CHAPTER TEN - Heavy Metal

Knuckles walked alone up the stairs to the floor with Robotnik's office. He surrendered himself to the swatbots that confronted him there. They put some handcuffs on him and escorted him into the office. He could not believe Nail had talked him into doing this.

"Where are your two fox friends?" said Robotnik when he noticed he was alone.

"You must have forgotten to call off all your swatbots, because one of them shot them after you finished talking to us before." Knuckles responded coolly.

"Really?" Robotnik said in a tone which suggested he didn't believe a word he said.

"Yeah," Knuckles said. "Don't roboticize me though! I can give you some valuable information if you let me go."

"Really?" Robotnik said again with a raised eyebrow. "Well then, let's get to talking..."

I'm not expecting him to believe what I'm saying. I just need to stall for enough time so that Nail and Tails can do what they're going to do.

He sincerely hoped what he was doing now wouldn't be in vain.

Meanwhile, Tails flew above the streets of Robotropolis, while holding Nail's arms. Both of them were looking all over the place, but not out of nervousness because of Robotnik's patrols.

"Look everywhere, Tails," Nail said. "We need some kind of an aircraft, and fast!"

Suddenly, Tails spotted some kind of patrol aircraft parked on the roof of a nearby building.

"Nail! Look over there!" said Tails as he nodded towards it.

"Good work!" said Nail, "It even looks like it's armed!"

Nail saw what looked like a laser cannon mounted on the bottom of the ship.

This is perfect! We'll be able to save everybody no problem with that thing!

"Take us over there!"

"You got it!"

A few moments later, they were standing in front of the ship.

"Okay, let's get inside and prepare for takeoff!" said Nail.

"Not so fast, freedom fighters!" a chilling robotic voice called out from behind them.

Nail and Tails heard the whoosh of a jet engine, and they both turned around. A blue robot flew over towards their building with the help of a jet engine on its back. It stopped above the rooftop, and then set down with a hard clunk. It looked like Sonic...

Oh no...we're too late! Nail thought.

"Sonic! Is that you?" Nail said in a scared voice.

"Don't worry," said Tails from behind him. "That's not really Sonic, it's a robot that Robotnik made to be like Sonic. His name is Metal Sonic."

"Correct," the robot said to them. "I am Metal Sonic, created to serve Dr. Robotnik by destroying the freedom fighters!"

"I'm not a freedom fighter though..." Nail said.

"I am also assigned to destroy all those who are their allies!" shouted Metal.

"How nice..." Nail said in a bored voice. "I nearly killed Sonic myself once. What makes you think that you, an inferior robotic clone, stand any chance against me?"

"We shall see who is the inferior one right now!" yelled Metal.

"Tails!" shouted Nail as he raised up his assault rifle. "Try to get the ship ready! I'll fight Metal!"

Nail saw that Tails wasn't moving, but suddenly he said "Okay! Be careful!" before climbing into the ship.

Nail focused his attention once again on the robot standing before him.

"Alright, scrapheap, let's go!" Nail shouted.

Metal rocketed towards Nail at a high speed. Thankfully though, he wasn't as fast as Sonic, so Nail was able to target Metal easily. He let loose with the assault rifle. He saw a few holes appear on Metal's head, as well as on his chest and limbs. However, Metal still kept coming. Nail fired more at him, but then his clip went dry. He stared down at his gun in disbelief, and then looked up just as Metal hit him with a full on charge.

Nail went sprawling as he dropped his rifle. He quickly shook off his injuries and climbed to his feet. He looked around, and saw that Metal was turning around for another charging attack. Nail glanced to the left, and saw his rifle lying on the ground nearby. He dived for it just as Metal flew past again, narrowly missing him. Frantically, Nail pulled out another clip for the assault rifle. He hurriedly ejected the empty magazine, and slapped home the new one. Just as he finished reloading though, he looked up and saw that Metal was coming right for him. He started to raise the gun, but Metal was too quick.

He knocked Nail to the ground, and again Nail dropped the assault rifle. He tried to get up again, but Metal landed on top of him. He immediately put one of his hands around Nail's throat, and started strangling him. Nail tried to break loose by trying to pull away Metal's hand with his own hands. Metal was too strong though. He fumbled in his pockets with one hand and brought out a pistol. Nail pointed it at Metal's head and fired several point blank shots at him with no apparent effect.

"Fool!" Metal cried. "Your weapons are useless against me! Give up now, and I will put you out of your misery quickly and painlessly!"

Nail attempted to push Metal's hand away from his throat once again, but it didn't work like before. He felt himself getting weaker rapidly. He would be dead if he didn't do something fast!

Suddenly, there was a loud burst of automatic fire, and several new holes appeared on Metal. He looked up to face his attacker. There was another burst of gunfire and two of the bullets destroyed Metal's glowing red eyes.

"I can't see! I can't see!" Metal shrieked.

What in the world? Who fired those shots? Nail thought.

Metal let go of Nail's neck and stood up. He stumbled around trying to find his attacker. Nail got up, and looked in the direction from where the bullets had come from. Tails was holding the assault rifle Nail had dropped earlier during the fight. He looked absolutely terrified, as if afraid he might have accidentally hit Nail or something.

Wow, this is...unbelievable... Saved by a little kid with an automatic rifle. He probably hasn't even hit puberty yet...

Nail gave his attention back to Metal, who was still stumbling about blindly while trying to find his attacker. Nail pulled out the laser blaster he had stolen off that swatbot after Knuckles and Tails saved him. He took aim, and fired. There was a loud BLAM from the gun, and a laser neatly went right through Metal's head and out the other end. He fell to the ground with a crash. Nail turned back to Tails.

"I thought Knuckles said you were too little for guns before," he said to Tails with a grin.

Tails looked up at him with a scared face. "Well...it was lucky he was wrong," he whimpered, before looking down at the ground again.

"Yes it was," Nail said with an impressed voice. "Was that your first time shooting? You've got some skills!"

Tails just looked up at him and smiled.

"Well, anyway, we've wasted enough time fooling around with that dumb robot over there," said Nail, the happiness leaving his voice. "We have to save Sonic and Knuckles!"

"You're right!" said Tails.

"Is the ship ready?" asked Nail.

"Yeah!"

"That's great. Now, let's get moving. We're behind schedule!" said Nail as he ran towards the ship with Tails trailing behind him.