Veronica was gone from my side, and I could hear the piercing screams of death outside. I quickly got up, put on my clothes and ran outside.
The town was on fire. Soldiers in strange armor ran every which-way, gunning down civilians as if they were animals. When two of them spotted me and pointed their guns, I ran forward and bent the barrels. They both pulled out combat knives, so I hit their hands to make them drop them. One did, the other didn't. I quickly grabbed the fallen knife and stabbed the defenseless one. A short shriek, then nothing. The other lunged at me, swinging like a madman. I deflected all his strikes with my knife and cut his wrist. He held it for a moment, muttered a curse, and ran off. I ran after him, but I lost him in the smoke. Gunfire continued to ring out in different directions, along with screams that were suddenly cut off by death. My heart was racing. It was the first time I'd ever truly experienced fear. I heard marching, and looked behind me. A whole platoon of soldiers was marching right towards me. In my blind fury, I ran straight towards them. That's when they stopped marching and held Veronica forward. I stopped dead in my tracks. One of the soldiers pulled out his knife and brought it to her neck.
"You blink, she dies." He said through his gas mask.
I fell to my knees with my hands behind my head in a gesture of surrender. The soldiers surrounded me and grabbed me by the wrists. They began to march forward, but let go of my body, holding their hands.
"Damn that's hot! What the hell?!"
My body changed back to it's robotic form. I changed both my arms to miniguns and fired into the crowd of soldiers, making sure not to hit Veronica. When all the soldiers were dead, Veronica fell down, unconscious. I ran over to her, but I couldn't move any more. I turned around to see a short, hooded figure with armor walking towards me, with his hand outstreched, holding what looked to be a ball of dark energy.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you."
I recognized the voice immediately. It sent chills down my spine.
"By the decree of Darkrus the emperor, this town is hereby wiped off the map."
"Who the hell is Darkrus?"
The figure pulled his hood down, revealing blue spines and a wicked, lopsided grin along with bright green eyes.
"I am Darkrus, ruler of Dessnia, the nation of gold. This town is mine now, so leave if you don't want to die."
I scoffed. "Your name's not Darkrus. It's Sonic."
He took a step back. "You... You know my real name...? Who are you?"
I took a step forward. "An old enemy. Don't I look familiar?"
He took another step back. "Perhaps. Why don't you enlighten me?" He didn't give me time to answer. He threw the dark energy to the ground, and it turned into a small, flashing box.
"What the hell is that supposed to do?"
"In about ten seconds, you'll find out." With that, he teleported away.
"What the hell did he mean by-"
I was cut off by a series of explosions, each one closer to me. The box he'd left behind was a beacon! There was no hope to escape the blasts. I merely stood and took the blows. Soon, they were over. I tried to get up, but I couldn't. My legs and one of my arms were gone! So was the entire village. However, there was one spot that remained untouched, and that was where Veronica laid. I crawled toward her, determined to spend my last minutes with the one I loved. But HE stood in front of me.
"You don't know when to quit, do you?" He walked over to her and picked her up by the head.
"If you want her, come and get her."
"You bastard!" I turned my remaining arm into a minigun again, but he merely deflected the bullets with his dark magic.
"What a shame. Perhaps I have some use for the two of you, though."
"I'll never serve you."
"You don't have a choice. Serve me, or watch her die. Then die yourself."
Again, I didn't have time to answer. My self-repair systems had been destroyed, and my body went into hibernation mode to recuperate...
----------------------------------------------------
*insert DBZ end of episode song here* The true villain has been revealed. What torture does he have in store for our heroes? Find out in the next part!