Part 5

The wind had picked up somewhat, madly skewing their fur as they ran. Suddenly both heard an sound that was ominous and familiar. Eggman's fighter jets. Both looked up and saw the jets flash by overhead.

"This is not good!" Kyra yelled over the wind, which was steadily increasing in strength and in sound. "He's attacking even sooner than we thought!" fear edged her voice.

Both increased speed, until the only thing that could be seen of them was a trail of wind and smoke. Everything became a blur to them, until they reached the valley the city was located in. Both stopped on the hill overlooking the city. Eggman was not there, or else he was well hidden. His robotic army was definitely there. Not a large one, by his previous standards, but there was enough to densely carpet the valley, like a throbbing group of insects. Fighter Jets and flying robots circled the city from above. All were constantly attacking the protective field, which surrounded the city. Yet they hardly made a dent. And they shield kept on shining brightly, as it had many times before.

A look of fierce vitriolic anger washed across Krya's face. She tensed up and changed into her fox form, spikes bristling. She looked coldly over the swarming robots, her eyes darting from place to place. Bunnie began prepping herself as well, knowing this was going to be a brutal fight.

"For my people!" Kyra yelled wildly as she rushed into the melee.

"For freedom!" yelled Bunnie as well, having caught Kyra's reckless and die-hard attitude.

It was absolute chaos. Each took their own path into the swarm of robots. The robots barely had any time to react before the girls were in their midst, tearing them apart. Bunnie took out bots left and right with her laser sharp laser shooting skills, while Kyra used her body to chop the bots to pieces.

At the same time, both of them had the same idea. Both were doing swath's of damage, but if they take out more robots if they combined firepower.

"Ready," said Bunnie with a knowing nod.

"Steady," echoed Kyra.

"Jump!" they yelled at the same time.

Both of them flew into the air, and quickly charged up their weapons to their limit's. Lighting lit up their backsides, as both their weapons glowed with excessive energy.

"Now," Bunnie said calmly.

For the robots, all was seemingly quiet for a moment, and then a thunderous explosion hit the ground, which wiped out several of them immediately. Others were destroyed by flying debris and the resulting energy-quake. Several of the remaining bots were scattered away from the blast point.

Bunnie and Kyra floated for a few seconds, looking at the destruction they had caused. Then an explosion formed around them a second later, as several of the fighter-jets had locked on to them and fired simultaneously. A massive smoky fireball formed as several of the missiles collided around them. Only a few robots noticed the small stream of smoke descending from the explosion. Then the ground shook again as two objects crashed into it. Creating a shallow crater and two deep holes.

All robots stopped, waiting to see if they had truly eliminated their opponents. A minute passed. A few of the braver bots approached the crater, to see if there were any remains. Eggman had demanded a trophy, no matter how mangled.

Then like some horrible thing rising form the ground, a metallic hand gripped the edge of one hole. The robots shot at it, but to no avail. The hand was soon followed by the rest of the body, even though the robots were shooting madly at it. One shot hit her in the eye, another on her metallic shoulder, yet another shot her in the chest. But Bunnie was not to be stopped.

And she did indeed, resemble something from the grave. Her body, filthy and torn, her metal parts scratched and bent, a mad look in her eyes. One that caused even the logic based robots to step backwards and cease shooting in something akin to fear.

Then another metallic hand broke free of the ground, however it was not where it should have been. The hand grabbed the metallic leg of a robot, which struggled to break free, and pulled itself upward. The robot aimed its weapon at the hand that was crushing its leg. Before it could fire though, a large metallic fox broke through the ground, and literally took a bite out of it. The robot didn't even hit the ground, before the metallic fox was on its next victim.

Both of them continued in their path of death, Bunnie now ripped apart anything that came near with her bare paws. Eventually, they came back to back, fighting the increasingly desperate robots.

"There's one thing I should have told you about," gritted Kyra, who had reverted back to her half organic form, "and that is..." they both separated as several plasma blasts hit the area where they had been standing.

A strange unearthly electrical sound filled the air, and the shield pulsated with light as several sparks flew from it.

"That," the contempt in her voice was evident.

Both saw a strange machine darting around the surface of the shield. It was a horrible thing, that looked like it came out of a nightmare. For all they knew, it had been there the whole battle. From a distance it only looked like a moving shadow. Its shape was bizarre and unnatural, seeming to be made entirely of spikes and claws. Its speed was frighteningly fast, moving several hundred feet in a second. With every second, the effect it had on the shield became more and more evident. And it seemed that the more it attacked the shield, the more energetic and frenzied it became.

Bunnie and Kyra split up, each trying to attack the robot from opposite sides, to see how it would react. The Nightmare-robot immediately changed course, zigzagging away from its attackers.

To their horror, it came back and took a long swipe at the shield with its clawed hand, as it skated on top of it like some demented skater. It was too much for the shield, it sparked some more, then faded into nothingness. This was accompanied by a flash of lightning. Then rain began to pour down.

All active robots immediately advanced full force towards the city. But the city had a few surprises. Both the first and second wave of bots were wiped out by the special forces. The city was not willing to be caught with its guard down again. The force was several hundred strong, and more than willing to do combat with the robots.

Both sides clashed, and the fighting really began. With all of the other robots being kept occupied, Bunnie and Kyra concentrated their effort on the one robot they knew needed to be destroyed. The robot, however nightmarish, was not programmed to be a fool. It immediately ran into the heart of the melee, harming both friend and foe. The two heroes had to concentrate, in order to avoid the constantly changing obstacles of the battlefield. While also keeping an eye out for their unnaturally fast opponent. They also took the liberty of ramming any bot that got in the way.

Kyra switched back into fox mode. As soon as she exited the melee, several deadly looking spikes of various lengths appeared on her body. Bunnie saw the Nightmare-bot move away from the battle. She unleashed a wide laser beam, cutting it back and forth over the area it was at. She scored a direct hit on two of its limbs, causing it to momentarily crash. Kyra reached it, fangs bared, before it had recovered. She jumped at it, and tried to bite it. But the robot used the force of her jump against her, and sent her flying into the ground. Though she quickly recovered, it had made good on its reprieve. It moved noticeably slower now, due to it's missing limbs.

Bunnie managed to get in several close range shots, but she stepped too close, and the robot turned on her like a starved parasite. Bunnie crashed to her back, as she tried to avoid the attack. The robot missed, but her head took a pounding from the fall, and she became disoriented. The robot made a pinpoint turn on one of its claws and rushed towards her. Determined to drastically shorten her lifespan. But it had forgotten one thing.

Kyra.

She hit the robot right where she'd wanted to. Her fangs bit through one of it claws, while one of her spikes drove through its frame.

It should have dropped right there, but it didn't.

With the one good hand it had left, it reached out and embraced her neck in a deadly grip.

It seemed to Kyra as if the whole world had gone silent. She could not hear a thing; only feel the crushing grip of the metal claws, as it bent the metallic covering over her throat inward. Then, her ears were filled with noise, a "Twoom" sound, like a fire makes after it's been fed oil. Her body crashed to the ground. She could not get up, nor look to see, the trauma had put her body into shock.

She lay there for several minutes, only able to hear the diminishing sounds of battle, and the earth shaking rolls of thunder. As she was being slowly soaked by the wind-swept rain.

Though Kyra didn't know it, Bunnie was nearby. The amount of blood she had lost from her organic parts had been too much for her to keep fighting. So she laid there, half-conscious, ready to laser-blast anything that even remotely resembled a robot. Which was exactly what she had done to the Nightmare-bot.

Just before the sounds of battle faded, Kyra heard the rain. Not just the light wind-swept type that had been falling before, but a rain that fell in a constant ruthless barrage. Making it impossible to see more than a few feet, and drowning her ears in noise, as it beat relentlessly on her metallic covering.

Several minutes passed.

Bunnie had managed to pull herself into a sitting position. She sat there, looking like something out of a horror movie. Drenched with blood and water. She saw some shadows coming through the rain. Slowly, she put her gun into position, ready to fire if it was a foe. Thankfully, it wasn't.

"Is anybody out here?" yelled a voice through the rain.

"Yes," croaked Bunnie, though she was drenched with water, her throat felt very dry. "Yes!" she said a little louder.

"Were coming for you. Just tell us what you need," the voice called as it got closer.

"Don't help me sugar," Bunnie's voice still croaked. "Help her..." she moved her arm towards Kyra's still form.

"Are you okay, miss?" Kyra heard the voice through the rain, quite near her head. Krya blinked, and rain filled her vision. She struggled to get up.

"I think so," she said, as she felt the various pains around her body. "Mainly, I'm a bit sore."

Especially in the neck, she thought.

"Bummer," the voice said, "but you got off pretty light, all things considered."

Kyra managed to get in a standing position. She saw several members of the special brigade, with various degrees of clarity through the rain. She heard some of them calling out, to see if any of their companions were laying out there in the rain.

"Kyra," a voice called, she turned around and saw that it was one of the doctors-in-training, still in battle uniform. She knew all of the cities doctors and scientist's, through her connection with the Professor.

"Yes, Marsha?"

"There's something I have to show you," she could hear sadness in her voice.

Kyra followed her, through the raining dark. Most of the fighters she saw looked battle weary, but fine. A few had cuts or plasma burns, and were being given temporary remedies; such as bandages and portable bio-stasis swaths, until they could be relocated to the hospital.

Then they came upon what they were headed for. Lying there, half-covered in bio-stasis swatches, was Derrick, The Professor.

Kyra knew of his involvement with the Special Forces, and that he'd always insisted on being prepared for battle. He'd often joked, that if he'd hadn't been a scientist, he would have become a warrior.

He was a horrible sight to see; Kyra could see underneath the bio-swaths and saw that his chest was literally ripped apart. The swatches would keep him alive, for the moment. His body armour was covered with scratches and holes, and not tiny ones either.

"He was hit by five robots." the doctor bit her lip, "They all fired at somebody, I'm not sure who, and the Professor got in the way. A-and..."

"That's enough, she can figure it out," came the voice of the Professor. "She's a smart girl."

"Professor!" Kyra exclaimed, "You're still here!" She got onto her knees, and carefully gave him a hug, then gave him a kiss, being careful not to move his swatches.

"Don't go dyin' on me," she whispered into his ear.

"No. It's my time to die. Sad really, I spent so much of my life fighting death. But... it's my time to go now. My body is too damaged to fix. Once I'm done talking to you, I'll have them turn off the bio-stasis swatches. Don't need anyone to be bothered with my carcass longer than they have to..."

"You've never been a bother," Kyra replied, tears in her eyes, a gritted smile on her face.

"We've all got to die sometime, Kyra. I was able to give you a longer life; perhaps I was being arrogant or selfish, trying to cheat death. But I've never regretted the life that I gave you. So keep on living robo-gal. This world needs you. Besides," he smiled slightly, "I don't want all those good parts going to waste."

"Professor..." Kyra gave a half-groan.

"Listen up Kyra," he turned serious, " I just want to say a couple more things. First, you have made my life an absolute joy, and I'm glad that things have worked out for you. You still have a father who loves you, even if he's not always perfect at showing it. You have a place to call home. And you have a purpose in life, though it'll always be up to you to decide if you should use it. Secondly, I just want to say, I love you, and goodbye. Until whatever..."

They talked for a few more minutes, reminiscing, arguing, and just saying whatever was on their hearts. When the medical crew went to turn off the bio-stasis swatches, they had to move around Kyra's body, as she hugged the Professor with a relentless grip, sobbing over and over: "Goodbye! Goodbye! Goodbye!"

And the rain poured steadily on.