Chapter 2: A Fiery Finish

March 3rd, 2314 – 4:50 PM – Elona University, Forest Town, Elona

"It's been a long time hasn't it Kyle?" Robotnik said. "About six years, right? Anyway, I thought I should drop by and say hello to you. Let's keep this brief, because I must be off to attack Planet Freedom again with my newly rebuilt army..."

Kyle was already boiling with rage from Robotnik killing his wife, but this casual conversational tone of Robotnik's sent him over the edge.

"YOU KILLED HER!" Kyle screamed. "I'M GONNA RIP YOUR HEART OUT FOR THAT!"

"Such harsh words..." Robotnik muttered.

"Dad, are you okay?" Tails asked.

"I'll be okay, son..." Kyle said.

Kyle stood up from his kneeling position, but staggered from the bleeding gash in his left leg. He fell down to his knees again, unable to take the pain from his deep cut. Kyle tore his shirt off and tied it around the cut as a makeshift bandage. He got back up to a stand again, trying his hardest to bear the pain.

"While I can't understand why anyone would want to make an antidote for such a wonderful thing like roboticization," Robotnik said, his words dripping with sarcasm. "It's been quite instrumental in your death, which I like."

Kyle looked up at Robotnik from his cut.

"I deliberately waited until right after you were de-roboticized to attack. If you were still roboticized, you would probably be beating me right now. It's so sad that you were so eager to change back into your original, inferior organic form."

"That robot body was like hell itself Robotnik! There's no way it's greater than my old body!"

"But in your robot body you couldn't feel any pain. I'm sure you're not having any joy right now with that cut, are you?"

Kyle started to step towards Robotnik, but already he was stumbling due to the limp in his leg. He got down on one knee again. Tails and Sonic ran over to help him up.

"Dad! Don't fight him!" Tails said. "You can't even walk right!"

"Tails, I have to fight him," Kyle said as he shakily stood up. "I don't want him to get away with killing Natalie...or Swift."

"No Kyle!" Sonic said. "I don't want you to die trying to get even!"

"You should listen to your little brat kids," Robotnik said with a laugh. "I think they're already smarter than you. How about you just let me kill you and your kids quickly and painlessly instead? You'll be a complete family again, at least in the afterlife..."

"Kids...I want you to run," Kyle said. "Get as far away from here as you can, while you still have time."

"Dad! No!" Tails said.

"Sonic, look after Tails for me, will you?" Kyle said.

"Kyle, you're killing yourself!" Sonic yelled. "Don't fight Robotnik! Let me fight him instead! I can take him!"

"If you don't run now, we'll all die," Kyle said. "I'm already dead with this leg anyway. Get to the Tornado. I've shown you how to fly it before, so you should be able to use it to get away. Run away, I don't know where, just run!"

"Don't do it dad!" Tails screamed, tears streaming down his face.

"DAMMIT! RUN KIDS! THAT'S AN ORDER!" Kyle screamed at Sonic and Tails.

Sonic and Tails were so shocked by Kyle's sudden outburst that they stumbled backwards. Even Robotnik was a bit taken aback by how angry Kyle was.

"Come on Tails," Sonic said, grabbing Tails' hand. "Your dad needs us to go."

"Okay..." Tails said. He took one last look at Kyle, before he said, "Daddy...beat Robotnik..."

"I will son, don't worry," Kyle said. "Now go!"

Tails nodded, tears still streaming down his face.

"Hold on Tails!" Sonic shouted. One second later, there was a sonic boom as Sonic ran out of the room while holding onto Tails. The next second, the two kids were gone. Kyle and Robotnik were alone now. Kyle walked towards Robotnik's ship, limping from the wound in his leg.

I'll be with you soon, Natalie and Swift. I just hope that this will be enough of a sacrifice for our kids.

---

Robotnik chuckled a little as Kyle limped towards his ship. That stupid red fox actually thought he could take him on, in his condition? At the same time though, Robotnik was a little impressed with how much he was willing to give up for his children.

"Very brave..." Robotnik commented. "Too bad it will be for nothing. As soon as I'm finished with you, I'm going to hunt down your cute little kids and tear them limb from limb!"

Robotnik pressed some buttons inside his ship, and two laser cannons popped out of the sides of the craft. The mad doctor lined up the targeting crosshairs on Kyle's head, and depressed the trigger. However, with surprising speed, Kyle snatched up a piece of concrete sitting on the floor next to him. He then blocked his head with the concrete, so that the laser blasts harmlessly hit it instead. Kyle then limped as fast as he could to get behind what was left of the de-roboticizer.

"Hiding won't help you Kyle!" Robotnik shouted.

Robotnik heard Kyle grunting behind the de-roboticizer, wondering what he was doing. It sounded like he was trying to lift something heavy. A few seconds later, he emerged from behind the machine, holding a large canister. He stumbled on his bad leg to hold it, but he still managed to remain standing. Suddenly, he hurled the thing right at Robotnik's ship. Robotnik frantically brought his laser cannons to bear on the container, and fired upon it. However, as soon as he had hit the cylinder, it exploded into a massive fireball that blasted his ship into a wall.

"How do you like the fuel my wife uses for her de-roboticizer?!" Kyle yelled.

Robotnik screamed out his rage. He fought with the control stick of his ship, but it wouldn't move. It was stuck. Robotnik turned around, and saw that his egg ship had been imbedded in the wall by the explosion. Robotnik growled, and applied more power to his thrusters.

"Come on!" Robotnik shouted, fighting to get his ship in the air again.

Meanwhile, he saw Kyle limping as fast as he could towards the hole in the wall that had been blasted open earlier. Robotnik finally managed to tear his ship out of the wall, and maneuvered it to chase after Kyle. He flew through the hole in the wall, and saw Kyle running through the university parking lot just outside of the destroyed laboratory.

Why is he going through there? There's no cover in the parking lot...

He then noticed Kyle stopping next to a silver luxury sedan. The fox pulled a key chain out of his pocket, and pressed a button on a door remote.

"Think you can get away from me in your stupid car, you stupid fox?!" Robotnik shouted.

However, instead of jumping into the car, Kyle opened the back trunk, and reached inside for something.

"Always knew you weren't dead Robotnik!" Kyle yelled, still fumbling with the trunk of his car. "That's why I take this with me everywhere I go!"

Kyle finally turned away from his car, something large and gray in his hands. It was an assault rifle, the same assault rifle that he had used six years ago when the Freedomian Army was attacking his original secret base. Only now, a grenade launcher was attached to the bottom as well. Kyle opened fire on Robotnik's ship, the rifle rounds pinging off of the metal. Robotnik ducked his head to avoid the shots. When the firing stopped, Robotnik looked out from behind the control console.

"You may have a gun, but do you really think it will make much of a difference?" Robotnik asked.

Kyle pulled the trigger on the grenade launcher attached to his rifle. The explosive round flew through the air and hit the underside of his egg ship. The ensuing explosion destroyed the frontal hover jets. Robotnik's ship lurched forward, unable to stay at a standstill in the air. Robotnik saw that he was flying straight down into the pavement, and pulled up quickly on the control stick. He barely managed to avoid hitting the ground, and scraped across the tops of a few parked cars. Soon he was back up in the air, and had turned his ship around again to face Kyle. Kyle however wasn't facing him. He was busy grabbing more ammunition from his car's trunk.

"You'll pay for that, Kyle!" Robotnik screamed.

Kyle turned around, a terrified look on his face. He hurriedly opened up the barrel of the grenade launcher, and popped in a new grenade. However, just as he closed the barrel again, Robotnik fired a volley of missiles at Kyle. He managed to just barely get out of the path of the rockets, but they slammed into the row of parked cars he was standing next to. Explosions tore down the line of parked cars like a firecracker. Kyle was thrown to the blacktop in a heap, his flesh burnt and blood seeping out from multiple wounds.

Robotnik deployed a large robotic arm on the bottom of his ship, and hovered next to Kyle. The robot arm grabbed Kyle by the lower torso, and brought him up into the air. He hung limply within the arm's grasp. The rifle in Kyle's hand clinked against the metal of the arm. Robotnik moved the arm so that Kyle was now being held at eye level with him. Kyle slowly reared his head up from its limp position, so that he was looking at Robotnik.

Before I kill him, I'd like one last talk with him.

"How do you like your reward for protecting your children?" Robotnik sneered.

"Can't think of a better way to die, Robotnik. Dying to save my kids."

"All you did was delay my search for them by a few minutes. You've thrown away your life over nothing, Kyle."

"I know my kids will get away, Robotnik. They're too fast to catch. Remember how fast Swift and me were? Well, our kids are even faster than that, and they're only twelve and six right now. You should have killed them when you had the chance. Now they're gonna grow up and kill you instead."

Robotnik started laughing very hard at that statement. He lowered his head and closed his eyes, one hand on his forehead.

"Ha...very funny Kyle. I still say that your sacrifice is for nothing."

There was a click. Robotnik opened his eyes and looked up.

"You sure?" Kyle said, his finger on the trigger for the grenade launcher. "I'll die, but I'm going out with a bang!"

"NO!" Robotnik screamed.

Kyle squeezed the trigger for the grenade launcher, and one second later the grenade slammed right into the front of his egg ship. While the ship absorbed most of the explosion, the blast badly burned Robotnik's face and upper body. The robotic arm that Kyle was holding was smashed to pieces, and the fox's body fell to the ground. Robotnik's ship took a nosedive into the burning cars that he had destroyed earlier. Robotnik limply reached for the emergency eject button, and managed to slam it down. His chair was sent flying into the air, before his small craft crashed and exploded. A parachute popped out of Robotnik's ejector seat, and he slowly drifted to the ground below with its help. He hit the ground with a hard thump.

Robotnik limply looked around. His vision was very blurry, and he was in extreme pain. Being so close to the center of that explosion had singed his upper body quite badly. He took off his glasses, and pressed the button on them to call for backup. He heard the distant echoes of a jet engine nearby. That would be his rescue jet, which he had put on call in case things got ugly. After he put the glasses back on, he noticed Kyle lying on the pavement nearby. His body had been scorched black by the explosion, and he wasn't moving. Robotnik weakly smiled at that sight.

At least that's...one...victory... Robotnik thought, as the rescue jet set down near him. He slipped into unconsciousness shortly thereafter from the pain.