D-007
Approx 13 hours since launch.
Planet Foralon.
"I do! And…when I send you packing, and your masters ask you what went wrong, tell them to burn my name, Icarus the Hedgehog, into their brains!"
Icarus, brimming with confidence and far too much adrenaline, stood against the Metarix invader of the foreign planet.
"AFFIRMATIVE."
Icarus' confidence is interrupted by an eyebrow raise of confusion.
"I. SHALL. BURN. ICARUS."
"H-huh?"
The orb on its eye begins to glow red.
Icarus takes a step back, but freezes.
King Maimou: "In this situation, I feel the urge to impart to you but a fraction of my infinite wisdom."
Icarus turns to Maimou with a horrified look on his face. "Y-yeah?"
King Maimou:...
Run."
As the laser cuts a clean hole through the ancient tree, Icarus is BOLTING out of there and into the forest, his arms flailing around as he tries to have something that resembles a running form, he looks behind him and sees the Metarix soldier giving chase, its arms are unmoving, stretched behind it.
Icarus gets curious, and decides to also stretch his arms behind him.
To his shock, he gets an immense burst of speed, sending a shockwave that vibrates the forest.
"Ha…ha ha! HAHA! I AM DOING IT! I AM OUT RUNNING IT! I AM OUT RUNNING IT!"
The mechanical slave of the Metarix then activates a pair of thrusters, located on its upper back. It quickly accelerates, and begins to close the distance between it and the Hedgehog.
"I AM NOT OUT RUNNING IT! I AM NOT OUT RUNNING IT!"
As they continue running, Icarus begins to notice that he is quickly reaching the end of the forest, a blinding light at the end of it. An open field is bad news for him, so Icarus begins looking around to see if there was a way he could make the machine lose sight of him…
But then he hears a buzzing noise.
He takes a glance behind him and sees the machine's orb-for-an-eye emitting red once more.
The Metarix soldier shoots its laser.
With no other options, Icarus LEAPS into the air and out of the forest.
The forest was on a cliff.
As his vision clears, he takes in the sights below. Light blue, grassy hills, valleys and grey rocky mountains as far as the eye can see. His mind gets an unprecedented dose of excitement. That entire area looked like a perfect playground for him. He wonders if the Earth has any sights like these that he just never got to see because he never bothered looking.
An odd feeling of dread washes over Icarus as he quickly remembers the spot that he's in. He looks back and witnesses as the soldier was mere inches away from grasping his legs. Icarus however, instantly tucks his legs, pushing his body back, causing him to just BARELY go over the machine as he curls into a ball.
The machine hits the ground with grace, the claws on its feet digging into the earth as it unnaturally and suddenly rotates its torso 180 degrees to keep its sight on Icarus. A restless killing war machine, it begins charging up its laser once more.
Icarus uncurls as he approaches the cliff side, and lands horizontally on it; the gravity's low planet allows his feet to firmly stick on the stone for just a brief moment.
That moment is all he needs to notice the machine preparing its attack, and so he bends his knees, springs forward while arching diagonally downwards, with enough force to break apart the rock beneath his legs, and curls back into a ball; causing the laser to make a small crater on the cliffside.
The robot begins to charge again.
Icarus sees an opening.
As he approaches the ground, he stops rolling and stretches his arms above his head…while upside down.
He lands with a perfect handstand, his back facing the enemy. Using his hand's strength, he pushes himself horizontally towards the machine, curling into a ball once more.
The orb gets brighter and brighter in crimson as Icarus rapidly approaches it..
BAM!
A clean hit, right in the eye!
It's head faces the sky before the green light on its orb fades as its torso droops down, somehow looking more lifeless than it already was. Its legs are frozen in place.
Icarus wasn't exactly prepared to hit the ground graciously, and so he rolls uncontrollably until he hits a rock hard enough to stop him.
He uncurls and finds himself laid out on the grass, staring upwards onto the stunning sky in bafflement.
He takes several deep breaths, constantly swallowing as his breaths hitch, his pupils still dilated from the flight or fight response. He makes note of how light-headed his mind feels, almost as if his blood vessels suddenly expanded in size.
…
It felt great.
…
Sooner rather than later, his heart slows down, and he begins to feel normal again.
With a smile, he gets up, and looks back on the lifeless Metarix.
He wipes the sweat off his forehead as his smirk grows wider.
Icarus: "Hey! That wasn't bad at all!"
As if on cue, a soft small red light smits from the machine, before a mechanical buzz signals the torso rotating to face Icarus in an instant. Its legs are still facing away from him.
Suddenly, it shoots a laser once more. This time, however, it is no longer concentrated. Rather, it is a horizontal blade of death that aimed for Icarus' head. Without a millisecond to spare, Icarus barely manages to duck in time to avoid it.
The solid piece of study stone behind him gets its upper half toppled.
Icarus stands up straight.
He takes notice of how the orb is fractured with a gaping hole in its centre.
It also charges up its laser way faster now that it doesn't have to concentrate it using the orb.
"Crap." muttered Icarus.
Dashing away from the threat when the robot leaped and began to give chase, Icarus starts to try and formulate a plan to take the robot down. From his entrance, he knows that the armour is far too sturdy to be destroyed by him, and the orb -
A low laser is shot at Icarus, he is forced to jump over it.
-and the orb weakness theory clearly didn't work, so-
High laser. He curls and uncurls quickly.
-so, now what? That…thing surely must have a weakness, right? Then again-
A high laser immediately followed by a low one, mere inches apart form each other. Icarus does a naturally performed sideflip to avoid both, a small part of his glove gets torn as it grazes the laser.
-then again, maybe there is a reason why the Metarix are deemed unstoppable…
No. His father said it himself. They have the power to stop this.
And if they can have it…
The thought causes Icarus to smile brighter than ever before.
So can he.