together with the super emeralds as he turned into Hyper Sonic, his quils turning yellow and giving off the colors of the super emeralds. Sonic sat there hovering a few inches off the ground looking at the stunned mechabot.
"Well....this is new" stated Rahn. Sonic then flew forward and did a kickflip into Rahns' jaw, sendning him up into the air. Rahn activated his hover and righted himself just as Sonic appeared before him and started kicking and punching him.
"Go, Sonic!" cheered Tails from the ground.
"Tails! Pay attention man!" yelled Shadow. Tails brought his eyes from the fight and met Shadows' gaze. "We have to figure a way to jog Rahns' memory, so help us out here!"
"Okay, Okay!" said Tails. The four of them; as in Sally, Shadow, Tails, and Amy; stood there trying to think of something. Sally then came up with an idea. She told them to stay right there, and she tore off towards were a box of the things she was going to carry with her out of the village was still laying on the ground. Thanking the gods above that it wasn't damaged during the fight, she started sorting through it. She finally found what she was looking for.
An old photograph. It had her and Rahn on it from when they were younger. It was taken a few days just before Robotnik took over Mobotropolis. Hopefully, it would do the trick. She ran back towards the others and showed them the photograph.
"Great job, Sal!" said Shadow. "Now, we just need to get a hold of him for a minute."
Back in the air, Hyper Sonic was doing a major number on Rahn. He had many dents in his hull now, and was beginning to get more pissed off than ever before. Sonic finally kicked the sword of chaos out from his hands, and caught it. That was his first mistake. The moment he touched it, hundreds of volts of blue electricity poured into him, causing him to scream out in pain. That was something he thought he couldn't experience while he was Hyper Sonic; pain. He let go of the sword and dropped it. His glove had been completely vaporized off of his hand.
Rahn grabbed his sword before it hit the ground, and flew back up to Sonic. "This game of yours is getting extreamly old, Sonic. Not just you beating me senselees, but this whole fight! I am going to end this now!" Rahn brought the sword of chaos up infront of him, and concentrated. This time, an unfamiliar green flame sprang forth from the blade. The next thing Sonic knew, his hyper form had deactivated, and he was falling towards the ground.
"OOOOOHHHHH CCCCCRRRRRAAAAAPPPPP!!!!!" yelled Sonic as he plummeted towards the ground from three hundred feet in the air. He hit hard, and sprung his ankle as he landed. He yowled in pain, and laid on the ground; unable to get up.
"Oh no, Rahn must have shut off the super emeralds!" yelled Amy.
Rahn was still in the air. He held his sword high above his head with both hands, the green flame now replaced with a violet one. The remaining freedom fighters there ran towards Sonic, not noticeing Rahn power up the sword of chaos for a chaos energy attack.
"Sonic!? Sonic!? Are you alright!" asked Sally.
"I could be better" he said, still grimaceing from his sprained ankle.
"Umm...guys?" said Amy, pointing towards the sky at Rahn. Rahn was glowing purple all over, and had the biggest grin they had seen him with so far.
"Oh, my god" said Shadow. Rahn brought the sword down pointing towards them and yelled "CHAOS BEAM!!!" The sword made a weird sound as if charging up, and fired down onto the five freedom fighters. The beam looked exactly like the one that Perfect Chaos fired. It hit ground zero, but they managed to move out of the way of the blast, pulling Sonic with them. The explosion from the attack sent them all flying away in different directions. As Sonic landed thrity feet away, he injured his ankle even more. Not to mention the burns, cuts, and bruises he got from narrowly escaping that blast. Rahn decended towards the ground and looked about himself. He spotted his target. Sonic. He laid sprawled across the ground, and completely defenseless. Once you stopped him from running, he couldn't do anything.
Rahn calmly walked over to the hedgehog, walking though the burning remains of the village, and the unconcious freedom fighters and chaotix laying on the ground. He finally arrived where the hedgehog lay, and brought the sword of chaos to his face. Sonic only watched with half an eye open, waiting the inevitable. Rahn then took notice; out of the corner of his eye; Princess Sally, who was slowly crawling towards him. Rahn grinned and lifted the sword high above his head once again, intending to cleave Sonic in half right down the middle.
"Now hedgehog......you die." Rahn started bringing the sword down, closer and closer to Sonics' head. Only a little bit further and...
"RONNIE, STOP!!!" Rahns' eyes widened, and he stopped. The blade just centimeters from Sonics' face. Rahn turned his head towards where the voice came from. It was Sally. She had tears streaming down her face. Rahn didn't know why, but this......upsetted him a little. What disturbed him even more is that he remembered being called by that nickname, by the same mobian that just called out to him.
"You remember that name, don't you?" she asked him. "I gave you that name, thirteen years ago, when you were three years old" said Sally. Rahn glanced down back at Sonic, who was still waiting for the killing blow. Rahn thought for a moment, and decided that Sonic wouldn't be able to go anywhere, even if he tried. Rahn then started walking towards Sally.
He stopped infront of here, and crouched down to her level. "What are you talking about?" he asked her. "I never was three years old, or any age for that matter. I"ve always been a mechabot, and always will be" he stated. Sally let a few more tears run down her face, and she handed him the picture that she had been holding onto since she retreived it. Rahn took the picture and looked at it, and was stunned to find the picture of the violet colored hedgehog that looked like him from the odd dream he had while inside hidden palace.
"That was you and me, five days before Robotnik took over Mobotropolis and turned it into Robotropolis" she said. Rahn still looked at the picture. By now, all of the freedom fighters and chaotix from the battle were starting to stir a bit. All of the sudden, the memories started flowing back to Rahn. Everything from his childhood, his life in Sunny Hallow, the few years of bounty hunting he did and; unfortunatly; the terrible deeds he had carried out within the past thirty hours. But most importantly.......what Robotnik had done to him.
All of the sudden, Rahns' eyes closed and he started screaming out in pain, holding the sides of his head, dropping the picture and the sword of chaos, which was now glowing bright white. Sparks started to erupt from the side of his head as the small, irrplaceable chip inside his head that held him in Robotniks' control, short circuited and exploded. Sally was stunned by Rahns' sudden reaction. He was now on his knees, and on the ground, clutching the side of his head. Then, Sally heard him speak, and it sounded like the mechabots' voice was cracking. Like he was....crying?
"Oh, god...oh,god...Sally, what have I done?" Sally recognized that peraonality immediately, and threw her arms around Rahn, the one she knew was in there somewhere this whole time.
"It's okay, Rahn. Everything's alright" she said. Rahn returned the gesture, and hugged back. However, now he couldn't feel anything, thanks to Robotnik. Sonic was looking at the site from where he was. It worked. He was never going to doubt that stupid computer, Nicole, again. The other freedom fighters and chaotix who had gotten up; namely Shadow, Tails, Amy, Bunnie, Knux, Julie-Su, Rouge, and Mighty; had also seen the site, and couldn't believe it. They won.
However, the moment didn't last long. Off in the distance, all of them could hear the sound of a vehicle approaching, along with two ofther distingushed engine sounds. Doctor Robotnik, in his egg shaped ship decended upon the destroyed village, along side him; Metal Sonic and Robo-Knux.
"Well, well, well, Rahn. You did a fantastic job of destroying Knothole Village, however, I wish you would have waited for the initial attack! I had to have Metal Sonic and Robo-Knux give me the coordinates of the village to find you! And why exactly are you hugging the princess!?"
Rahn withdrew a bit, just enough for Sally to see him entirely. He removed his hands from her, and balled them both into fists. His orange eyes staring behind him, glowing brighter than ever before. Sally heard what sounded like electricity. She glanced down to Rahns' balled fists and noticed that he was clenching them with so much force, they were starting to short circuit. Sally backed away a bit as Rahn slowly got up, and faced towards Robotnik. He lifted his finger and pointed towards Robotnik.
"You...you did this to me" said Rahn holding up his other hand and showing Robotnik. "I'm going to make sure, that you never do this to anyone again!"
Rahn activated his skates and rocketed over to Robotnik at a speed that even Sonic would have difficulty matching. He knocked Robotnik out of his craft, and sent him falling towards the ground. Robotnik slowly got up stunned. He wasn't expecting this to happen. Rahn came back towards him and sent a flying kick into Robotniks face as he went by through the air. He then grabbed hold of Robotniks arm, spun himself around, and sent another kick into the side of his head, sending him flying away a good couple of feet. He was going to tear into him more, but Metal Sonic stepped into the fray, and knocked Rahn down.
"I'm going to enjoy this" said Mecha as Rahn did a flip off the ground and stood back up. Mecha charged towards him, but Rahn dodged out of the way and hit him hard in the back. Mecha fell, but got back up as Rahn stomped on the spot where his head just was. Mecha pulled out his arm blaster and fired away. Rahn did the same, pulling out both of his tetryon dissruptors and firing back. Mecha got a few good shots in, but they weren't good enough. Rahn kept on firing, sending many of the tetryon pulses through Mechas' hull, and running clean straight through him.
Rahn stopped firing and glared at Mecha, who now looked like a piece of swiss cheese. He glanced over to his left and noticed R.K. was just standing there watching, as if contemplating whether or not to get involved. Rahn looked back towards Mecha, who had now redrawn his laser and aimed it at Rahns' head.
"Never take your eyes off the enemy" stated Mecha. He was about to fire, but something came crashing into him. Rahn saw his opening, and threw his hand in the direction of the sword of chaos. The sword flew through the air and found home in his robotic hand. Rahn charged forth, and brought the sword down on the top of Metal Sonics' head, cleaving him in half. The robot fell to the ground, and the red eyes faded away to darkness.
By now, all of the freedom fighters and chaotix had woken up and saw the whole fight between the two. Rahn turned around and faced Robo-Knux, who was still holding his fist out from when he punched Mecha. R.K. smiled towards Rahn, and he returned the same one.
"Well, that was a surprising twist" said Shadow. Everyone else slowly nodded in acknowledgement.
Rahn turned his head towards them all, but then quickly looked away. He couldn't stand to look at them, not after what he had done.
"I should....probably be going" said Rahn, as he turned around and started to trek out of the destroyed village.
"Oh no you don't!" said Sally running up infront of his path and blocking him. "Your not going anywhere, Rahn."
"It would be better if I just go, Sally. After everything that I've done, I'm not expecting to be welcomed back in with open arms" he said, looking back again at the others.
"Listen, Rahn. None of this is your fault. Robotnik was the one who did this, not you. You were just merely a pawn in his twisted game of chess" said Sally.
"She's right, Rahn. You couldn't have prevented any of this" said Sonic, who was now being held up by Tails and Shadow. "But, if it will help in having you stay here; then I forgive you for everything."
Rahn couldn't believe what he had heard. He had nearly killed them all, and still, Sonic was willing to forgive him. He turned his head towards the other freedom fighters and chaotix. They were all nodding their heads in agreement with Sonic.
"Now, what do you say, Rahn? You gonna stay with us?" asked Sally, placing a hand on his shoulder. Rahn looked down towards the ground and closed his eyes.
"Okay.....I'll stay" said Rahn. He then looked towards Robo-Knux, who was still standing there watching. "How about you? You gonna stay as well?"
"No, I had better not" said R.K.. "However, maybe in the future, I'll join." He turned to face the others standing nearby. "Consider this a truce between us for the time being until I decide. Until then, farewell" said Robo-Knux. He walked over to what was left of Mecha and flew off with him as Rahn and the others walked away from the burning village, and towards where they should have met the other freedom fighters forty-five minutes ago.
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Robotnik sat in his chair, nurseing his swollen jaw. Rahn had successfully broken it, and so he wasn't going to be able to talk for a while. Snively, on the other hand, was going to enjoy the quiet while it lasted during his uncles' recuperation. Robotnik watched a vid screen showing the mechasizer chamber, and the workerbots taking the machine apart. Robotnik had finally decided that it would be impossible to mechasize a mobian and keep them under his control for long. So, he scrapped the whole experiment.
Mecha also had to be rebuilt as well. Robo-Knux was busily putting him back together with a few workerbots nearby. What Robotnik didn't know was that he aided in defeating the blue robot, and was now erasing it's memory of helping in its demise. Another thing that turned out bad, was that his football team lost thirty-five to fifty-six. Robotnik laid back in his chair, and started to doze off, while saying mentally to himself...
'I hate that hedgehog, and that mechabot.'
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Alright! Rahn is on the side of the Freedom Fighters once again! I'm hoping I get some good reveiws for this. And before you ask, there isn't going to be a Rahn/Sally realtionship going on. Their just friends. Anyway, Review and tell me what you think. I should have the Finally out very shortly. Catch you guys later!
Rahn (Mechabot VII)
"Alright, guys! Listen up!" yelled Sally getting everyone's attention. "The senior freedom fighters and the chaotix are going to bring up the rear of the group, just in case any bots show up behind us while leaving. The rest of you are to proceed to the designated areas. We'll give you ten minutes before we follow, got that?!"
Everyone nodded and proceeded to exit the village, leaving behind the more experienced freedom fighters and the chaotix. Shadow checked the rifle he had to make sure it still had enough power. It still read 98%. Knuckles cracked his knuckles a little, getting them ready for any kind of attack. Antoine was polishing his sword a bit, just to keep his mind from overloading with fear. Everyone was doing something to get their mind off of the worst case scenario that most likely would happen.
Ten minutes finally passed by, and Sally ordered everyone to start marching out. Just as everyone had gotten up, they all heard a noise up above. It was getting closer and everyone looked up towards it, and a few of them gasped at what they saw. So far; Sonic, Shadow, Tails, and the chaotix were the only ones that had seen this weapon, and they weren't pleasant memories.
"Get down!!" yelled Sonic just as the photon burst collided with the ground in front of them. Mighty, Rotor, and Rouge were blown back by the explosion and landed a few yards away, trying to gather what had happened. They got their answer.
Decending from the sky and landing just a few feet away from everyone, was Rahn. As before in both encounters with him, he brandished the photon burst weapon, and put it back in the matter buckle from which it came. Everyone who hadn't seen Rahn before just stared in utter disbeleif at the mechabot in front of them. How could this have been Rahn?
"Greetings, freedom fighters. I see you've been busy" said Rahn, taking notice of the empty huts and lack of occupants.
"Back off, Rahn. We don't want to fight you" said Sally, trying to keep her voice from cracking.
Rahn looked at his gloved, clawed hands; as if inspecting them for dirt. "Really? Well that's a real damper on my parade" said Rahn, now looking towards the ground with hurt in his robotic eyes. "I was really looking forward to beating you to a pulp. Now what am I supposed to do? Wait, I know!" Rahn flew his hand back and withdrew the sword of chaos from its sheath. "I'll just go ahead and kill you all anyway!"
Rahn threw the sword at them just as everyone ducked away behind something. Sally had ducked behind a hut with Sonic and Rotor, and pulled out Nicole. "Nicole, can you do a scan on Rahn? We need to find out if he had any weaknesses."
"Affrimative, Sally." The small computer started to make a few beeps and groans as the hard drive worked on coming up with an answer. However, the hut behind the three mobians was blown away by yet another photon burst.
"Why did you even bother to hide? Your just making my job harder" Rahn was cut off when he was hit with a spindash to his side. Shadow uncurled and landed a few feet away from where Rahn had landed.
"You guys alright?" he asked over his shoulder.
"We're fine, Shad. Nice hit!" said Sonic.
Rahn slowly lifted himslef from the ground, taking noticed of the small gash caused by Shadows' quils. He looked towards his adversaries, who had now regrouped and were ready to fight. The odds seemed against him, as he was largely outnumbered by them. After contemplating for a moment, he came up with an idea. Yes, this should knock the wind out of a few of them. He got up and faced the freedom fighters and chaotix, revealing his evil grin.
"Now what is he up to?" asked Espio.
"Don't know, but it can't be good" said Bunnie.
Rahn brought the sword of chaos infront of his face, allowing the freedom fighters to see through it. "I think it's time I used my signiture attack" he anounced. He activated right hoverskate, lifting off the ground a bit. Not as much as he would if he had both activated. He brought his left leg up and placed his foot against his right knee. Then he brought his left arm to his chest, and stretched out his right army, holding the sword of chaos.
"What the heck is he doing?" asked Amy. It looked to her like Rahn was in a ballet recitle in the position.
"Looks like an attack position of some kind, but I've never seen one like it before" answered Rouge.
Rahn started to spin in a circle slowly, but gained speed faster thanks to the hoverskate his activated. In a few seconds, Rahn was a spinning tornado of death; and he charged towards the freedom fighters and chaotix.
"Everyone, get out of the way!" yelled Sally. But it was to late. Rahn tore into the small group. Antoine was sent flying into a hut, hitting his head on a support beam, and knocking him out. Espio, Charmy, and Vector were hit as well, and they went sailing into the trees, knocking them out as well. Mighty, Rouge, Tikal, and Bunnie didn't get knocked away, but they all were out like a light on the ground.
Tails had grabbed Amy and taken to the air just in time, and saved them from a clobbering. Sonic had grabbed Sally and jumped out of the way, along with Shadow. And Knuckles and Julie-Su glided out of the mechabots' path.
They gathered together and turned towards the direction Rahn had went. After looking around at who was out and who remained, Sonic noticed that Rotor was missing.
"Hey, where's Rote?" he asked. No one had time to answer, as Rahn was coming right back towards them. They were all ready to jump again, but a weapon fired from somewhere and struck Rahn, knocking him out o fhis spin and sending him to the ground once more. Everyone looked towards the direction of the weapons' fire came from and saw Rotor, holding the rifle that Shadow had put down earlier before attacking Rahn.
"Good job, Rotor!" yelled Amy over towards the walrus. Rotor gave her a thumbs up, and looked back towards Rahn. He had gotten back up, and he looked pissed.
"You insolent wretch! I'm not going to be so easy on you as I was your friends! Be thankful that I was using the blunt side of my sword when I used the 'spinning sword tornado attack!' Otherwise, they'd be dead!" yelled Rahn.
Rotor fired once again, but Rahn brought the sword of chaos up and delfected the blast. He fired again and again, but Rahn kept sending the blasts in another direction. Finally, Rahn knocked one back towards Rotor, right back inside the rifle, causing the weapon to explode. Rotor fell to the ground, his skin burned by the weapons' destruction.
"That takes care of you" said Rahn to the fallen walrus. He then took notice of some explosive tanks of fuel behind one of the huts. 'This should be interesting' he thought. He closed his eyes and concentrated on the fule tanks. A few seconds later, all six were lifted off the ground. Sonic and the others that were still up looked on in astonishment. He was a robot, and he still had his pychic abilities!
After the tanks were in the eir, Rahn had combusted the tanks with his mind, and the flaming contents were sent everywhere, catching many of the huts in the village on fire.
"Oh, that is not good" said Knuckles.
"There!" said Rahn, looking at his work. "Now it looks more suitable to be the scene for a battle!" he exclaimed. Then, something hit him. Not phyically, but mentally. Yes, he had seen this before. He remembered a burning village, and it looked exactly like this one did. 'What am I doing?! This isn't right!' he yelled to himself metally. Wait a second, where did that come from.
However, before he could contemplate that thought, he was hit upside the head, shattering his left eye and sending him to the ground for the third time. Knuckles was up and ready to rumble, as well was Julie-Su. She would have used her gun but, seeing what Rahn did to Rotor, didn't want to risk it.
Rahn had enough of this, and sheathed the sword of chaos. He'd beat them down the old fashioned way, like his master taught him to. Wait, that was another odd memory. Where the heck did he keep getting these things. Knuckles uppercutted Rahn, and Julie-Su joined in the fray.
Sonic, Sally, Tails, Amy, and Shadow looked on and watched. Then, the silence between them was broken by Nicole.
"Princess Sally, I've finished scanning Rahn, and things do not look good" said Nicole.
Sally flipped the small laptop open, and spoke to it.
"What did you find?" she asked.
"Everything about his schematics, weapondry, and some memory files' stated Nicole
"Display it all then' ordered Sally. Nicole complied and a hologram image appeared in front of them, just large enough for all of them to see"
"Subject - Rahn: Mechabot Seven of Seven in experimental mechazation process."
"Mechazation?" asked Shadow. "What the heck is that?"
"Only one out of seven test subjects to survive the process. Weapons include tetryon pulse dissruptor, sonic grenades, photon burst, hoverskates, hover flight capability, and recently, the sword of chaos" said Nicole.
"Well, now we know what he's armed with" said Tails.
"Nicole? Is there any possible weakness we can exploit?" asked Sally.
"From what I've received on his memory, he seems to be recalling past memories of his life, which explains why he was off guard when Knuckles attacked him. If he can recall his memories, his free will might return" said Nicole.
"Alright! So, all we have to do is make him remember who he is, and he'll be a o'kay!" said Sonic.
Just then, Knuckles landed right at their feet. He had a black eye, bloody nose, a few scratches and bruises on his head from Rahns' claws and fists, and a few broken ribs. A second later, Julie-Su landed next to him with almost the same treatment. Just with a broken wrist rather than her ribs. Worst of all, both were unconcious. Sonic looked up and saw Rahn giving the same scowl that Mecha gave him when they fought. Sonic scowled as well. He was really the only one who could fight him now. Shadow and Tails might be able to fight as well, but they couldn't go hyper like he could, and would eventually get the same treatment as everyone else.
"I'm going in" said Sonic. "You guys figure out a way to get his memory back while I fight him' directed Sonic. He walked forward towards Rahn, who was slowly drawing the sword of chaos from its' sheath.
"So..., the blue one is finally going to fight. I thought that since you hadn't so much as lifted a finger since I got here, you had turned yellow" said Rahn . Sonic just grinned his trademark grin.
"You want to see me turn yellow?" asked Sonic. Rahn just did the robotic representation of lifting an eyebrow as Sonic pulled off one of his gloves and pulled out the seven super emerald miniatures, which were recently shrunken down to pebble size by Knuckles. Sonic brought his hand out and smacked them together with the super emeralds as he turned into Hyper Sonic, his quils turning yellow and giving off the colors of the super emeralds. Sonic sat there hovering a few inches off the ground looking at the stunned mechabot.
"Well....this is new" stated Rahn. Sonic then flew forward and did a kickflip into Rahns' jaw, sendning him up into the air. Rahn activated his hover and righted himself just as Sonic appeared before him and started kicking and punching him.
"Go, Sonic!" cheered Tails from the ground.
"Tails! Pay attention man!" yelled Shadow. Tails brought his eyes from the fight and met Shadows' gaze. "We have to figure a way to jog Rahns' memory, so help us out here!"
"Okay, Okay!" said Tails. The four of them; as in Sally, Shadow, Tails, and Amy; stood there trying to think of something. Sally then came up with an idea. She told them to stay right there, and she tore off towards were a box of the things she was going to carry with her out of the village was still laying on the ground. Thanking the gods above that it wasn't damaged during the fight, she started sorting through it. She finally found what she was looking for.
An old photograph. It had her and Rahn on it from when they were younger. It was taken a few days just before Robotnik took over Mobotropolis. Hopefully, it would do the trick. She ran back towards the others and showed them the photograph.
"Great job, Sal!" said Shadow. "Now, we just need to get a hold of him for a minute."
Back in the air, Hyper Sonic was doing a major number on Rahn. He had many dents in his hull now, and was beginning to get more pissed off than ever before. Sonic finally kicked the sword of chaos out from his hands, and caught it. That was his first mistake. The moment he touched it, hundreds of volts of blue electricity poured into him, causing him to scream out in pain. That was something he thought he couldn't experience while he was Hyper Sonic; pain. He let go of the sword and dropped it. His glove had been completely vaporized off of his hand.
Rahn grabbed his sword before it hit the ground, and flew back up to Sonic. "This game of yours is getting extreamly old, Sonic. Not just you beating me senselees, but this whole fight! I am going to end this now!" Rahn brought the sword of chaos up infront of him, and concentrated. This time, an unfamiliar green flame sprang forth from the blade. The next thing Sonic knew, his hyper form had deactivated, and he was falling towards the ground.
"OOOOOHHHHH CCCCCRRRRRAAAAAPPPPP!!!!!" yelled Sonic as he plummeted towards the ground from three hundred feet in the air. He hit hard, and sprung his ankle as he landed. He yowled in pain, and laid on the ground; unable to get up.
"Oh no, Rahn must have shut off the super emeralds!" yelled Amy.
Rahn was still in the air. He held his sword high above his head with both hands, the green flame now replaced with a violet one. The remaining freedom fighters there ran towards Sonic, not noticeing Rahn power up the sword of chaos for a chaos energy attack.
"Sonic!? Sonic!? Are you alright!" asked Sally.
"I could be better" he said, still grimaceing from his sprained ankle.
"Umm...guys?" said Amy, pointing towards the sky at Rahn. Rahn was glowing purple all over, and had the biggest grin they had seen him with so far.
"Oh, my god" said Shadow. Rahn brought the sword down pointing towards them and yelled "CHAOS BEAM!!!" The sword made a weird sound as if charging up, and fired down onto the five freedom fighters. The beam looked exactly like the one that Perfect Chaos fired. It hit ground zero, but they managed to move out of the way of the blast, pulling Sonic with them. The explosion from the attack sent them all flying away in different directions. As Sonic landed thrity feet away, he injured his ankle even more. Not to mention the burns, cuts, and bruises he got from narrowly escaping that blast. Rahn decended towards the ground and looked about himself. He spotted his target. Sonic. He laid sprawled across the ground, and completely defenseless. Once you stopped him from running, he couldn't do anything.
Rahn calmly walked over to the hedgehog, walking though the burning remains of the village, and the unconcious freedom fighters and chaotix laying on the ground. He finally arrived where the hedgehog lay, and brought the sword of chaos to his face. Sonic only watched with half an eye open, waiting the inevitable. Rahn then took notice; out of the corner of his eye; Princess Sally, who was slowly crawling towards him. Rahn grinned and lifted the sword high above his head once again, intending to cleave Sonic in half right down the middle.
"Now hedgehog......you die." Rahn started bringing the sword down, closer and closer to Sonics' head. Only a little bit further and...
"RONNIE, STOP!!!" Rahns' eyes widened, and he stopped. The blade just centimeters from Sonics' face. Rahn turned his head towards where the voice came from. It was Sally. She had tears streaming down her face. Rahn didn't know why, but this......upsetted him a little. What disturbed him even more is that he remembered being called by that nickname, by the same mobian that just called out to him.
"You remember that name, don't you?" she asked him. "I gave you that name, thirteen years ago, when you were three years old" said Sally. Rahn glanced down back at Sonic, who was still waiting for the killing blow. Rahn thought for a moment, and decided that Sonic wouldn't be able to go anywhere, even if he tried. Rahn then started walking towards Sally.
He stopped infront of here, and crouched down to her level. "What are you talking about?" he asked her. "I never was three years old, or any age for that matter. I"ve always been a mechabot, and always will be" he stated. Sally let a few more tears run down her face, and she handed him the picture that she had been holding onto since she retreived it. Rahn took the picture and looked at it, and was stunned to find the picture of the violet colored hedgehog that looked like him from the odd dream he had while inside hidden palace.
"That was you and me, five days before Robotnik took over Mobotropolis and turned it into Robotropolis" she said. Rahn still looked at the picture. By now, all of the freedom fighters and chaotix from the battle were starting to stir a bit. All of the sudden, the memories started flowing back to Rahn. Everything from his childhood, his life in Sunny Hallow, the few years of bounty hunting he did and; unfortunatly; the terrible deeds he had carried out within the past thirty hours. But most importantly.......what Robotnik had done to him.
All of the sudden, Rahns' eyes closed and he started screaming out in pain, holding the sides of his head, dropping the picture and the sword of chaos, which was now glowing bright white. Sparks started to erupt from the side of his head as the small, irrplaceable chip inside his head that held him in Robotniks' control, short circuited and exploded. Sally was stunned by Rahns' sudden reaction. He was now on his knees, and on the ground, clutching the side of his head. Then, Sally heard him speak, and it sounded like the mechabots' voice was cracking. Like he was....crying?
"Oh, god...oh,god...Sally, what have I done?" Sally recognized that peraonality immediately, and threw her arms around Rahn, the one she knew was in there somewhere this whole time.
"It's okay, Rahn. Everything's alright" she said. Rahn returned the gesture, and hugged back. However, now he couldn't feel anything, thanks to Robotnik. Sonic was looking at the site from where he was. It worked. He was never going to doubt that stupid computer, Nicole, again. The other freedom fighters and chaotix who had gotten up; namely Shadow, Tails, Amy, Bunnie, Knux, Julie-Su, Rouge, and Mighty; had also seen the site, and couldn't believe it. They won.
However, the moment didn't last long. Off in the distance, all of them could hear the sound of a vehicle approaching, along with two ofther distingushed engine sounds. Doctor Robotnik, in his egg shaped ship decended upon the destroyed village, along side him; Metal Sonic and Robo-Knux.
"Well, well, well, Rahn. You did a fantastic job of destroying Knothole Village, however, I wish you would have waited for the initial attack! I had to have Metal Sonic and Robo-Knux give me the coordinates of the village to find you! And why exactly are you hugging the princess!?"
Rahn withdrew a bit, just enough for Sally to see him entirely. He removed his hands from her, and balled them both into fists. His orange eyes staring behind him, glowing brighter than ever before. Sally heard what sounded like electricity. She glanced down to Rahns' balled fists and noticed that he was clenching them with so much force, they were starting to short circuit. Sally backed away a bit as Rahn slowly got up, and faced towards Robotnik. He lifted his finger and pointed towards Robotnik.
"You...you did this to me" said Rahn holding up his other hand and showing Robotnik. "I'm going to make sure, that you never do this to anyone again!"
Rahn activated his skates and rocketed over to Robotnik at a speed that even Sonic would have difficulty matching. He knocked Robotnik out of his craft, and sent him falling towards the ground. Robotnik slowly got up stunned. He wasn't expecting this to happen. Rahn came back towards him and sent a flying kick into Robotniks face as he went by through the air. He then grabbed hold of Robotniks arm, spun himself around, and sent another kick into the side of his head, sending him flying away a good couple of feet. He was going to tear into him more, but Metal Sonic stepped into the fray, and knocked Rahn down.
"I'm going to enjoy this" said Mecha as Rahn did a flip off the ground and stood back up. Mecha charged towards him, but Rahn dodged out of the way and hit him hard in the back. Mecha fell, but got back up as Rahn stomped on the spot where his head just was. Mecha pulled out his arm blaster and fired away. Rahn did the same, pulling out both of his tetryon dissruptors and firing back. Mecha got a few good shots in, but they weren't good enough. Rahn kept on firing, sending many of the tetryon pulses through Mechas' hull, and running clean straight through him.
Rahn stopped firing and glared at Mecha, who now looked like a piece of swiss cheese. He glanced over to his left and noticed R.K. was just standing there watching, as if contemplating whether or not to get involved. Rahn looked back towards Mecha, who had now redrawn his laser and aimed it at Rahns' head.
"Never take your eyes off the enemy" stated Mecha. He was about to fire, but something came crashing into him. Rahn saw his opening, and threw his hand in the direction of the sword of chaos. The sword flew through the air and found home in his robotic hand. Rahn charged forth, and brought the sword down on the top of Metal Sonics' head, cleaving him in half. The robot fell to the ground, and the red eyes faded away to darkness.
By now, all of the freedom fighters and chaotix had woken up and saw the whole fight between the two. Rahn turned around and faced Robo-Knux, who was still holding his fist out from when he punched Mecha. R.K. smiled towards Rahn, and he returned the same one.
"Well, that was a surprising twist" said Shadow. Everyone else slowly nodded in acknowledgement.
Rahn turned his head towards them all, but then quickly looked away. He couldn't stand to look at them, not after what he had done.
"I should....probably be going" said Rahn, as he turned around and started to trek out of the destroyed village.
"Oh no you don't!" said Sally running up infront of his path and blocking him. "Your not going anywhere, Rahn."
"It would be better if I just go, Sally. After everything that I've done, I'm not expecting to be welcomed back in with open arms" he said, looking back again at the others.
"Listen, Rahn. None of this is your fault. Robotnik was the one who did this, not you. You were just merely a pawn in his twisted game of chess" said Sally.
"She's right, Rahn. You couldn't have prevented any of this" said Sonic, who was now being held up by Tails and Shadow. "But, if it will help in having you stay here; then I forgive you for everything."
Rahn couldn't believe what he had heard. He had nearly killed them all, and still, Sonic was willing to forgive him. He turned his head towards the other freedom fighters and chaotix. They were all nodding their heads in agreement with Sonic.
"Now, what do you say, Rahn? You gonna stay with us?" asked Sally, placing a hand on his shoulder. Rahn looked down towards the ground and closed his eyes.
"Okay.....I'll stay" said Rahn. He then looked towards Robo-Knux, who was still standing there watching. "How about you? You gonna stay as well?"
"No, I had better not" said R.K.. "However, maybe in the future, I'll join." He turned to face the others standing nearby. "Consider this a truce between us for the time being until I decide. Until then, farewell" said Robo-Knux. He walked over to what was left of Mecha and flew off with him as Rahn and the others walked away from the burning village, and towards where they should have met the other freedom fighters forty-five minutes ago.
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Robotnik sat in his chair, nurseing his swollen jaw. Rahn had successfully broken it, and so he wasn't going to be able to talk for a while. Snively, on the other hand, was going to enjoy the quiet while it lasted during his uncles' recuperation. Robotnik watched a vid screen showing the mechasizer chamber, and the workerbots taking the machine apart. Robotnik had finally decided that it would be impossible to mechasize a mobian and keep them under his control for long. So, he scrapped the whole experiment.
Mecha also had to be rebuilt as well. Robo-Knux was busily putting him back together with a few workerbots nearby. What Robotnik didn't know was that he aided in defeating the blue robot, and was now erasing it's memory of helping in its demise. Another thing that turned out bad, was that his football team lost thirty-five to fifty-six. Robotnik laid back in his chair, and started to doze off, while saying mentally to himself...
'I hate that hedgehog, and that mechabot.'
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Alright! Rahn is on the side of the Freedom Fighters once again! I'm hoping I get some good reveiws for this. And before you ask, there isn't going to be a Rahn/Sally realtionship going on. Their just friends. Anyway, Review and tell me what you think. I should have the Finally out very shortly. Catch you guys later!
Rahn (Mechabot VII)