Chapter 15 – Virtual Victory

Without warning Kat sprung forwards. Klim was quick to  react as he swung his spear out in front of him, probably hoping to have Kat charge into it. However, Kat was quicker. He knocked the spear aside with his pan and then followed it up with a savage kick to his lower chest. I leapt in as Klim fell over taking a diagonal swipe at him with my sword. Kat managed to block it but the way my attack was placed made it so he was in a very vulnerable position. I quickly spun to the side landing a clean slash to Kat's side.

However my triumph was short lived as I was suddenly greeted by a pan in my face.

My head spun and I fell over backwards and lost my vision for a moment. I looked back to see Klim and Kat both airborne and Klim delivering a powerful blow to Kat knocking him to the ground. I scrambled to my feet as the pair landed and Kat clobbered Klim away. As Kat got to his feet I clobbered him round the head with my sword from behind.

Klim seemed to seize this opportunity and swung his spear upwards at Kat. The move, however, was blocked at the last second and Kat spun away to the side. He was no longer between us, which was annoying, but also he was no longer between us and the Elemus.

"Lynx! GO! Get the Elemus! I'll deal with Kat." said Klim as he got to his feet.

"Stay safe Klim. Don't do anything stupid!" I replied to him as I spun.

Racing across the room, I drew my sword and swung it behind me. This Elemus machine might be able to absorb emerald related moves but let's see how it dealt with normal specials. As I ran I started to channel a bit of energy into my blade. A blue charge started to build around it.

"Let's see how you handle…huh?"

I slowed slightly as I neared the Elemus. It was a round machine consisting of a large dome at the bottom out of which a small tower rose to a sphere shaped bulge before the tower tapered off to a point. Various aerials and such like such out of it in places but these weren't what my attention was on. Several small apertures had opened in the spherical bulge. I watched as out of the holes appeared a number of gun looking devices. Gun looking devices? That didn't sound good! That definitely didn't sound good. I didn't have an y more time to think about it though as the five newly appeared machine gun turrets opened fire spraying the area I was in with bullets.

I quickly took off. I was faster in the air and now that I had nearly master flying I would probably be able to dodge more easily too. Gaining a few meters I spun to the left in flight to avoid another volley of shots that had followed my up. The glow on my blade was still there and I quickly flung it forwards sending a bright energy wave towards Elemus. The wave glanced the side of the machine cutting a small gash in its top and tearing a gun emplacement apart.

I was now hovering in a circular pattern around the Elemus facing towards it. It gave me the best position to evade and look for openings. Another lot of fire came my way and with a quick jinxing move I managed to dodge it ad get close to the machine too. The shots were still coming in but I found everything going slow again. Once again my time move was starting to happen. It still puzzled me how I managed to pull this move off. It just happened when I needed it. As time slowed down I found I could see every bullet as it flew towards me. A stream of ripples followed each one as they slowly gained on me. It was just like the Matrix bullet time. I couldn't believe how cool this was. I moved slowly upwards as a set of bullets passed slowly beneath me. Hovering above the Elemus, I wasted no time as I brought my sword above my head and dived. As I did I swung my sword down and embedded it deeply in one of the guns. It sparked and crackled but luckily for me didn't explode. Saying that it wasn't an energy gun.

Time suddenly returned to normal as I yanked my sword from the gun husk and sprung backwards off the machine and into the air. The fire was less now but it was still heavy. A charged another wave on my blade and made ready to dive in again. However before I did I felt a sudden twinge of pain in a couple of my tails. They had been shot. The pain built and I struggled to hold in a scream. The damaged tails quickly fell out of formation and slumped to my side. Luckily only a couple of my tails had been hit so I could still fly. A quick glanced revealed my tails to be shredded at the tips and closer to the base coated in blood. I grimaced slightly and then pushed it away. Diving down I took a hard strike at a third gun using the energy wave to enhance the strikes power. This time the gun did explode throwing my backwards slightly.

The explosion didn't help my tails any as a couple of them got slightly char grilled. The joint pain of the bullets and the burn coupled with my constant flight was now beginning to wear me down. Two guns remained but I was only just dodging the shots.

"Gotta…gotta keep going…." I wheezed to myself quietly.

Just then something I didn't expect happened. A glint caught my eye and a small glance revealed a long spear flying across the room. It struck a fourth gun dead on and caused it to explode in a dazzling display of sparks before the spear fell away to the side.

"Klim!" I said suddenly.

Another glance nearly made me sick as I saw Klim collapse into a heap on the floor. All these glances had not helped my dodging and the final machine gun was still blaring away. My attention quickly turned back to the Elemus but before I could do anything I heard something in my head. Time slowed to a stop as it spoke.

"I can help."

"How?"

"Your blade. Merge me with your blade…"

I knew what to do in an instant as I took out the cyan emerald. It glowed brightly but I could feel its strength wasn't there. Swinging it round in one hand I brought my blade in with the other hand. The two items suddenly met with a blinding flash. I gripped both the emerald and my sword tightly as I felt them both heat up. Energy was now flowing past me in long streams of colour as a steady whine filled the air. Suddenly I could no longer feel the emerald. I looked at my sword to see that it was no longer there. Well the handle was but the blade had gone. In its place floated the cyan emerald surrounded by a ghost like image of my blade made of energy. The energy gave a flash and suddenly expanded in length. It continued to grow and in a flash my sword reappeared. I couldn't help but stare at the sight. The bade had doubled in length and was a deep cyan colour. Near the base of the sword it bulged out to produce a gap in which the cyan emerald floated.

I spun my attention back to the Elemus. I was amazed that it hadn't fired at me but I suddenly realized why. Time was stopped! Not just slowed but completely stopped. Bullets hung in mid air as I turned to face it. I swung my sword out in front of it and a flurry of ice and snow sprung up around me. I felt a cold feeling in my tails and glanced over to find that they had all turned into ice. I fixed my gaze on Elemus a final time and growled.

"You might be able to absorb emerald attacks…but let's see you absorb an attack that doesn't exist in real time!"

Without warning my tails suddenly pulsed and flew from my body. The nine bolts of ice flew towards the Elemus and struck it. Moments later I felt a familiar feeling behind me as another set of nine normal tails appeared behind me.

"YAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!" I screamed as I leapt forwards.

As I did I spun my tails shooting towards the Elemus in a blizzard of ice and snow. I don't remember the next few seconds. The next thing I remember was time returning to normal and, in a huge gigantic explosion that rocked the room, the Elemus exploding. I was thrown to the side and hit a wall hard before I slumped to the floor. Pieces of the machine was now scattered all over the room and small fires burned here and there.

I looked up slowly from the floor. Kat and Klim lay on the floor a few meters away surrounded in rubble. I got to my feet as best I could and scramble over to them both. I rolled Klim onto his back and check him over. He was beaten up pretty badly and had a number of nasty wounds. He was however breathing and he did have a pulse. I sighed heavily, at least that was something to be pleased about.

I then looked over at Kat. Kat was our friend but if he really had turned I wouldn't allow him to stop us. I readied my sword and slowly moved over to him. A large light was lying across him and I slowly pushed it off. I cautiously leaned forwards and checked his pulse, it was there. My next point of call was to fish through his pockets. I removed his frying pan from his hand and flung it across the room before removing the blue and red emeralds from his pockets. I put them away and then made completely sure he was out cold before I continued. I checked him over for wounds and such like. Our assault on him had been hard and he had multiple injuries all over him. It was then that I noticed something odd on his neck. Embedded in the skin on the back of his neck was a small chip. It was dinted and a bit of it had been smashed off but it still remained. A Robotnik symbol was visible on it.

"Robotnik! What's this chip for?" I puzzled.

Just then I heard someone approaching down the corridor I had come down. I stood up and gripped my sword tightly. I readied myself for an attack if any came. The steps were getting closer now and at a running pace too. Suddenly Jynx and Klime careered into the room and skidded to a halt. I must have scared them half to death.

"YARGH!" cried Klime as he stopped so suddenly he almost fell over.

Jynx skidded to a halt just in front of my sword. He looked at it and then at me and then fell over. I quickly dropped my sword and knelt down next to him. I shook him and he blinked and then looked at me for a second before screaming.

"ARGH! Lynx! Dammit!" he said trying to catch his breath, "You scared me to death."

"Sorry." I replied.

"We've dealt with those metal counterparts." said Klime as he got up.

I helped Jynx to his feet and he looked round.

"I see you got things covered here too." he said.

"Almost." I replied.

I turned back to Klim and Kat. Kat would have to wait. When and if he came round he'd have to explain himself before I did anything to him but Klim was different. I slowly removed my green emerald and knelt down next to him. I placed a hand on his shoulder and closed my eyes. For the first time in I was actually using the green emeralds healing properties outside of a battle. I was relaxed for the most part and the whole technique came much easier. Both myself and Klim started to glow a pale green colour…