Capítulo 93: Hit and Run
Amy could do nothing to resist as her surroundings turned from trees and oil lanterns to multi-colored, twisted skyscrapers and street lamps. There was no longer anything blocking out the stars. Instead, the stars were completely invisible, nulled by the abrasive electric lights that plagued the exhausted, overworked city. Amy could hear some kind of party in the distance. Disharmonious voices were singing along to bizarre music. She could even spot some lights dancing around from the source of the sounds. "We are now in the city of Illedence. Please pay no mind to the loud sounds. It is only the parade," the E-Series robot ordered, stepping through the wintery slush that glazed the sidewalk.
"It looks fun. Can we go there?" Amy pleaded. The robot stopped in the middle of the road, whirring and beeping faster as he bounced idly. More erratically. "Mr. Robot? Are you okay?" Tekno looked at Amy like she was crazy.
The robot stopped bouncing and the whirring stopped. Through its night vision, it spotted a large, squid-like figure walking across the street. It didn't seem to notice them. "I suppose it will not hurt to attend the parade," the robot stated. "Safer for transportation of prisoners. The witch and the traitor would enjoy one last amusement before incarceration."
"I wouldn't actually like that too much," Tekno muttered, starting to become sick after nearly an hour of dangling from the robot's hand like a fresh cow carcass from the ceiling.
"Information irrelevant," the robot droned. "Now following new route to Torch Tower Zone." He walked in the other direction, towards the heart of the parade.
As soon as they entered the main parade grounds, the smell of sugary kettle corn and latex balloons replaced the muddy smell present in the barren streets from before. The parade floats were all oozing with color and flashing lights. Already on edge from the increasingly loud chanting, Tekno was startled by a loud POP sound as purple and red confetti erupted from the crowd. Amy didn't seem to mind. Birdie squirmed in Amy's hands, but didn't open his eyes.
"The festivities are rather avid today," the robot observed, staring off into the street as all the cars and floats slowly drove by. Amy gazed into the street too. There were lots of people blocking the way, but her eyes were especially drawn to a very cute, very small self-driving convertible. Its headlights and bumper almost looked like eyes and a mouth respectively. As it drove by, Amy turned her head to look at it some more out of fascination-at-first-sight. Then… the car did the same, staring right back at her. Amy gasped as the car drifted back around and crashed through the safety railing. People screamed and jumped out of the way. The robot carrying Amy and Tekno looked to the little blue car, but it couldn't react in time as the car crashed right into it. The robot tripped over the hood of the car and landed in the backseat. Amy and Tekno miraculously fell into the front seat, with Amy at the wheel.
"Hey there!" The car exclaimed. "I'm Breeze the Buggy!"
"Whoaaa! Weird magic talking car?!?!" Amy gasped. She then giggled. "Kinda useless. I don't know how to drive!" She had her eyes closed.
"That doesn't make this car useless!" Tekno shrieked in terror as Breeze nearly crashed into multiple objects, people and pets. "It makes it DANGEROUS!"
"I'm neither of those things," Breeze replied, shifting its jolly face to the steering wheel. Tekno screamed, and tried to hit Breeze in the face by slamming her hand down onto the wheel. This only caused Breeze's car alarm to blare through the streets of Illedence. They made a sharp and wobbly turn around a corner, knocking over baskets of caramel apples and a trash can. "I'm also not susceptible to pain from your feeble attacks. As for you, Amy, I've been awaiting our reunion for twenty long years!"
Amy racked her brain. Not for any sort of memory with Breeze, but instead to recall what her age minus twenty was. "Hmm… I was two then. So I don't remember," Amy replied. "But I'm glad to meet you! How did we know each other?"
"You created me with those magic cards of yours," Breeze reminisced. "My vessel was a regular car before you cast a spell of anthropomorphism on it. That's why I can talk, think, and drive myself around!"
"So… you're not some kind of robot? You're MAGIC?!" Tekno asked, only then realizing it was probably a good idea to buckle up. And so she did.
"You are using magic again?" The E-Series robot in the backseat droned. Amy and Tekno looked back to him as Breeze swerved onto the freeway. "I must report this to Mayor Cleave."
"Wait, no, don't do that!" Tekno squawked, unbuckling and tumbling into the backseat. She put her hand over where the robot's mouth would have probably been had it been built with one. "Ha! That'll shut you up."
"Negative," the robot said out of its chest speakers. Tekno's grin fell. "I am currently outputting a direct signal to Cleave the Moloch and my squad." Amy looked down at the steering wheel, and directed Breeze to park by the side of the road. She looked to the robot through the backseat mirror.
"Get the hell out of my car," Amy told the robot.
"But—" the robot debated.
"Get out," Amy told him again, shoving him backwards onto the dirt. She then floored it, driving Breeze off without the robot. The robot stood still as Breeze disappeared into the distance.
"This presents a problem," the robot stated, processing the fact that the Flicky was still in the car. He clunkily turned around at the sight of headlights. Holding up traffic was a long limousine. The window rolled down, showing an intimidating, lanky and somewhat disfigured lizard with sharp spikes all over his body. His eyes had black sclera and ill yellow irises. "Mayor Cleave." The robot greeted.
"E-102 Gamma," Cleave mumbled in a hoarse, off-key voice. "Where did the witch go?" Gamma turned and pointed in the direction Breeze had driven. Cleave sighed irritatedly. "Well, I will follow her. She cannot be allowed to run free in my city."
"Observation: your health is at an all-time low," Gamma, the robot, replied. "Engaging in battle is not recommended."
"But… I must," Cleave grunted. "If she stays on the loose, the purity of our land will ultimately fade, and we will lose the power source for our ultimate machine. I will not allow that to happen. Neither should you if you want to keep your battery intact. Call your brothers, Beta and Zero, and tell them to provide backup."
Gamma hesitated to do anything. "Aye aye, sir," Gamma eventually mumbled.
…
"Where are we going, exactly?!" Tekno yelled, as Breeze swerved and drifted around cars on the blurry speedway at high speeds.
"A safe place," Breeze answered, his face appearing on the seat next to Tekno's. "The town of Avalon is just a few hours away from here. It's where Amy created me! We'll probably be able to get there by morning. Cleave and the E-Series probably won't be able to follow us."
"Really? I didn't think it would be so close to Illedence," Amy stated. "If I created you there when I was so little, does that mean I was—?" Amy was interrupted by the sound of cannons firing. She screamed, as Tekno curled up into a defensive ball. Amy looked to the left, and saw a black robot that looked like the one from before in shape. It was using some kind of rotor under its torso to fly along next to Breeze, as well as an arm cannon to fire missiles at them. Breeze switched lanes and blended into the rest of the traffic. The black robot, Beta, didn't seem to care about any potential collateral damage as it continued to fire.
"Please go away… please…" Tekno mumbled nigh-incoherently, arms over her head as she took up the entire backseat. Amy ducked as a missile nearly hit her.
"Don't worry, nothing can catch me!" Breeze exclaimed, gritting his teeth and driving faster. Amy felt her hair blow back as Breeze accelerated. Beta was left in the dust. Amy looked back as it became nothing more than a speck in the distance. She then looked forward, to see that same squid robot that had attacked her in Searchlight Swamp, Zero! It was standing in the middle of the road, as if it had been waiting.
"Breeze, look out!" Amy cried. Breeze gasped, as the towering robot stood its ground. Breeze drove to the left, around Zero. But Zero sped forward and grazed Breeze with its hands folding into buzzsaws. Breeze shivered as some of his paint was scratched off. "No! Get out of here!" Amy shouted, summoning her Piko Piko Hammer. She whacked Zero with it, but it didn't even leave a dent. It did stun Zero, meaning they could escape. By the time Zero had gotten up, he had already lost them at the intersection. Zero clenched his fists as Beta caught up with him. The two looked at each other, then stared off into the distance.
"Looks like the robots are gone, Tekno," Amy stated in relief, now on the Illedence outskirts. "Breeze is so fast!" Tekno didn't reply. She only looked at Amy in terror, then stared off into the night sky as the stars returned little by little.
"Aw, shucks. I sure do try!" Breeze exclaimed. The other cars seemed to disappear.
"Say, what stations do they have here?" Amy asked, fiddling with the knobs on Breeze's dashboard. All that came out of the old radio was creepy ambience, talk shows on the occult, and the odd piece of actual music. It was at one of these rare music stations that Amy settled. She took her hands off the dash. "Finally… this is nice." Amy sighed, sitting back and stroking Birdie's head softly after about an hour of nonstop stress. Birdie still wasn't awake. On the bright side, even Tekno seemed to be enjoying the music to some extent as they drove on the road between Illedence and Searchlight Swamp Zone.
"So, Amy… you got a boyfriend yet?" Breeze asked.
"Oh! Yes I do! His name's Sonic, but I call him Sonikku," Amy answered enthusiastically, immediately jumping upright and startling Tekno. "He's blue and fast, probably even more than you!" Breeze, unbeknownst to Amy, looked to the side sourly. "Oh. Before we go to Avalon, I think we should go back to my house and tell Sonikku that we're going on a road trip." There was a quiet moment where Tekno and Breeze didn't really know quite what to say to Amy. They drove along in complete silence, as the parading city disappeared into the night.
"You know that you can never go back there, right?" Tekno asked. Amy looked back at her, confusedly.
"Why not? I need to go see my Sonikku!" Amy exclaimed, disappointed.
"No… You don't get it. You CAN'T," Tekno almost shouted. She tried to calm herself down. "Your town is so close by. Cleave is probably already making plans to terrorize it. If Sonic is smart, he'll probably get out of that town before it gets serious. You should get far away from there too."
"You're joking… right?" Amy stammered, glaring at Tekno. "It's not funny." Tekno looked to the side. Amy's glare fell in devastation. She turned back around to face the road, and took a deep, segmented breath. She analyzed the situation, looking to the car floor. She then came up with a solution, and smiled. "I'm not going to give up on my Sonikku, or Tails. I can't call them, because I forgot my Tails Electric at home. We need to turn around and get them after we lose Cleave and the robots."
"That won't be very easy, witch," a voice announced from the right. Everybody looked to the voice, and saw a limousine launch off of the hill next to them. A thorny devil looked out the window. He tried to squash Breeze and everyone inside under the limo, but missed. Barely. He almost went spinning out into the raging river, but swerved and headed straight for them. "You have used the dark arts in my city! This will not go unpunished. Pull over and give me the Flicky, or I'll drive you into the river."
"No way! You must be Cleave, and you want to use Birdie for a machine, right?" Amy cried. Tekno cowered behind the seat with her hands over her head as Breeze continued to drive. "I'm not doing anything you say!"
"Very well… then I will drown you," Cleave replied hollowly. He stared at Amy, and accelerated to his limo's top speed. He switched lanes to the right, and bashed into Breeze, attempting to knock them into the rapids below. Breeze pushed back as Amy, Tekno and Birdie almost went spilling out of the car. "Why are you resisting, little magic car? You could have been happy in my parade. You went out-of-line, and now you will perish with the witch and her friends." Amy heard a rotor spinning next to them. She looked over, to see Gamma. "Gamma. Take the Flicky and bring it to me." Gamma's eyes glinted, and he swooped in, only to be knocked out of the way by Beta. Beta tried to grab Birdie, but Amy kicked the bot away. It went hurdling down onto the road.
"So you have chosen to seal the bird's fate along with your own?" Cleave asked, raising an eyebrow. "You are truly selfish. But there are more little animals out there. You are no longer needed." Cleave bashed his limo into Breeze once more, and Breeze finally went falling off the edge. Tekno screamed in fear, as Amy clutched Birdie close to her. They all went tumbling into the rapids.
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