Chapter 3: Battle of the Wrecking Balls
May 12th, 2307 - 4:00 AM - Reppoc City Hall, Egg City, Robotnik Empire
Robotnik had put up increasingly formidable defenses as Swift and Kyle neared City Hall, slowing them down. However, they hadn't encountered anything they couldn't handle. Some plasma gun turrets, a unit or two of robot foot soldiers, a couple tanks, and assorted other enemy forces. Whatever Swift couldn't handle with his speed and the diamond-hard spines on his back, Kyle covered for him with his own speed and his assault rifle. Finally, they found themselves on the steps of Reppoc City Hall, ready to run inside and get Robotnik.
"Are you ready for this?" Kyle said.
"Of course. Robotnik doesn't have anything left to protect his fat ass with. Let's go get him!"
"Remember though, we need to bring him back alive."
"Yeah yeah, I know. Lucky him that those are our orders."
They looked up at the building before them, with its authoritative-looking Greek columns and wide steps. A shame that the authorities housed here could have done nothing to stop Robotnik. They saw a light on in a large window on the top floor.
"That's probably where Robotnik is..." Kyle said.
"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go get him!"
The two ran up the front steps, and pushed open the front doors of the building. It was very dark inside, and so Kyle turned on the flashlight attached to his assault rifle. He swung the light beam all around the room, looking for potential hostiles. The beam moved over overturned furniture, old bloodstains on the walls and floor, as well as bullet holes and craters caused by explosions. There weren't any bodies though, so Robotnik must have cleaned them out.
There must have been quite a struggle here, Kyle thought to himself. Those poor people who died here...
They quietly crossed over the front lobby, and headed for the stairs on the opposite side of the room. Swift started to mutter under his breath as they got onto the first step.
"Shut up Swift!" Kyle whispered.
"I'm sick of this snooping around," Swift said in a loud voice. "I'm gonna run up there right now and get Robotnik!"
Before Kyle could stop him, Swift had already charged up the stairs as a blue blur.
"He's gonna get himself killed if he keeps doing that!" Kyle said as he took off after him.
Soon, he found himself in the top floor's hallway. He swept it over quickly with his assault rifle, and saw a pair of open double doors at the end of the broad hall. Golden light streamed out into the dark corridor through the doorway, showing an expensive-looking red carpet on the floor. He could hear the sound of a jet engine in that room, as well as some shouting, but he couldn't make anything out over the noise of the jet. He ran down the hall towards the doorway.
Suddenly, Swift ran out through the doors, just as a huge checker-colored wrecking ball crashed through the wall and tore the bottom half of it down. Meanwhile, a small egg-shaped craft crashed through the top half of the wall, and sent that part of the wall crashing down as well. A large chain connected the ball and ship to each other. Seated in the small egg ship was a bald, fat human dressed in the red and yellow costume of the human Overseers. He had small black glasses, and a massive brown mustache. It was Dr. Robotnik himself.
"Well, it's nice to finally meet the both of you," Robotnik said.
"What are you talking about?" Kyle said.
"I've been tracking your progress across the city," Robotnik replied. "You did a really good job making it this far by yourselves."
"Why thank you..." Swift muttered.
"However, I can't let you live, because I can already see you're too dangerous to my plans. Nothing that I put up out there could stop you, when it should have been able to crush an army."
"You hear that Kyle? We're dangerous!" Swift said.
"Consider being killed by me a privilege!" Robotnik shouted, as he swung the wrecking ball on the bottom of his ship towards Swift.
Swift leaped high into the air, as the ball crashed through a wall in the hallway. As Swift landed safely on the ground, Robotnik tore the ball out of the wall, dragging out some smashed office furniture with it.
"You'll have to be faster than that, Doc!" Swift yelled.
Robotnik growled in frustration as he swung the ball at Swift again. Another wall in the hallway was taken out as the ball missed Swift.
"Don't forget about me!" Kyle yelled.
He fired his assault rifle at the engines of the egg mobile, trying to disable them. However, the bullets harmlessly ricocheted off of the strong metal.
"Don't worry, fox, I haven't!"
Robotnik did an overhead swing with his wrecking ball, and brought it hurling down upon Kyle. Kyle jumped away as the ball smashed down through the floor. As the ball swung through the lower floor, the chain tore a gash right through the marble and the carpet. Robotnik rocketed closer to the ceiling, dragging the ball up while creating yet another hole in the floor.
There's not gonna be much of a city hall left once this is over... Kyle thought.
Robotnik continued going up, and smashed through the ceiling with his ship, dragging up the wrecking ball with him.
"Follow me if you dare, Freedomians!"
"With pleasure!" Swift yelled.
He leaped right up through the hole in the floor and Kyle followed close behind. The three of them were now on the roof of Reppoc City Hall. The noises of fires crackling, fighter jets and bombers buzzing overhead, and the distant rumble of explosions filled the chilly night air, but Swift and Kyle barely noticed it, their attention on Robotnik.
"Catch!" Robotnik shouted.
He swung his wrecking ball towards Swift and Kyle, but this time he detached the chain during the swing, sending the ball tumbling across the roof like a giant boulder. However, the two of them easily sidestepped it, and it rolled onto the roof. It fell to the street below, crushing an abandoned bus.
"Sorry, we don't want to play catch," Swift said.
"How about laser tag?!" Robotnik said as two laser blasters popped out of the sides of his ship.
Robotnik fired red lasers all over the place, and the airspace around Swift and Kyle was soon a hailstorm of hard light. Kyle dived behind an air conditioning unit, while Swift ducked behind the entrance to the stairs. The red laser beams bounced off of the obstructions, blocking the shots.
"Hmph..." they heard Robotnik mutter.
There was the noise of something dropping out from the bottom of Robotnik's ship and locking into place. Then, there was a humming noise, like something was charging up. Kyle glanced out from behind the air conditioner he was hiding behind, and saw a glowing blue sphere of energy forming on the bottom of Robotnik's ship. Finally, with a noise that sounded like "FWOOSH!", a blue cutting laser appeared from the bottom of the ship. Robotnik slashed the laser towards Kyle.
"OH CRAP!" he shouted.
Kyle leaped high into the air to dodge the laser. Meanwhile, it slashed through the air where his feet had been a mere second before, and it easily cut through the air conditioner as if it was made out of butter.
Wow...a split second slower and I would have lost my legs... Kyle fleetingly thought.
Suddenly, he remembered that Robotnik still had the smaller red laser, and turned his attention towards Robotnik's egg ship. His eyes widened in fear as he saw Robotnik bringing the smaller laser cannons to bear on his head. He was flying through mid air, with nothing to block the shots. He was dead.
It was at that moment when he saw Swift running towards Robotnik's egg craft. Since Robotnik was completely focused on Kyle, he didn't notice Swift approaching. Swift curled into a ball and leaped at Robotnik's ship. As Robotnik fired, Swift crashed into the side of his machine and knocked it away. This knocked off Robotnik's aim, sending the laser shot flying away from Kyle's head. However, it struck him in the left shoulder, just before the red fox crashed to the ground.
"AAAAH!" Kyle screamed from the sudden pain.
"DAMN!" he heard Robotnik scream in frustration as he corrected from Swift's impact. "One more second and he would have been dead!"
While Kyle was grateful that his head hadn't been shot off, he was rolling on the ground, clutching to his left shoulder with his right arm and moaning in pain. That laser had neatly cut right through his skin, allowing blood to pour out. It felt like a hot bar of steel had been pressed to the spot where he'd been hit.
"KYLE! Are you okay?!" Swift called out.
"Been better!" Kyle shouted back.
"I'll take care of Robotnik, you just rest!"
"Okay!"
Kyle got the strength to sit up, so that he could watch Swift fight Robotnik. He crawled behind the air conditioning unit he had been hiding behind before, to get cover.
"Do you really think you can take me alone, you blue pincushion?!" Robotnik shouted.
"Watch me!" Swift yelled back.
Swift leaped directly at Robotnik again, while curling into a ball. Robotnik was sent flying away from the impact.
"What do you think you are, a wrecking ball?!" Robotnik yelled.
"YES!" Swift said back. "I'm gonna smash you out of the sky!"
Swift kept crashing into Robotnik's ship over and over, while he futilely tried to fire back with his red lasers, but missed all of his shots. The armor on Robotnik's ship seemed strong, but after repeated brushes with Swift's spines it started to get rather worn down. Soon, it looked like Robotnik's egg craft had been put through a giant blender, and it would crash at any moment. While Swift seemed to be getting a headache from crashing into Robotnik's armor so much, he seemed to be holding up much better than the ship itself.
"Time to finish you off!" Swift yelled out.
He charged across the rooftop of the city hall so fast that he left a trail of flames behind him. He leaped into the air, and was going so fast he looked like a blue comet. He smacked right into Robotnik's egg ship and sent it toppling over the side of the roof. Kyle crawled over to the edge of the roof, and watched. With a trail of smoke, Robotnik's machine tumbled down to the street below, and crashed into the pavement. He was sent flying out of his ship onto the street, while his egg ship burst into flames. Robotnik appeared unconscious, or dead, since he didn't move from where he was lying on the concrete.
Well, we got the bastard... Kyle thought. But...is he still alive?! If he's dead, he won't be able to call of his army and we'll have to destroy it the hard way!
"SWIFT! Hurry! We gotta get to him!"
"You're right!" Swift said. "I forgot! If he's dead our mission is a failure!"
Swift grabbed Kyle by his good arm, and the two of them jumped down through the hole in the ceiling. A few seconds later, they had run down the stairs of Reppoc City Hall and were standing at Robotnik's side.
"Hey, you still alive?" Swift said to Robotnik.
Robotnik suddenly coughed up and spit out a mouth full of blood. After a few more coughs, he looked up at the two of them. One of the lenses of his black glasses was smashed, and he had rivers of blood traveling down his face.
"Aren't you going to kill me?" he muttered.
"No, fortunately for you our orders are to keep you alive," Kyle said as he pointed his assault rifle at Robotnik's face, albeit holding it painfully since his shoulder was still hurting. "As long as you don't try anything, we'll keep you as healthy as possible before we turn you in."
"But if you do try something," Swift warned. "We'll kill you in an instant. Now, get up."
Robotnik slowly rose to his feet, while Kyle kept his assault rifle trained on him. Swift tore the rope from a flagpole in front of City Hall and used it to tie up Robotnik's hands behind his back. The three of them set off to the Freedomian Army's camp outside Reppoc, Kyle keeping his rifle on Robotnik, while Swift held the end of the rope attached to Robotnik's hands.
May 12th, 2307 - 4:00 AM - Reppoc City Hall, Egg City, Robotnik Empire
Robotnik had put up increasingly formidable defenses as Swift and Kyle neared City Hall, slowing them down. However, they hadn't encountered anything they couldn't handle. Some plasma gun turrets, a unit or two of robot foot soldiers, a couple tanks, and assorted other enemy forces. Whatever Swift couldn't handle with his speed and the diamond-hard spines on his back, Kyle covered for him with his own speed and his assault rifle. Finally, they found themselves on the steps of Reppoc City Hall, ready to run inside and get Robotnik.
"Are you ready for this?" Kyle said.
"Of course. Robotnik doesn't have anything left to protect his fat ass with. Let's go get him!"
"Remember though, we need to bring him back alive."
"Yeah yeah, I know. Lucky him that those are our orders."
They looked up at the building before them, with its authoritative-looking Greek columns and wide steps. A shame that the authorities housed here could have done nothing to stop Robotnik. They saw a light on in a large window on the top floor.
"That's probably where Robotnik is..." Kyle said.
"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go get him!"
The two ran up the front steps, and pushed open the front doors of the building. It was very dark inside, and so Kyle turned on the flashlight attached to his assault rifle. He swung the light beam all around the room, looking for potential hostiles. The beam moved over overturned furniture, old bloodstains on the walls and floor, as well as bullet holes and craters caused by explosions. There weren't any bodies though, so Robotnik must have cleaned them out.
There must have been quite a struggle here, Kyle thought to himself. Those poor people who died here...
They quietly crossed over the front lobby, and headed for the stairs on the opposite side of the room. Swift started to mutter under his breath as they got onto the first step.
"Shut up Swift!" Kyle whispered.
"I'm sick of this snooping around," Swift said in a loud voice. "I'm gonna run up there right now and get Robotnik!"
Before Kyle could stop him, Swift had already charged up the stairs as a blue blur.
"He's gonna get himself killed if he keeps doing that!" Kyle said as he took off after him.
Soon, he found himself in the top floor's hallway. He swept it over quickly with his assault rifle, and saw a pair of open double doors at the end of the broad hall. Golden light streamed out into the dark corridor through the doorway, showing an expensive-looking red carpet on the floor. He could hear the sound of a jet engine in that room, as well as some shouting, but he couldn't make anything out over the noise of the jet. He ran down the hall towards the doorway.
Suddenly, Swift ran out through the doors, just as a huge checker-colored wrecking ball crashed through the wall and tore the bottom half of it down. Meanwhile, a small egg-shaped craft crashed through the top half of the wall, and sent that part of the wall crashing down as well. A large chain connected the ball and ship to each other. Seated in the small egg ship was a bald, fat human dressed in the red and yellow costume of the human Overseers. He had small black glasses, and a massive brown mustache. It was Dr. Robotnik himself.
"Well, it's nice to finally meet the both of you," Robotnik said.
"What are you talking about?" Kyle said.
"I've been tracking your progress across the city," Robotnik replied. "You did a really good job making it this far by yourselves."
"Why thank you..." Swift muttered.
"However, I can't let you live, because I can already see you're too dangerous to my plans. Nothing that I put up out there could stop you, when it should have been able to crush an army."
"You hear that Kyle? We're dangerous!" Swift said.
"Consider being killed by me a privilege!" Robotnik shouted, as he swung the wrecking ball on the bottom of his ship towards Swift.
Swift leaped high into the air, as the ball crashed through a wall in the hallway. As Swift landed safely on the ground, Robotnik tore the ball out of the wall, dragging out some smashed office furniture with it.
"You'll have to be faster than that, Doc!" Swift yelled.
Robotnik growled in frustration as he swung the ball at Swift again. Another wall in the hallway was taken out as the ball missed Swift.
"Don't forget about me!" Kyle yelled.
He fired his assault rifle at the engines of the egg mobile, trying to disable them. However, the bullets harmlessly ricocheted off of the strong metal.
"Don't worry, fox, I haven't!"
Robotnik did an overhead swing with his wrecking ball, and brought it hurling down upon Kyle. Kyle jumped away as the ball smashed down through the floor. As the ball swung through the lower floor, the chain tore a gash right through the marble and the carpet. Robotnik rocketed closer to the ceiling, dragging the ball up while creating yet another hole in the floor.
There's not gonna be much of a city hall left once this is over... Kyle thought.
Robotnik continued going up, and smashed through the ceiling with his ship, dragging up the wrecking ball with him.
"Follow me if you dare, Freedomians!"
"With pleasure!" Swift yelled.
He leaped right up through the hole in the floor and Kyle followed close behind. The three of them were now on the roof of Reppoc City Hall. The noises of fires crackling, fighter jets and bombers buzzing overhead, and the distant rumble of explosions filled the chilly night air, but Swift and Kyle barely noticed it, their attention on Robotnik.
"Catch!" Robotnik shouted.
He swung his wrecking ball towards Swift and Kyle, but this time he detached the chain during the swing, sending the ball tumbling across the roof like a giant boulder. However, the two of them easily sidestepped it, and it rolled onto the roof. It fell to the street below, crushing an abandoned bus.
"Sorry, we don't want to play catch," Swift said.
"How about laser tag?!" Robotnik said as two laser blasters popped out of the sides of his ship.
Robotnik fired red lasers all over the place, and the airspace around Swift and Kyle was soon a hailstorm of hard light. Kyle dived behind an air conditioning unit, while Swift ducked behind the entrance to the stairs. The red laser beams bounced off of the obstructions, blocking the shots.
"Hmph..." they heard Robotnik mutter.
There was the noise of something dropping out from the bottom of Robotnik's ship and locking into place. Then, there was a humming noise, like something was charging up. Kyle glanced out from behind the air conditioner he was hiding behind, and saw a glowing blue sphere of energy forming on the bottom of Robotnik's ship. Finally, with a noise that sounded like "FWOOSH!", a blue cutting laser appeared from the bottom of the ship. Robotnik slashed the laser towards Kyle.
"OH CRAP!" he shouted.
Kyle leaped high into the air to dodge the laser. Meanwhile, it slashed through the air where his feet had been a mere second before, and it easily cut through the air conditioner as if it was made out of butter.
Wow...a split second slower and I would have lost my legs... Kyle fleetingly thought.
Suddenly, he remembered that Robotnik still had the smaller red laser, and turned his attention towards Robotnik's egg ship. His eyes widened in fear as he saw Robotnik bringing the smaller laser cannons to bear on his head. He was flying through mid air, with nothing to block the shots. He was dead.
It was at that moment when he saw Swift running towards Robotnik's egg craft. Since Robotnik was completely focused on Kyle, he didn't notice Swift approaching. Swift curled into a ball and leaped at Robotnik's ship. As Robotnik fired, Swift crashed into the side of his machine and knocked it away. This knocked off Robotnik's aim, sending the laser shot flying away from Kyle's head. However, it struck him in the left shoulder, just before the red fox crashed to the ground.
"AAAAH!" Kyle screamed from the sudden pain.
"DAMN!" he heard Robotnik scream in frustration as he corrected from Swift's impact. "One more second and he would have been dead!"
While Kyle was grateful that his head hadn't been shot off, he was rolling on the ground, clutching to his left shoulder with his right arm and moaning in pain. That laser had neatly cut right through his skin, allowing blood to pour out. It felt like a hot bar of steel had been pressed to the spot where he'd been hit.
"KYLE! Are you okay?!" Swift called out.
"Been better!" Kyle shouted back.
"I'll take care of Robotnik, you just rest!"
"Okay!"
Kyle got the strength to sit up, so that he could watch Swift fight Robotnik. He crawled behind the air conditioning unit he had been hiding behind before, to get cover.
"Do you really think you can take me alone, you blue pincushion?!" Robotnik shouted.
"Watch me!" Swift yelled back.
Swift leaped directly at Robotnik again, while curling into a ball. Robotnik was sent flying away from the impact.
"What do you think you are, a wrecking ball?!" Robotnik yelled.
"YES!" Swift said back. "I'm gonna smash you out of the sky!"
Swift kept crashing into Robotnik's ship over and over, while he futilely tried to fire back with his red lasers, but missed all of his shots. The armor on Robotnik's ship seemed strong, but after repeated brushes with Swift's spines it started to get rather worn down. Soon, it looked like Robotnik's egg craft had been put through a giant blender, and it would crash at any moment. While Swift seemed to be getting a headache from crashing into Robotnik's armor so much, he seemed to be holding up much better than the ship itself.
"Time to finish you off!" Swift yelled out.
He charged across the rooftop of the city hall so fast that he left a trail of flames behind him. He leaped into the air, and was going so fast he looked like a blue comet. He smacked right into Robotnik's egg ship and sent it toppling over the side of the roof. Kyle crawled over to the edge of the roof, and watched. With a trail of smoke, Robotnik's machine tumbled down to the street below, and crashed into the pavement. He was sent flying out of his ship onto the street, while his egg ship burst into flames. Robotnik appeared unconscious, or dead, since he didn't move from where he was lying on the concrete.
Well, we got the bastard... Kyle thought. But...is he still alive?! If he's dead, he won't be able to call of his army and we'll have to destroy it the hard way!
"SWIFT! Hurry! We gotta get to him!"
"You're right!" Swift said. "I forgot! If he's dead our mission is a failure!"
Swift grabbed Kyle by his good arm, and the two of them jumped down through the hole in the ceiling. A few seconds later, they had run down the stairs of Reppoc City Hall and were standing at Robotnik's side.
"Hey, you still alive?" Swift said to Robotnik.
Robotnik suddenly coughed up and spit out a mouth full of blood. After a few more coughs, he looked up at the two of them. One of the lenses of his black glasses was smashed, and he had rivers of blood traveling down his face.
"Aren't you going to kill me?" he muttered.
"No, fortunately for you our orders are to keep you alive," Kyle said as he pointed his assault rifle at Robotnik's face, albeit holding it painfully since his shoulder was still hurting. "As long as you don't try anything, we'll keep you as healthy as possible before we turn you in."
"But if you do try something," Swift warned. "We'll kill you in an instant. Now, get up."
Robotnik slowly rose to his feet, while Kyle kept his assault rifle trained on him. Swift tore the rope from a flagpole in front of City Hall and used it to tie up Robotnik's hands behind his back. The three of them set off to the Freedomian Army's camp outside Reppoc, Kyle keeping his rifle on Robotnik, while Swift held the end of the rope attached to Robotnik's hands.