All characters are copywrite Sega, and other media companies responsible for the
international Sonic franchises (including DiC and Archie). This applies to all 'Glint' stories.

Story is by: M.C. Griffin (unless otherwise stated... I guess.)
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Pistol grip or arm stock? Short barrel or long barrel? Ballistic or energy? Which is more important, power of shot or length of clip?

You still stood at the open door, hands gripping the fancy Mobotropolian handles from so long ago. Your smile still hadn't faded due to the adrenaline high you were going through. The tides of change were in your eyes, and what you saw was the lunar moon which orchestrated them. The precession of robots stood like they had behind the cave. Except this time you understood their silence. They understood your potential to enact change, just like you understood the change that what lay before your eyes could cause.

You stepped through the doors, letting your hands lightly drag along the doorway.

Wall to wall. Potential destruction. Cans of death. Wall to wall.

Guns. Guns. Guns.

"Nicole."

Nicole: Yes, Sally.

"Can you access Robotropolis network information from a worker-bot?"

Nicole: I most certainly can try, Sally.

"Good."

A robot had already took up the cue. He was small and eager, possibly a child. All these robots had been robotocized before the revolution, you could tell from their clunky, inefficient design. That would mean that this little one would be around your age.

This just made it easier.

"Nicole. Uplink."

Nicole: Yes, Sally.

Nicole's uplink wire came spindling down like a spider spinning it's web, and you put it in the hands of the small child robot. He apparently knew this game, and eagerly plugged it into a port just to the side of his eyes. Nicole made a few clicking noises and grew silent.

Nicole: What is your inquiry, Sally?

"Priority one? Has it been reached anywhere in the city?"

Nicole clicked a bit more, then silence again.

You stared at the machine. Muscles tense. Head beating. You needed to know.

Nicole: Yes.

"Has priority one been completed?"

Nicole: Negative.

"Yes! Sonic is okay! Okay... priority two?"

Nicole clicked. Clicked. Clicked. This was obviously a tough question.

Waiting.

Nicole: Nonconclusive reports. Would you like to hear the backup status report of an offline SWAT Bot?

You began to sweat as your heart sank into your stomach. You began futilely doing the math, hoping that it could somehow not have been Bunny who brought up nonconclusive results. However, other than you, Bunny was the only other priority two threat in the city.

*begin feed= 9000kx544536ii4 00:50:55:12 -gehog, priority one. Pursuit activation 455. Error correction. Error correction. Evasion technique 324. Basic counter attacks. 1 deploy=miss. 2 deploy=miss. 3 deploy=hit. Freedom Fighter I.D.=Bunny. Disabled and unconscious. Out of priority. 4 deploy=miss. 5 deploy=miss. Error correction. Error correction. Error correction. Evasion technique 782. Error correction. Fatal error. Cannot correct error on port C25. Cannot correct error on port D55. Cannot correct error on drive Zeta. Critical error. Abort. Drive failure 65587CB66. Abort. Fatal error. Cannot corre- end feed= 9000kx544536ii4 00:50:55:20*

You couldn't get much out of that, at least not anything uplifting.

"Nicole, in layman's terms please." Your voice cracked.

With every moment that your small computer took to load information, more dread filled your heart. The prospect of your beloved dying just for this, in this place was unbearable. It was hard to choke back the tears, yet they never came.

Nicole: It would seem that before Sonic destroyed it, the SWAT Bot had incapacitated Bunny some time a few days ago. Faulty information made by the robots damage prevents a confirmable placement of location, but my digital speculation would lead me to believe that Sonic and Bunny are somewhere in the middle of the city. I find some evidence of other run-ins with the two and the SWAT Bots, but this robot was the only one able to recognize Sonic and still have time to backup any of his logs.

Sonic's abilities were impressive. The digital confirmation system on my SWAT Bots never was very efficient. Sonic could recognize a SWAT Bot before a SWAT Bot could recognize Sonic.

Nicole: However, the closer you get to the middle of the city, the more chance for confrontation.

"Good."You said.

And as the firm hold of a 550 charge SWAT Bot issue hand blaster, model 10 graced your hand, a shiver of anticipation rushed from shoulder to shoulder across your neck.

You looked at the surrounding room, and just like in the hospital room that seemed so long ago, you began to see that all the colors, so much like paint and ink, was all kept in place by black lines.

This time you wouldn't be passively observing the end on television eating Sonic-Os and becoming angry at the outcome. This time, it was your show! This time, it was your endorsement.

You didn't need any fucking catchphrase.

You didn't need a super appealing appearance.

You didn't need a sitcom celebrity voice talent.

You didn't need a franchise to be Sonic.

Antoine D'Coolette Journal Entry: Sunday

(Translated from French to English for lazy convenience) My wrist seems to be healing quite well, in spite of crooked stitches and unfavorable conditions. Fortunately I am ambidextrous. My motives and methods of taking my own life seem distant and forgotten, yet the princess' accusing, and demeaning words still ring in my ears like an infernal bell of hate.

Though I know my princess goes through many fazes with the changing of the tides, much like all women, I can not help but consider the lack of intensive planning and tact taken in this latest of missions to be the very reason the party of Freedom Fighters, including the princess, have not yet returned. I love my princess more than she'll ever know, even though she's turned into a heathenistic lesbian, so I hope she returns unscathed to be my leader and muse once again.

It pained me to see her indulging her sexual desires in such an ungodly fashion. Though I must admit, unsightly her rendevous with Bunny were not. Even thinking about their little swim out in the lake is getting me excited right now. I wonder now, what they would say had they ever known of my presence there, behind the bushes of the forest surrounding the lake.

I wish now, more than ever to hold the princess in my arms as both Sonic and the rabbit did in the past. She would be better with me than with either of those heretics. Sonic is the breed of fellow who can not settle down, or stick to one woman. He lives a life of cheap thrills and exploits those who can bring him these thrills. He will reveal himself to the princess as the horrible thing he is.

And Bunny... Bunny is a whore. Everyone has had her body, it seems. Man or woman. She even revealed her breasts to Rotor once to simply get a reaction. I even had her once. It would seem that her only reaction or solution to anything is sex and physical touch. I pined for her so affluently, and she met my advances ten fold.

This might not mean she's a bad person, but it does mean she's a dirty person, ripped of her innocence and purity by her own lust. Nothing like the princess. The princess without the rabbit or the hedgehog. Quiet. Humble. Virginal. Everything I could want in a woman. I could be good for her, and she could be great to me, but since she seems occupied, even if she doesn't come back, I will keep my passion for her a secret.

Unfortunately, there is no doubt that the hedgehog will make it back. With his cursed speed and agility, he is near invincible. Though he probably would save his fellow Freedom Fighter if need be, I bet Somewhere Sonic is looking out for himself, and no one else.

Somewhere Sonic was being watched by millions as he smashed through Bot after Bot. He mercilessly destroyed armies of them in his usual impossibly strong manner. However, he was bleeding badly, and Bunny's ability to fight was all but gone. With her arm missing, her arsenal consisted mostly of various kicks and such.

SWAT Bot. SWAT Bot. SWAT Bot. They would all go down until he did.

Fighting was futile, I can just make more, but he fought anyway. By now it wasn't a probability. By now, he knew he was going to die. It was just a matter of time. As he ripped the hoard of Bots apart, he thought about all the bits of small damage he'd been receiving. He thought about how all those little things could add up. First a bump here, a bruise there, a scratch somewhere. Then, a skid across the side of his arm from laser fire. Then across his side. His head. Not killing him, but not missing either. Keeping this up would whittle him down to a skeleton. In this, there was no escape. Sonic was convinced that his days of fighting were numbered but,...

"I'll take as many of you mother fuckers as I can!!" He said aloud as he leaped into the middle of another wave of SWAT Bots.

Sonic was just about consumed with laser fire, but a long, extended leg swept three Bots from the kamikaze-crazed hedgehog.

Bunny's other leg extended as her kicking foot whipped back around. Using this momentum, she catapulted her other leg straight into another Bot. Sonic looked in wonder at the length that her leg could extend. An awe that they could ever be organic. Whipping her standing leg up, she began to spin with her extended legs likes a helicopter, lifting a large group of Bots into the air with these relentless, stretching mid-air kicks. She landed one foot on the ground, leaving the final kicking leg extended, sending the SWAT Bots in her aerial kicking path momentarily suspended in the air.

It took Sonic less than a second.

He jumped onto Bunny's leg extending upward. Dashing up the leg, he broke the sound barrier and jumped at the Bots.

The SWAT Bots couldn't digitally comprehend what was happening. Their logs would tell of being kicked several times into the air by a cyborg-rabbit with extending legs. Then, before they can even hit the ground, priority one destroys them all with one spin by running up her legs.

Sonic's spin continued through the air. He broke his spin, allowing himself to drift through the Robotropolis air. He looked behind himself to see Bunny continuing the fight. He looked ahead to see more SWAT Bots running through the alleys. He began to descend into this new party of reinforcements. And as he fell, the emotion toward his enemy who was embodied by all of these surroundings speeding by him.

"ROBOTNIK!!!"

He landed in the middle of the group, ripping a couple of them to shreds of metal and wiring with a spinning whip of his quills.

Sonic rose from the ground, surveying his surrounding enemies. Before their digital brains could comprehend him, Sonic leapt onto one's head and rebounded into the air. Their laser rifles went off, killing Sonic's rebound bot. Their heads turned to the hedgehog who landed behind them.

With a small hop, landing with a spin dash, Sonic span through the Bots, ripping them into pieces like a knife through butter. He let himself roll to his side for a quick stop and grabbed for two of the laser rifles that had fallen. He cradled their stocks under his shoulders and bent his knees to balance these two long guns with his small body.

His voice echoed through the alley in spite of the gun-fire from Bunny's battle behind. His words soaked in taunting laughter. "I'M NOT DEAD YET!!!!"

The glow from Sonic's fire into the oncoming assault hit Bunny's face as she continued her fight with the SWAT Bots Sonic had not destroyed yet.

As a SWAT Bot ran toward her, firing his rifle the whole way, Bunny dodged to the side and jutted her leg into his hand. The rifle hit the neighboring wall. Each SWAT Bot is fitted with a weak hand blaster on both hands, and this one stretched his hand out to give Bunny a taste.

The blast shot sloppily from the Bot's fist, and Bunny used her hand to spring away. Then, still balancing on that one hand, she extended her legs to wrap around the Bots arm. She let herself be pulled by her feet onto the SWAT Bot's arm. He didn't seem to know how to handle this, but he also didn't have much time to think on it. Bunny grabbed the back of his head with her single living arm, and with all the might in her legs and upper body, ripped the Bot's arm from it's socket, spinning her into the air with his appendage still wrapped with her robotic leg.

She slid on her knees as she hit the ground and rolled back, grasping the SWAT Bot's arm and quickly placing it into her own mechanical socket. His arm was now hers.

In spite of it's incredible size compared to her, Bunny seemed to be able to wield the arm well enough. She aimed it at the mutilated Bot, just then trying to regain his balance in vane. She suddenly heard twin plasma blasts zoom past her, destroying bricks on either side of the alley. She turned to see two more SWAT Bots run through the alley armed with plasma blasters. She simply shot two streams of energy from the fist blaster, sending the two Bots to their backs.

She turned back to the armless Bot, still trying to find a way to correct his balance problems. She let another energy stream on the Bot. He whipped around, contracting from the extreme energy radiating from the arm. Finally, a wire from his robotic neck exploded, spinning his head into the air like a coin.

Bunny looked down at the arm blaster. "Piece of shit!" she said through her teeth. The fist blasters were meant to simply incapacitate. It wouldn't take much to kill Bot or animal alike with it, but a laser or a plasma blaster would be more appealing.

Her head shot behind to see the Bots begin to move around on their backs. She leapt into the air, legs extended and impaled the two with her heels.

Bunny grabbed both plasma blasters, favoring the explosive bolts of plasma those propelled over the weak energy shot from the hand blaster. She ran as fast as she could to where Sonic was firing into the general direction of the SWAT Bot wave ahead.

She ran until at Sonic's back as she sprang into the air with her huge SWAT Bot arm. While in the air she extended both legs to wedge between the two buildings right above the swarm of Bots. She let herself swing down on the axis that her legs created.

Bunny rained plasma fire down on the wave, as Sonic barraged them with laser. The clanking steal and ripping metal sounded like screams in all the commotion.

Slaughter is okay if they can't plead for life.

The alley seemed more like a scrap heap. A garbage dump of warriors who couldn't even kill two suffering animals. Needless to say, I was disappointed.

Sonic dropped the guns, staring at the pile of metal he created. He looked at his hands, gloves not even torn. He stared up in the sky, and Bunny had already dropped to the ground. He clenched his eyes together. His fists tightened. Tears welded up.

"FUCK!!!"

Bunny fell to the ground, weak from the battle and startled by Sonic's outburst.

"Why can't you kill me!!?"

This, Bunny couldn't understand. She approached Sonic slowly, trying not to anger him. Her SWAT Bot arm fell off from improper use and weight.

"What's wrong?"

"They'll just keep coming!! No matter how much we hurt we can never die!" He slowly cowered to the ground. His words faded into whimpers through tears. He lifted his head. "WHY CAN'T I DIE!!?"

He whispered into the sky, "I'm always the hero... never the martyr. There's nothing else to do but die for lost causes."

Bunny stepped up to the hedgehog. He was on his knees, forehead on the ground, rocking back and forth, still whispering. She let her index finger stroke his forehead as she turned around his crouching body. She knelt down beside him, letting her single furry arm reach down around his waist and rub his neck.

"Remember, we still have each other." she said as she opened her mouth into his, her tongue eagerly reaching past his teeth.

Fuck you is what he would've said if he had any will left to fight for.

Somewhere Sonic just wanted to win or lose.

Somewhere Sonic had become the cause he was fighting for.

Somewhere Sonic just wanted an ending.

Somewhere Sonic was losing at winning.

Somewhere you were Sonic.

Somewhere you were sporting battle armor, a combat helmet, and guns, guns, guns.

You were amazed at your still new ability to run and jump. Your agility now was incredible. Simply being exposed to the power rings was enough to heighten your abilities up to Sonic's level, and now that you had been well rested, you could really move. As you ran through the ruins, you thought back to your destructive bout of hand to hand combat with Sonic. The only reason you could do any damage was because of his hope that he wouldn't hurt you, and probably because he wasn't expecting a battle of that level from a person who, only a week earlier, wasn't even half of that potential.

There were still many aspects of Sonic's abilities that you still couldn't grasp. Running on walls was very difficult. Hard to think about moving your legs, establishing your weight onto one side, regulate balance and not fall all at the same time. Wall bounding was tough too. When you tried it the first time, you angled yourself funny and plowed into the ground. The hardest thing to do was Sonic's spin. You still couldn't do it without rolling around on your side like a broken wheel.

Only a few weeks ago you hated Sonic for these abilities he had and how much attention they got him. Now, you realized how much work it took to pull off what he does. He could do more damage unarmed than you could ever do even with all of the firearms.

Robotropolis whizzed around your head in shades of grey and black. Dirty sewage water whipped around you as you sped through puddles and gutters. Gunfire and the zip of lasers could be heard in the distance ahead. Battle was fresh in the air, as the closer you got to the center of the city, the more rubble and robot parts scattered everywhere.

Coming soon, the end.

This was your line of action figures.

This was your comic book.

This was your video game.

This was your cartoon.

A swarm of robots turned onto the road ahead of you, approaching the battle that you would soon meet with as well. However, they would never reach their goal.

You leaped into the air, and onto an unsuspecting SWAT Bot's head, rebounding off of it immediately. As you spun in the air, you drew two hand blasters. Landing on one knee, back faced to the swarm, you turned to the SWAT Bots, arms crossed over one another and began firing wide to narrow. You had leveled all but two, one which had only been wounded now had drawn his rifle and was firing, the other, the one in the middle had the time to duck, and was firing as well.

You jumped into the air again, this time landing on the wounded bot's head, who was instantly filled with burning laser fire from his friend. You hopped off of his head, landing behind him as he slumped to the ground, unable to operate. You kicked him with enough force to drive him into his friend's body, colliding them both with the opposing wall. Before the living bot had the time to fall from this collision, he felt a disabling kick to his mainframe you delivered by jumping at his head feat first.

You could only run now. Fighting comes later. Your friends come later. Redemption comes later, but now there is only pursuit. Pursuit of those who rely on your heroics somewhere.

Somewhere, huddled from the oncoming forces.

Somewhere too weak to fight.

Somewhere without hope.

Somewhere waiting for death.

You began to see the oncoming forms of your friends, exactly the way you had hoped. Helpless, in danger and in need of your assistance.

Somewhere in each other's arms.

You had stopped now.

There was no more movement.

Just those animals in front of you, cooing to each other in each others arms.

All the Bots were destroyed.

Destroyed or dead. Depends how you look at it.

All the guns rested on your back began to feel heavy on your shoulders.

You looked at your arms with the dual blasters in your hands. You were so laden with muscles, that you could barely tell it was your body anymore.

You dropped the guns to your sides. Now, you felt like nothing.

Your emotions were all over the place, and all the battle had left you with very little mental composure.

So, what now?

He is with she. She is with he.

You are out of the picture.

What now?

You stumbled a bit, and sat against the alley wall. You so cared if they were looking. You wanted them to care. You didn't want to deny it any more!

It screamed in your mind, LOOK OVER HERE! LOOK AT MY PAIN!! FEEL FOR ME!!! FEEL SORRY FOR ME!!! FEEL GUILTY FOR ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But all you could do was stare. And then you couldn't look any longer. Then, you could only look at the ground and kick dirt.

The little rocks of debris were so tiny and quaint. They were lifeless and happy. In a world of rocks there would be no deceit. No lies. No broken promises. No empty words that you could speak with just your lips. Words like love.

"Fuck both of you for loving me." You said to the pebbles.

But that obviously made no sense. You were no longer the issue. They loved each other.

"Sally, I'm sorry." Was in the back of your mind.

A helping hand was clouded by tears.

Apologies began to be muffled by the sound of hover engines.

And as you looked away from your friends' attempts to apologize for their trespasses, your face was hit with the rushing air from a landing hover craft.

This one was bigger than those you were used to seeing. It had an interesting yellow and red paint job, and my emblem on the side.

Sonic probably said something, but you wouldn't care. Bunny probably could have said something if she existed. You redefined your entire reality as this one single moment.

The hover craft moment.

Everything is this hover craft.

The door began to open, and a green light shown through the cockpit. As it opened, the alley was turned into a wonderland of green. This light reverberated off of the broken SWAT Bot parts as if they were mirrors. Everything became so silent.

Then, after it was sure that nothing could be said by yourself or your friends that would ruin the moment, after nothing could happen to spoil your experience of what was coming, only after I was positive that all attention lay in this single, defining moment, I stepped through the door.

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This is still not the end. But we're getting close.