Tails the Fox
Chapter 17 - The Eggman Empire's Reach
Boss 10 - Techno Sonic

2BIT: Sonic the Hedgehog and related characters are (c) SEGA and 
Sonic Team. You knew that, right?

The loskels didn't waste any time, and opened fire on Copter and Punchy immediately. Copter flew out of the way, while Punchy was forced to roll past the shots. This allowed Punchy to get close to the first loskel and attempt to punch it. His attack hit its mark, and the loskel fell to the floor in pieces. Punchy laughed triumphantly. "Ha! Too easy!" However, it wasn't over yet. The broken bones quickly reassembled themselves right then before Punchy's eyes. "Aw, shoot!" Punchy had to quickly dive out of the way as the monster fired the rifle at him again, losing the last of its bullets in the failed attack. Meanwhile, the other loskel had wasted all of its bullets on Copter, who gracefully dodged them all as he flipped and spun about in the air. "What're you gonna do now, monsters?" he said in a mocking tone.

The loskels responded by reaching into their armor and pulling out golden sword hilts, without blades. They turned to the ghost fire and plunged the hilts into it, pulling out blades of blue flame! Copter dropped to the ground next to Punchy. "We don't have time for this!" Copter growled. Punchy smiled, and said, "Then maybe we should quit playing around and show them the true power of the experiments!"

The loskels interrupted their conversation by swinging their ghost blades at the duo, who very quickly rolled out of the way and called out their attack. "Chaos.... Blast!!" A chaotic explosion erupted from the two experiments, reducing the skeletons to...slime? "Are all these monsters made of slime?" Punchy grumbled. "They make me nauseous when they melt like that!"

With the loskel defeated, the ghost fire surrounding the vault door died out. Copter groaned at the realization that the vault was locked. "Don't tell me we have to find keys!"
Punchy responded by attacking the door with his fist. All that earned him was pain. "OWWW!!! What is this door made from!?" Suddenly, the door slid open, and Copter stepped into the vault, chuckling. "Guess what? It was password protected! Password was GUN. How pathetically simple." Punchy's jaw dropped in disbelief. "You couldn't do that BEFORE I broke my hand!?" Copter turned around and scowled at him. "Don't be such a baby! It's not broken, you fool!"

The two stepped into the large vault, where boxes of top secret weapons and other junk were scattered all over, piled up as high as Copter's height. However, the boxes were mostly out of the way, and Copter and Punchy soon located the Chaos Emerald in the center of the vault. "Mission complete!" Punchy said excitedly, "Now let's get out of here!" He turned to exit the vault when Copter ran in front of him and pushed him back. "Hold it, stupid! It's far too easy! This has gotta be a--"

"Freeze!" came a voice from behind a stack of boxes. Sargent Gunner stepped out from his hiding place and between the experiments and the exit. "--trap." Copter finished. Spy emerged from behind the boxes as well, standing behind Gunner, and sporting a pair of shades. "All right! We're such geniouses, waiting for you here!" he said triumphantly. However, they both appeared unarmed. "So, you're gonna stop me with your ugly face?" Copter growled. "Stand aside!"

"You know me better than that, Experiment 2!" Gunner said deviously. He quickly frowned, however. "Hey, where's Sonic? Who is that green echidna?" He then shook his head and resumed his stern expression. "Never mind! You're going to pay for everything you've done today!"

Copter clenched his fists as well as his teeth. "I'm not going back to Death Row, Gunner!"
Gunner grinned deviously. "Agreed. I'll just kill you both here, and never be bothered by you furry freaks again! Come on out, Techno Sonic!"
A pile of boxes behind Copter and Punchy exploded as a new Sonic mech emerged from its hiding place. Far more advanced than Metal Sonic, Techno Sonic's power armor concealed various weapons and gadgets. It's "eyes" were even quite advanced, including radar, tracking, targeting, night-vision; you name it, Techno Sonic had it. It's hands had been withdrawn into its arms and replaced with a pair of laser blasters. Techno Sonic also employed a special plasma shield that made it nearly impervious to attacks. Copter merely scoffed at the robot. "Big deal. Dr. Eggman has a fake Sonic, too. This is just another metal moron for me to scrap."

"We know Dr. Eggman has a Metal Sonic." Spy said, "He even made this one special for us."
Gunner turned around suddenly and slapped Spy. "You idiot! Why would you tell them a thing like that!?"
Spy rubbed his face where Gunner had hit him. "I just thought..."
"You don't think, don't give me that!" Gunner snarled. "Come on, we'll leave these pests to Techno Sonic!"
With that, Sargent Gunner and Spy ran out of the vault.

Once Gunner was out of the way, Techno Sonic fired its laser! Copter and Punchy barely managed to jump out of the way. In fact, the shot had burned the soles of Punchy's shoes. "Hey, these are brand new! You'll pay for that!"
Copter ran behind the stacks of boxes, leaving Punchy alone to fight the robot. "Hey, what are you doing, Copter? You can't leave me hangin' like this!" Punchy then jumped to avoid the next laser shot. "Try something original, Techno!" Punchy shouted. Techno Sonic responded by gathering the plasma energy of its shield and firing it as a shockwave on the ground, blasting boxes as it passed. Punchy, not knowing how to glide, was forced to run for the wall. But he wasn't going to make it! Luckily, Copter hadn't gone too far. He flew over to Punchy. "Grab my hand!" he instructed, but Punchy was in a panic, so he jumped and flung his arms around Copter, sure to lift himself completely over the plasma shockwave. "Hand! I said hand!!" Copter shouted. "That does it! Punchy, use Chaos Blast!"
Before Punchy could say anything, Copter had grabbed his arm and flung him toward Techno Sonic. Punchy quickly used Chaos Blast just in time to hit Techno Sonic! The chaotic explosion knocked the robot into a pile of boxes, while Punchy was flung in the opposite direction and landed in a panicked heap at Copter's feet. "Mommy, make it stooooop..." Punchy babbled.

The vault grew quiet. Confident that the threat had passed, Copter held up the shiny blue emerald. "That's two! Let's go, Punchy!" Wasting no time, Copter ran out of the vault. Punchy staggered to his feet. "Hey, wait up..."

Just then, Illusi appeared in a puff of smoke at the exit to the vault. "Well done, Dark One!" he said, clapping his hands. Punchy took a step in his direction, clenching his fists at the shrew for the second time that day. "Why do you keep calling me that?!" he demanded.
"Why, don't you know? It is what you are! A dark being!" Illusi replied. "If you weren't, I doubt you'd be helping a man such as Dr. Eggman!"
Punchy crossed his arms and scowled at Illusi. "What do you know, anyway!?"
"The truth." Illusi said, in the most serious manner. "I know the truth."
Before Punchy could say anything, Illusi was gone again in a flash of blinding light. "Illusi...Who ARE you!?" Punchy muttered.
"Hey, Punchy! Hurry up!" Copter shouted from outside the vault.
As Punchy ran for the exit to the vault, a metalic hand burst up from underneath the boxes where Techno Sonic fell...

Once they were well on their way back, Copter posed a question to Punchy. "Do you think Eggman really gave that robot to Gunner to stop us?"
"Right, that..." Punchy thought for a moment, then took on an expression of rage. "I'll snap Eggman like a twig!"
"Don't be hasty." Copter suggested. "Let's see how this plays out. Maybe there's still a way we can use Dr. Eggman."
"OK..." Punchy replied. "But so far, it looks like he's the one that's using us!"

To be continued...