Sonic Series Fan Fiction ❯ Alliance for Ages ❯ First Conflict ( Chapter 5 )

Chapter 5

First Conflict

"I have never met such a whack-ball!" X rubbed his right arm as he stormed from the medical sector. It was still sore.

Tails ran to catch up. "Wait, X! I'm sorry! I don't understand, I numbed your neural cluster, I don't see how it could've hurt!"

"You really don't get it, do you?" X asked. "I'm not one of your little half-conscious war-bots or ride-mechs! I am more than just AI! I am Reploid, as close to human as humans will ever come with machines, and you had better respect that."

"Man, X, don't you think you're being a little hard on the kid?" Zero looked surprised at his usually good-humored friend. "I mean, have you ever known anyone with that much enthusiasm about robots? Come on! He only wants to help!"

"At least try out the upgrades, please? I'll try to figure out how to keep out the pain, next time, just humor me this one time," Tails pleaded.

"Yeah, OK, just this once. Where's there a test area?" Tails led them into a large room with several 100 meter shooting ranges.

"Now, all I want you to do is charge your buster to full power and launch it at the target in front of you. Tell me if it feels more, or less powerful."

It'd better be more powerful or I'm going to blast YOU, X thought. He lined up the sight on his buster and began to charge it. But when it reached the normal full charge, it didn't stop! In fact, it charged to a level that X had never experienced before. As he fired, the buster shot's recoil nearly knocked X to the ground and Zero ran to help.

"Are you OK, X?"

"Yeah, Zero. That was one huge blast, though. Congratulations, kid, you've really outdone yourself. Sorry I yelled at you."

"It's alright, X. I get that all the time from Sonic. Its just that…" Tails was never able to finish because alarm klaxons began sounding all throughout the base. Sonic ran into the development dome and informed the others an attack.

"It's a full squadron of tank droids and small combat robots. We're going to have to fight them off ourselves, since they took down our defensive power grid with an EMP wave."

"I'll get right on that, Sonic," said Tails, running off to retrieve some spare parts.

"What should we do, Sonic?" X could see Zero was eager for a good fight.

"You two get to the roof. We're suspecting an air-strike, so be careful."

X and Zero quickly ran to the lift marked "Roof". When they reached their destination, which seemed like forever, they were greeted by two light assault bipedal robots trying to penetrate the base from above. X destroyed both of them quickly, and then turned his attention to the ground. There was a full squadron, alright. X counted fifteen heavy assault tanks backed up by countless smaller robots.

"Zero, I'll engage the ground attackers. You just watch for that air-strike and yell if you spot anything." He took aim at one of the heavies and charged the buster as far as it could go and prayed it would be enough to scrap the thing. He braced himself for the recoil and fired. The green-and-purple blast lanced out and detonated the tank entirely, the back-blast destroying several of its support forces.

Before X could line up for another shot, Zero yelled. "X, two strike jets heading this way! See if you can get one before their first pass!"

"Got it!" X lined up the sight at one of the small dots approaching. By the time they got within range, his buster was fully charged and he let it loose on the hapless attacker. It clipped the jet's right wing, crippling it and sent it into a crazy downward spiral. His partner, caught by surprise, veered off his attack vector. Recovering, the pilot turned back and started tracking its assailant.

"My turn, now," said Zero, activating his boost-boots. He rocketed upward, Beam-sword drawn, charging the oncoming plane. The pilot never had a chance to swerve. Zero struck his energy blade straight into the cockpit, smashing glass and killing the pilot. He boosted away just as the shorted electronics caused the jet to explode, showering the roof with shrapnel.

X's commlink buzzed and Sonic's voice came through. "X, the battle is over. Good job with those jets, you two. Your performance seems to have scared them off." Indeed, the enemy line was retreating, still firing, but doing no real damage. X took his position again and sniped off the few stragglers left.

. . .

"Did you see that, Robotnic?" Sigma sat in his high command chair, still ordering the retreat. "They defeated our air-strike even though we had disabled all of their defenses. That can only mean one thing."

"What might that be, Sigma? Did they somehow neutralize the EMP charge from their weapons?" Robotnic sat at a smaller, more modest post, coordinating the units' formation.

"No, you fool. It means that they have outside help now. Troops with their own weapons. But…" A small light blinked on Sigma's console. "What do we have here? Video files, eh?"

A lieutenant at the primary comm station spoke up. "Yes, sir. It seems to have come from one of the two air-strike jets. It looks like it got footage of what destroyed them on the roof of the Hedgehog's base."

"Well, let's play it back, shall we." Sigma pressed the blinking button on his console and he watched as the file played back. The jet was just circling around for its second pass. Shortly after it had gotten back on track, something took off from the roof. A missile? Sigma thought.

"Freeze that," Sigma commanded to the computer. "Zoom in, 4X." The screen froze and moved in on the missile. Sigma stood quickly. "It can't be! Not them! Zoom in on this spot," said Sigma, pointing on the screen. "No… It IS them. This will be a major set back. Sonic must have managed to contact my old nemeses Megaman X and Zero. They defeated me time and again back home, and now they have joined with my new enemies. This really isn't my day."

"Um, may I say something?" said Robotnic.

"No, I need some time to think. Go… rally the troops or something. Just get out of my sight, all of you!"