~Chapter 8: The Attack~

Mecha Sonic had instantly been sent out by the Doctor, flying towards the village of Knothole. When he was close to the village, he decided to fly low so that he couldn't be spotted so easily.

The roboticized Sonic landed where Metallix was waiting for him, the other robot nodding to him silently. That nod was a signal to Mecha Sonic: 'Let's go'.

Both robots flew into the village, firing lasers in different directions, terrorising the inhabitants. All villagers screamed, scrambling in different directions to get away from the two attackers.

...

Alarms went off in the higher-tech buildings, alerting Shard and the others immediately. Sally darted into the room where the main group were.

"Sonic and Metallix are attacking Knothole!" she exclaimed.

Instantly, Shard jumepd up to his feet, surprised. "What?! Mex?! But... He wouldn't!" he denied.

"Well, he is," Sally replied sadly. "We have no time to discuss this now, both of them have to be stopped!" With that, the squirrel ran out, followed by Antoine and Bunnie.

"Damn it..." Shard muttered to himself, following the group.

...

Mecha Sonic proceeded to attack alongside Metallix, the two machines being stopped by nothing. That's when the group confronted them.

"Sonic, stop this at once!" Sally commanded angrily, pointing at Mecha Sonic.

"Request not granted," Mecha Sonic responded monotonously. "I only take orders from Doctor Eggman."

"Then pre-pare to be deztroyed!" Antoinne declared, raising his sword, ready to fight.

"The only thing which will be getting destroyed is this village," Mecha Sonic announced, aiming his lasers at Antoinne.

"Not while we're still around, sugah!" Bunnie yelled, running towards Mecha Sonic and striking him across the face with a kick, sending the Robian flying into a tree.

Shard halted beside the group, staring at the two robots with sorrow evident in his pixelated eyes. The two people he cared about most were now against him. Both of them were like his family members - brothers - yet now they were his enemies.

Metallix glanced at Shard as he stood observing the battle going on between Mecha Sonic and the other Freedom Fighters. Shard, on the other hand, had his full attention on the blue robot.

"Mex..." Shard said solemnly. "This isn't you..."

The hedgebot turned his head to face him, hiding a smirk. "No, this is me," he corrected. "This is what I was built for."

"If you continue with this you'll just end up getting yourself deactivated!" Shard cried out. "I was like this once, remember? Eggman reprogrammed me to attack Sonic and I ended up being decommissioned! Please, don't let the same thing happen to you!"

Metallix bellowed out a dark laughter. "You're weak, Shard!" he mocked. "Only robots like you would want to return to helping these pathetic creatures!"

"What could you possibly gain from helping Eggman?!" Shard snapped.

"Power," was Metallix's answer, his voice sending a chill through Shard's circuits. "You see, Shard, I enjoy watching others suffer. I enjoy destruction and carnage. I enjoy enducing fear into others. It's what makes me, well, me."

"That's not true! Eggman's making you lie!" Shard hollered, firing a laser at Metallix out of his rage. Metallix dodged easily, firing a laser back at him. Shard was hit by the laser, smacking down onto his back. The black and yellow hedgebot clambered back onto his feet as Metallix flew towards him. Shard was lucky and managed to duck before Metallix could tackle him, watching as the younger robot skidded to a halt as he rebound off a tree. This time Shard was tackled by him and was pinned to a tree trunk as Metallix punched him over and over, attempting to damage either his optical sensors or his power gem. Shard eventually managed to catch his fist, throwing him off. Thankfully his power gem was alright, though his optical sensors now caused to him to see blurs and static.

Mecha Sonic was fighting off Sally, Antoinne and Bunnie. The only real opponent out of the three was Bunnie due to her being partly-roboticized, though the other two were still distracting him as they attempted to attack. Mecha Sonic fired his lasers and used close-combat when it was necessary, though most of the time he just used his lasers.

"Mecha Sonic! You're power is running low!" came Eggman's voice through a communicator embedded in Mecha Sonic's main computer. "Return to base at once! I already have Knothole's coordinates; I can destroy it whenever I please! Now get back here so I can change your power source and upgrade you!"

"Yes, Doctor," Mecha Sonic responded, completely forgetting about the fight. He retracted his lasers and flew off.

Metallix, currently holding up Shard by his throat, noticed that Mecha Sonic was leaving. While he was distracted, Shard's auto-repair managed to fix his damaged eyes, but only slightly. He used this chance to shoot Metallix in the chest, directly hitting the gem shard which powered him. Immediately Metallix dropped Shard, his eyes flickering strangely as sparks jumped from here and there. Without thinking, Shard used this chance to shoot at him once again. Metallix was knocked down, and he showed no signs of even attempting to stand back up.

"System... krzz... error..." Metallix spoke in a distorted tone of voice. His eyes then slowly dimmed as he shut down.

A little confused, Shard stepped over to him, his vision now clear. That's when he noticed something - Metallix's power gem was damaged. Badly.

Shard's eyes seemed to widen as he knelt down, examining the gem shard. "Oh no..." he gasped quietly. The gem was cracked in different places, the cracks almost going through the whole stone. Cracks that deep in a power gem were almost certainly fatal.

Slowly and shakily, Shard lifted Metallix up, staring at him the whole time. If Shard was a living thing, tears would be streaming down his cheeks right now. But Shard couldn't cry. He was just a robot.

Shard eventually looked up ahead of him as he continued to hold his brother. Sadness was now clear in his eyes, for he was staring at the devastation Metallix had brought upon Knothole.

In fact, Knothole was barely even there anymore.

Injured civillians climbed out of the rubble of old huts while others were digging in the debris to rescue those who were trapped. Mothers held their crying children to comfort them, though the mothers also looked like they were in need of comfort. Other Freedom Fighters tried to reassure the older civillians and started taking them away from the destroyed village in order to find somewhere safe for them to go.

Sally ran over to Shard, followed by Antoinne and Bunnie. "Shard..." she spoke as if she was going to say more words, though she didn't speak anymore when seeing Shard's expression. She could see just how horrified he was, and she could also see the limp Metallix in his arms.

"Oh mah stars..." was all Bunnie could say as she stared at the demolished village, covering her mouth with her hands in shock.

Tails made his way over to the group, thankfully unharmed. His expression was almost emotionless.

"Tails..." Sally sighed, sounding both sad and relieved. "Thank goodness you're alright..."

"We need to azzist ze others," Antoinne stated.

"Antoinne's right," Bunnie agreed. "We'd better get them to safety."

"Right," Sally also agreed. "Come on." The group started heading off, but Shard didn't follow. "...Shard?" Sally asked the silent robot. She didn't get a response. Sally was about to talk to him more, but she was urged not to by Bunnie as she was taken to help the injured villagers.

Shard remained where he was, frozen to the spot due to the horror and shock coursing through his wires. He didn't even notice that Tails was still standing beside him. Eventually the young fox was spotted by him as Shard glanced down at him, but both the two were silent. Shard then slowly carried Metallix away.

Honey, luckily not injured from the attack, watched Shard as he carried Metallix away. She wore a face of emptiness and sorrow, devastated at Metallix's betrayal.

~End of Chapter~