Chapter 4: Family Legacy

March 12th, 2314 – 1:00 PM – Mor, Zeraw

As he commanded his soldiers in battle, Robotnik thought that Robotnik War II was off to a great start. Most everyone had thought that he had been dead ever since the end of Robotnik War I in 2308, when in reality he was only biding his time in the secrecy of his new headquarters, rebuilding the strength of his army with even more robots and war machines. The Freedomian Army had also gotten fat and lazy ever since their victory over him six years ago, with how they had let their equipment rust, their razor sharp combat reflexes dull, their minds soften towards getting back to civilian life. Because of that, cities in the Land of Darkness were falling to him left and right, with barely any resistance being offered. It was so easy that it was pathetic.

And despite how great everything was going for Robotnik, he still felt himself seething with rage over two people: Swift Hedgehog and Kyle Prower. They were the two soldiers most directly responsible for his defeat in Robotnik War I six years ago, and the two people he had wanted to see dead more than anything in the world. But, even though they were gone now, Robotnik frequently thought of them and how much trouble both of them had caused him while he was trying to take over Planet Freedom.

During Robotnik War I, if he saw them on the battlefield, that meant certain defeat for him. They were like demons in a war zone, cutting through anything he threw at them like a knife through butter. He had managed to kill Swift towards the end of the first war, but his headquarters had been captured shortly thereafter. Kyle was still alive as well, which had enraged Robotnik to no end in the six years since the last war had ended.

What made the experience worse was watching the survivor Kyle Prower and his family enjoy the peace. Not only had he had the nerve to raise both his own wretched son Tails and Swift's son Sonic (whom he adopted after his father died), his wife Natalie was working on a cure for his wonderful roboticization process. The nerve of that woman, trying to destroy the fruits of his labor by building a de-roboticizer! Robotnik made it a goal to personally kill Kyle Prower and his entire family right after he finished preparations for Robotnik War II.

However, the planned attack on Kyle's family several days ago went rather sour. While Natalie and Kyle had been killed in the attack, and the prototype de-roboticizer destroyed, Kyle had critically wounded Robotnik in a last ditch grenade attack before he died. That had caused him to have to stay in bed and recover, but fortunately medical technology had advanced to the point where he could be revived in days, in what used to take weeks or months. The doctors he had kidnapped from a Carlboron hospital had made sure he was healed promptly, out of fear of their lives.

Kyle's children were still alive out there somewhere...but Robotnik didn't really care anymore. Whether they lived or died wouldn't have any effect on Robotnik War II, and trying to find them would be like looking for a needle in a haystack anyway.

His thoughts were suddenly interrupted when he heard one of the soldiers beneath him start shooting.

"Cease fire!" Robotnik angrily screamed.

The offending robot quickly obeyed. Robotnik pulled out a laser pistol and blasted its head off with one shot. The robot's head bounced across the street, as its body toppled to the pavement, while none of the other robots so much as even flinched.

"Don't interrupt me while I'm thinking!" he snarled. He then turned to see what the soldier had been shooting at, and saw a fast food restaurant surrounded by a parking lot and a few abandoned cars. Two little kids were standing at the entrance of the building.

Robotnik was about to give the order to fire again, but then he took a closer look at the two children standing there. One was a blue hedgehog, and the other was an orange fox with two tails. They looked strangely familiar...and then it hit him about a half-second later. They were Sonic and Tails, and he had seen them back at the university lab. They were Kyle Prower's children. Robotnik got a sly grin on his face. The doctor had been so sure that he wouldn't find Kyle's kids, that it took a moment for him to realize that he had been lucky enough to actually find them.

True, it doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things if they die or live, but I would like to tie up the loose end I left behind back at the university.

He raised a hand to order his soldiers to halt, and they did so with standard robotic efficiency. Then he pointed his arm towards the restaurant, signaling them to face the building. While Sonic stood solid as a rock despite the maneuver, Tails' tails had puffed out to twice their original size, and he was shaking in fright. He cowered behind his adopted brother.

"Stand down men..." Robotnik said to his soldiers.

They complied, holding their rifles up in a relaxed position. The doctor cleared his throat, and then spoke as loudly as he could to the kids.

"Sonic and Tails!"

Tails was freaking out even more than he had been before. Now the fox's tails had puffed up to three times their regular size, and he looked like he was about to pass out right there. Sonic still remained standing adamant, as solidly as a rock. The hedgehog then pushed one foot in front of the other, and held out an arm. He was going into a fighting stance, as if he were ready to do battle with Robotnik.

Arrogant and cocky, just like his father. I must teach him respect.

"Look at you, Sonic," Robotnik said. "You think you can take me on? Remember that I have killed your father Swift, and Tails' parents Kyle and Natalie. I have conquered many cities already, and I only started my new war a few days ago. What makes you think that I won't trample you just as easily?"

"I can't just stand by and do nothing," Sonic said. "I don't care who you are. You can still die just as easy as anyone else. And I'm going to prove that to you!"

"Let's see if your adopted dad was right about you then," Robotnik said.

"Kyle, Tails' dad?"

"Yes, he told me: '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.'"

Sonic smiled a bit, apparently happy that Kyle had confidence in him even while he was dying. Robotnik intended to squash that happiness flat right now though.

"I'm going to prove that stupid red fox wrong today," Robotnik said, pointing at Sonic and Tails. "It will be the perfect revenge on Kyle for that insult he gave me before he died. Children defeating me? Ridiculous!"

Sonic screamed in rage at the word "children", and charged towards Robotnik's egg ship across the short distance that separated them.

---

Sonic knew the odds were against him in this fight, with Robotnik having an entire unit of soldiers backing him up, but quite frankly he didn't give a damn. All that mattered to him was killing Robotnik, the man who had been responsible for ruining his and so many others' lives on Planet Freedom. With that burning anger coursing through his veins, everything else took a back seat, including rational thinking. However, that didn't mean he didn't have a plan.

Sonic leaped high into the air, and curled into a ball. He hurtled towards Robotnik's egg ship like a cannonball. At the point of contact, he was rewarded with a satisfying crunch of metal, glass, and plastic, and an angry roar from Dr. Robotnik as he was sent toppling backwards through the air. The ship was sent flying back several feet before the doctor could finally recover from the blow. Sonic landed on his feet after the attack and admired his handiwork. A dent the size of a cannonball was left where he had hit the ship. Sonic was amazed that his spines could do that much damage. Suddenly, the odds against him seemed much fairer.

"I see that you have some of your father Swift in you," Robotnik said, his face contorting into a wicked grin. "It doesn't matter though. You're still only a child."

Only a child...

Those words felt like a red hot poker through Sonic's chest. It angered Sonic how Robotnik still thought he wasn't worth fighting, just because he was young.

"Who cares if I'm a kid!" Sonic screamed. "I'm still going to kill you!"

"You aren't old enough to know true failure yet," Robotnik stated. "That's why you think you can beat me so easily, and that will be your downfall."

"Shut up about how old I am!" Sonic shouted, as he started to rush towards Robotnik's ship again.

He leaped straight at Robotnik's ship, and curled into a ball again as he prepared to make contact. Before he could reach Robotnik though, a white-hot pain struck him in the left leg. It was like someone sliced a knife across his skin. Sonic toppled out of his spin and crashed to the ground in a heap. He cried out in pain as he put his hand to the new wound in his leg. Sonic's face fell as he looked and saw a long burning gash on his lower leg. He could see a bright red slice under his blue fur. It was oozing only a little blood, but the pain felt severe.

"What did I just tell you?" Robotnik said, lowering his ship down to the ground to talk to Sonic. "Your overconfidence will be your downfall, and I was right. Do you really think you could beat me the same way your father beat me? I've learned from my mistakes since then."

"Shut up...you shit head..." Sonic muttered, his voice sounding weak.

"And out comes the verbal abuse..." Robotnik said with a grin. In a demeaning tone, he said, "People always use language like that when they know they can't win."

Sonic growled at Robotnik, and struggled to get up. It was incredibly painful with the burning gash on his leg, but the demons of rage within him gave him strength that he didn't know he had. A few drops of hot blood trickled down his leg and pattered across the pavement.

I am not going to let him get away with saying that to me!

With a sudden heave of strength, Sonic got to his feet, and leaped directly at Robotnik. He curled into a ball, and smashed through the front windshield of the egg craft. He then felt something soft and pliable as he crossed over the cockpit, and realized that it was Robotnik's face. Something was dripping off of his spines, and it was blood. While Sonic normally didn't like the sight of blood at all, he grinned a little at realizing Robotnik had been wrong when he said that Sonic had nothing left in him. However, when he landed on the ground, his knees gave way underneath him and he hit his face on the ground, hard.

Sonic got up on one hand, and put the other hand to his face. He felt a throbbing pain as his fingers brushed across his cheek. It looked like hitting the ground had put some scrapes there. Once again, Sonic gritted his teeth as he rose up from the ground, trying to get back onto his feet again. When he had managed to stand up again, he turned to see that Robotnik had crashed his ship into the horde of soldiers he had with him. Sonic smiled through the pain.

However, the egg ship shuddered though, and rose up into the air once again. A couple of robot soldiers had gotten tangled in the under workings of the ship, and were being dragged up into the air as the little craft climbed. Robotnik looked out from his ship, and Sonic saw long gashes on his face where his spines had left their mark. The doctor turned to Sonic, and he looked absolutely furious.

"That's it you goddamn rodent! No more talking!" Robotnik screamed at him. "You and your fuzzy friend die now!"

Robotnik looked down at the remaining soldiers.

Screaming at the top of his lungs, he said, "All soldiers open fire!"

The parking lot of the restaurant was ablaze with laser fire. Amidst the laser blasts, Sonic noticed a large SUV had been parked just to the left of where he was standing. He dived behind it for cover. It would keep him safe for a few moments, but no longer. The shots shattered the windows, punctured the tires, and melted the metal panels as they made contact.

Sonic didn't know what to do. He couldn't run away even with his leg like this, and even if he could the field of laser fire was too intense. He glanced back towards the restaurant, and saw Tails down on his hands and knees behind the broken glass doors, watching Sonic with terror in his eyes. Sonic felt the same terror, because he would only need to get hit once and it would all be over. Not to mention, his cover was rapidly deteriorating. The car practically looked like a block of Swiss cheese now, and lasers were starting to puncture all the way through the car and out the other side.

Sonic took another look back at Tails. About ten yards of asphalt separated the two, but that asphalt was being chewed up by laser blasts. They were so near to each other, and yet so far away. Sonic was as good as dead, and he knew it. He couldn't get back to Tails through the laser fire, and Tails wouldn't be able to get to him and help. Sonic gave a final sigh, admitting defeat to himself. The hedgehog took one last glance at Tails. He wanted to yell at the fox to run, to save his own life and not sacrifice himself to try to save him. But, the firing from the soldiers was so intense and so loud that all words would probably be drowned out, so Sonic simply waved goodbye.

Run Tails...just run and leave me to die.