Chapter 15: Stand Off Part 2

Axel's teeth clenched as he went over the choices in his head still couldn't make up his mind on what to do. Grab the plant, or save Hunter? Time was running out and he needed to make a choice quickly. He really needed to save the others, without them the Rovers wouldn't be the same. Plus he would miss all of his friends, who he considers his second family, every single one of them were special to him. Also seeing Hunter's hurt face as to facing the fact that his wife would never wake up again is something he couldn't bear to see. Plus most of all he wouldn't be able to see his wife awake again, to hear her voice or hold her like they love to do. Just those reasons were enough alone to determine his choice, but on the other hand….

Hunter has been with the Rovers since they were formed, his leadership skills were invaluable to the team. Without him they wouldn't be able to accomplish missions as perfectly as they do. Plus if he did go for the flower and when the others woke up they would be devastated at the news, especially Colleen. Chances were that Colleen would be too emotionally out of it to be able to take over, plus the fact that little Christian wouldn't have a father to raise him. His mom and dad would take it harder; a parent's worst nightmare is to outlive their child, that's something that can't happen. Plus Hunter was Axel's stepbrother, there's no way he couldn't let part of his family die. If he did the guilt of always knowing that he could have saved him would always be there, never leaving him alone till it drove him mad.

It all ran over and over into his head as he came to a decision, he knew what he had to do. 'Please forgive me everyone,' He thought to himself as a small tear slid from his eye, slowly lowering his weapon before turning and taking off in the opposite direction. 'Hang on Hunter I'm coming!'

Havoc could only smile to himself as he heard footsteps leaving from the area, peeking around the tent he found the area empty. He mentally laughed to himself before looking around to see where the sack, with the flower inside, had rolled off to. Moving over to one of the collapsed tents he moved the fabric aside and sighed in relief as the object of his desire came into view, reaching for it he slung it over his arm before heading to the makeshift helipad.

Hunter panted a bit as more of his cover was blown away; little by little his only defense had been blown off. No part of him hasn't been exposed yet, but it still didn't sit well with the retriever. Unconsciously his hand would travel down to his right ankle, rubbing it gently, only for the pain to flare up to remind him that it still was hurting. He still couldn't move from his spot, limping away would only expose him to the enemy.

He fired blindly just as more of the boxes were blown off, a sigh escaped his mouth, he had given up just trying to take them out. Right now he was focused on buying Axel some time to get the plant and get away. After talking with him and realizing the situation the retriever had already accepted his fate, knowing this was the end of the line for him. He had led a wonderful life, some of it bad at some parts, but being the leader of the Rovers had been such an honor for him and was thankful that the Master had chosen him. Still a small tear slid down his face, his wife and son coming to mind, sadden at the fact that he's going to leave them, but this had to be done in order to same them. 'I'm sorry Colleen and Christian for the pain I'm going to bring you two, I'll miss you both,' he thought as a few more shots were fired, it was just a moment of time now.

Just then both ears flicked as shouts were heard and some of the gunfire had been redirected. Knowing it was a risk Hunter stuck his head out of cover, but then his face fell, some yards away he saw Axel shooting at Havoc's men. Some anger and dread filled the retriever knowing that Havoc was getting away with the plant; the mission was lost now so nothing else could be done. Disappointed in Axel's choice Hunter decided to fight back, confronting the Akita over his choice would come later. Standing on his good foot he rose up and fired at some of the distracted troops.

Axel dove behind one of the many tents as he returned fire at the enemies present; the stealth approach was out of the question now so they have to do this the hard way. Taking a moment to assess the area he found that there were about ten enemies left conscious, there weren't many cover between them, so there wasn't a chance he could get that close to them….unless.

Reaching for the last smoke grenade that was left, he pulled the pin and chucked it at them, then activated his aura sight. A pop could be heard followed by smoke filling up the area, blinding all who were caught inside it. This prompt Axel to spring into action, able to see everyone clearly, he charged at them, tackling the first one that was the closes. A firm strike to the face took him out, but then he stayed on the ground as gunfire started to fire, prompting him to stay where he was.

Axel kept on move by crawling towards his next target, doing his best to keep out of the fire. Coming up to two of them he jumped up and bashed both of their heads together, the force of the blow knocked them both out. The sound of what he did must have been heard since the left over troops turn their fire in his direction, causing him to return to prone position. Well three down, seven to go.

Hunter fired several shots, three of them hit their marks and taking down their targets, he saw the smoke screen go up and engulfed all of them, but several of them made it out. Once that happened the retriever took his chance to take them out. He wasn't sure how many there were left but he knew that this fight was almost over; all he had to do was keep his weapon forward just in case anymore came out of the smoke.

As a few seconds passed Hunter could see the smoke starting to dissipate, slowly reveling whoever was left standing. There was only one figure standing as more smoke cleared, but he could let out a sigh of relief once he realized it was Axel. Lowering the weapon Hunter looked around to check the area, it must have been all of them since he couldn't see or hear anyone. After realizing that the area was safe and cleared his limply moved himself to sit down of what was left of the shot up boxes, resting his ankle and catching his breath.

Axel surveyed the area as he realized that everyone was down, he had saved Hunter but gave up saving the others. After all that was done the feelings of guilt started to fill the Akita, small tears came out of his eye as the realization started to sink in. Either way he was going to feel the same way regardless of whatever he choice, still he made his choice and now had to face the repercussions. Wiping the tears away he quickly moved over to where Hunter was, wanting to make sure his stepbrother was ok. "Hunter are you alright?" He asked, attempting to place his hand on his shoulder.

But then Hunter shook it off, before look up right at him, eyes filled with some anger. "Why?

This totally caught Axel off by surprised, Hunter has never looked at him liked that before, and yet he knew the answer why, "Hunter I-"

He was cut off as Hunter stood back up, ignoring the pain in his ankle and limping closer to Axel. "Why did you come back for me….I told you to go after the plant but you didn't and now everyone can't be saved!"

Axel backed up as Hunter let all of his anger out, he knew that was warranted, Hunter was mad and now there's nothing he could do about it. "Hunter-"

"I told you that I would give my life so you could save the flower but you didn't!" Hunter's anger was starting to rise, but then it then slowly started to descend as some tears started to fall from him as well. "Why…Why did you come back for me?"

Tears also started to form on Axel, still stunned of Hunter's words, both of them upset at it but out of the both of them Axel was hurting the most. Knowing this would happen with the decision he made he still found the words to speak. "I couldn't let you die…I …just couldn't."

Hunter heard the words as he turned and limped back to the boxes to sit down, both were silent after that. Even though he knew those words were coming, it still hot him close to home, they were strong words right now, and Hunter knew he couldn't really fault him right now. "But still…"

"I just couldn't man…believe me."

Hunter sighed but then they both looked up as their ears perked, the sound of chopper blades could be heard and they could see a helicopter flying off. They knew it was Havoc but didn't do anything, because in reality what could they do? The retriever only could look up at his stepbrother, "Well…there's nothing we can do now. Let's just get our stuff and call in the Sonic Rover and go home…there's nothing we can do now."

Axel reluctantly agreed with this, both sadden to know that their mission ended in failure and weren't sure of what would happen now. He walked over to help Hunter but both stopped as their ears flickered and then they sharply turned to whip out their weapons. "Whoa easy there," Tim said as he walked towards the two.

Both Rovers relaxed as they saw that it was Tim, who was out of Havoc's colors and carrying a two packs and a large sack. "Where were you?" Hunter asked, holstering his weapon.

"I was sneaking around, taking out anyone who may be around," He responded, stopping five yards away from them. "Plus I had to grab a few things."

"Well it's good to see that you're ok," Axel responded, helping Hunter up.

"What happened?" Tim asked, noticing Hunter's struggle.

Hunter winced as he felt a little pressure on the injury but then it was alleviated, "I twisted my ankle but I'll be fine…for now."

Tim could see that they were both down for some reason, but wasn't sure why. "What's wrong, I thought you guys would be happy that this is all over?"

Axel shook his head, turning his head back to their friend, "Havoc got away with the plant, our mission is a failure and there's no way we can help our friends."

Tim heard all this and couldn't help but smile, then started to laugh a bit, confusing both of the Rovers. They wondered what he could be laughing at. "What are you laughing at?" Hunter asked.

The laughter died down a big as Tim shook his head, "Here, catch." He then threw the sack over at them, which Axel managed to catch.

Whatever was inside of it, it was hard and a little heavy, "What is this?"

"Consider it a parting gift," Tim smiled once again.

Both were still confused at what he meant but then pulled open the sack, what was under it made both of their eyes widen. Inside the sack Axel held the Gold Spring, safely protected inside its glass container, The Rovers were in shock as the realization finally sunk into them. Hunter was the first one to overcome the shock, "H-H-How di-did you get this?"

Tim chuckled as he began to explain, "After you tackled Havoc the plant rolled away where he couldn't see it, thankfully I was in the area when that happened…so I managed to do the old switcheroo."

Both were too consumed by this, not really sure what to say to their new friend. More tears came to their eyes as Hunter spoke up, "Th-thank you…so much…"

Axel then took the conversation from there, "You just gave us our friends back."

"It was my pleasure," He responded with a smile, glad to know that he helped them out. "Now why don't you two get out before Havoc realizes what happened."

Both watched as he moved towards them and handed them the packs, their packs. "Wait if we have the flower, then what does Havoc have?"

Tim just smiled again, "Oh just some random plants the research team had gather, by the time he realizes this it'll be too late."

Both of them heard this as they picked up their packs and strapped them on. "Well we need to call the authorities and have them round up everyone."

"Already ahead of you, I found a radio and dialed an emergency channel and gave them the coordinates to here, they should be here within the hour."

"What about you," Axel asked with a raised eye.

Tim sighed deeply at that, this gave them a feeling that this wasn't going to be good. "I helped out Havoc and his plans for a long time, so if all these guys are going to jail them I'm going to."

Both of their eyes raised in shock, they couldn't believe that the guy who helped them is doing what he said he's going to do. "But-but you helped us, I don't think you should-"

Tim shook his head, interrupting Axel, "I rather pay for all the crimes I did in the past then walk free. One good deed doesn't erase them all."

"But there has to be some other way!" Hunter shouted, not wanting to accept this. "We can help you, believe that.

Again his shook his head, "My answer remains the same, but I won't stop you from doing what you want to do, but I'm still going to stay here and go to jail."

Hunter and Axel were silent after hearing him, the tone of the way Tim spoke made it sound like it was final and there was no way to change his mind. They really want to help Tim get out of this but weren't sure how they were going to change their mind. Hunter sighed as he reached into his pack, pulled out a device and pressed the button on it, "Well if there's no changing your mind…"

"Nothing's going to."

"But we're going to help you somehow, whatever we can we'll try," Axel responded, just as the Sonic Rover could be heard approaching. Apparently the button Hunter had pressed summoned it. "We'll talk to our Master and get him to help, we're not going to let you rot in jail."

He nodded at this, "I thank you for it."

The Sonic Rover lander next to the two as the ramp opened up, Axel helping Hunter up. But just before they entered they both turned and look back at their friend. "Thank you…for everything!" they both said at the same time.

Soon the ship took off, leaving Tim behind, and sped off towards HQ, the mission was over and they had what they came for. They had made a friend and now had what they needed to wake everyone, mission accomplished.

A/N: Hope you like, Had a little writers block but I pulled it off. Just one more chapter left, I thank you all who read this, I really appreciate it. Please leave a review.