Dragon Nexus’ Story Part 1


   The echidna, Dragon Nexus, was never the amiable of people. Right now he was 
somewhat less so, simply because recent events has lead to the point he was at now, 
kneeling on the chest of the last member of one of Robotnik’s numerous Swat Bot 
patrols, pressing the muzzle of his pistol into the severely battered head under him.
   “Why can’t you bastards ever leave me the hell alone!?” He exclaimed, 
punctuating his words with a shot of pulse energy.
   The final enemy defeated he slumped back, letting the adrenaline in his blood thin 
a little before going to look for the second pistol he conveniently lost in the fray. He 
looked around him at the smoking corpses of robots. Assuming such a creation could 
even be dignified with the word ‘corpse’, of course. ‘Scrap’ might have been more 
adequate at this point. This had been a close one. The patrols were slowly becoming 
more numerous and more frequent. Wandering the wilderness around Robotropolis 
was becoming more dangerous, but he didn’t fancy going back to Knothole and back 
to that gang of worthless wannabe heroes, even if their leader was the most perfect 
creature he’d ever seen.
   He breathed a sigh and stood up, looking around and brushing the dust off his 
coat. He began to sift through the rubble, making sure to keep an eye on his 
surroundings – he’d been caught off guard before by supposedly destroyed Swat Bots.
   “A-ha. Here you are, Alicia.” He said, picking up the identical twin to the pistol in 
his hand. His weapons of choice were customised pulse pistols calibrated to deliver 
rapid fire shots in exchange for a slightly weaker damage output. They suited his 
talents perfectly. He was never physically strong or even especially fast, but before 
Robotnik’s coup he had an unnatural eye for detail, excellent tracking skills and the 
ability to see further than any of his friends. He was an expert marksman but a 
comparatively weak physical fighter and until today had managed to avoid close 
combat. Too many more patrols like this and…
   “Mmm…”
   Nexus spun around, instantly pointing both barrels at the source of the noise. He 
didn’t see anything. His crimson eyes scanned the area but found nothing.
   “Ugh…he-help…”
   He stared hard and slowly, cautiously moved towards the sound. This tactic had 
fooled him before, but never again. Suddenly his eyes focused on something outside 
the wreckage. A box. A metal box about half his size with Robotnik’s markings all 
over it.
   “Is someone there?” squeaked the box. Nexus approached it step by step, never 
taking his aim away, never ceasing taking in the environment around him. He stood 
next to it and leans this way and that, examining it and looking for any obvious or un-
obvious signed of a trap. It’s appearance was that of a capture-cage used to catch stray 
Mobians for robotisising later. He gave the box a quick kick.
   “Ahh! Pwease…don’t hurt me!” Nexus had never heard of anything this advanced 
before, but that didn’t mean it did not exist. He reached into his pocket and pulled out 
a small charge. He carefully placed it on the lock and set the tier for ten seconds, 
jumping away and shielding himself from any possible explosion.
   Pop-chink. Clunk.
   The charge blew the lock and released the door. Nexus looked over the mess of 
robot parts he used as shelter and saw inside of the box a young orange rabbit.
   Great. A brat. He stood up and relaxed finally, shaking his head. Adults he would 
deal with, kids he’d stay the hell away from. He turned and began to walk away, back 
to his hideout in the forest.
   The rabbit had other ideas. She gingerly crawled out of her small cell and looked 
around, spotting the dark blue echidna walking away from her. She quickly 
ascertained that her captors were all slain by this creature and she got up and ran to 
him.
   Nexus stopped in his tracks when he felt the girl grab onto his leg like a limpet. 
He looked down at her angrily, “What? If you think for one second that I’m going to 
take care of you, you’re going to be severely disappointed, kid. Get out of here, will 
ya?”
   She clung on tighter. The soft sounds of sobbing were coming from her. It was 
becoming clear that she was not going to be shooed away so easily.
   “Pwease don’t weave me here. I’m alone now!” She sniffed
   “You’ll get used to it. Trust me.”
   “My…my mummy’s gone. The bad robots did something to her and she wouldn’t 
talk to me.”
   “Oh god a sob story.” He said to himself, “Listen to me, kid, you’ve learned a 
very important lesson today. Life sucks. Everyone out there wants to take away the 
things most important to you, and once they have everything they’ll dump you on the 
road side and leave you a soulless husk, just as I’m about to do.” He shook his leg 
hard and got the young rabbit off him. She stumbled backwards and tripped, crying as 
she sat on the ground.
   Nexus brushed himself off and looked over his shoulder at her, “I am in too much 
crap of my own to baby-sit defenceless brats. Good luck to you, kid.”
   The rabbit watched him through tear blurred eyes until he disappeared into the 
forest. She began to shiver with fear as she realised she was truly all alone in the 
middle of no-where. Suddenly a shadow was cast over her. He came back! She spun 
around and looked up at…
   “FREEZE, PRISONER!”
   
   Nexus was angry at himself. His god-damn conscience was pricking at him, and 
he hated that. Morality existed simply to create an opening for greater beings to stick 
the knife into. Perhaps he was too mean to the kid, “Bah, she’ll just have to learn the 
way I did. I came out fine. In fact, I’ve probably done the kindest thing anyone has 
ever-“
   His thoughts were interrupted by the loud scream from behind him and he stopped 
dead in his tracks. Another patrol must have come along and found her. He clenched 
his fists hard and grit his teeth as the foolish compassion of his heart tried to overwrite 
the logical reason of his brain.
   “Damn it all. I just know I’m going to regret this!”
   
   The rabbit was struggling and crying uncontrollably as one Swat Bot held her up 
by her ears while the others prepared a new cage for her.
   “Pwease no! Let me go!” she screamed.
   Her captors ignored her pleas as only soulless robots can. However, they found it 
a little harder to ignore the space in mid air where the leader Swat Bot’s arm used to 
be. Nor could they ignore the sight of the rabbit running for dear life in the direction 
of the forest. In fact, the hardest thing for them to ignore was the sudden loss of 4 
troopers due to pulse fire and a fast approaching echidna with the look of vengeful 
fury on his face.
   The commander came to his senses enough to yell the order.
   “DON’T JUST STAND THERE YOU FOOLS! GET HIM!”
   Nexus continued his charge through a volley of laser fire, ducking and weaving as 
he got ever closer to the group, firing rapidly and taking out Sway Bots one by one. 
When he was within 10 yards of the group he jumped up high, knowing the Swat 
Bot’s weakness with regards to vertical target acquirement and somersaulted above 
them, firing a rain of death upon them. However, the corner of his eye caught sight of 
something he hoped he wouldn’t see – an armoured truck about half a mile away, 
approaching fast, no doubt full of reinforcements. He estimated he had 5 minutes to 
finish this group off and get back to the relative safety of the forest before they 
arrived.
   Not enough time. No way, no how.
   He landed in a crouch and continued to fire, taking out yet more Bots, but leaving 
so many more. He hopped to one side as the robots recalibrated and locked onto him, 
running around them he continued his assault he deftly dodged the second volley of 
laser fire. Then it happened.
   Nexus felt the blinding pain overtake his senses and he stumbled, rolling over and 
over, a pistol tumbled away from him. He finally coming to a halt, clutching his leg 
where the stray laser shot had caught him. He looked up as the Swat commander 
bared down upon him. Nexus aimed his remaining pistol up at him but could not fire 
in time as it was knocked out of his hand. The steely grip of the robots one remaining 
hand was felt around his neck as he was lifted bodily up. He struggled to breath and 
writhed in his grip to no avail. This was it, he had failed. At least he could die 
knowing he was right, he did regret this.
   There was a loud metallic crunching noise behind the commander that caused him 
to turn around and witness the impossible, something that would have offered him no 
comfort as his head was removed and sent sailing across the grassland. Nexus 
dropped to the ground and gasped for breath, looking up through blurry eyes and 
seeing Swat Bots being torn apart physically. Limbs ripped off and used to impale 
other robots. Heads torn off and thrown like frisbees. Through the melee Nexus could 
see an orange blur and the distorted air around it like a haze of heat. Within seconds 
of his release, the robots were nothing more than scrap, and standing on top of the pile 
was the most ferocious rabbit Nexus had ever seen. It’s fur was spiked, the eyes 
glowing a soft red with pinhole pupils, heat waving off it’s fur like it was ready to 
spontaneously combust. It couldn’t be…
   Nexus looked behind him as he heard the truck approaching. Too late! There was 
no way they hadn’t seen the remains of the patrol here! Suddenly the blur of orange 
fur shot overhead and landed on the bonnet of the truck.
   “Shit!” Nexus rolled out the way quickly as the truck drove past out of control. 
The rabbit pulled the driver out of the cabin and tossed him aside, spinning the 
steering wheel hard before jumping clear. The truck swerved violently, tilted and 
finally tipped over, rolling several yards along the road before coming to a stop, on 
it’s side and on fire.
   The rabbit watched gleefully as several Swat Bots tried to escape the wreckage, 
but ultimately failing as the fire reached the fuel tank.
   It was at this point that Nexus became aware of just how back the injury to his leg 
really was, but only because the blood loss caused him to black out.
   
   Dragon Nexus awoke in his bed, groggy and aching. Wait, his bed? How did he 
get back here?
   “You’re awake!” said a cheery voice beside him. Nexus winced and tried to focus 
his eyes. It was that orange rabbit he’d saved. She must have stumbled across his 
hideout by chance when she ran and brought him here. But if that was so, who was 
that berserker who saved him?
   “What…what happened to…?” Nexus began.
   “Erm…they’re deaded. Dunno how” The rabbit replied, her face had the kind of 
innocence that could stop wars. “My name’s Keisha, pweased to meechoo!”
   “Ugh…Nexus. The pleasure is all yours.”
   
   
   
   				To be continued…