Hello! Let's get going!

Alaxaria: Thanks for your thoughts! We're going to see more of Ruby soon, he is their leader after all! Clearly this isn't his first experience with things going wrong. :)

That's it for now! Let's get started!

Sonic Boom: The Ancients

Robotic Fallout

Within a few days, almost all evidence that the disaster had happened were absent, Bolt was much better after some rest and proper medical attention. His leg was still injured, but with a cast around the injury, he could at least walk comfortably.

Root however, had not shown any signs of getting better. She was still completely unconscious. Bolt hadn't left her room for any reason. As much as Rose and Blues told him not to worry himself about it, he couldn't help but feel guilty.

Rose quietly stepped into the infirmary where Root was being kept, it was late and she figured checking to see how they were both doing was a good idea. Root was still in her bed, Bolt had fallen asleep at a table he had brought in. Dozens of papers were scattered across the surface of it. The fox had been trying to figure out what exactly had happened after the device had detonated. It seemed he had worked himself to sleep, the brown cloak he always wore was draped over himself, almost acting as a blanket.

The hedgehog quietly left the room and returned to her quarters. She slept soundly until the next morning. When she woke she immediately went to Root's room in the infirmary and cast a healing spell on her, there wasn't any proof it was helping, but there was no reason not too. Bolt was awake and still working furiously on his own calculations. As Rose went to leave however, the fox spoke.

"I figured it out."

"You did?"

"Yeah, it's the Primal Crystal. The machine, still worked, Root did see the future at least for a moment. I hope she still remembers…"

"She'll be ok Bolt, you need to stop obsessing over this."

"What if she never wakes up? What if she goes insane like Lyric!? It'll all be my fault! I don't want to lose another friend!"

Bolt was on the verge of tears at this point, Rose gave him a hug until he calmed down slightly.

"It's alright," She said. "Everything will be fine, you just need to believe that too."

"I- I'll try…"

Rose gave him a firm pat on the back. Just as she did, Ruby stepped into the room. "We've got a problem."

The other two's noted his statement and followed behind him. Neither wanted to leave Root on her own, but they figured they could at least hear what Ruby had to say.

They arrived in a small living quarters that branched off into their own rooms, Blues had already arrived. Ruby cleared his voice and spoke.

"What's left of Lyric's forces are putting up a fight, one of the nearby towns reports that there's still at least one company of remnants left, it seems to be entirely machines like usual."

Blues stepped forward, "Do we know where they are?"

"We have an idea," the echidna replied. "But nothing for certain."

"I could try to locate them," Bolt responded. "At least we aren't going in blind."

"I'm sure you could, but we need to move quickly, I don't think there's time to get every scrap of information."

"What's with the rush?" Rose asked.

"They've already attacked one of the villages nearby, and I think they could be going for another."

"So we need to stop them before they get there." Blues commented.

"Are you sure that they're Lyrics?" Rose responded.

"They're the same kind we faced before we locked him away, we should have plenty of experience with all of them." The echidna responded.

They all nodded in response, it was true, they had faced against Lyric's machines several times over before, they knew their designs inside and out. It shouldn't be too difficult. With some more discussion from the group, they all agreed that they would need to take them out as soon as possible. Gathering some basic equipment, they headed out in search of Lyric's forces.

The group had been in the plane for about an hour now. Bolt was responsible for directing them where they needed to head as they crossed over the treetops in search of their targets. While the dark blue plane wasn't the most stealthy method of searching, it was the most efficient for covering ground quickly. Blues was rather bored, but continued his search atop one of the wings. Rose sat on the other doing the same. Ruby provided a second set of eyes on both sides in the second seat behind Bolt, the fox couldn't help much as he was focused on not covering the same ground twice and keeping the aircraft upright.

"Guys!" Blues yelled over the sound of the wind rushing past the group, "I think I've got something!"

Ruby looked over and confirmed Blues' suspicions, a squadron of Lyric's old robots were currently traversing through the forest. The echidna nodded to the hedgehog. "Bolt, how close can you put us?"

The fox looked around for any suitable landing site. He pointed a bit off into the distance toward what appeared to be a slight clearing, "Probably over there, it's as close as it's going to get."

Ruby once again nodded and a few minutes later, Bolt had set the plane down in the small clearing on the edge of a lake. They each exited the aircraft, Ruby immediately took charge of the situation. "We should be heading directly that way." He said, pointing into a nearby set of trees. The others followed closely behind as Ruby charged into the foliage. Blues, despite having super speed, decided to stay close to the rest of the group. It wouldn't help to get cornered on his own and be unable to get help.

After a while, they could hear other sets of footsteps on the grass. Ruby held up a hand and everyone halted to better hear the sound. He then pointed toward it's direction and the others followed. As soon as they had spotted the mechanical soldiers, Blues drew a small dagger from his waist. He didn't necessarily need it, but it always helped. Rose produced a hammer approximately the same size as herself via magic, it was a simple spell she had been taught by Root to allow her to summon her weapon from anywhere. Ruby had no weapon, simply stretching himself out. Bolt flicked his wrist and a bright yellow electrical whip extended from his wrist, it was a small device he had created that gave himself a suitable weapon at all times.

Everyone charged forward, before the robots had even registered they were under attack, Blues had already stabbed two of them, slicing through wires and electronics thanks to a small amount of plasma around the edges of his dagger. He continued on his spree while Rose pounded one robot on the side, sending it flying into another. Both of them crumbled to the ground in a pile of broken machinery. Ruby struck one directly in the chest, not only completely annihilating anything that had been in his way, but then slammed the broken robot on the ground for good measure. Bolt, rather then attacking from ground level like the others had, decided to take a much different approach, he tethered his whip to a thick tree branch and swung off of it, delivering a kick to one of his opponents.

The robot had now located their attackers and were beginning to open fire on the heroes with plasma bolts. Blues didn't seem to care, as he knew it be very difficult for the robots to track him, much less land a hit. The others knew how to properly avoid the onslaught of lasers as they let muscle memory take over for the most part. Bolt grabbed one of the nearby robots with his whip and flung it into the rest of the attackers, hitting several as it slid to a stop. Rose tried to damage several robots by striking them with her hammer, however, a blast grazed her arm and she dropped behind cover and cast a healing spell on the injury, it quickly repaired itself and instantly, it was like it had never happened in the first place.

Blues slashed another two attackers before diving behind the rock formation the others were using. "I've got an idea! Ruby, see it you can't get one of these trees to fall on them!"

"What about you?" The echidna's asked.

"I'll be alright, just get to it!"

The echidna grabbed Bolt and dragged the fox with him to another area off to the side. "Bolt, I need you to direct this so it hits as many of them as possible." The fox nodded and attached his whip to it and pulled back until the line was tight. Rose had come over and was ready to help as well. Ruby drew back and hit the tree with all the force he could muster, it cracked across its base and began to collapse. Bolt dug his heels into the dirt and tried to pull it to the left, Rose helped by striking the trunk on it's side, the actions of the two of them redirected it enough that crushed most of the mechanical attackers. Blues dodged out of the way of the falling log and slashed another few robots while he was at it.

The tree struck the ground with tremendous force, completely crushing anything beneath it. Lyric's forces, now with incredibly thinned numbers, were rushed down and taken out one by one until none remained.

"I think that's it, we shouldn't be hearing from them for a while." Ruby commented. The other three nodded in agreement.

"What do you even think they were doing out here?" Rose asked.

"They're probably still obeying their last command they were given," Bolt responded. "What exactly that was, I'm not sure."

"Well, at least they won't be bothering us anymore." Blues added, "We want to head back?"

They all agreed and returned to the temple they all called home. Bolt returned to the infirmary, and found Root was awake, but hadn't left her bed. She screamed as the fox opened the door.

"I'll give you what ever you want! Just don't haunt me!" The badger yelled.

Bolt took a step back in surprise, as he did, Rose forced her way into the room. The hedgehog ran over to Root and pulled her into a hug. "Thank goodness you're awake! We were starting to get concerned!"

"What happened?" The badger asked, "I remember an explosion, and then… Lots of other things, lots of it made no sense."

The two Ancients in the room exchanged glances, she really had seen the future. This was huge.

"Do you remember anything you saw?" Bolt asked.

"Not really, I had something right when you walked in, but now I can't remember it…"

"So you can't control it?"

"No…" Root sighed, "I'm sorry Bolt, I messed up your experiment."

"Its actually my fault, I shouldn't have done it in the first place."

Rose chimed in, "Well, it's just nice to see you're awake Root! If you see anything else, then let us know."

The badger nodded and slowly drifted back off to sleep, she was still rather exhausted. The other two allowed her to get some rest as they exited the room.

"Maybe," Bolt began. "If we can jog her memory about Lyric, it'll help something come up!"

"Its worth a shot, just remember what you're playing with here Bolt. Don't hurt yourself again."

The fox nodded and they went their separate ways, they both had some mysteries to uncover.

Alright guys, that's all for today! Let me know your thoughts! Until next time!