Chris was busy blowing robots out of the sky when he
saw the giant land. It stood there,
watching Babe, then frowning when Babe somehow got
inside its leg. That leg seemed to
freeze where it was, then Babe popped out at the hip, going for the head. Chris had to tear his attention away as more
robots came up, but he soon was able to watch Babe again. He saw the second hand slam down on top of
Babe. "All units, concentrate firepower on the
giant! Knock it down!!!!!" He heard a bunch of affirmatives, but never
Anthony's voice. "Hey, kid, you alright?"
"Ye--no sir. I recognized some of the robots... I can't do this sir." Chris scanned the area for Anthony's tank, then drove up by it. "Listen. Shoot at the giant. I'll take care of the other robots. You've got one of the long range
weapons. USE IT!!!" Anthony's tank slowly turned toward the
giant. He fired one shot, then
another. He was soon concentrating so
hard on the giant that he didn't notice how many robots Chris had shot down
around him. There was a moment where no
robots were coming at them, so Chris glanced back at Babe. He was still pinned halfway under the giant's
hand, but was slowly making his way out.
Chris could see what the robot would do next. "Anthony! Aim for the giant's arm! He's gonna flatten Babe as soon as he gets
out!" Anthony fired one shot
that looked like it was going to go too high.
"Anthony, what was
that?!!!!" "I fired the shot,
sir. I didn't want to hurt Babe." Chris watched the shot fly upwards. It wasn't going to hit... Instead, the shot exploded right above the
giant's head, shocking it enough to glance up.
That was all Babe needed to get out.
Babe rocketed out of Player's grasp, turning as
quickly as possible to ram the eye.
Right before he would've hit it, he fired his cannon. Shards of glass blew out all around him as
the eye darkened. Player's hand
instantly went up to grab at Babe, but Babe managed to get over to the other
eye and blast it before the hand came close.
With the eye's out, Babe went back to the mechanism on his arm and cut
an opening in Player's chest. He cut up
everything he could hold, shredding the pieces down until the entire chest
looked empty. There was only one other
thing to destroy in the chest... Babe
winced as he looked at the main engine. "I'm sorry James." He fired a single shot at an exposed area of
the core. The opening he'd made in
Player's chest was suddenly blocked by a wall of flame. Babe dove down into the leg he'd been in
earlier and searched desperately for the opening. The flame was spreading through the chest
now, engulfing the core in the center.
He found the opening, but the flame was too close. Babe shot down the leg to the toe, bursting
out just as the flame would have wrapped around him. Babe made it back to his tank and got in
before looking back at Player. Player's
were shooting flame, as were the opening Babe had made. An arm looked like it was ready to melt off. Behind Player's swaying form was the city
where the ammunitions factory was still functioning. Anthros and humans
alike were streaming out of the city, afraid that Player would crush them. Babe shook his head. "Even
like this, you still have to make it hard.
At least you can rest now, James." Babe drove his tank up and shot at Player's
side, forcing him to tip away from the city.
Other tanks understood what he was doing and positioned themselves to
fire in the same direction Babe was shooting.
Player started tipping to the side, being blown back ever more by the
shots from the tanks. Player fell,
landing with a tremendous boom that shook everything. Utter silence followed as Babe turned away
from Player's form. "They can't do anything else to you now, old friend. I'm sorry for you..."
Steve watched from his position in the sky. "How
the HELL did he do that?!!!! Gargantuan was just destroyed by main-core
destruction!!!!!!!!! That metal is
supposed to be at least three feet thick!!!" He tapped on his arm controller, telling
every robot still functioning to go after Babe's tank. He sent Sarrah down
as well, wanting someone down there that Babe would have no defense
against. "There. You're dead now,
robot." He watched with his
scanners as each robot blasted at Babe's tank.
The tank took the shots without so much as getting jarred. Steve smiled as it stopped when Sarrah landed in front of it; NOW there would be no
escape. Babe came out of the tank,
screaming as he shot into the air. Steve
told the robots to chase him, to shoot him down. He could see Babe crying as he flew, the
tears glistened in the light. Steve
activated his cannon and took aim...
Babe could see him up there, was watching him prepare
to fire. "You took my friends and turned them against me." The cannon was just beginnig to charge. "You try to torture me by hurting my
LIVING friends!" In another few
seconds, Steve would fire. "I've lived through one hundred and
fifty years of torure, remembering everything that
happened to me in the past. Then YOU
came along, the fly in the ointment. You
wanted nothing more than to make me miserable!
Damn you, you did it. I have to
live with my friends deaths on my shoulders now. Every single one of
them!" Babe could hear
the shot as it was fired. He dodged it
easily and kept going up. "But you didn't stop there. No, you had to go and make Sarrah, the FIRST anthro not in my family who ever cared
enough about me to love me through whatever happened, into my enemy. You KNEW I wouldn't be able to hurt her. She's the one thing you were sure I would never
beat. Well, I've got a family
again. I've got friends that I care
about now. Anthros
who don't even KNOW me accept me as one of their own! You took the single anthro I would never
kill, and made her into my enemy. She's
not Sarrah anymore, she's just another robot. JUST LIKE YOU!!!!" Babe fired off two shots as quickly as he
could. One hit Steve directly in the
chest sending him plummeting to the ground.
The other shot slowed in the air, exploding as it stopped moving. Babe dove as quickly as he could to avoid the
blast, but the other robots weren't so lucky.
One by one, they impacted with the blast in the air, exploding from
it. Sarrah was
the only robot able to avoid it. Babe
glanced back and saw her following him still.
"Sarrah,
if you can hear me, I'm sorry. I had
never wanted this..." Babe
squeezed his eyes shut and fired at her.
The explosion that followed was strong enough to momentarily knock his
system out. He landed on the ground by
Steve. "So, it comes down to this." Steve was holding an arm that had been blown
off. It looked like the arm that'd had
the cotrol unit in it. Babe smiled.
"We're on even ground
then. I can't fly anymore." He motioned to his wings, which were
smoking. They had been partially melted,
the melted metal sliding over the openings for his jets. If he tried to fly, he'd explode! "You
can't call for help, and I can't do a thing to stop you from attacking from the
air. C'mon, you said we could fight if I
destroyed Sarrah." "So I did..." Steve dropped his useless arm and activated
his arm cannon. Before Babe could do a
thing about it, Steve shot into the air above him. He was smiling as a strange compartment opened
up at the bottem of the cannon. "I've
had some interesting upgrades as well, robot!
Just TRY and dodge these!"
Babe jumped to the side as a bomb hit the ground. He'd been able to scan it before it hit, and
knew what it would've done to him. He
gasped as more napalms came down near him; there was no way to dodge every
single one. He landed directly inside
one of the flames. His curcuits fried themselves to the bursting point, damaging
most of his wiring so badly that he almost couldn't move his legs. The upper half of his body was fine, as he
pointed out to Steve by firing two shots and destroying his wings. Steve grunted on impact, then
got up, scowling. "You think you're so tough.
You missed the biggest surprise in these wings!!!" Babe had no idea what Steve meant, but soon
realized it when two miniature lasers nearly hit him. One more shot blew the fragments of wings
away. "I WON'T lose this time, Steve.
My friends aren't in robotic bodies anymore, so I have nothing left to
worry about! I fight to the death
now!" Steve chuckled. "Good. So do your LIVING friends." Without warning, Steve shot at the tanks who were now advancing on the city. "NOO!!!!!"
Babe shot a blast and cut off Steve's shot before it could reach the
tanks. "You will NOT have them!"
Babe twisted around and fired at Steve just as Steve shot at him. Their blasts collided, blowing them both back
with the resulting explosion. Babe
pushed himself up and scanned the area for Steve. Steve had gotten up and was running
away. "I'll get you, robot! I
SWEAR I WILL!!!!!!!!" Babe sighed, exhausted from all of the energy he'd spent. He closed his eyes and let his systems slowly
shut down...
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