Man am i getting sick of typing this but: all disclaimers and legal stuff can be found on the first chapter and as always encloses all subsequent chapters... good day!


Hey dudes I'm back from vacation and alrready back to school! O well, that's life. Well as I expected it took some time, but here's the next chapter hot off the press(or scanner as the case may be), and believe me I'm as pissed off about breaking up the fight scene as all of you no doubt are. This way however I can write it without making the fighting at the end appear rushed.

A Visitor From Afar

Ch 14 These Sticks and Stones

WILL break your bones!


The 'Badniks encircled Slasher with evil, menacing scowls on each of their artificially crafted faces. But Slasher maintained his impervious expression, preventing the 'Badniks from taking any satisfaction in knowing that Slasher is worried. Worried about the he fate of his young friend Tails would be one, but much more prominent on his mind lay with on how he could get out of this lovely mess.

"One thing's for sure; these bulky bandages are just slowing me down!" he grumbled to himself. He reached up to the bandages that wrapped over his shoulder and pulled the white fabric away from his skin. "You wanna piece a' me?" Slasher warned, raising his extended battle claws and cut the fabric with ease. Ripping off the rest of the layered bindings, exposing his toned chest and deep crimson skin; still sliced and bloody. Slasher scowled striking up a fighting stance and said: "… Then come and get me!"

The 'Badniks stared back, at creature with a sort of mild amusement. Grounder converted his arms into a pair of large laser cannons and pointed them directly at Slasher and readied to fire. Scratch and the other 'Badniks did likewise with their respective weapons. They probably would have fired too if not for the blue streak that suddenly appeared in the midst of the 'Badniks and raced around Slasher creating a whirlwind that blew all of the 'Badniks several feet away in all directions. Slasher meanwhile found himself spinning rapidly within the center of the vortex.

When the blue streak halted, there stood Sonic, arms folded across his chest proudly. "Hey trash cans, long time no see!" he mocked, clapping his hands together, pretending to dust off an imaginary patch of dirt off his hands.

"(Ba chah!) It's the hedgehog!" Scratch yelled in surprise when he finally managed to work the disorientation out of his systems.

"I've been mean'n to get even wit you!" Coconuts shouted; his robotic face contorted in anger.

"Yea, he doesn't stand a chance against all of us with these new upgrades; now we're tougher then ever!" Grounder boasted pointing his massive laser cannon directly at Sonic's head.

Slasher, still a bit dizzy and disorientated by the whirlwind Sonic had created around him, could barley believe what he saw as his vision returned. Sonic stood between him and Grounder; staring at Grounder even as the robot's laser discharged a bright green bolt of light. Slasher thought for sure that Sonic would have been killed, but when the laser hit Sonic, he… disappeared? Then suddenly everyone realized he was standing a foot to the left, snickering away.

Even Grounder stood dumbstruck by Sonic's blistering speed. If Slasher had been the one standing there, he surely would be lying dead on the ground. Sonic in actuality barely even moved two steps to avoid the blast; but because he moved so fast, it looked as though he disappeared. With a confident, if not cocky, smile upon Sonic's face he clapped nonchalantly.

"Bravo, motor-mouth, I moved so fast all you shot was my after-image. I have to hand it to you though, I actually had to dodge!" Sonic said, taking care to say it in the most provocative way possible to both intimidate and infuriate the 'Badniks.

Suddenly, to everyone's surprise; even the 'Badniks, Sonic got struck from behind. The blow sent Sonic flying forwards, past the 'Badniks that scrambled out of the flying hedgehogs path. The attacker, the already badly damaged Crabmeat clattered forward after the hedgehog. "(Bzzzzzzt) Hedgehog… (zzzt) detected, priority one, must destroy." The sparking machine sputtered out between electrical sparks and servo motors firing at random.

Sonic barely had time to rub the section of his back were the claw had struck and pick himself off the ground before Crabmeat's battered form lunged at Sonic again. Following in Crabmeat's daring, chaotic attack; the other 'Badniks joined in and attacked either of the two.

Sonic did a handspring forward to avoid Crabmeat's claw as it crashed down on the place he had been only moments before. Kater-killer followed up by lunging underground, then resurfacing breaking up the ground as he surfaced trying to get those powerful jaws around one of Sonic's fragile legs. One good bite; and Sonic could kiss his leg good-bye. Each time he resurfaced he narrowly missed as Sonic dove left and right to avoid the gaping jaw, or those razor sharp claws on his body.

Adding to his dilemma, Coconuts began also lobbing grenades at Sonic, the detonations throwing up huge geysers of dirt and leaves and creating equally large craters; preventing him from keeping on enough even footing to make full use of his speed. Scratch also began to open fire with his twin laser pistols. Each blast forced Sonic to dive away in yet another direction, all the while avoiding attacks of the other 'Badniks.


Slasher on the other hand fared no better as Orbinaut and Grounder turned to attack. Grounder converted an arm into a grenade launcher and lobbed shell after shell of deadly explosives at the dragon. Slasher dived away to avoid the blasts, eventually finding a large tree that provide him some degree of protection.

"Heh heh, you think that will save you?" Grounder shouted as he converted his other arm into another laser weapon. This time the laser beam fired a long cutting laser. The beam burned away at the bark of the tree slowly cutting its way through Slasher's hiding place.

While Grounder kept Slasher pinned, Orbinaut floated away from the main fighting, moving to flank Slasher's hiding place, hovering behind bushes to hide his stealthy approach. The instant Orbinaut got into position and found a clear shot of Slasher huddling behind his cover he activated one of the new upgrades in his system. The spiked balls spinning around Orbinaut's body lit ablaze with a mighty whoosh as flame engulfed them.

Slasher's ears twitched in the direction of the new sound and he looked over in time to see two of these blazing fireballs hurtling towards him. A roll to the left allowed him to avoid one, as it crashed into the leaf-ridden ground, igniting the dry leaves instantly. Using his special gravity system, Orbinaut pulled the blazing fireball out of the hole it had made in the soft soil, flying back to Orbinaut and resuming its previous orbit. The blaze just to his right was the least of Slasher's concerns as the second fire-ball hurtled right towards the sprawled out dragon.

Just when Slasher thought his bacon was fried, he felt someone grab his shoulders and pull him aloft just before the fireball struck the ground. Slasher looked up in surprise and felt a wave of relief as he recognized his saviour to be his missing friend. "Tails!" Slasher exclaimed in relief.

"I thought you could use a lift." Tails kidded, smiling back at the dragon. "Are you alright?" he asked his face taking on a note of seriousness.

"Fine thanks to you…" Slasher replied returning a smile of gratitude. "That's two I owe you now!" Seeing Tails expression of relief he looked at the result of the attack just below him. The fireballs had started two small blazes, but because of the morning dew the fires didn't spread far and burned themselves out.

Orbinaut growled in rage to see his target saved at the last second by that hateful fox. Of course Grounder didn't fail to notice Tail's arrival either; converting his arm into a large sniper-laser. He sighted his weapon on the forehead of the fox as he lifted Slasher away from Orbinaut; oblivious to the impending danger.

Grounder had Tails right between the crosshairs, his targeting computer, calculating and allowing for all possible factors; this shot would not miss. "Say goodnight, brat…" Grounder muttered.

Then, suddenly… "HEEEYAAHHH!" Sally screamed hitting Grounder with a flying side-kick to the head. The sudden, surprise attack threw off Grounder's aim and made him shoot wide, nailing a tree branch instead of Tails.

"Whoa!" Tails shouted as the shot narrowly screamed past Tails' head. Tails looked to his left and saw Sally and Grounder going at it nearby. "Hang on Slasher!" He told Slasher as he peeled off to the right and dove towards the ground. "Slasher, tuck and roll!" Tails pulled up just above the ground and released his grip on Slasher's shoulders. Understanding what Tails meant he hit the ground and roll to his feet without Tails ever having to slow down. "I'll take Grounder, you deal with Orbinaut!" Tails called back to Slasher as he banked to head back to Sally and Grounder.

Sally smiled after she kicked Grounder, pleased to see her intervention saved Tails from being hit. Unfortunately, in doing so, Sally let her guard down for a moment and Grounder was quick to capitalize on it; striking her from behind and knocking her to the ground.

Sally rubbed the back of her head where Grounder hit her; grateful the hit didn't knock her out. A clicking noise behind her head suddenly alerted her to the laser cannon Grounder now trained on her. Grounder fired, but Sally rolled to the side quickly enough to dodge the blast.

She rolled to her feet and wheeled around to see Grounder bringing the laser gun around to fire again. Sally readied herself to leap out of the way again, but before she could Grounder extended a cold metallic hand at Sally; closing its fingers tightly around her neck. He tugged with his extended arm, pulling Sally forward onto her knees. Now Sally had no chance of dodging, not with Grounder holding her right where he wanted. And Grounder looked like he loved the feeling of having her at his mercy.

Sally heard the laser build up a charge, the weapon now loaded. Sally closed her eyes, not wanting to witness her own demise. Suddenly Tails crashed into Grounder, head-butting the heavy bot from the side; causing Grounder's arm to flail out to the side just as eh fired, missing yet again.

"Tails!" Sally shouted in surprise and worry. The impact sent Tails into a daze, and Grounder started turning to deal with the new interloped. Sally would not let that happen, she stood up and pulled on the arm still clutching around her throat, yanking Grounder towards her and drawing his attention away from the dazed fox. It distracted Grounder for a moment, but it proved to be just enough time for Tails to recover, take flight and start kicking at Grounder's head furiously from above.

"Ow! Hey; cut that out! Ow!" Grounder winced as he took kick after kick. The kicks were hardly doing any damage, being more of an annoyance then anything, but with Sally still pulling away to free herself, it split Grounders attention in more directions then he liked.

"That's it, come here, you!" he shouted; his patience coming to a screeching halt. He converted his spare hand into a razor sharp buzz-saw. He swung frantically at the airborne menace, but each time Tails narrowly dodged the spinning blade. Each miss allowed Tails to kick Grounder on the other side of his head, making Grounder more angry, and more importantly; careless. "Hold still you little….!"

Tails flew lower, and started flying circles around Grounder's head. All the while Grounder furiously slashed at empty air. Tails made his move and flew right in front of the bot and when Grounder's buzz-saw equipped arm swung at the fox, the spinning blade sliced right into the extended portion of his arm; severing it right off. "AAAhhhh! Why you…!" Grounder shouted out as the severed arm fell to the ground limp like a piece of spaghetti; releasing Sally from its grip.

Sally coughed a few times, clearing g her lunges of the stale air. Tails had Grounder's full attention now and he chased after him as Tails lead him away from Sally to allow her to recover. Sally started to chase after them, fearing Tails would get in over his head; but when a loud explosion reached Sally's ears a quick glance at the origin of the blast told her that Sonic needed help even more. She skidded to a stop and ran as fast as she could, trying to devise some sort of plan of just how to do so as she went.


Sonic ducked and weaved in and around the numerous craters created by Coconuts' grenades. With so much uneven ground it would be nearly impossible for him to achieve any great degree of speed, especially when he had so many attackers to deal with at once. In fact he and Crabmeat sped right past Sally without even noticing her. Of course she had to duck when several more grenades and laser blasts flew past her. Sally noticed as she covered her head that Scratch's laser fire seemed to follow only Sonic; not her!

Sally thought quickly: "Crabmeat seems to be fixated on just Sonic, and Scratch and Grounder haven't noticed me yet…" with that she made her move. She sneaked up to Coconuts and waited for him to reach behind his back to fetch another grenade from his dispenser. As soon as the arm reached backwards Sally took the opportunity and grabbed hold Coconuts' arm.

Before Coconuts could utter any words of confusion, Sally hurled him off his feet with a Judo throw right towards an unsuspecting Scratch. The Coconuts' head crashed into Scratch's body, breaking the small light bulb on top of his head. The force of the blow jarred the sensitive electronics inside the simians head, effectively knocking him out till his automated systems rebooted his on-board computers. Sally chuckled as Scratch tried to push the dead weight of Coconuts off of him, with little success, when she noticed the grenade lying at her feet; "It hasn't been activated!" This gave Sally an idea.

She swiped the round object up off the ground and looked over to Sonic. Crabmeat remained hot on Sonic's heels and every once and a while Kater-Killer would surface for a few seconds before diving underground again just as Sonic turned to try and attack.

"Sonic, catch!" Sally shouted, tossing the explosive to Sonic's open hands. Sonic gingerly caught the grenade and after diving into a nearby foxhole (AKA one of the grenades craters) quickly looked it over to see how to activate the darn thing. With his quick thinking mind Sonic figured out how to use the thing in a faction of a second.

A good thing, because the next second Crabmeat bounded over the edge of the crater Sonic had taken refugee in. Sonic's heart skipped a beat in surprise and he leaped out of the crater, followed closely by Crabmeat. Thinking quickly, Sonic pushed the arming button on the grenade and it at rapidly approaching crab shouting: "Hey, genius, catch!"

The robot reflexively used its one remaining claw to catch the grenade. The robot brought the object in front of it one working eye as if trying to analysis the object. Sonic grinned in self-satisfaction, and leaped out of the crater while Crabmeat was distracted. He ran to Sally, who in turn had been running up to Sonic. Grenade still in claw, Crabmeat clanked up the side of the crater after Sonic. Sonic glanced back and saw the robots approach, but more importantly he saw the figure running up to him; right towards the ready-to-blow grenade "Sal…!" Sonic poured on the speed as best he could to reach her in time. Suddenly the grenade went off destroying what remained of the robotic crab with one massive, fiery explosion; disintegrating the small robot into tiny, flaming pieces. Sonic dived forward, tackling Sally to the ground, narrowly avoiding the shrapnel that flew past.

Parts of the robot flew out in all directions luckily Sonic had tackled Sally and himself into a nearby crater; avoiding the flying pieces of twisted, heated metal. Sonic and Sally poked their heads up over the top of the crater and sighed to see the smouldering remains of Crabmeat.

"Thanks Sal…" Sonic started to say, but Scratch abruptly interrupted Sonic.

"That's gonna cost you!" Scratch hissed, pointing both of his laser pistols at Sally.

"Yea, and it's gonna be a double fee…" Coconuts chuckled, tossing a grenade up and down in his hand.

Sonic stepped in front of Sally and raised his arms out to the sides protectively. "You want Sal, ta gotta go through me…" Sonic's eyes narrowed his mind set on protecting his dear friend.

"Heh, suits me just fine." Coconuts laughed, unimpressed.

"My, aren't se the courageous hero…" Scratch mocked, lowering his pistols so he could place his wings on his hips for emphasis to his words. "I hate heroes!"

"Sal, make a run for it, I'll handle these…" Sonic started, but he stopped short when he felt Sally use Sonic's shoulders as a springboard. Vaulting herself over him, Sally spun and flipped gracefully through the air. When she reached a point of her jump where she was between the two 'Badniks she twisted herself in the air, giving each bot a powerful mid-air spinning kick that sent each of them reeling to the ground. She then landed gracefully in a crouched position between where the two had previously stood.

"Don't worry about me Sonic, I'm a big girl, I can take care of myself." She said to Sonic as she turned to face him in a sassy rebellious tone. Sonic's jaw dropped in amazement then smiled at the feisty princess.


Elsewhere at that moment…

While Sonic and Sally were holding their own, Slasher found himself to be in not as good a situation. After Tails had dropped him off, Slasher looked back to where he had last seen the floating ball known as Orbinaut; unfortunately he could see no trace of the blasted machine.

Past experience told Slasher to not let himself drop his guard, but even so, fighting an unfamiliar enemy of this nature made him tenser then normally. His eyes and ears scanned warily, but even with his keen senses at full alert, the flying projectile hurtling towards him from behind still took him by surprise.

The spiked ball barley missed thanks only to Slasher spotting it just out of the corner of his eye. It slammed through the thin trunk of a tree, sending the tree crashing down to the forest floor. Then suddenly another one hurtled towards Slasher's sprawled out body. He rolled left, the tip of one of the spikes gashing his right arm as it struck the ground next to him. Blood instantly began spilling out, but Slasher had no time to tend the wound. The third one was already flying right at him.

Slasher rolled right, avoiding the attack completely. Orbinaut had anticipated this counter roll, and launched the last of his four spiked balls, timing it out with the last shots impact. The projectile was too close for him to roll away without serious damage being inflicted. Slasher knew his only other idea to be extremely risky, but he had no other choice.

He raised his legs and tail and cracked his legs and tail like a whip, lifting the rest of his body off the ground high enough that the spiked ball passed underneath his body harmlessly. Slasher landed on his feet and breathed out a sigh of relief at having dodged that last attack so narrowly. He then saw that Orbinaut's weapons had not yet returned back to him… "He's defenceless…!" he exclaimed in his mind. Slasher charged head long at the hovering sphere, unsure how long his opponent would remain defenceless.

He closed the distance and swung his right arm at the machine, extending his battle claws in the same move. Orbinaut bobbed up, dodging the swing. Slasher swung his other battle claw upwards, but Orbinaut simply floated to the left, dodging again. Before Slasher could attack again, Orbinaut lunged forward; head-butting… (or, body-checking, I don't know, he doesn't even have a neck!)…Slasher across his forehead. The impact left a small cut on his forehead and left Slasher seeing stars.

Just then Orbinaut's spiked spheroids returned, and having his weapons back, Orbinaut's harsh red eyes narrowed in anger. The spheres spikes retracted again, but this time the outside of the spheres started spinning, sprinkling water as they did so. Instantaneously the water froze, creating thin, sharp icicles all across the spheres surface.

Slasher stared in puzzlement at the menacing beauty of the ice-encrusted spheres as the light shone through the delicate ice crystals. Their beauty misleading as the spheres sped up their orbits. The centrifugal force created by the spheres orbits loosened the ice crystals hold on the smooth surface. When the first sphere reached the right point in its orbit the sphere itself spun harder, sending thousands of razor sharp ice crystals towards the unwary Slasher.

Slasher's eyes bulged as he realized the danger. He saw the trunk of a tree nearby out of the corner of his eye and he dove to his left, hoping to dodge the worst of the blast. The move paid off, many of the crystals at the edges of the spray lacked enough speed to leave many gashes; some minor cuts across his right leg and that side of his tail, but little more.

Slasher went straight to his feet from his roll and ran; not stopping to see if Orbinaut had unleashed the rest of the ice. With Slasher running as fast as he could, Orbinaut missed the next blast as well. But Orbinaut allowed for the next shot better, and hit Slasher with a great deal of the ice. Some minor cuts and bruises along Slasher's right side were inflicted, but none were particularly serious.

The final spray would not be so lenient however. The next blast would not miss. The ice let go of their sphere. Despite leaping at the last second for the tree trunk that would give him cover, Slasher felt several, much larger pieces of ice slice into his legs and arms and many more hit hard enough that Slasher knew there'd be bruises and cuts there later. "Yyyyaahhh!" Slasher screamed as one large icicle speared itself into Slasher's right thigh.

Slasher landed hard next to the base of the tree, the pain from his leg making it difficult to move, let alone tuck it in for a smooth roll out. Slasher rested his back against the tree, clutching the wound. The pain was excruciating, the freezing cold of the ice heightening the piercing pain.

"UUUghhh!" Slasher groaned as he pulled on the smooth, glass-like ice pike out of his flesh. The ice already started to melt against the warmth of the dragon's blood. As he pulled it out he saw the thick dragon's blood stained it with a sickeningly deep crimson red. It surprised him by just how much he actually pulled out. But as he felt the last of the ice pull free from his flesh he sighed with some degree of relief.

As soon as the ice was removed the gaping wound began to swell and over flow with blood, streaming down his leg; but then, Slasher sensed someone nearby. Orbinaut floated around the side of the tree, spikes extended from his spinning balls, looking very pleased with himself. Slasher tried to get up, but he fell onto his knee from the pain.

Slasher panted hard from the effort it took to keep his mind off of the stabbing pain in his leg even as Orbinaut hovered boldly in front of him. If he had a mouth it surely would have would be absolutely beaming with evil delight.

"(Chuckle) Oh, don't get up on my account." Orbinaut sneered. "Feel free to pas out while I take to Robotnik!" One of the sphere's spikes retracted, and Orbinaut fired the sphere right for Slasher's head.

In desperation Slasher unleashed a powerful blast of fire at the orb. "Whaaaat!" Orbinaut shrieked in surprise. The extreme heat of the fireball collided with the spheroid, igniting the small tank of fuel within the sphere for Orbinaut's spinning fire move. The blast destroyed the destroying the ball with a loud explosion. Slasher shielded his face from the hot blast. The fireball still had enough energy to continue heading towards Orbinaut. Orbinaut robotic eyes bulged in surprise as the fireball collided directly with his body. The tiny bot exploded in a blast bigger then his spheroids. With their master gone the other spheres fell to the ground, powerless.

Slasher lowered his arm to get a look at what happened he felt surprised to see Orbinaut in a scattered pile on the ground.

Slasher let out a massive sigh of relief. His moment of peace became disrupted however as he heard laser blasts coming from not too far away. "Eeeraaghh!" Slasher grunted as he picked himself off the floor. "Gotta… Eergh, help the others…"


At that moment…

Tails ran right in front of Grounder to draw his attention away from Sally. The ploy worked, a little too well however. Grounder converted both of his arms into rapid-fire laser weapons and opened up with a hail of bright green lasers as he chased after the small vulpine.

"Yow!" Tails shrieked as laser blasts ripped through the air around him. He started to run faster, leaning forward as his speed increased. As he ran Tails revved up his twin appendages and with a quick hop into the air he let loose with all their strength, creating a massive fan behind him that propelled him to speeds nearing that of Sonic, and with an occasional kick with his toes, he kept him from ploughing into the ground.

Tails looked behind to see Grounder chasing after him, but falling behind, despite crashing through every bush he came across. Tails dug the edge of his right sneaker into the ground and with a quick change in his tails' rotation he made a hard left turn and circled back towards Grounder.

Grounder halted when he saw the fox turn, and opened fire at the side of the fox as he whizzed through the trees near Grounder. Tails circled wide around Grounder, his speed making it exceedingly difficult for Grounder to hit the speedy figure. Tails dug his other sneaker into the ground and made another hard turn, this time heading directly for the green robot.

Grounder didn't expect this to happen and fired wildly at Tails. His shots came close but as Tails raced towards Grounder, he tapped his toes off in opposite directions so as he zigged and zagged across the small clearing, impeding Grounders accuracy.

When he felt himself close enough Tails curled himself into a little ball, imitating his hero Sonic's spin dash attack. While Tails lacked the razor sharp quills Sonic posed, Tails did have his tails that, when used as a whip, were just as effective as Sonic's quills.

Tails blew past Grounder, letting his tails whip out at Grounder's body as he zipped by. The heavy hit left a deep gash in Grounder's torso that left the robot amazed. "Gaah!" Grounder shrieked, but just like any robot he didn't actually fear, his self-preservation matrix merely told him to be wary of this move and a dear need to calculate a way to counter it.

It didn't take long exactly, a few nanoseconds for the computer to think of something, but like any robot, it can't really think outside of its programming, unlike a living creature. Grounder converted his laser guns into the cutting lasers he had attempted to use on Slasher earlier and fired. The long beams made it much easier to track the speedy fox, but Tails made good use of the surrounding trees as cover.

The trunks of the smaller trees disintegrated under the power of the laser, while it left deep, smoking gashes it the larger ones. And every bush in the laser's path became trimmed at a uniform height. Tails tried his best to stay in front of the lasers path, but he found that the more times he circled wide around Grounder, waiting for an opening to attack, that all the fallen trees and branches made it tougher to remain stable at this high speed; forcing him to slow down a bit.

Grounder ceased firing with one of his cutting lasers and pointed ahead of Tails. He fired at the trunk of a smaller sized tree. The laser cut through the trunk like a hot knife through butter and sent the tree crashing down. His plan paid off when the tree fell on Tails pinning him underneath. "Ooohhh…" Tails groaned as he rubbed his head. Luckily the tree was too small to inflict any great damage to Tails, but he still could feel a bruise forming where the tree had hit him.

Grounder rolled up confidently, his robotic mouth filled with pointed, digital teeth. Tails gulped under his breathe as he struggled to pull himself out from under the tree trunk. Grounder rolled over to the trapped kit proudly; pointing the cutting laser straight at Tails' head. "Gotcha ya now ya two-tailed freak…"


End Ch 14

I know, I know exactly what all of you readers are probably thinking right now: "Noooooo, how can he leave us at yet another cliff-hanger in one fight?" well believe me, I hate having to do this just as much as you guys/girls do. However, as it stands this fight scene thus far has taken over 16 pages on word to write, so I need to break up the action for a short while. but rest assured this is not the end of the action, the plot has a few more twists to take yet so stay tuned. hey what do you know, i actually got through one of these author notes without making any stupid, redundant jokes? oh, wait did i just type that? aw crap, well, see you folks next chapter...