Chapter 6
Locked and Loaded
We keep running, eventually we come to a town. We start dodging in-between building and stuff, desperate to lose our pursuer. Suddenly, beside us there is an explosion. When the smoke clears, we see a large number of swatbots. I say "I never thought I'd be happy to see those guys. They're just the distraction we need." More explosions follow as the inhabitants are systematically wiped out in the name of Robotnik. I feel sorry for them, but there's nothing we can do. Also there are bigger problems to worry about.
I see a minivan down the street. I bash open the driver's side window and unlock the doors. I say "Hop in! I'll drive!" the group jumps in. it's a tight fit, but we all manage to get in. I hot-wire the car and say "let's put the pedal to the metal!" I stomp on the gas, sending the car down the street. We go faster and faster, 40-50-60-70-80mph….. I say "sweet! This thing's doing 100! Oh yeah!" Sonic says "meh, I've done faster." I reply "obviously. You've gone twice the speed of sound, which is about 1600 mph. but in Super Sonic mode, you've traveled at the speed of light which is about 186,282 miles per second. Bunnie says "oh my stars. That's fast." Sonic says "wow you know your stuff." "what, do you think I learned nothing in the past 5 years." I turn back to the road to see a swat bot in the way. "OH CRAP! Wait a minute…." I turn to the side quickly, skidding to in the same direction I was just travelling, I broadside the swatbot, crushing it. More swatbots are down the street. But luckily, my turn has pointed us towards another street in the intersection.
We speed down the street, determined to outrun the swatbots. The car is now going 120 mph, everything is a blur. But that doesn't decrease my driving skills. Antoine says "um…. Should you be doing zee slowing down of zee car?" I reply "nonsense. This is perfectly safe." "lies" Sally says "be quiet Antoine. Future Tails isn't going to crash this car, I can tell. So stop bothering him or you might distract him enough to make him screw up." I turn back to Antoine and say "yeah man, trust me. I won't crash." I turn back to the road to see a large force of swatbots in front of us. There are no cross streets. We can't turn around at this speed. I say "hold on everyone! This is about to get crazy!" I drive right into the mob and start running them over. Bot after bot is pasted to the pavement. (don't ask how that's physically possible. Well…. It ISN'T physically possible. But we all know that Tails is pro. He's not gonna let something like Newton's laws of physics get in his way.) though the repeated impacts of the bots is taking its toll on the car and it's speed. The speedometer is rapidly dropping. We finally break through the mob going 20 miles per hour. I say "OH YEAH! We made it completely unharmed!" suddenly, we hear an impact, followed by a high pitched screeching sound. Tails looks back and says "a laser shot busted one of our wheels. We won't get far like this." (by the way future Tails, you were ASKING for that one.) I say "you're right. We have to get out of this car." Sally says "but what about that army of Swatbots right behind us?" "oh come on Sal, have I been unprepared yet?" "grrrr! You're starting to remind me of HIM!" *points to Sonic* "well duh. After all, he DID, or is going to, teach me everything I know." Sally whacks me again. I say "OW! Would you stop doing that?" Sally replies "would YOU start using your head for something other than a hat rack?" seeking to change the subject, I say "Ok, we need to get out of here." I slam my foot on the breaks and whip off my seatbelt. I get out of the car and grab a grenade. (from his imaginary pocket.) I throw said grenade in front of the swatbots and a huge smoke cloud is produced. I say "now is our chance, let's get out of here."
We run max speed, except Sonic of course, down the street. We WOULD lose our pursuers one way or another. It can't be too hard, I mean these are swatbots we're running from. They ain't the sharpest knives in the drawer. I see a side street and say "turn into that street." We make the turn to find out the side street is actually an ally; we're trapped. There are a number of doors, probably leading to houses in the alley. I run up to one of the doors and kick it down. We all run inside. The family inside of the house starts to freak out. I say "please sir and mam, stay calm. Everything is gonna be ok. We mean you no harm." The man says "oh really? YOU JUST BROKE DOWN OUR DOOR! You expect us to believe that you mean us no harm?" "we're just looking to escape a bunch of swatbots. They don't know we're here. Not to mention the fact that swatbots are stupid. I assure you that they'll pass right by and you have nothing to worry about." Rotor grabs the door and holds it in place. We wait until the footsteps of our pursuers fade away. Rotor puts down the door and I reach into my pocket. I pull out a sum of money. (if it wasn't clear, unlike in the movies, the time travelers can bring certain things. Weapons can't be brought though, or at least Tails couldn't bring weapons.) I hand it to the man. I say "here, this should be more than enough to cover that door. I sincerely apologize for the intrusion however that was a life and death situation. We should be going now." Our group walks out the door while the dumbstruck family stares at us.
I say "ok, now that we no longer have that army following us, we can plan our next move. We have to get weapons of some sort." Sally says "well where would we get weapons?" "I suggest we go to some form of weapons store. Heck, there might even be one in this town." "well, you know what you're doing a lot more than the rest of us so lead the way." We leave the alley. Everything is quiet. Apparently the robots have finished with the inhabitants that they could find. So we are able to move freely. We search for a weapons shop in a grid. After half an hour of searching, I hear Tails yell out "I think I've got something here." We all go to where he had called out. he is standing in front of a building labeled "Gunz n' Stuff" I say "yeah! This is exactly what we need. The windows are broken and the door is blown to bits, Though somehow the lights are still functioning. Inside we see all manner of guns and other weaponry. I say "oh yes… this is exactly what we need. We're gonna blow that bot to bits."
I begin to examine the contents of the walls. "hmmm….. pistols. Let's see…. .32 milimeter. Perfect. I grab one of the pistols along with 5 clips. I toss that stuff to Tails. I say "I'll show you how to use the weapons I give you once everyone has something. Now…let's see… 12 gauge shotgun. I'll take one of these….20 gauge shotgun with attached bayonet." I toss that one to Antoine figuring that he is more used to close combat. "now…. what else do we have here….. 30 caliber automatic rifle." I toss this to Sally. "now for Rotor…. Let's see if there's something that can make use of his strength." I look along the wall and notice a break in the wall that is clearly the outline of a hidden door. I say "there's a hidden door here. Bunnie, can you force it open?" Bunnie replies "sure can future Tails." She says "HIYAH!" and punches where the door should be. Her fist goes right through it. Now she pulls the entire door away. She says "one secret entrance revealed." We walk inside. In here is some SERIOUS stuff. Just by looking at it, I can tell that it's military grade. 100% illegal to sell to civilians. Whoever owned this shop must have had connections or something. I go over to a small circlet the size of a wrist. I open it and place it around Bunnie's wrist. I then press a button on the top and a laser pops out of the circle. I say "this is a wrist mounted laser gun. It's not as powerful as the rifles that the swatbots carry but it's still very effective. This can only be used by you however. It draws power from your robotic appendage." I continue looking on the wall. I notice something that makes my eyes widen. I do a double take just to make sure that my eyes aren't playing tricks on me. this is indeed what I think it is. The group comes over to me to see what I'm getting staring intently at. I say "This, is a Resonating Electronically Amplified Photon Energy Rifle, or, R.E.A.P.E.R. for short. This thing can punch a hole clean through a robotank. If anything can kill that assimilator, this can. But there's one drawback. You only get one shot."
I throw this to Rotor along with a large strap. I say "strap this on your back. I have another weapon for you." (I was considering giving him a minigun but then I thought that would be a bit TOO big for fast travel.) i grab an RPG off the wall and hand it to him. I say "this robot is gonna go off with a bang." Next, I teach the rest of the group how to handle their weapons. I say "ok, now that you all know how to use this stuff, we can blow that robot into next week. Though I guess we'll have to find it first." Behind me, I hear "that action will not be necessary." The robot raises it's rifle. But before it can fire, Antoine charges at it. He uses the shotgun's barrel to knock the robot's weapon to the side. then he stabs it in the gut with the bayonet and fires point blank, blowing away a lot of the robot's skin, revealing the metal underneath. The robot looks down at him and says "that weapon projects insufficient force to damage this unit." It knocks Antoine aside with ease. Sally is up next, she squeezes the trigger and unleashes a hail of projectiles at her target. The torrent of bullets starts to push the robot backwards. Rotor grabs the REAPER and starts to aim at the assimilator. He keeps adjusting his aim and says "I can't get a clear shot with it moving like that." I say "personally, I think we shouldn't fight it in here. But we need a way out. we need a distraction." Bunnie fires her wrist laser. A blue energy ball issues from her wrist launcher. The ball impacts the robot and sends if flying back the rest of the way across the room. (LOOK! a distraction! WHERE?) She says "hey, this thang really works." Rotor now aims an RPG and fires. The missile impacts where the robot should be and creates a huge explosion accompanied by a cloud of smoke.
I say "now's our chance. Let's get out of here." We run from the building and I notice a large jeep. I say "now this, I like. Get in guys, this is gonna be fun." we pile into the jeep and I hotwire it. Then we're off. We go from 0 to 70 in 5 seconds. This thing is FAST.
We see the assimilator stagger out of the smoke cloud. Now half of its skin is missing and the robot part is clearly visible. It sees us and gives chase. It may look like a Mobian, or it did at one point, but it is far more physically imposing. Tails says "uh oh, it's gaining on us." Sally raises her rifle, and starts firing at the robot. But it just keeps coming. There's nothing we can do to stop it, or even slow it down. We're coming to a drawbridge….. which just so happens to be raising at the moment. I say "now for something crazy!" I slam my foot on the gas pedal and the engine revs. We shoot towards the raising drawbridge. Antoine covers his eyes and says "we're all going to die. I can't watch." we hit the end of the side of the drawbridge and leave the pavement.(Leeeerooooy Jenkinnnnns!) For a few seconds we are in the air, sailing above the gap in the bridge with only the water and open air below us. Sally says "we're not gonna make it!" I say "I'm on it!" I (defy physics again) run get to the back of the vehicle and grab Tails. I say "together we might be able to push the vehicle forward in mid-air just enough to reach the pavement." He replies "worth a shot." We both start rotating our tails as fast as we can. The car visibly moves forward just a few inches. But that won't be enough, we're still going to a watery grave. Bunnie goes tot eh front of the car and fires her hand to towards one of the support beams. She grabs on and starts to pull, adding to our forward motion. With both of these factors combined, we just might make it.
The front wheels make contact. Sonic, slams his foot on the gas pedal and the car is slowly moved forward. We can't keep this up much longer. This is EXAUSTING both us quickly. But the back wheels are almost on the bridge. Rotor dives out of the car and grabs the front bumper and begins to pull. With his strength helping us, we finally get the car on the ground. Me and Tails fall to our hands and knees breathing hard. I say "we did it." And high five him.
There is an explosion under us. I look back to see the assimilator firing at the bridge. I say "we gotta go, the assimilator is trying to shoot the bridge out from under us." Sonic says "you got it! Let's do it to it!" he slams his foot on the gas pedal and we're off. The bridge begins to shake. This is going to be very close. It's a race, our car, against the falling bridge. At first, it looks like we're not going to make it. But then the car gets off the bridge and it falls to pieces behind us. I wipe sweat off my brow and say "whew, that was a close one. now we need to get out of here before that death machine finds a way to follow us." Sally asks "so what route do you think it'll take; Acorn Bridge perhaps?" I reply "not likely, that is an indirect route. I think, it'll just swim across the river." "what? You MUST be joking." "I wish I was. I wish it wasn't, but future tech is impressive. The capabilities of Robotnik's robots have increased drastically. In other words, we need to keep moving." "but we can't run forever, we have lives you know." "in order ot get back to those "lives" we need to destroy the assimilator." "then why not just confront it? It's going to just keep finding us somehow. We'll have to deal with it eventually." "yes but we can't just charge at it blindly, we need a plan." "then here's what we'll do."….