Chapter 20 - Chapter 20... My dearest Jasco...

This is it… The last battle was about to begin… And it was still raining… We still got a few hundred forces left, still, we still need to give everything we got. Ammo is running low on most of the forces… The battlewalkers and the gunships were shot down…



Blain: Tails…
Tails: Yes? Blain: Listen up. Take some rebels to protect you and take out the powerplants. Find the command center to shut these things down. Hurry up, we cant hold them forever.

Tails: Eehm…
Blain: Go, now.

I gestured to some rebels that they had to go along with Tails. After they’ve left, I looked at the small bunch of armed droids. Those really weren’t the same droids Robotnik used to build. They looked… very advanced… I looked back and saw Tails running away with the rebels. Flash poked me and smiled at me, while I sighed… At that point, all hell broke loose once again… The Overlord tank came in action but was taken out very fast… As we ran for cover, I suddenly remembered the 4 ammo clips Tails gave me once… With the Tungsten core ammo… I dove behind a rock, opened my backpack and hurt bullets ricocheting off the rocks. Only 1 clip left. I armed it and set it on single fire… And shot them one by one…



Tails: It’s right this way!

Tails ran ahead while the 2 other rebels are seeing him running away… The other one sees Tails waving that it’s the other building… He also gestures that a few droids are there…



Rebel: Now he's saying the target building is actually a couple blocks down on his left. But he says if he's seen outside of it, he’ll be shot.

Rebel 2: I'll fracking shoot him a couple blocks down! Tell him I want his skinny @$$ parked in front of the goddamn building!!

Rebel: We’re suppose to look after him sir.
Rebel 2: I don’t give a shoot… Allies or no allies, he’s still a creature. Is he sure this time?

Rebel: He sounds scared shootless sir…
Rebel 2: Good, that’s always a good sign..


The rebels followed Tails… The three of them hides in the tall grass. As the rebels stood up to take care of the droids, they got shot down… Tails scared the hell out of him and started to run away. He turns around and saw that a few of them got taken out… He turns around to run away again but all of a sudden he sees someone familiar…



Tails: Shadow!
Shadow: Stay here.

Shadow walked towards the droids and made a fist. A dark red energy aurora filled his fist and punched one of the droids. As he saw in a blink of an eye that the other droids aimed at him, he snapped his fingers and stopped time. Then all of a sudden, Tails sees that the 4 remaining droids got annihilated…



Tails: Whoa…
Shadow: Weren’t you suppose to be doing something?

Tails: Oh yeah! Follow me!

We had a hard time fighting off these droids…



Blain: Why aren't you shooting?!
Flash: We're not being shot at yet!!
Blain: How can you tell?!!
Flash: A hiss means it's close! A snap means-

At that point, bullets were whizzing by and ricocheted…


Flash: Now they're shooting at us!
Blain: Jasco!? How you doing?!
Jasco: We’re running low here!!
Zero: Same here!!
Flash: We need to pull back!!
Jasco: He’s right Blain!!
Flash: You got us this far!! You did good today!! Now you gotta start thinking about getting us the frack out of here!!



Tails: This is it, open those doors Shadow…

Shadow destroyed the massive steel doors… As there walking inside, a large mainframe computer is seen. Tails unpacks his bags and gets out his laptop. He connects it with the mainframe…



Tails: Laptop deployed, link establishing.
Shadow: Hurry up…

The droids started to advance in our position. We had to pull back, there was not other option. As we pulled back towards the city, the droids scattered around in pairs of 2… This was something never seen before, these things got smarter… I lost sight of Zero and Flash, while Jasco is right behind me. We took cover in an ally… I peeked around the corner to see if it was clear… I suddenly got that nervous feeling again…



Blain: Its clear. I go first, cover me…
Jasco: I’m almost dry…
Blain: Get over it… You ready?
Jasco: Are you? Blain: … Yeah…
Jasco: Go, I got ya covered…

I sprinted to the other side of the street and took cover behind some rubble and looked for threats. I looked at Jasco and made the go gesture. I turned around and saw him running towards… At that point, shots were heard… I turned around and saw Jasco down…



Blain: Oh frack…

I hesitated to go to him… I saw his that his chest was bloody… He closed his eyes, lifted his head and looked at me… At that point I didn’t care if I could die again. I ran to him as fast as I could and was almost shot down… I pulled him back in the alley and hid behind a wall… He was breathing heavily…



Jasco: Ta-take this…

He reached out to his chest pockets and pulled out a letter…



Jasco: Co-copy it, co-copy it and save it for me…. It’s a le-letter from my dad… It’s g-got blood on it man… It’s the only thing I ha-have left…

Blain: You can do it yourself Jasco, please be quiet…

Without thinking, I put the letter in my pocket. Shortly after that, I heard the droids were passing by…



Tails: Almost there!
Shadow: Well hurry up!!
Tails: I’m trying!!
Shadow: People are dying out there Tails!!

Tails: OK… Ok… Remember this code. It gives access to the command centre…
Shadow: Hurry up!!!
Tails: Ok, first digit… eeh… 4!
Shadow: …
Tails: Eeh, 6, 8, 1, 0, 0, W, R, 4… S, N…
Shadow: Well?! Tails: It’s still decoding!!
Shadow: *sighs*
Tails: 4, 4, Z, X.
Shadow: And…?
Tails: It’s done uploading! Go!

Tails and Shadow ran towards a door…



Tails: Give me the digits!
Shadow: Eeh… 68100WR4SN44ZX.

Tails punches the numbers in… The door opened and saw the control panel with a few computers. Tails hooks his laptop up to one of them…



Tails: Ok… UAV is online and transmitting… Uplink established…
Shadow: Can you get in?
Tails: Hold on…
Shadow: Well?
Tails: No! The data is decoded! I cant! Its protected with a PHP script, blocking all incoming TCP/IP addresses!! It’s…

Shadow: … Which means…?
Tails: Password protected…
Shadow: Hack it…

We couldn’t stay in the alley. I carried Jasco over my shoulders, which meant I had to leave my weapons. Walking went slow because Jasco was tall and heavy for someone of my size… At that point, we’re being shot at…



Blain: frack!!
Flash: Blain!! Is that you?!
Blain: Flash?!! Come here!! Gimme a hand!!

At that point, Flash and Zero came out of the other side of the street… Flash saw what happened with Jasco…



Flash: Damn…

At that point, Zero got a message…



Zero: Artillery is firing on our position. We need to get moving, now.

Blain: Come on! Gimme a hand!!

As we carried Jasco, we saw an APC heading our way. It’s ours. There pulling away from the city because of the artillery fire… They saw us and pulled over.



Blain: We got a wounded! Let him in!!
Driver: Hey, you guys in the back, make some room!!

We opened up the backdoors and Jasco got put on a stretcher. We were hoping to hitch a ride too… At that point, droids were heading our way…



Driver: There’s no more room! Get on top!!
Flash: ON TOP?!! ARE YOU frackING INSANE?!! THESE THINGS ARE frackING BULLET MAGNETS!!!

The doors closed, and the APC waited for us so that we could take cover behind it. Then it drove off, and we ran along with it while bullets ricocheted off the hull… I looked back and saw that those Koening droids died down… Tails did it… He took out the command centre…





We could see in the skies that the familiar white smoke trails of the artillery was fired… The APC drove faster, which left us behind… The 3 of us tried to keep, but we just couldn’t… As we zigzag through streets, jumping over obstacles and dead bodies, the first explosion was heard… We kept on running until we saw the others… The droids that were following us got annihilated by our troops…



The 3 of us just fell down in exhaustion and Flash pulled out a water bottle. He drinks a lot, the passes it around to Zero and me. Flash looked at me and smiled, and I looked at Zero, and he smiled too… They were looking towards the city and as I looked, I saw the artillery raining down on the city. I sighed and closed my eyes…



After sitting for a while, I saw the APC turning our way and stopped. I stood up, walked towards it and opened the doors. And there was Jasco… I jumped inside the APC and closed the doors…



Blain: We did it Jasco… The Imperial Droid Army got wiped out… We’ve won the war… It’s finally over… And now we’re free… Thanks for everything…

After looking at him for a while, I zipped up the body bag…



Blain: I’ll be seeing you again mate… But… Not yet… Just not yet…

After a while… I got out of the APC and saw Shadow standing there… He looked at me and smiled… Something I’ve never seen him do that… Tails was there too… At that point, I took a weapon from one of the Rebels. Flash looked at me…



Flash: What are you doing?
Blain: I’m going back in… Only the Koening droids got taken out. Our guys are still out there…

Flash: But…

Blain: Every time I get back, Sonic, or Amy ask me, "Hey Blain, why do you do it? Why? Your addicted to war or something?" You know what I say? I won't say a goddamn word. Why? They don’t understand. They don’t understand why I do it. They don’t understand that it's about the men next to you, and that's it. That's all it is… Because… Nobody gets left behind…

Flash looked at me a bit baffled… I took some rebels and looked for the very few remaining droids and rescued some survivors…


I don’t know how long I’ve been in the APC. I just sat there, looking at him while memories popped up from my friends… I’m not feeling guilty… Instead, I’m happy for him… He’s with Tala and the others now, his mom, his dad… Something I never had… Still, I’m the only one left now… And to be honest… I’m scared really… Scared of what the future holds in store for me… For us… Will this ever happen again? Well… I don’t know… The war is over now, but the war has ended for those that died… The things that happened to me are something that marked me for life. Now that the war is truly over, I don’t know how I will handle it… Still, I’m not someone who keeps doging about the past. It’s something you have to accept and walk on to the future, never to look back. But sometimes, looking back can be a good thing. Like you’ve walked a thousand mile and you look back and think, “whoa, I’ve been through that”… Each journey begins with a step… And today… I took my first step… Trying to live a normal life for once in my life…



The following days, Flash, Zero and I stayed with Sonic and the others. We helped to build a new small village located near the sea and stayed for a while. Flash was building something too, but he didn’t want to tell that at first…



Zero left a few days ago, without any notification. He left a letter explaining he had to go… He left a Desert Eagle on the table saying that was for me… And that he thanked us for everything we did… Thunder, Ice and Magneto got separated from us ever since we’ve rescued them. But, there still alive and are opening a cocktail bar on Angel Island…



Then one morning, while I was outside lying in the sand and gazing at the skies, Flash came sitting next to me, carrying a backpack…



Flash: So… What are you gonna do now?
Blain: I don’t know, I guess I’m out of a job now… What are you gonna do?

Flash: I’m gonna do something that I’ve always wanted to do… You know, exploring things and stuff. I never got the chance to visit the planet…

Blain: Like a globetrotter?
Flash: Yup… I used to have some books about the planet… I always wanted to visit…

Blain: So what’s stopping you then…?
Flash: Nothing really… It’s just that… Well… We’ve been through a lot and all, and…

Blain: Heh… I’m not stopping you… But… I’m still wondering…
Flash: What is it?
Blain: You know my story… Where I came from, what I did in the past and present… Maybe even the future..

Flash: You want to know where I come from…?
Blain: Well yeah…
Flash: Heh… No… No, I’ll keep that story to myself… You wouldn’t believe me…

I looked at Flash a bit baffled. He looked back and smiled.



Flash: You wanna know what I did the past couple of weeks?
Blain: … Yeah sure…

We both got up, walking along the beach. He build a raft…



Blain: Eehm… You took 4 weeks just to build a raft…?
Flash: Well hey, it’s sea worthy…
Blain: So your leaving this place…?
Flash: Yup… Already said my goodbyes to the others…


He opened his backpack and took out an old hat… He puts it on, flicks it and winked at me…



Flash: Later mate…
Blain: Heh, take care of yourself man…
Flash: You too… I’ll see you some day…

We slapped our fists against each other. After that, Flash dragged his raft towards the sea as I was still looking at him. He gets in the water and walked until the current was strong enough to take him away… He waved at me and I waved back, with a fairly weak smile on my face… I could hear him cheering on the small raft and singing, until the sound faded away and the raft was nothing more then a small dot in the horizon… I turned around and saw Shadow standing behind me…



That night, I was sitting outside again, in the tall grass gazing at the stars. Somehow I thought about Jasco and all the others who passed away over the years, and why I was still alive. I suddenly remembered Jasco giving the letter to me. I pulled out the letter out of my pocket. I was still wearing the vest… I don’t know why I did that… I grabbed a piece of paper and a pen… I unfolded the letter… And I saw the date… The letter was 23 years old… I looked up to the sky and saw a shooting star… I smiled and I started to copy the letter on the new piece of paper…



“My dearest Jasco…”



The end…

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