DARKSTAR

by Matthew Winn / Bishop 1k


Sonic the Hedgehog, Miles "Tails" Prower, Dr.Eggman, Nack the Weasel, and Shadow the Hedgehog are all copyrights of Sega incorporated.






Chapter 4: "War"


As the city burned, the Maria swam out overhead. From their vantage point, Nack and Shadow could see the machines laying waste to all in their path. A few GUN bots were trying in vain to destroy them, but they were easily smashed aside by the crazed robots. The larger of the two was using its telescopic limbs to topple cars and trucks. The second simply curled itself up into an enormous ball of jagged spikes and plowed its way through the city buildings.

Nack watched in awe as a skyscraper crumpled in on itself. "I'm putting her down." he said and punched in the landing sequence, "Okay Shadow how are we gonna get those things?"

Shadow looked on blankly. "I'm not interested in those two. I'm after the other one. The one who's got the bomb."

Nack stared. "You're kidding right? You're just gonna sit here and wait for the other one to show up?"

Shadow kept staring forward. "Yes."

The Maria came to a bumping halt. Nack turned and stared at the hedgehog.



Tia and Doug were in the seating area watching as the flames rose higher and higher.

"This is awful," said Doug, "We can't just let them do this can we?"

Before Tia could answer a voice came from the cockpit. "No we can't." It was Nack. "Those things have gone too far," he took his pistol from its holster and spun the round chamber. "I say it's time to kick ass and take names."

Tia was stunned. "What are you talking about Nack?"

Nack lowered his head as he began filling the chambers with ammo. "I'm going out there to stop them. Anyone else want to come help that's fine with me."

"Yeah I'm sure you are."

Nack kept on loading.

Tia stared, "We both know you're an abject coward Nack, so stop pretending and let's think."

"No, you know I'm an abject coward. I still gotta find out."

"So you're after a reward?"

"Nope."

"Then... why?"

Nack looked up and gave his usual smirk, "Cause I don't like the way they look..." he said and twirled his pistol theatrically before putting it back in its holster.

Pollen pulled out a small flag with Nack's face on and began to wave it enthusiastically. Nack patted the little chao on its head and made his way to the loading bay.

Doug looked on after him. "He'll be killed," he said quietly, "He's going to be killed!"

"No he wont." said Shadow, appearing from the cockpit doorway, "I wont let him." He disappeared after him. Tia hoisted her rifle off her back and took a bullet from her belt.

"Men..." she said loading the chamber with an explosive round, "Always so damn headstrong."



The loading bay doors were large and imposing as Nack hit the opening mechanism. As the door opened, the heat from the raging fires washed out and over him. He clenched his gloved fists. Well, now or never. The weasel part of his brain was yelling, screaming at him to go back. But the lone adventurer, the one that came up with the part about being a 'downright dangerous fella' was running the show now. He was about to step out, when he heard footsteps. Shadow was behind him.

"So what are you gonna do weasel? Take both of them on by yourself."

Nack grinned, "If I have to."

Shadow sighed. "Well I better come along and make sure they don't pulverize you, hadn't I?"

There were more footsteps and this time it was Tia carrying her long rifle. "Well I can't let you both be killed now can I?" she flashed another brilliant smile, "Then who'd fly me home?"

The three strode out into the middle of the street. A few panicked residents ran from their path. Nack pointed. "The big green one's mine." He said.

Tia grinned, "I get dibs on the Buzzsaw."

Shadow smirked. "Well I guess that leaves me with the little one...."



Omega watched the city burn and contemplated the beauty within the rolling flames. It was the first time he had ever considered anything aesthetically pleasing and he decided he would burn more cities. Raze them to the ground and start again. Suddenly his sensor beeped a short warning. They were here. Excellent.



Doug sat within the plane and watched the little chao punch the thin air, a look of determination on its face. "I know," he said, "I want to be out there too, but what can I do? It's not like I can fight as well as Shadow or Nack..." His thoughts were interrupted as the ships proximity alert systems blared a warning. Apparently a few of the GUN bots had spotted the plane and were on their way. Doug brightened up. Well if he couldn't fight personally... "I'll let my mechanics do the talking..."

He flicked a switch on the main dash and hears the satisfying whine of the Maria's newly installed hydraulic gun-arm. He grasped the small joypad he had installed and watched the external camera screen. A wide grin spread across his face. "Let's play."



The street was relatively deserted. Zero had frightened away most of the residents and now proceeded to smash cars and building apart using his massive arms.

"Hey bucket-head."

The machine turned to see a purple weasel standing boldly in the middle of the street. From it's belt hung a powerful short pistol.

"This town ain't big enough for the two of us." A grin appeared on Nack's face. Now this is what I call cool. He had to duck however as Zero's metallic fist flew towards him and over his head. Taking off his hat.

Nack narrowed his eyes.

The machine stood on the other side of the long street. A long silence blew through the street. Zero raised its telescopic arm again.

The silence was oppressive as weasel and machine squared off. A few drops of sweat began to appear on Nack's brow.

Nack saw the restraining clamp release and in one blurred, incredibly fast motion brought the pistol out of the holster and fired all six rounds.

The telescopic arm stopped dead an inch from Nack's face. Zero stood motionless for a second and then crumpled into a pile of scrap metal.

"No-one. Touches. The hat." He began to strut along the street, and was about half way down when a broad grin spread across his face. He looked up at the sky and began to sing. Badly. "Whose House?! Nack's House! I said, Whose House!? Nack's House...!!!" He paraded down the street punching the air wildly.



Metal Sonic had stopped to analyze the destruction caused. The building's weak points had been analyzed and destroyed. One last blast should finish it. A ping sounded and there was a clang of metal. Metal Sonic looked down and saw its hand lying motionless on the floor. He reached down to pick it up, and was surprised at another ping, which took his other metallic talon. Confused, the machine looked around for the assailant. His world went black as Tia's rifle round shattered his optic receptors.

Watching the target stumble blindly, Tia smirked as she looked down the long lens of her rifle. Loading a high explosive round, she aimed for the target's head. She watched patiently as the robot begin to feel its way around, and gently squeezed the weapon's trigger. The sharp hiss of the bullet, as it slid against the insulated silencer, was the only sound. A split second later and Metal Sonic's head exploded.

Tia grinned. "You lose buddy."



Bot after bot exploded as Doug fired round after round, the pintle mounted minigun whirring away. He was bent over the monitor, a wild look in his eyes as he swung the arm around to destroy another trio of GUNbots. The few that were left kept well back from the carnage, watching in awe as the unbelievable firepower raged on.

Inside the cockpit Doug tilted his head back. "AHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!"

The maniacal laugh startled Pollen who had wandered in, and the chao began to point at something on the screen.

Doug stopped. The red ammunition counter was flashing on empty. "Oh dear..."



Shadow clenched his fists in anticipation. He was around here somewhere. He knew it.

A whining sound from behind him made him turn. It was the robot, it's blue hewn plates turned red in the flames. Its eyes flashed red as Omega came closer.

"So you came. I'm glad. It means I can kill you."

Shadow braced himself. "Didn't you hear? I'm already dead."

"Well you won't mind if I tear you apart!"

Omega made a blinding strike at Shadow's mid section, which he dodged by bare inches. Shadow struck back with a rolling spin attack, which smashed the robot a few feet into the air. Rolling out of the spin, Shadow charged forward pounding into the side of the robot, it crumpled back and Shadow hit it again and again. Omega grabbed his leg and slammed him bodily onto the tarmac. Shadow felt stunned, but roused himself in time to roll aside, away from Omega's knife-like claws. He noted to his horror that they had punctured the hard black surface of the road. Shadow rose to his feet.

"You can't beat me 'Shadow.' You never could. From the hangar to now, you never stood a chance." The jet-like engine on Omega's back began to rotate, building up momentum. "Now face the wrath of Omega!"

Shadow never saw what happened next. He felt the shock of the impact as the machine rushed forward, pounding him into the building on the other end of the street. Shadow was shocked by sheer speed of the attack. He had never expected that bucket to move so fast. Shadow struck the robot square in the face and watched in horror as the blow barely fazed the monstrosity.

This was not going to be easy.



As Nack and Tia made their way back to the Maria, they saw Doug being escorted off the plane by a pair of GUNbots. A shower of rifle and short pistol shells later and Doug was free.

"We've got to stop them!" Doug warned frantically "They've removed the Chaos Drive!" They turned to see another pair of GUNbots flying away from the aircraft carrying the deactivated drive between them.



Shadow struggled in vain against the machine. Every hit he made left no impression, every attack was rebuffed. He couldn't understand it.

"No machine is that strong!" he said aloud.

Omega stood a short distance away. "This machine is. But I wasn't until recently."

"What are you talking about? Until recently? You weren't this damn tough when I fought you before."

"Of course," said Omega. "I didn't have the bomb then."

"The bomb?"

"Yes the infinity bomb. Immeasurable destructive power. But only because of one key component."

"The Infinity Ring," breathed Shadow.

"Exactly. All I did was create a link from inside the ring to my power cells. In other words, I'm channeling energy directly from the Special Zone."

Omega threw up his arms theatrically. "I have enough power to keep on going forever, changeless and immortal. Truly, I am the Alpha and the Omega. I AM INFINITE!"

The machine struck Shadow across his mid section. And watched as he crumpled forward.

"Now you die." Omega's attack was cut short as the machine was struck on the head by a piece of falling debris. He looked up in time to see the remainder of the GUNbot smash to the side of him, closely followed by the wreckage of the E-drive. The drive shattered, and the Chaos Shards scattered. The gray shard slid over and touched Shadow's hand.

Omega turned to see Nack, Tia and Doug. Nack's pistol was smoking.

"How dare you! You insolent fools!"

Shadow's hand twitched; the shards began to glow.

"I will destroy you all!"

Shadow awoke and felt the power of Chaos. The shards began to move together, into one. Shadow reached out and grasped them.

Omega slammed Nack to the floor, before smashing Doug across the back of his head.

Shadow stood holding the shards together. The power wasn't much, but it was there. He only had one shot at this...

Omega advanced on Tia, as she tried to load her rifle. Nack got unsteadily back to his
feet. And drew his gun.

"You get away from her!" He fired twice, but the bullets simply ricocheted off the insane machine's head.

Omega span around, ready to strike Nack down, but stopped when he heard a voice behind him.

"Hey, bucket-boy!" said Shadow, "We're not through yet!"

The robot turned, "Aren't you dead yet?"

"Perhaps I never made myself clear. I am Shadow, the world's ultimate life-form." The shards in his hands began to hum, "HERE'S WHY! CHAOS CONTROL!"

Time seemed to slow down to a crawl. As the warp created by Shadow disappeared another opened almost instantaneously. Shadow emerged and turned. Omega was standing completely still.

"But I am the Alpha and the Omega....."

The machine exploded, sending debris all over the wrecked street.

Shadow saw the dismembered head of the robot as it's eye's flickered and died. He kicked it. "You're scrap."



The Chaos Drive hummed rhythmically as the Maria soared once more into the air. The Chaos Shards were still compacted together as Doug had found it impossible to separate them.

"It's hard to believe," he said, "But they're actually more stable like this. The excess brought on by their reaction was used up when you used your Chaos Control."

Shadow nodded. "It would all have been for nothing if you couldn't fix the drive itself."

Doug looked modestly at the floor. "It wasn't really difficult."

"What about that?" asked Shadow pointing at the large golden ring spinning gently in the air.

Doug polished his sunglasses, "Oh, I wouldn't worry too much about that," he said picking up a small wrench. And hurling it into the center. Both disappeared. "See those things were always very unstable, that's why they're so rare and that robot drained a lot of energy from it."

"What happened to the wrench?" asked Shadow.

"Oh it's in the special zone."

"Isn't that kind of messy?" said Shadow jokingly.
"Not really," said Doug laughing, "No-one really lives there."



Knuckles was using the Rings to get to the Emerald Altar when suddenly something hit him hard on the head

"OW! What the hell?" He looked at his feet and saw the wrench. Looking about the Special Zone he could see nothing.

"The heck?"



In the cockpit, Nack and Tia sat in silence. Nack was piloting the Maria back towards the Scrap Brain Complex. Hopefully GUN wouldn't have found their little base.

"Nack," said Tia, "Why did you try and go out there all by yourself?"

Nack shrugged. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Nack you walked out of this plane to die. You saved our lives. You saved... my life."

Nack was silent.

"Why? You don't owe us anything."

The weasel kept staring straight forward. "Some things don't have a price." He said quietly.

Tia gave a wan smile. "Oh yeah like what?"

He looked at her "Like..." and in that crushing moment of indecision, the weasel finally won over the adventurer. "Like friends."

"So we're friends now?" She laughed. "I must have missed that message." They both laughed this time.



General Grotz shifted through the wreckage of Starlight City. So the bomb had been disarmed. The ring most likely taken away. Another forty people had seen the bomb's casing, so he knew it was over before it had begun. He surveyed the demolished city. No. It wouldn't happen again. He had sworn that day. The day, they had taken his boy away from him.

Grotz clenched his fists. This was not over. Whoever had the Darkstar would be found and punished. Then he could take care of this miserable government. Only he could protect them, and he would protect them all. Even from themselves...