Amy hadn't moved since Sonic had left. She had stayed fixed to the same spot, hugging herself and weeping softly, before going into a deep depression, unbroken by the shifting of time. At least an hour had passed, probably more, but the young, expectant hedgehog hadn't done a thing. It had shocked her when she had realised that this was probably the end of the two, and she had made it happen. She knew she had made the right decision, Sonic would only put her and their child in danger. But it still hurt to do it.
" Hmmm, perhaps I'll make a little detour" Eggman wondered aloud as the console on his egg walker began beeping, indicating that the co-ordinates the reporters had given him, the location of Sonic the hedgehog and Amy Rose was near. He took a steep turn, ready to inflict some damage in his latest robot.
Amy's thoughts of depression were interrupted by the sound of a motor, a motor of something large. The sound would perhaps be considered normal to any other person, but to Amy, who owned no car and live far away from any kind of civilisation, it spelt trouble. She dragged herself off the floor, her legs numb from sitting so long, and moved over to the window, peering through it with mild curiosity through it.
But she never got there. Just a meter away from it, the wall was dragged down by a huge, robotic claw, shining with newly polished metal. Amy feel on her back end as the arm retreated, revealing a pair of cold, metallic eyes, a long, curving beak lined with curved out teeth, moulded from metal. But what terrified her more than this huge titan of metal, was the person that sat in the base of its head. Even through the greying hair, shiner, hanging figure and wrinkled dirtied face, Amy recognised the man. Who couldn't forget the demon that had tried to kill her for years? The demon that Sonic had freed.
" Sonic!" He bellowed, yelling like a crazed maniac, like he enjoyed the destruction and fighting, just like Sonic did. Perhaps the two were not as different as they would like. " Where are you , coward!". Ignoring his request for Sonic, Amy crawled backward to the far wall, cowering in the corner and hoping that somehow, the old doctor had lost his sight and didn't spot her shivering in the corner.
Unfortunately for her, it seemed his vision was still intact. His glasses reflected the light as he turned his head, a wide, evil grin splitting his face apart when he saw her.
" Well my darling Amy, you've grown up" he stated, as if having a polite conversation with an old friend. Amy's eyes went wild as she tried to squeeze herself through the wall. Robotnics robot taking a menacing step nearer to her, it's heavy metal foot creating a small earthquake around them. " You've put on weight too, now I'm thinner than you!" He announced in triumph, exaggerating his weight loss during his prison years. Amy still said nothing, but had stopped shivering. In spite of facing the eye of danger, her fear was gone. She didn't need Sonic and she never did!
Getting to her feet surprisingly quickly for a women in her condition, Amy wiped out her famous hammer, hoping it would serve her as well as it used to. But , as she raised it in the air, ready for a swing, she realised that the years of non-usage had made her arms frail and weak, almost unable to use the weapon at all. But she knew she had to try.
She charged forwards, her left side weighed down by the hammer and the baby inside of her complaining about the running. She yelled a half-hearted battle cry, smashing the hammer into the robots plated foot, hoping to do some damage. She definitely couldn't jump to reach the higher levels of the metallic creature.
But all that happened was it bounced off the shiny surface, leaving not even a dent in it's flat steel, and she was already heaving for breath. How she could fight the creature off, she didn't know. Eggman laughed at her pathetic attempt of resistance, his robot seizing the hammer from Amy's grip with one claw and grabbing the hedgehog girl round the middle with the other. Amy squirmed and struggled, but as she knew from past experience, you never broke a robot's grip.
" Now, tell me where Sonic is, or I'll crush you" he snarled menacingly, adjusting the robots arm so it bought her face closer to his own. Amy began to panic again and she said in a quite voice truthfully
" I don't know". The grip around her middle increased, she winced as she felt it press into her stomach area.
" Off course you do, your his private little fan club, now tell me" he hissed, his finger hovering threateningly over the button that controlled the robots grip.
" Please" she struggled to say " I really don't know!". Eggman growled at her lack of co-operation, his finger pressing once again onto the grip adjuster. A rippling pain crushed Amy's insides as her arms and stomach became one. Tears began to roll down her cheeks, but this time, it was because she was hurting physically. Her middle screamed for the pain to ease and then she knew it was hurting the baby too. She couldn't breath well either and sucking in the next breath became increasingly difficult. She knew if the pressure didn't ease soon, both her and her unborn child would be in serious danger. " Stop it!" She squealed in a choked voice, but the pressure didn't ease.
" And why should I? Not unless your going to tell me where our blue friend is?" Eggman said, sneering with an impatient frown. Amy gasped and sucked in another laboured breath, feeling herself grow dizzy.
" Let go!" She screamed again, hoping that he would comply. But her request just made him more angry and he replied in a scornful voice
" No! Why should I?". Amy struggled and heaved, wriggling in the grip. Her face strained, her stomach searing and aching. She knew if she told eggman she was expecting, it could cause risks to both of them. But at this point, Amy could see no other way out, so she screamed out
" Because I'm pregnant! Your hurting me! Your hurting the baby!". Eggman let out something between a yell and a choke, realising the grip around Amy straight away but letting her fall roughly to the floor.
" You!" He screamed in shock "Your the same! Like rats! Breeding like the filth you are!". He leaned over the side of his egg walker, looking more closely at Amy, his mouth arched in disgust. " First Knuckles, now you. How old are you slag? 14? 15?"
" 23" Amy spat back, cradling herself, crying and moaning. The bump pounded with slow receding pain, but Amy couldn't stop the tears. In normal circumstances, Amy would have worried for Knuckles and Seth, but felt relief for Shadow and Draco, knowing at least they were hidden from Eggmans greedy eyes.
" Whatever. It doesn't matter, I'm going to kill you before you have that thing and I have more rubbish to clear up" he said menacingly, his robot raising it's claws, ready to strike. Amy gasped and curled into herself even more, shuddering. " But then, I could always use you to get Sonic to come to me, especially being in the state you are. Speaking of which, it is his child?" Eggman said, contradicting himself and stopping the robots assault. The pink hedgehog sniffed and nodded silently, not thinking of the consequences of letting Eggman know that knowledge. He bared his rotten teeth and cheered. " Excellent, Sonic will have to come and face me, and when he does..." He trailed off with meaningless laughter, the robot lunging forward and grabbing Amy, although she recognised that the grip was a hell of a lot gentler than before. Perhaps telling him of her condition was the best thing to do, she thought, as the robot took flight , it's blaster frying yet more of their house.
Amy looked backed in sadness, hoping against hope that Sonic would come back and realise that Eggman had taken her. Perhaps he would come back for his ' son' even if he didn't come back for her. But she shuddered when thinking about what twisted things Eggman had in his mind for her.
After dropping Amy off at the base, locking her in one of the high security cells, despite being pregnant and without her hammer, Eggman still thought she was some kind of threat, or perhaps it was more to keep Sonic out rather than keep Amy in.
His next stop was to investigate the information the reporters had given to him, the truth in the matter of this ' Seth'. His device finally managed to track the whereabouts of Angel island, and as it slowly inched into view, Robotnic grinned with a vile smile.
" Again Seth?" Knuckles asked, talking to the little bundle of fur that sat on his lap. The fluffy Seth squealed and waved his arms around , which Knuckles took as a yes. So he took hold on the wheels of his wheel chair with his arms, pinned Seth between his legs, and spun the chair round in a circle as fast as his arms would let him. Seth wailed in delight as his tiny dreads wiped around his head, his sharp knuckles waving around dangerously, thankfully nowhere near Knuckles face. He let go of the wheels and slowly let the chair spin to a stop, breathing heavily from the effort, while Seth laughed his head off. " He likes that" Knuckles commented to Rouge, who was watching from the corner. She smiled lightly and warned
" You'll make him sick". Knuckles grinned back at the little kid, who's fur had thickened for the winter months and had just began to thin again. His tiny babies face was filling out, his snout becoming more accented, but not any longer. More canines had begun sprouting from his gums and it seemed he would soon have his full set of milk teeth. Just as well, as Rouge was tired of him biting her when she ' fed' him. His violet pupils shone brightly in his fully alert and open eyes, and the muscles in his arms were developing rapidly thanks to his new ability to crawl. " Who's a good boy?" Knuckles said, nuzzling his son in his the chest. Seth replied with a definite
" Gaaaa ouuurrr!", Knuckles laughed, knowing his son could understand him, but didn't have the speech capacity to reply properly. He had often wondered how Seth would be when he was older, if he would have his easily angered personality or be more like Rouge. His son was half way through his first year in the world and Knuckles was amazed by how much change and personality he was already showing. He couldn't wait to tease Sonic about his fatherhood as well, not knowing of his and Amy's break-up.
" I think Tails is coming" Rouge stated, tilted her ear to observe a far of sound, Knuckles stopped the affection for his son and looked at the mother.
" Tails? Why would he be coming? Didn't him and Talim break up?" He asked, his arms slack and tired from the exercise. His strength was slowly returning from his unsuccessfully revival of one the younger of Shadows twins, but to both him and Rouge, it couldn't happen any slowly. Rouge looked to what Knuckles assumed was the source of the sound, her ears straining to pick up whatever she was listening too.
" Yeah they did, but I hear an engine, that could only be him right?". Knuckles nodded and shrugged.
" Oh well, that's cool, I haven't seen him for a while. It would be good to talk" he said. Rouge nodded absentmindedly, not really listening to the echidnas words, her focus still on the engine noise she had picked up. She frowned.
" The engine sounds too heavy for Tails plane, I'm not sure if it is him" the bat said, her voice sounding a little worried. Knuckles wheeled himself a little closer, in the process suggesting
" Perhaps he rebuilt it, added a new engine or something".
" I don't think so" Rouge said, drifting past him and walking outside, Knuckles following, Seth still cuddled into his lap, playing with the fur on Knuckles chest. For once the father ignored him
" Well who else could it be?" He said, somewhat forcefully, frustration rising at what he thought was Rouges unjustified concern. The bat didn't answer as a tiny dot appeared on the horizon, the sound of the engine filling Knuckles ears as well. He tensed his hands around the handles of his chair, his eyes fixed on the expanding dot. It looked like a giant flying lizard wrapped in a metal skin, and it was heading straight for them.
" No way" Knuckles mumbled to himself in disbelief, as he began to realise just what was approaching their once peaceful island. The creature banked at it got closer. Seth's attention was diverted away from his fathers chest and turned around towards the source of the sound, his ear swivelling towards the sound like a bats. A smile appeared on his face and he outstretched his arms out, trying to catch the ' Bird' that had appeared in front of him. He wasn't great at judging distances and didn't realise it was in fact much larger than the average bird and was just far away.
" Knuckles, get in the house" Rouge said, her voice more serious than Knuckles had heard it in a long time. He gawked in disbelief and objected.
" Why? Do you think you can handle him all by yourself?"
" Your not going to be any help while your confined to that chair!" She snapped back in justified impatience, as the robot neared, the compartment filled with a greying man with reflective glasses, the smirk on his face visible from even that distance. "And I may need you to protect Seth, just in case... "she didn't finish the sentence. Knuckles nodded, shocked into silence, and wheeled both him and his son back into the house, who was still trying to catch the birdie that seemed to be getting bigger and bigger.
The robots reverse thrusters engaged as it neared Rouge, stopping in front of her and attaching it's heavy feet to the ground, the earth around them shaking. Rouge felt fear but didn't show it, hoping that all these years out of practise hadn't harmed her combat ability to much, or that Robotnic had forgotten how to build well designed robots. Neither event seemed close to reality at this moment.
" Ahh my lovely ex-employee, looking as lavishing as ever" he smirked as he spoke. Rouge glared at him with hard eyes.
" How did you get out!" She demanded, yelling so her voice could be heard other the thunderous robot jets, still whirring in their holders, forcing hurricane like winds around the bat that threatened to fill her wings and blow her of her feet.
" Not that it's any of your business but your good friend Sonic freed me. Quite ironic isn't it?". Rouge felt a jolt of fear and surprise. ' No, I can't believe Sonic would do that. He must be lying' she thought, quickly turning her attention back to Robotnic, who asked in a sneering tone through his speaker. " Now, to matters at hand. Where's your son Rouge?". Rouge couldn't help but gasp and let her fear show. If the news that Sonic had potentially freed Eggman had shocked her, then this knowledge Eggman possessed about her personal life froze her at the core with fear.
" Son? I have no son" she said, trying to keep face. But it was too late, her voice was wavering, which only gave the doctor more determination. He laughed in superiority and roared
" Liar! I now you have a son! Those reporter friend of yours assured me!". He pulled out a photo, waving it around crazily. Rouge squinted but couldn't see what was pictured on it, but guests it was the photo Marisha had taken on Christmas day when her and her brothers had broken into Vectors house. Anger joined her fear, a raging desire for revenge ripped through her, revenge on Marisha. At the moment had the cat and her brothers appeared, Rouge would have killed them, any way she could. " And with Knucklehead too! I knew you would sleep with anyone, but I thought you have had better taste than that!" The over joyous doctor injected, still laughing. " But it doesn't matter, I can use him, just like I'm going to use Amy's child" he said and Rouges mind flashes with panic, wondering what on earth was on the psychotic doctors mind. She couldn't believe she would ever work for him.
There was no more time for thinking, as the doctors robot lurched to life again, it's back foot lifting off the ground and moving with speed over her head. For a second she simply stared, then her instincts kicked in and she threw herself aside, just missing the crushing weight of it as it crashed down where she had been standing. She knew she had to keep the robot away from the house in any way she could. But she doubted she could defeat such a beast on her own.
Crouching her legs and pushing herself into the air, she filled her wings with air and charged forward, swerving violently to the side as one of the robots arms narrowly missed her. She flew over it's head, where she could see Robotnic frantically pressing buttons in his control seat, not looking directly at Rouge, but at her image on a screen in front of him, the robots camera eyes doing the looking for him. Her heat thundering, Rouge wondered what on earth she could do to stop such a beast, her knowledge was rusty as best.
But then she remembered how Sonic, Knuckles, Tails, all of the others who used to fight would go straight for the doctor in the compartment if they couldn't damage the robots main body. She snapped into action, diving rapidly, ready and willing to pummel the doctor, her fists clenched, her jaw knotted with tension. But the doctor saw her incoming assault and the robot hopped aside, bringing it's arm across the try and strike her again. She dodged, missing a compartment behind Robotnic opening up. She landed on the floor, surprising herself when she somersaulted backwards to avoid another stamp from the robots giant foot. But by then a laser had extended out from the back of the robot on a rod, aimed and fired at her.
The blow hit her in the centre of the stomach. It was only a stunning beam, but Rouge was winded. She dropped to her knees and fought for breath, her muscles locked as the lasers affect took over her movement. She could only watch desperately as the robot stepped neatly over her, heading for the house.
Rouge felt helpless, knowing Knuckles and her son were as well.
Meanwhile, Knuckles was sitting in the corner of the bedroom, holding Seth close to him as he heard the battle raging outside. He felt footsteps coming towards the house and his heart began to race, swallowing and preparing himself to do whatever he had to.
Suddenly and unexpectedly, the whole roof of their house ripped off, leaving Knuckles exposed to the full view of the doctor and his towering robot. Seth squealed in delight at the return of his friend the birdie, but Knuckles was less thrilled.
" Piss off Robotnic!" He yelled, more in desperation than threat, knowing there was very little he could actually do. He cuddled Seth closer to his chest, but the bachidna protested and wriggled, making the whole situation more difficult for the unfortunately animal.
Eggman laid eyes on the bundle that wriggled in Knuckles arms. His face seemed to mutate. It ripped open with a smile so wide it looked wrong, his eyes demented and crazed, his face tension shaking with sick delight.
" It's true" he said, and threw his head back into the air, laughing with so much insanity it scared even Seth. " It's true! You have a son! You performed a miracle!" The doctor roared into the sky, Knuckles baring his teeth, rage rising so rapidly Knuckles could already feel his wild, feral, animal instincts rising with speed within him. The doctor stopped laughing and bent back down, looking Knuckles directly in the eye. " And now" he said in such a low voice, his words were hardly recognisable. His robot lowering him so he could smirk right into Knuckles face, barely a meter away from the two creatures. " I'm going to take him" he finished, in the most evil filled voice Knuckles had heard him use. The years in prison had darkened the doctor.
At his last words, Knuckles felt his anger reach it's breach. Without even thinking, he bellowed a feral roar and somehow drew energy from his energy-less muscles. His parental instincts demanded he did so.
He threw himself out of his chair, flying up the doctor and latching himself onto his moustache, pulling himself up while the doctor yelled in agony and the robot toppled unsteadily without it's masters control.
The echidna pounded and punched, thrashed, beat and even scratched the doctor in utter rage, adrenaline filled panic contributing to his energy rush. Blood began to appear on the wrinkled skin of his nemesis as he started biting him, doing whatever he could to get the doctor to go away and leave his son alone.
But for all his effort, he received nothing over than a mouthful of the doctors blood, for he felt himself slowly down as what little energy he had sapped away. He reached forward to punch the doctor again, but his lack of speed meant the human could block him, grab hold of his wrist and throw him off the robot. Knuckles vaulted in mid-air and managed to latch his claws into the metal of the robot, getting and hold and heaving himself up as fast as he could.
But the doctor was no back in control. The robot shock off Knuckles with one easy manovour, the echidna flipping through the air and sprawling onto the floor as he landed. His energy spent, he raised his head to see Robotnis grin, laughing as he held a struggling Seth in his hand, letting him hang from the scruff of his neck. Knuckles choked back tears as his strength was gone, his anger and fear gone, replaced with empty despair. It was over, he had failed. Robotnic activated the jets of his robot, causing what was left of the house to be blown every direction. The hunk of metal rose, lifting into the sky, the doctor laughing in triumph, Knuckles slumped on the floor, crying as he watched his son get carried away, never to be seen again.
Authors notes
Ach, my back hurts from sitting and typing so long. Anyway I hope you liked this. I'm sleepy. Anyway I hope every thing is coming into place now, why certain things happened. Review please!