Previously on the Tale of Roy and Samantha.
After some searching, Roy found his parents safe and sound in the refugee camp. However, Roy brother Reggie was not with them. After having his head wound taken care of, Roy discussed with his parents on how to rescues his brother, finally coming to the conclusion that Roy should find Samantha and request her help. Roy's father, Roy "Trai" Vanderlind III, agreed to accompany him to the council tent, where they figured they could find out where Samantha was.
Meanwhile, Samantha and Anita headed to cash in Anita's check, and found that the stall was closed for an announcement that was to be made by Sally Acorn, the leader of the Freedom Fighters and of Knothole. After Sally's announcement, Anita and Samantha moved on to a food giveaway that Sally directed her audience to, but Samantha wanted to talk to Sally, so Anita agreed to retrieve a ration bag in her place.
However, this presented a problem: Samantha had no last name. After some thought she chose a full name for herself: Samantha Mahogany. With Samantha's new name in mind Anita continued on the line while Samantha moved on to talk to Sally. During the conversation with Sally, Samantha nearly disclosed the fact that she was until recently a literal non-entity. However the topic was obscured by a warning siren announcing an attack on the camp; prompting both of them to leave and head for the source of the trouble.
Episode six…
"What do you mean by 'trouble', what kind of trouble?!" Samantha asked as Sally headed out of the council tent to deal with the enemy forces advancing on the camp.
"The kind of trouble that the Freedom Fighters deal with," Sally replied curtly as she continued at a brisk pace with Samantha following close behind.
"Can I come with you? Maybe I could-" Samantha started to say.
"If you're thinking of proving yourself with these bots that are coming, don't, that never ends well," Sally stated sternly as she rounded a corner through the maze of threadbare tents, "times like these are not good for making mistakes, and believe me: no one gets it right the first time."
Upon hearing this, Samantha stopped dead in her tracks "But, how would I know if I don't try?" she asked but received no reply as Sally was already out of earshot.
Samantha stood there amid the snow, mud and ratty tents, wondering why her leader could go from being supportive and caring to cold and dismissive in a moment, but then her train of thought was interrupted by someone calling out to her.
"Hey Samantha, what're ya'll standin out here for, are ya alright?" said Anita as she ran up to her. "And on anotha thought: ya'll know what's goin on? I was sittin there eatin and talkin with some folks and all of a sudden the alarm went off and before I knew it everybody left the room faster than buncha moths when the light comes on," she remarked.
"Oh, umm, yeah, some enemies are attacking the camp, and um, Sally went to go get them..." Samantha replied, her voice was quiet and her eyes downcast.
"Well that's good, if Sally's there takin care a` things, then we've got nothin to worry about, that's a plumb fact," Anita remarked.
"Yeah, I guess you're right about that..." Samantha said, her eyes still downcast.
"Oh hey, I got you yer food bag, they were a bit difficult at first, but I managed to get them to reconsider," Anita mentioned as she showed a gray fabric bag to her friend that was secured by a weathered gray rope.
"Umm, thank you, Anita," Samantha said as she accepted the threadbare thing. Its contents barely filed the bag halfway and judging from the looks of the angular protrusions on the bag probably consisted mainly of a box of dry crackers and a canned good or two.
"Hey, are ya alright? Ah'm noticin that ya'll a bit down all of a sudden afta talkin ta Sally, did somethin happen?" Anita asked with a genuine note of concern.
"I-it's nothing, I just… I just need to think." Samantha replied, hoping that her vague answer would hopefully make the chupacabra lose interest.
However, rather than losing interest, Anita became all the more curious. "Think about what?" she asked.
"I said it's nothing, ok? Just leave me along for right now." Samantha replied with a bit more force in her voice.
Anita thought for a moment. "Alright, ah'm not gonna take 'leave me alone' for an answer, if ya got somthin on ya mind, keepin it in won't help any, ya'll gotta talk about ya problems before they can get fixed." She stated. Putting her hands on her hips.
When she heard this, Samantha felt her throat develop a lump and her eyes moisten, making it a little hard to talk. Nonetheless, she powered through forcing the lump down and speaking from the heart. "I was just told by Sally that I can't go and help her with these enemies even though I know I could beat them, I think, and I know I should have expected that, being someone that no one knows anything about so no one would know what I can do, but…" She stopped her fast-paced mini-rant for a moment to allow herself to clear the lump in her throat again. "But it just hurt so much to hear her say that just a few minutes ago. It's… it felt like getting punched in the gut, you know, and right now it still does. I want to help, but right now I don't know if I'll be allowed to help. I know that sounds silly, but I can't help but feel like I lost my best chance of being something not even three days after I was essentially born, all because of some stupid robots."
"Umm, I have ta ask: why'd ya go and listen ta her? I know it's Sally and all, but I also know that sittin there while there's an opportunity waitin for ya to go and take it is just plumb silly." Anita commented with a shrug. "It doesn't matter one red cent what she said, ya'll strength isn't gonna change just causa a few little words, now is it?"
"What do you mean, what opportunity?" Samantha asked.
"Well, those bots, of course, assuming that those twenty-four bad guys that are attackin are robots and not Egg army soldiers," Anita replied.
"Uhh, hold on, how do you know how many are attacking?" Samantha inquired.
"I've got a good set of ears, or weren't ya'll listinin when I told ya about my enhanced senses?" Anita replied with a prideful gesture to her own ears that peeked through her blond hair.
"Oh, sorry, I kinda forgot about that," Samantha said. Her demeanor livened a bit and her shoulders straightened. "But what kind of opportunity do they provide?"
"Ya'll tend to miss the obvious things, don't ya?" Anita remarked. "Them bots out there are easy to break, especially since they smell like they're made of aluminum instead of steel, and right now Sally's right there watchin em, so if ya'll go and smash em up, Sally'd see ya for sure, and then she'll have no choice but to make ya a Freedom Fighter," she explained.
"But Sally said that no one gets it right the first time, so if I go, I might just fail," Samantha said.
"Well, then, I guess ya'll just gonna have to go ahead and prove her wrong."
Meanwhile, elsewhere in the camp.
"Why are you still following me?" Roy said exasperatedly. "I thought you had other things to do, Trai."
"I am, in fact, not following you, just heading in the same direction," Trai replied curtly as he stepped around a passerby that was going the other way.
"Oh, right, I forgot; you need to get back to kissing councilor sashes," Roy commented.
"Didn't you hear me before? I am a councilor now." Trai retorted.
"I really don't care, Trai, a sash kisser is a sash kisser no matter what you call `em." Roy quipped as he continued walking.
When he heard this, Trai picked up his pace and shoved past his son while muttering something about "Incorrigible".
The two of them did not talk any further as they made their way to the councilor tent. Once or twice they would look as though they were about to argue again, but calmer heads prevailed and they settled about making cold stares at each other.
About fifteen minutes later, the two were interrupted in their travel by a klaxon sounding off with its droning call. Almost immediately afterward, they were almost trampled by a squad of Knothole Army soldiers crossing their path on their way to what appeared to something important.
"What do you suppose that's all about?" Roy asked.
"Tch, if you had listened to the weekly lectures about village safety and welfare at your school, Roy, you would know that the klaxon only sounds when there are enemy forces marching on the settlement and that soldiers are immediately dispatched the moment that occurs," Trai replied with an annoyed tone
"Well, I just thought those lectures were all just rhetoric; honestly, I never really pay attention to arbitrary things like that," Roy remarked with a dismissive gesture.
"It's a wonder you even survived to adulthood, Roy," Trai remarked, "but enough of that; we need to hurry along to the Council tent and see what we can do to help."
"I'm sorry, do you have a mouse in your pocket, who's 'we'?" Roy said, planting his feet on the ground and crossing his arms.
"'We' means you and I, Roy, now come along, I have to talk with the council members," Trai replied exasperatedly.
"I really don't think so, you can go ahead and talk till the sun falls for all I care, but I for one am going to where the badniks are," Roy stated. He adjusted the cuffs on his gloves and assumed a confident stance.
"Just when I thought you couldn't act any more childish, you do this. Why on Earth would you head towards the enemy, did that head injury of yours scramble your brain that far, or were you always this stupid?!" Trai snapped at his son.
Upon hearing his father call him stupid, Roy scoffed. "Really, you're calling me stupid, you? You're the guy that can't do anything that goes against the 'rules', and you're calling me stupid, tch!"
"Well, then, if you're so much smarter than me, then go ahead and waltz right into the line of fire, be my guest!" Trai retorted. Upon reaching his destination, Trai headed off to the council tent, not even caring what Roy was doing.
"Tch, whatever, at least I don't have to deal with him now…" Roy muttered. "Now to head for the bad guys, if she's got my memories, then she would also have some of my curiosity, I think."
With that Roy headed off to where the soldier's tracks led to as Trai continued to the council tent.
Meanwhile, back with Samantha and Anita…
"Come, on, if we don't hurry, Sally will have finished the job for us by the time we make it!" Anita said to Samantha as she raced in between the weathered tents and towards the fight. The sounds had been getting louder and louder as they neared the enemies, and Samantha had to fly a little once or twice just to avoid crushing a tent or two with the equipment chest in her haste.
"How much further is it, Anita?" Samantha asked. She stopped flying over tents a few dozen rows ago to avoid friendly (or not so friendly) fire, and with that, she could not see over them.
"About seven rows, roundabouts!" Anita replied as she leapt over a box in her way.
"Then I'd better set this down real quick so I don't break it," Samantha remarked as she set the equipment chest she was referring to down on the box. With that off her shoulders, Samantha felt free to move without worrying about running into things, and as such picked up her pace alongside the chupacabra.
The two of them made their way through the rest of the rows of tents. The arrived to find the battle well underway, with Sally and around a dozen or so soldiers in heated conflict with four times as many SWATbots. The first thing Samantha noticed was that unlike the hulking black chrome bots that Roy encountered, these bots were dull gray and much smaller and weaker, with one that was not very far away from them easily losing its head to a swift slash from what appeared to be two glowing blue blades emanating from the cuffs of Sally's gloves.
The bot fell to the ground with a thud, and then Sally noticed the two. "What are you doing here? I told you to keep away from here; this is not a place for inexperienced fighters!" Sally shouted. Promptly, she motioned to one of the soldiers: a green hedgehog wearing an open gray leather jacket over a combat vest covered in laser burns an order to usher the two off of the battlefield.
"You, schtep back und shtay zere, I need to get back to zee combat!" The verdant hedgehog told the two as he ushered them with his left hand while tracking and firing on targets with the pistol in his right hand.
"But all we want to do is give little help!" Anita protested as she stepped back.
"Zen take it up wiz Zally later, eferyzing iss under kontr-" Before the hedgehog could finish his sentence, a fizzing whistle pervaded the air.
Samantha heard someone scream "Morter!" And before she knew what was happening the ground beneath her dislodged from its proper place with a deafening boom, sending all three Mobians flying and subsequently burying them under the freshly overturned mud and dirt.
Samantha hurriedly popped out of the dirt and gasped in a shaky breath. Shots rang around her as she got out of the dirt and looked around for Anita was thrown by the blast. She quickly found the chupacabra struggling to extricate herself from the dirt.
"Anita, are you ok?!" Samantha exclaimed as she took Anita's hands and pulled her out from under the displaced soil.
"What?!" Anita replied as she grasped her ears. She looked around as though dazed and more than a little groggy.
"I said ARE YOU OKAY!" Samantha screamed, but Anita did not seem like she heard her. Ah crap, the blast must've messed with her sensitive hearing, I do hope that's not permanent. She thought as she started guiding the chupacabra to an area that seemed to devoid of fighting for the moment.
Just as she reached a somewhat safe place, Anita stopped her. "What about that green fella?!" She said with a compassionate panic in her voice. The chupacabra attempted to get past Samantha and back to the battlefield, but Samantha stopped her.
"I don't know if you can hear me, but don't worry, I'll go get him!" Samantha shouted to Anita over the constant gunfire, giving crude hand gestures to illustrate this.
"Ok!" Was what Anita said as she resumed holding her aching head and ears.
Samantha rushed back to the battlefield in search of the green hedgehog, praying that he was not already a part of the soil that was flying hither and thither across the brown and pockmarked hell that used to be a field of tents. Dozens of SWATbots were still firing upon the Knothole army soldiers, who themselves were firing back with equal ferocity in a terrifying show of machine and machine-aided carnage.
But Samantha was not paying attention to that. She quickly returned to roughly the same place that she pulled Anita from (It was hard to tell exactly where anything was at this point) and very soon after that she found the green hedgehog lying unconscious, though not buried under quite as much dirt as Anita was.
"Hey, are you ok!?" Samantha said to the verdant hedgehog as she attempted to get him up. Shots still whizzed about her and she desperately tried to get him back on his feet without putting him in the line of fire.
"Vat, vazzat, vats going on?" The green hedgehog muttered as he started to regain consciousness.
"Oh, good you're ok, I need to get you out of here!" Samantha exclaimed.
"Nien, I vas getting you out of here!" The green hedgehog exclaimed, though mostly in realization. He quickly got back on his feet, only to duck down to not get hit by an errant bullet.
However, he had no time to think over the situation, as two more SWATbots caught notice of him and Samantha and turned their weapons to them.
"Get down!" The green hedgehog exclaimed as he attempted to pull Samantha away from the ensuing shots, but when he did so, he found that he could not move Samantha, no matter how hard he tried. It was only after Samantha realized she needed to duck that she finally did so, scarcely avoiding three searing red laser beams that continued onward to light a nearby tent aflame.
"Vat are you doing, get out of here!" The green hedgehog urged Samantha as he squeezed two well-aimed shots off at the bots, incapacitating one and putting a hole through the head of the other.
"Why are you telling me to leave, I just saved you!" Samantha protested.
"Ves, und I zank you for zat, but now you need to get out of here!" The hedgehog replied as he tried to push her out of the battlefield.
But Samantha would not move, in fact, she did not even budge when the hedgehog pushed her. "No, I'm not leaving, I am going to help you guys!" Samantha stated firmly. Then she felt the hair on the back of her head ruffle a little, and turned around to see what happened, seeing nothing save for the war that was already going on some ways away, she turned back to the hedgehog.
When Samantha turned back to the hedgehog, she was greeted by an expression that made 'incredulous' seem oddly insufficient. "Vat zee hell vaz zat!?" He exclaimed in a voice that was closer to a scream.
"What, what happened, what is it!?" Samantha exclaimed in response, looking around for whatever the green hedgehog was referring too.
"You ver just schot in zee back of zee head, and you are not dead!" Replied the verdant hedgehog. He pointed at her with a mixture of fear and astonishment on his face.
"I was?" Samantha exclaimed. She hurriedly reached for the back of her head to look for a hole and found nothing. She pulled her hand back to her front and noticed that it was covered in some kind of black residue, but no blood. "Are you sure?" She asked.
At this point, the green hedgehog could only utter a few unintelligible utterances and a few small prayers. Then he was struck by an epiphany: "If you ver jus schot… and you didn't see who it was, zen zat vould mean… schniper!" He exclaimed just as a red flash of light collided with another unlucky soldier, causing him to fall over dead and all of the remaining soldiers to duck for cover in less time than it would take to light a match.
But then the verdant hedgehog's astonishment was completely overwritten by a commanding voice booming over the chaos around them. "Everyone, stay down, but do not stay still!" Boomed a commanding voice above all of the chaos. Samantha instantly recognized it to be Sally. "That mortar will pick us off one by one if we hold still, but they're trying to get us all to expose ourselves to that sniper!"
"So what do we do?!" Asked one of the soldiers.
"Simple, we need to take them out!" Sally replied, though Samantha could not tell where she was, or even where the soldiers were.
"But where are they!? We can't see through this mess!" Said another of the soldiers.
"Hey, green guy, what's going on?" Samantha asked the verdant hedgehog. The two of them had ducked behind a large and mostly destroyed supply crate.
"Zally alvays does zis, ve'll be fine." The green hedgehog replied.
Just as he replied, Sally shouted another order. "Can we get a Seer over here!?"
"Seer, what's that?" Samantha asked.
"Shh, you need to quiet down, vee are takink care of zis." The green hedgehog replied as a small white rodent started hurriedly making his way through the maze of craters between him and a hidden spot. He looked back at Samantha with a wary eye but decided to focus on the orders of his commander. When the fellow arrived at the spot, Samantha saw Sally peer out of a makeshift earthen bunker. She saw the two converse for a moment before Sally's hand popped out of the tent and made a hand signal to the other soldiers.
"What was that?" Samantha asked the green hedgehog.
"Zat vas ze order to cover zat Zeer zo he can find zat mortar…" The green hedgehog replied as he tensed up and brought his weapon to bear, aiming for the forest nearby.
Then the Seer held his hands together, and for a moment he shone a bright yellow. This prompted a sudden shift among the trees in the snow-covered forest, like dozens of predators all moving around, searching for a chance to strike. But then… nothing, not a sound.
"What are you looking for, cover that guy from what?" Samantha asked.
"You, quiet…" The green hedgehog quietly snapped at her. The hedgehog resumed scanning the trees for any sign of an enemy move.
But for a while, as before… nothing, not a sound.
A few yards away, Anita was still massaging her head to wear away the headache and the ringing in her ears. "God, this ringin just won't quit." She complained aloud. She gave one last pat on the sides of her head, and suddenly the fogginess in her ears cleared away, only to be replaced by a painful whirring noise.
"Ow, what in tarnation, don't tell me ah've got hearing damage. Fiddlesticks!" Anita complained as the whirring continued, but then she noticed something. Now, hold on, this here whirrin… it's comin from one direction. Turning her head to confirm it. "Well, shoot, it's comin from the same direction as Samantha's breathin is!" She exclaimed as she quickly scrambled to her feet and ran to go help her friend.
Back over by Samantha, the soldiers stood stock still amid the periodic mortar blasts as the rodent Seer whispered to Sally, apparently conversing over where the mortar might be.
"Where are the bad guys?" Samantha asked the green hedgehog during a comparably quiet moment.
"Ofer zere. In zose trees." He replied with a curt gesture with his pistol.
"Hold on, I think I know you," Samantha remarked as she took notice of the green fellow's appearance. "You're Zoenardo, the owner of Zone's Music Place."
"Ok, yes, you know me, vatefer, but zis iss not zee time for greetings," Zoenardo replied with an annoyed grunt. "Vhy don't you go uze zat laser proof skin of yours und give zat Zeer zome cover?" He suggested.
Huh, I didn't think about that. Samantha thought. "Wouldn't Sally have a problem with that? She already told me not to." She asked him.
"Zhe doezn't like zending zivilians into combat, but you are not a normal civilian, und bezides. You are getting in my way." Zoenardo replied, his voice was almost yelling, but he restrained it for the situation at hand. Then he noticed that Samantha had not gone yet. "You, get over zhere, veet!" He ordered her.
Without any more hesitation, Samantha made her way across the pockmarked battlefield to where Sally and the Seer were, a jaunt that would have been risky for anyone besides her. When she made it halfway, Sally spotted her and began to angrily wave her away. "The heck are you doing?!" She said in a stifled yell. "I told you to stay in the camp!"
"But I can help, I'm laser proof," Samantha replied. The moment she said those words she became dreadfully aware of just how silly she sounded, and from the looks of both the Seer and Sally, they both heard that and came to the same conclusion.
Ok, I am going to need to get some Psychiatric facilities up and running after all this… Sally thought, holding her face to not say that out loud. "I told you to get out of harm's way, and I meant it, now get out of here and fast." She ordered Samantha. Sally then returned to her conversation with the Seer, who was holding a small holographic map of the battlefield.
"I can protect this Seer guy." Samantha protested.
"No, get out of this battlefield now and get yourself OUT. OF. HARM'S. WAY!" Sally snapped at her, her voice a strangled scream.
Samantha felt even more dejected than before, she began to walk away, but just then Anita came running into the field. "Samantha, I gotta tell ya somthin!" The chupacabra shouted.
Then the Seer suddenly piped up. "They're about to shoot at us!"
"Everyone, get down!" Sally ordered everyone, but just as she gave that order, the tree-line erupted with dozens of red flares spraying almost haphazardly in the direction of the soldiers.
The fire did not stop there, as the hail of shots rang out in the gray sunlight of early morning, another mortar started to add its deadly fire to the fray. All of the Knothole soldiers were either waiting for a chance to strike or simply ran away from this onslaught, but to a one, none were firing back.
Samantha saw this display of power with a note of awe, and instinctively she ducked away from the shots, forgetting her newly discovered invulnerability. Then came shots from Sally's army, these were quieter than that of the enemy's, weaker too. Though it seemed enough to eliminate some of the foes, as the opponents slowed their rate of fire.
"Don't let your guard down, they're still out there!" Sally reminded her soldiers. That somber note did not inspire confidence, but it did elicit caution even in the lull of fighting.
Anita ran up. "Samantha, there's somethin movin in those there trees, somethin big and slow."
"But I don't hear anything," Samantha remarked.
"But I do, good ears, remember?" Anita said her ears swiveling in the direction of the noise.
"What do you think it is?" Samantha asked her.
"I don't know, but it sure is getting louder all of a sudden!" Anita shouted as she clasped her ears to muffle the noise.
But she had no time figure it out, as her attention was drawn to a bright blue flare of light from behind her. She turned around to see a terrifyingly huge ball of energy, twice and over the size of a two-story house, seemingly coming from nothing. The massive orb burned the nearby trees to a crisp and its harsh glare made it look like a second star had formed on the ground.
Then without warning, this earthbound star began to move from the tree line, obliterating a swath of No Man's Land and continuing toward a row of tents which it trashed just as well. "Get out of the way!" Sally ordered everyone as the behemoth barreled through.
The Knothole soldiers –and everyone else for that matter- had to get up and run to get out of the way of this attack, for jumping or dodging was simply not good enough. Then the blast evaporated in an instant, leaving behind a gouge in the field that made it look as if some colossal monster from the Underworld had dragged some of it to its home; never to return.
Without skipping a beat, Sally started giving more orders. "Get me an assessment of that weapon!" She said to the Seer before giving orders to the other soldiers. The Seer himself clasped his hands together and focused his energies on the opposing side of the battlefield; peering with ethereal eyes at the forest and all its occupants.
Samantha was not paying attention to this; she was more worried about Anita. "Are you alright?" She asked the chupacabra.
"Yeah, ah'm ok," Anita replied. "What in tarnation was that thing?"
"I really don't know," Samantha replied. She looked for the source of the blast but could see nothing. Then she turned to Anita again and asked, "Are all of your senses working right?"
"I think so."
"Then could you see if you can assess that thing?" Samantha asked.
"Yeah, I think so," Anita replied. She closed her eyes and focused her incredible senses on the opposing side of the battlefield; peering with ears and other senses at every aspect of the forest and the combatants within.
The Seer unclasped his hands out of surprise. "Sally, I found out what the weapon is, it looks like a Badnik by the name of Terra Totality." He said.
"The heck, Badniks aren't that powerful," Sally commented as she instinctively looked for where her soldiers were at that moment. "Ok, if it's a Badnik, then if it has a very powerful attack then it should have a pretty crappy defense… Zoenardo, take out the Mortar we've already located, the Seer will tell you where it is, then after that find the other one so we can focus on the Badnik!"
"Ja, vill do!" Zoenardo replied as he headed over to the Seer to get the coordinates.
Back over by Samantha and Anita (the latter was discussing the source of the blast with the former.) "I don't know what it is, but there's a hulking thang out there with a big old arm cannon, judging by how hot the barrel smells, they're the one that made that big ole shot."
"So, is there any way to get rid of it?" Samantha asked.
"Well, its armor sounds pretty think, but your strength should be enough to break it," Anita replied. "But what ah'm more worried about is that other mortar that the mouse fella hasn't found yet."
"What do you mean? What other mortar?" Samantha asked.
"There's one right next to the hulkin thang, and it's doing just as much damage as the first," Anita replied.
"If we don't take that out first, what do you think would happen?" Samantha asked.
"Not sure, but it will make taking out that big ole bot much harder than it should be," Anita replied.
"I think I could go and smash it. Could you direct me to the mortar?" Samantha asked.
"You sure that's a good idea, you aren't laser proof," Anita mentioned.
"Oh, right, you didn't see it… umm, apparently I am, so I'll be fine, trust me." Samantha remarked.
"Ok…. if you say so. It's over there, about thirty-four yards out." Anita said; pointing to the left of the incinerated trees in the tree-line.
"Ok, you get behind some cover and I'll go and smash it," Samantha said as she stretched her arms and legs a little to prepare.
As Anita stepped back behind a large clump of overturned soil, Samantha charged headlong in the direction of the mortar, paying little heed to the weapon fire that whizzed around her. Trusting in both Anita's directions and her own new-found invulnerability, her pace quickened. It felt to her as if the ground was flying past her feet.
"The heck, what is she doing?!" Sally exclaimed when she caught notice of the brown fox shootting across the battlefield and into the line of fire. "Someone get her out of there!"
"She's too far into No Man's Land, we can't!" Stated one soldier.
"Arg, she's got to be suicidal..." Sally said under her breath.
Then, just as she reached the halfway point, Samantha's running turned to flight, much to the surprise of both sides of the field. Her form rose above the field, coursing with faint blue power as she held there for a brief moment.
"Now where is it?" Samantha asked herself, but even before she finished her sentence she saw her target and with breakneck speed, she careened towards the two SWATbots manning the weapon of war; landing with such force as to send debris sailing above the tallest of the pine trees (were they still standing) in a thunderous boom.
All of the soldiers and even the machines fell silent, unable to comprehend what just took place.
"What just happened?" Sally asked the Seer.
"I-I don't know…" The rodent stammered. "I'll take a look." He said as he clasped his hands together again. Another bright flash of light came from between then, and he opened his eyes again. "Her name is Samantha, and she's really strong, but apart from that, I can't see anything else about her. There's just this dark cloud surrounding her that obscures my farsight."
"Dark cloud, you say? Is she dangerous, or rather, is she our enemy?" Sally asked.
"I can't say for sure." The Seer replied. "She wants to help you, but I can't see her future, so I don't know if she'll change her mind."
"Zoenardo, did you get that mortar taken care of?!" Sally asked the green hedgehog.
"Nien, zat zhaking threw me off! They've already moved zomvere elze!" He replied.
Sally cursed. Looking around, she turned her attention back to the Seer.
"What's happening over there?" Sally asked.
"The bots are assessing the situation- wait, hold on, I found the squad's Overseer!" The Seer exclaimed.
"Well then where is it?"
"Terra, I have a report of the being that attacked Mortar#1." Beeped a machine halfway embedded into the ground to a hulking red bot that crouched nearby, hiding from the newfound phenomena as his combat programming deemed he should do.
"Well, what is it?" Asked Terra in a rumbling voice that seemed as if it was emitted by a cross between a trash compactor and a base stereo. His scuffed dark-brown armored hand gestured impatiently at the embedded machine.
"While incomplete, the data available suggests that the being is a female Mobian fox of class-8 High-Threat combat capability, but the female could have a rank of 3 or higher." The machine replied. "I recommend a report be sent to headquarters and backup be requested."
"No, don't you go tellin Mr.R about this, he'll just go and send Summa over and he'll just take all the fun." Terra protested, "She's mine."
Samantha waved the dust from her face as she took a look at her new surroundings. "Ok, I didn't expect to make such a big hole…" she commented as she took notice of the new crater she stood in. She spotted a SWATbot head lying next to her. "Well, I've got a good aim, that's for sure." Then she noticed a scrap of black denim blowing in the wind, attached to her leg. She looked down to see that the lower half of her jeans were now completely shredded, naught but tatters remained, the same went for her shoes, one of which was close to just falling off. "Tch, oh great..." she complained.
As Samantha stood there complaining about her now destroyed clothing, a hulking red bot climbed out from his cover and stood tall. His soup can of a head stood over four times higher than the fox's ears, even if you were to take away the crater she stood in. One of the bot's arms sported the barrel of a large weapon that seemed to glow a faint orange, while the other was a regular hand. The head rested on a set of metal shoulders that were nearly as wide as he was tall, and all that, in turn, stood atop two metal tree trunks… er, I mean legs. "Well, you're pretty tough, meat bag." Spoke the heavy bot, his confident facial machinery cracking to a slight smile at having had the chance to use that phrase for the first time.
He'd often hear his heroes say one-liners like that on the cartoons Mr.R made for him and his siblings. The robots were always the good guys, and the evil Mobians and Overlanders, the "meat bags", were always thwarted by some heroic robot or another. Terra knew all them by name, even their sidekicks. Getting to use that line, for real this time, made him feel like one of those heroes.
"Yeah, I'm kinda tough, I think," Samantha replied. "You're the leader of these bots?" She asked gesturing to a nearby SWATbot head.
"Yeah, I am," Terra replied, eying the head. He knew that bot, his name used to be Gerry546. He didn't know the other guy, but he knew that he was Gerry546's friend, and that made him angry. "Wanna fight?" He asked, but both of them knew that was rhetorical.
Samantha didn't reply, instead, she shot forward, her fist readied to punch a hole right through her foe.
Terra responded in kind, leaping down into the crater to greet his enemy.
Samantha immediately forgot her durability and backed out at the last minute, choosing to dodge instead of a strike.
The two fighters had now traded places. "Heh, you're pretty smart to dodge that. That punch woulda given you an instant burial." Terra clucked.
"Nah, I just wanted the higher ground." Samantha shot back, hoping her lie would serve to disguise her fear.
"Well, I hope you don't dodge this one!" Terra roared as he brought his cannon to bear. The orange glow immediately flared up to a brilliant blue as it blasted out of the barrel.
Samantha has no chance of dodging. All she could do was put her hand in front of her face before the giant blue energy blast enveloped her completely. She felt the blast pass by her like a riptide, the ground beneath her crumbled as it gave way to the force of Terra's weapon; leaving her suspended in the air, bathed in blue light.
Then, just like before, the blast evaporated, leaving nothing save for dust in its wake.
"Tch, 'level eight high-threat' my foot..." Terra laughed as he saw no trace of his foe through the charred dust that hung in the air.
Then, little by little, the dust cleared. Terra's sensors revealed at first a gloved hand held up in a protective gesture, then an arm, and finally the rest. Samantha stood there, frozen in fear and fully believing that she was already dead. She twitched a little before finally moving again. At first, she looked at her hands and feet. Her clothes were now charred ribbons behind her except for the Mole Corp gloves. However, her body was completely unscathed with not even a tan to show for it.
"Wha- what just happened, you're supposed to be blasted!" Terra exclaimed, his mechanical features cemented in a look of disbelief.
"U-um, I, I'm not dead..." Samantha stuttered a similar look was her face as well.
The red bot stood back, "Huh, the one time my Overseer was right..." He commented. He then pressed a button on the side of his head and a voice display pooped into his field of vision. The tag of the voice read 'Overseer 77-A' [Oi, Sevens! I need a second assessment of this fox! It just survived the Totality gun!] He transmitted to the Overseer buried some ways away.
[It seems that we I was incorrect in my initial classification.] The Overseer replied via their unheard link. [Your opponent is a level one High-Threat, perhaps higher. Though I can surmise that they do not know this as of yet.]
"Tch, no kidding..." Terra commented. [You know of a way to beat this meat bag? Cuz she's pretty hard to hurt.] He inquired his Overseer.
[Your cannon is a weapon for crowd control, that may explain why your opponent survived its fire. I suggest using melee combat, it may be weaker, but it should deal more damage.] Sevens suggested. [Furthermore, they appear to be inhaling 5.6 times more oxygen than others of her species. It appears that your opponent requires this excessive amount to function properly. I suggest cutting off that supply; she should be subdued fairly quickly after that.]
"Good idea," Terra remarked as he turned his attention back to Samantha. But when he looked to her original spot, she wasn't there anymore. "Oh great, now where'd she go?" he complained.
Nearby, behind a sizable tree that only just lost the branches on one side from Terra's attack, Samantha stood back to it, trying desperately to both hide from the menacing machine and come to grips to what she just survived. What the heck?! How did I survive that? I should be dust- no, less than dust, and here I am, perfectly fine! Her eyes flitted around as quickly as her thoughts as if searching for some kind of an explanation. She heard the bot stomping around looking for her, and she had to clasp her mouth with her hand to quiet her frightened breathing. Why am I even afraid? It's not like it can even hurt me, and yet I can't shake this urge to hide. Why does my mind know I'm strong without my body knowing it as well?
Terra noticed a blip on his HUD. [I have discovered the whereabouts of your opponent, follow the marker on the map to find them.] Sevens said.
Samantha still cowered behind the tree, unaware that she had already been found. Her breathing calmed down a little, but her body was still as tense as a bowstring, ready to jump at the slightest provocation.
That provocation came in the form of Terra's arm cannon flipping around the tree and smacking her right in the chest and driving the back of her head into the tree before pulling her right through it. At that moment, another sensation came over her: voices. Thousands of voices, and a single voice shouting and whispering a thousand times.
"Hah, got ya!" Terra roared as he held Samantha in a stranglehold. The tree she was thrown through collapsed in front of them. Samantha struggled but found herself unable to free herself from Terra's grip. Darkness crept into her vision. Her head swam and her mind faint. She heard a chorus of new voices coursing through her mind, adding themselves to the multitude.
One voice, however, was louder than the rest- no…. not louder, clearer. "Don't go, Alum!" It cried in her thoughts. "Don't chase him, you know that blue guy kills any of us that chases him! You know that!... I don't care if you're faster, no one survives him!"
"Alum! No!"
Samantha's eyes drifted closed before snapping into action faster than Terra was even capable of processing. Within a millisecond her hands lashed out, burying themselves into an arm cannon and ripping it off of both her and his shoulder. Sending it flying out of sight and allowing her to fall to the ground. Then without even thinking Samantha scrambled to her feet and turned to her attacker. The look on her face was not one of a fighter, it was one of fear, base, survival-at-all-costs, abject fear, and that by far was more dangerous than any fighter.
Terra had an equally fearful expression on his face, but it did not matter. Samantha attacked faster than even an Ultimate Observer could track, smashing and ripping pieces off of her object of fear, reducing the robot to nothing but a twisted and mangled hulk of metal in mere moments. Each blow an attempt to drive her foe and the voices into submission.
After obliterating her attacker, Samantha staggered backwards, her adrenalin rush wearing thin, she began to shake and her breath became ragged. Then, slowly but surely, she began to realize what the voices were that flowed through her mind. They were young minds, of cartoons and play, they were of older minds, dreaming of the day when they would be given full-mech bodies and take their place as protectors of their creator.
Above all of the voices, a single name was clear as day, "Terra…" Samantha whispered, "Y-your name was… Terra…" She looked at the mangled and twisted monument that stood in Terra's place, a symbol of what she had done. "Oh god, what did I do?" She whispered as she gazed upon the twisted monument of her foe, pieces lay here and there, and some parts were just simply not there. Terra would no longer watch cartoons with his siblings, or listen to the stories that his creator told them… Terra was gone. "I… I'm so sorry…"
"Please forgive me."
Samantha's words seemed to echo among the trees, resounding with regret. But her ordeal was not through. More SWATbots closed in on her, and through hazy vision, Samantha caught sight of flares of red light that came at her. None of them did any damage, they just irritated her, but instead of reacting, Samantha fell to her knees and put her hands to her face. "Just leave me alone. I don't want to hurt any of you," She whimpered as she tried to come to grips with everything that just happened. But the robots just kept firing at her, not allowing her to think over all the noise and blinking lights.
"Just leave me alone!" She roared leaping off of the ground and hurtling toward one of the bots, putting her hand right through its body in a shower of parts, immediately causing it to topple over like a sack of potatoes. Now angry and with more than a little more mania driving her actions, Samantha proceeded to do the same to each and every other bot around her leaving each bot smashed in a similar fashion. Gritting her teeth, Samantha's fists tore out still humming power cores that leaked molten plasma on her gloves, sent fistfuls of circuits sailing through the air. Even she did not know how many she destroyed. Ten… twenty…more, but she did not stop until there were no longer any telltale glowing red glares from her SWATbot foes.
With all the foes destroyed, Samantha once again fell to her knees and broke out in tears. "What is happening to me?" She whimpered as the images of the fight replayed over and over in her mind. The trauma of recent events hadn't let her think of anything else. Instead, she curled up next to one of the destroyed tree trunks and sobbed.
Please forgive me.
The battlefield was silent, all enemy fire seized.
"Can you give me a scan of what's happening over there?" Sally requested of the white mouse Seer that crouched next to her. Both of the soldiers lay prone, expecting some kind of a sneak attack from their now quiet foes.
Still prone, the mouse clasped his hands together again, and emitted that same yellow light. "I-I don't understand…" He gasped as he pulled his hands away from each other.
"What's going on, are there more of them?" Sally asked.
"No… there are none left, none at all." The Seer replied. "The only one over there is Samantha, but there's something off about her, something that wasn't there before."
"Like what?" Sally asked.
"I don't know, I can't tell from this distance." The mouse replied.
"Hey, Zoenardo, get a recon of the area, see if we have a misreading," Sally ordered the green hedgehog, who was crouched behind what remained of a supply crate.
"Ja, I vill go," Zoenardo replied. He then carefully made his way through no-man's-land, keeping a wary eye out for enemies.
"I know you have an accuracy score of 92%, Raleigh, but that's still an 8% chance that your scan was wrong, and with this, we can't take any chances," Sally told the white mouse.
"I know, Ms Acorn," Raleigh replied.
Then the both of them spotted a green flag being waved from the other side of the field; the all-clear sign. They got up and went across the pockmarked field and towards what lay beyond.
However, just as they stood, they head hurried footsteps heading towards them from the undamaged tents. They turned around just in time to see a dull red fox running towards them. "Hey, have you seen a brown fox around here, she's… woah, what the heck…" Roy said as he stopped in his tracks at the sight of the now still battlefield. The whole field was nothing but a series of holes, some small, and some much larger. A body or two lay here and there. It made him feel queasy to see it.
"Ok, someone get him out of here," Sally said as she ignored Roy and started to cross the field.
"No, wait, I'm looking for someone!" Roy exclaimed as a Knothole soldier started gently ushering him away from the scene.
"You can go talk to someone back at the Council tent sir, just step back for now," said the feline soldier that pushed him along.
"No, not gonna happen-" Roy said as he slipped past the soldier and headed for Sally.
"Hey, I'm looking for somebody, a girl!" Roy said as he quickly caught up with Sally.
"Ok, this is really not the time to get help for dating," Sally replied.
At her reply, Roy's face grew redder than his own fur and said. "N-no, not that, I am looking for someone, she's a vixen named Samantha-"
"Hold on, you know that girl?"
"Yeah, Samantha, I know her," Roy replied.
Sally thought for a moment before replying. "Alright, come with me, it is a possibility that your friend is in a bad way right now, and you might be helpful in defusing any situations."
"What do you mean, what happened to her?" Roy exclaimed.
"That's what we want to find out, she over there, and how she got there was… surprising to say the least." Sally replied. "After we get to a safe area, you're going to explain everything you know about her."
Just as Roy was about to reply, another voice called out. "Hey, Roy, whatcha doin out here?!" Anita exclaimed as she ran up to the three Mobians.
"I could ask the same to you, civilian." Sally commented.
Ignoring Sally, Anita spoke to Roy. "Sally was around here just a little bit ago, I helped her find a mortar gun and then she just leapt ovah there, leapt!" She explained.
"You're telling me you're involved with Samantha too?" Sally exclaimed. "Because if you are I'm going to have to talk to you too."
"Why?" Anita asked.
"Umm, I think it's because we know Samantha," Roy answered.
"Ok, that is enough talking, we need to go and find out what's going on with your friend," Sally said curtly as she began crossing the field in earnest. The fox, chupacabra and mouse followed closely behind the chipmunk clad in blue.
Since the fighting had ended, they reached the other side of the field fairly quickly. "Um, Zally, who are zeze two?" Zoenardo asked when he noticed the two civilians trailing behind his commanding officer.
"They apparently know Samantha, and we might need them to diffuse any situation that arises with her," Sally explained.
"Er, yez ma'am," Zoenardo replied, not fully understanding what she meant. He then pointed over to a collapsed tree. "Zhe'z ofer zere, I choze to be careful when I zaw what zhe waz next to."
"What was she next to?" Sally asked.
"I cannot dezcribe it, it iz… juzt come und look." The green hedgehog replied as he waved for them to follow him.
The four of them made their way over to the tree. When they arrived they saw the remains of Terra, though none of them knew this. Samantha lay curled up and sleeping next to a nearby stump. Her long red hair, matted with tears in places, covered the upper torso of her unclothed form.
Without hesitation, Roy ran over to her. "Samantha!" He exclaimed. He tried to lift her head but found that it weighed almost a ton, far more than he could lift.
Stirred by the noise and by someone touching her head, Samantha's eyes slowly opened. "Roy?" She asked. She blinked her eyes as she sat up. Blinking them one more time, her vision cleared and she saw that it was indeed him. "Roy!" She exclaimed as she embraced him. "I… I've done something horrible…"She sobbed as she hugged him tightly. For some reason, her limbs were lighter now, as she rested her head on Roy's shoulder as if it weighed just like any other head.
"Hey ma'am, are you alright?" Sally asked, trading her military tone for a much more caring one.
"Yeah, I'm ok." Samantha replied, wiping tears from her eyes and releasing herself from Roy's embrace.
"What happened?" Sally asked.
"Well, I-"
Samantha was suddenly interrupted by Raleigh exclaiming. "Sally, the Overseer, it's still functional!"
Sally's eyes grew wide as she turned to face the Seer. "What, where?"
The white mouse pointed to the other side of a hill. "Over there!"
Sally, Zoenardo and Raleigh quickly climbed the hill. Roy and Samantha followed as soon as she got to her feet. A perfect indentation remained where the brown fox was laying, even the rocks were crushed.
The five of them reached the top of the hill to discover what appeared to be a metal orb halfway buried in the ground. Various antennae and a satellite dish jutted from the top of the silver orb, alongside several cameras that tracked the five.
"You… destroyed Terra, didn't you?" The machine asked.
Samantha opened her mouth to speak. "I-"
"What does it matter to you?" asked Sally, her voice returning its usual commanding one.
"Because if Terra is dead, then his order not to give away this location is now null." The machine explained as the antennae on its top suddenly shifted and a shrill sound emitted from all of them.
"Oh, crap, not good!" Sally exclaimed as she leapt down at the bot, extending two glowing blue energy blades from her cufflinks. She landed on the bot and drove both of them straight to the center with a sizzling and popping sound of machinery reaching critical failure.
"You-you-you're too-t-too late-ate. I-I-I already s-sent it." The machine choked out. "Eeeeeeee-Eggman is-is-is-is co-coming-ing. Lo-long live the Eggman Empire!"
Oh, dear…
The signal traveled long and far, over and past the forest, and over the murky, smoggy wasteland that lay beyond.
It reached a relay hidden in a dead tree, then it found another atop a rock sitting just barely above a swamp of death and oil, and yet another that stood atop a tower specially made for it. Finally, the signal was efficiently packed up and sent through a cable that looked like it had not been touched in at least a hundred years. And sent to a marvel of machinery; not a robot, not even two or three, or even a thousand, but an entire city, all made of metal: Robotropolis.
Deep within the reaches of that city, in a colossal structure with the shape of a head, a man sat, brooding and contemplating how he might complete his metal work. His overweight form was clothed in orange, red, and black, save for his silver-grey arm. His face was a hideous triangle, pointing to the sky as if to spurn the gods. Within that ugly face sat two charcoal black eyes, red pupils rested in the centers, burning with hatred and spite.
A light next to the ugly man shone red, though not more so than his eyes.
The man pressed a silver button on the console and an aura of cold green light filled the room before a hologram appeared before him. The amorphous blobs eyes were full of evil glee as they flitted over the data.
"Finally…"
To be continued…
Edited by Zoggerific and made by yours truly.