Ch. 12 Date Crashers
Metal Sonic is returning to the security office on the command deck, moving behind him quietly are his teammates Mecha Sonic, Mecha Knuckles, and Silver Sonic, who he has told to walk behind him single file so that he doesn't have to look at any of them. Metal Sonic is walking absentmindedly, replaying the scene of that other robot Dextral getting pummeled. The scene is highly amusing to Metal Sonic, in fact, it made his week. He almost wishes that he had a mouth so that he could smile.
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At a restaurant in the city
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As the Shadow Androids rocket forward, all around the restaurant, nicely dressed people panic and run for the door. Sonic smiles, winding back his arms before taking off directly toward them. Dextral flies toward CYBER, claws forward. CYBER automatically raises her arms to shield her face, but Sonic collides with Dextral, sending him flying away from CYBER.
Sonic lands in front of CYBER, "Sorry Patchy, not today!" He wags his finger at Dextral.
CYBER gasps as she sees Sonic knock Dextral away, she loves watching him work.
Dextral quickly recovers, turning over in the air and using his rocket shoes to counteract his momentum. Sonic runs after him. CYBER stares at Sonic for a moment longer, before she notices the two other robots going around the side. Scuff makes a wide radius across the back wall, a nervous look on his face, but Sinister takes a much more direct path, circumventing Sonic and Dextral's clash, to fly towards CYBER. CYBER snaps out of her fascination and turns to face Sinister.
"Everything was great until you screwed it up!" Sinister sneers and cuts off his thrusters, letting his momentum carry him into an attacking position.
Sinister throws a haymaker, and CYBER crosses her arms in front of her to block the blow. CYBER tries to step back to give herself some space, but Sinister relentlessly pursues. Sinister unleashes a flurry of punches and CYBER winces as each hits her arms. CYBER groans in frustration and swings both of her arms outward in a haphazard fashion. This lets Sinister jump up in the air, do a few spins to build momentum, and then bring a heavy kick down on CYBER's unguarded face. CYBER flies backward onto the floor, tumbles over herself, and smashes into a table, splintering it all over the booth that surrounds it.
CYBER rolls off her back and pushes herself onto her feet, "Maybe I'll break your face as bad as Dextral's!" She threatens, but it's more of an angry mumble.
On the other side of the restaurant, Scuff flies carefully, not hitting any of the furniture, as well as giving a wide berth to the scuffle in the other parts of the restaurant. Suddenly, a flying table comes smashing into him, knocking him off course and showering him in splinters. Scuff lands hard on his shoulder and he looks up to see Amy, who is holding her Piko-Piko hammer over her shoulder like a golf club at the end of a swing. Scuff opens his mouth to speak but hears the noise of footsteps behind him. Laying on the ground, he tilts his head up just in time to see Tails leap into the air, spinning in the air like an ice skater, before bringing his twin tails down like helicopter blades. But Scuff has become skilled in the art of dodging, so he rolls out of the way, rolling all the way into the wall.
Scuff jumps to his feet, pressing his back against the wall, "Please! I don't want to hurt anybody". Scuff cowers, back pressed against the wall, arms raised defensively.
Tails stops his onslaught, noting Scuff's harmless demeanor, he skids to a halt in front of him, looking up at Scuff's broken eye. Tails is about to speak but then sees Amy coming up behind him, spinning in a circle with her hammer, creating a centrifugal tornado.
"Amy! Stop!" Tails puts out his arms, to signal her, he turns his head and squeezes his eyes shut in preparation for a blow.
Amy has to stop quite abruptly, stumbling over herself to avoid slamming into Tails "Ah! Why?". She puts her arms out to the sides to balance herself.
"Look at him!" Tails gestures to Scuff "He's more afraid of us than we are of him".
Scuff is shaking so badly that his bolts rattle. He slowly uncovers his eyes "You're not going to… dismantle me?"
"No, we aren't," Tails says reassuringly. "One of us should watch him while the other goes to help-"
"Thanks for offering!" Amy hefts her hammer and runs off to one of the other fights.
In the center of the restaurant, Sonic and Dextral fight back and forth. Dextral is very precise, and Sonic is a bit out of practice. Dextral spin dashes into Sonic, knocking him back. Sonic turns over in the air, putting out his feet before he hits the wall. As soon as Sonic makes contact with the wall, he jumps off of it, curling into a ball and bouncing off the ceiling like a pool ball, coming straight down at Dextral. Dextral dodges out of the way, but Sonic still manages to graze his metal arm, which sparks fiercely. With a metallic groan of frustration, Dextral grabs a chair and flings it at Sonic. Sonic kicks the chair to the side, but Dextral is already there. Taking advantage of Sonic's momentary distraction, Dextral slashes with his metal claw, slashing Sonic on the arm. Sonic cries out in surprise, not expecting such a skillful opponent. Sonic kicks backward, out of immediate striking range while Dextral laughs cruelly.
Sonic shakes his head, "Just a scratch," and leaps back into battle.
One thing is very apparent to CYBER, despite her slightly superior speed and strength, Sinister has extreme skill. CYBER charges at him, curling into a ball halfway and dashing toward Sinister. Sinister immediately recognizes this move, and leaps to the side, activating his rocket shoes just in time to avoid the attack. CYBER comes out of her spin dash, skidding to a halt. She looks up to see Sinister rolling toward her at high speeds.
CYBER quickly pulls up the schematics of Mecha Knuckles in her mind "How about you die!" She screams, firing a missile from her chest cavity. Sinister bounces off the floor, exiting the roll. He extends his hand, grabs the missile, and using his remaining circular momentum, curves the missile back at CYBER. CYBER's eyes widen in distress as she is about to yell, but is cut off by the missile exploding against her shoulder. But even as CYBER is knocked back, Sinister tucks back into a ball, hitting the floor and rolling. CYBER rubs her head and sits up, greeted with the sight of Sinister spinning toward her. CYBER raises her arms, closing her eyes tight, waiting for the blow. But it never comes. CYBER hears a loud "HYAH!" and a crashing sound. She slowly opens her eyes and sees Amy standing in front of her, hammer raised, and Sinister has a new dent in his forehead.
"Stay out of this, this is personal business," Sinister snarls.
"She came to us for help," Amy shoots back, pointing her hammer at Sinister. "We won't just turn her away!"
Amy and Sinister charge directly at each other, with CYBER sitting on the floor, still stunned.
Dextral stands in a defensive stance as Sonic rushes forward. Sonic leaps into the air, curling up into a ball and spinning rapidly. Dextral grins, activating his rocket boots, intending to swat Sonic out of the air. Just as Dextral brings his claw around to strike, Sonic suddenly dashes downward, going right under Dextral's swing. Sonic uncurls as he hits the ground running. Dextral whips around in the air, perplexed.
"Let's put you on spin cycle!" Sonic says, revving up for a moment before he starts running in circles around Dextral.
Because Dextral was in the air, the wind generated from Sonic's run started pushing him around. Dextral struggled to stabilize himself in the swirling windstorm. Soon objects like tables and chairs get sucked in, as Sonic starts running even faster. A chair smashes across Dextral's face as Dexral kicks feebly in the wind. Sonic plants his feet and slides tangentially out of the spinning wind, coming to a stop. The wind immediately stops, and a pile of objects falls on top of Dextral.
"Faker," Sonic dusts off his hands.
As Amy and Sinister rapidly approach each other, Amy winds back her hammer to start on a tornado spin. With a sudden burst of speed, Sinister turns his rocket boots up to their maximum speed and grabs the handle of Amy's Piko Piko hammer. This action throws Amy off balance as she is unable to go into her swing, and Sinister tries to wrench the hammer from her hands. Amy grits her teeth and plants her heels into the ground, her high heels literally piercing the floor tiles, and she resists the pull. Amy and Sinister were locked in a struggle for the hammer. Sinister's rocket boots burned the floor as Amy pulled downward on the hammer. Sinister spots the scorch marks and smiles. Sinister pulls his head back, and Amy does the same, then they come crashing together in a headbutt, which Sinister finds to be unexpectedly strong. But Sinister's plan is already in motion, as Amy recoils from the blow, Sinister pulls himself toward the hammer, bringing up his legs and shutting off his rocket boots. This, combined with the force from the headbutt, causes Amy to go backward, carrying Sinister and the hammer with her. As Amy falls backward, Sinister adds insult to injury by activating his rocket boots right at Amy. The boots spit out a jet of flame, setting Amy's dress ablaze, and finally tearing the hammer from her grip. Sinister does a frontward summersault while moving backward, landing before Amy as her head hits the ground hard. Amy cries out in anguish as an evil gleam forms in Sinister's eyes. Sinister raises the hammer above his head as Amy disorientedly pats at the fire on her dress.
"Die!" Sinister commands gleefully.
But when Sinister tries to swing the hammer, it doesn't budge. Sinister quickly glances behind him and sees CYBER wrapping her arms around the head of the hammer, keeping it in place.
CYBER's eyes are filled with anger "I have a better idea…"
Sinister hears a sound and looks back in front of him, Amy is now standing, having put out the fire and leaving a nasty black burn across her (favorite) dress.
"... How about you die instead!" Amy slugs Sinister across the nose with a crunch, the force sends him back into the handle of the hammer CYBER is holding with an identical crunch, and Sinister crumbles to the ground.
In the back of the restaurant, Tails is questioning Scuff, as Scuff hides partially behind an overturned table.
"Tell me, what is your name?" Tails asks calmly despite the chaos going on behind him.
"I'm… Scuff" he says timidly.
"Hi Scuff, I'm Tails," Tails says with a reassuring smile.
"What are you doing here, Scuff?" Tails asks with a small tilt of his head.
"We're here… to retrieve her," Scuff points over at CYBER, who is in the middle of a fight.
"Ah, that makes sense," Tails thinks for a moment.
"Why aren't you attacking us?" Tails asks, walking toward the table that Scuff is behind.
"It's not… It's not right to attack people who don't deserve it," Scuff says quietly.
"So why don't you help us?" Tails offers.
Scuff shakes his head, "I can't, the obedience programming will shut me off if I do anything counter to the mission."
"Why aren't you shutting off now? Or just being forced to attack us?" Tails asks, as Scuff looks up at him.
"Obedience programming can't force us to do anything, it can only stop us from doing things we're not supposed to…" Scuff says
"We're?" Tails raises an eyebrow.
"Yeah… all of the robots…" Scuff confirms.
"Even her?" Tails points at CYBER.
"No," Scuff says. "She's the exception."
At that exact moment the loud noises of both the tables falling on Dextral, and the punch to Sinister's face occur. The mostly empty restaurant stands dead silent, and very wrecked. Sonic looks over at Amy. CYBER, still holding the head of the hammer, holds the handle out for Amy to grab. Amy takes her hammer and tucks it away in her dress. Amy and Sonic begin walking towards Tails, and CYBER sees Scuff, which puts her in the same direction. But they all stop about halfway when they hear the muffled sound of yelling from outside.
"No no no! Not the front do-"
Suddenly the front door of the restaurant explodes inward, adding more splinters to the scene. Coming to rest in the blown open doorway is another figure, black and red, that looks like Shadow the Hedgehog. This Shadow also has a device on their hand made of dull gray metal, rounded around the hand, and tapering to a nozzle about a foot off the hand, looking something like a hand cannon. This Shadow steps slowly into the restaurant, pieces of wood crunching under his shoes.
Tails looks over at Scuff, "Is that another one of yours?"
Scuff's good eye has gone wide, staring in fear and awe "No, no it's not."
