Heroes

Sonic and co. are © of Sonic Team or whoever.

Ssyrin and co. © James Hayes

Chapter One: Enter the Darkness

That night's raid had been planned for weeks: a basic smash and grab, the freedom fighters had done it hundreds of times. Sally, Tails and Antoine would distract the guards, while Sonic rushed in, grabbed whatever the plans for Ivo's latest scheme might be, but this one was different.

"Antoine, Sally, watch out! Swatbots from 9 and 12." That was all Sally heard before the Tornado's energy cannon blasted down some side streets out of her view.

"Never mind!"

"Thanks Tails, starting radio silence."

"Roger."

Sally clicked off her radio as she turned to the timid coyote soldier next to her.

"Let's go Antoine, those explosives won't set themselves."

Sonic shot though the robotic city.

"Sal really outdid herself on this plan. Having Butt-nick think I'm out of action was pure genius," he said to himself.

"But, it's weird, usually I've run into a few bots by now." He looked around, expecting Swatbots from every angle, but none came.

"Hmmm. Could be a trap, but that only means I should hurry this up." He blasted up to high gear as he took off toward Ivo's base.

"There - they're done." Sally said standing up. "Now let's go rendezvous with Sonic."

Just then a huge explosion ripped the sky apart. She looked up just in time see the Tornado, engulfed in flames crash into one of the iron structures.

"Tails!" she cried, before a large Swatbot's hand knocked her unconscious.

Sonic finally crashed through the window into the building he'd wanted to find.

"Now to find those plans..." he started, then realized he was in a large empty room with no way out. The window closed with a huge steel screen.

"I knew it was a trap!" He revved up and charged the window. Slam!

"Ow... what the?" Sonic looked up, bewildered, as the two walls at either end of the room came a few inches closer together.

"Ahh, I see you've started our little game early!"

Sonic looked to the ceiling to find Ivo's face pasted squarely on a screen in the center.

"What's new, Eggy? What's with the room?"

"The room you are now located in is pressure sensitive, so that it will become smaller as you try to escape. What's new to this little game of ours is that you sit still in that soon-to-be-tiny room, and watch as I eliminate your friends one by one." The camera zoomed out to clearly show Antoine, Tails, and Sally in roboticizers.

"You wouldn't dare."

"Relax, I'm not going to roboticize them, I'm under..."

"Let them go Ivo!" Sonic slams into the window again, only decreasing the size of his cell.

"You're in no position to bargain, Hog! Throw the first switch." A small metallic whine filled the room.

"Twan!"

Antoine was busily searching his cylinder for a way out. The whine had him redouble his efforts. As suddenly as it started the whine stopped and was replaced by Antoine's screams of pain in Sonic's ears. Then all was silent as Antoine's body slumped heavily to the floor. Sally screamed.

"OH MY GOD! ANTOINE! ANTOINE! ANTOINE WAKE UP!"

Sonic stared in shock at the screen, then intensified his efforts on the window.

"I'm going to get you, Ivo. You're mine!"

Antoine's cylinder was raised and Swatbots came to take the charred and twitching body away. Sally was glad Tails wasn't awake to see it.

"Sonic, help us. Tails is..."

"Shut up girl! Bot, throw the switch."

The whine started again this time around Tails.

" Oh God, no." Sally whispered

"Huh? Oooohhhh. What happened to the Tornado? Where's Sonic?"

Sonic closed his eyes. He had to get there. If only he could get though this window.

Then the whine stopped.

"AAAAAAHHH. SSOONNIC HELP ME!"

As Tails fell to the floor, Sally sank down crying.

"Oh God, Tails, oh God, oh God."

Sonic stopped his assault for the moment and stared hard at Ivo, his eyes bright with rage. His first real rage. Ivo avoided his eyes.

"Robotnick..."

"What is it, Hog?"

"You have taken away from me that which was precious to me. When I get out of here I will make you regret every nanosecond of it, but if you harm one single hair on Sally's head, I will kill you. I will make it slow and painful. May god have mercy on your soul, for you would soon be meeting him."

"Understood."

Ivo pushed a button on his console and Sally's tube opened slightly. She stopped crying and looked up.

"Argh!" Ivo doubled over and fell to the ground. "Fine, fine. I understand." He closed the cylinder.

"Throw the switch," Ivo said with a heavy sigh, and as the whine started again Sally understood.

"Please, Ivo, you don't have to do this. He can beat whoever is doing this!"

"No. He's too strong... unless." He stopped the machine.

"Whew, now Sonic, please calm down." Sally said

"Calm down? He slaughtered Twan and Tails. How can we trust that bastard!"

"It's not my fault Sonic, you have to believe me. I'm truly so...aacckkk!" Ivo fell, clutching his head.

"Sonic! An outside force is controlling him! We need to gather our wits!"

The whine started again, and then just stopped. Sally screamed and slumped as the electricity flowed though her body.

"SALLY!"

Sonic sank down in disbelief. The girl he had loved so much had just been cruelly torn away from him. His vision switched between her body and Ivo holding on to the switch. His eyes flared with not just rage, but hatred. Hatred for the man he had come to see as a rival.

"You pansy son of a bitch, IVO!"

"I'm sorry. I had no choice."

"That doesn't bring them back, you spineless bastard."

Ivo walked over to his console and pressed another button. The walls in Sonic's cell came together faster

"It's been fun, Sonic. It really has."

"I'm going to kill you. IVO! You coward!"

Sonic was now straining to keep a livable space between the walls. Ivo's screen clicked off.

CRUNCH!

"AAARGH"

Sonic fell to the ground holding his arm.

"It's broken. Damn you EGGMAN! Damn you straight to HEELLLLL!"

Just as the walls closed in, something seemed to snap inside him. His small body quivered then exploded with a golden radiance. Sonic had attained his "super" form, due to his overexposure to the emeralds and the stress of seeing his friends slaughtered in front of him. The explosion shattered the small building, releasing its captive.

Super Sonic floated above his destroyed prison, thinking of all the ways he would make Robotnick pay.

"Once I catch you Ivo, you're dead meat. I'm going to strangle you within an inch of your life then rip you limb from limb as you cry for mercy!"

As he approached Robotnick's base his normally pure golden fur became tainted. Slowly as the evil in him welled up his fur turned black, his radiance becoming the color of blood.

He burst though Ivo's base in a daze. Happy memories of his three fallen comrades played in front of his eyes: of dunking Antoine in the pools of water that surrounded Knothole; the first time he and Tails had defeated Robotnick (and to think it was Tails who said to let him go); and of that night he and Sal spent by the lake talking and waiting for the ring to surface.

Ivo looked up and saw Sonic.

"Oh, thank goodness you survived..." Ivo noticed Sonic's arm, then the coloring.

"Dear God."

"Well, Doctor, I did tell you what I'd do once I found you," said Dark Sonic, with a vacant tone that belayed the fact that he wasn't quite sane.

Dark Sonic saw Ivo looking at his arm.

"Oh, this. Just another one of the wounds I have to pay back - but by no means the largest." Dark Sonic set his arm back in place as he said this.

"Time to get started." He growled.

"Sonic just listen to me, I..." Ivo was cut short by Dark Sonics fist crashing into his jaw, knocking several teeth loose and sending him sprawling across the room. Dark Sonic was there in a flash to deliver a sledgehammer blow to Robotnick's face. He kept pummeling Ivo, his fists and feet slamming hard into Ivo's soft flesh at mach speeds surprising even him.

"You remind me of myself when I was in this situation. Out for vengeance, for blood."

The unfamiliar voice had just entered his head. Dark sonic stopped and stared at Ivo's blood on his hands.

"I went mad when that thing killed my wife," it said. "I tracked it down and chopped it into bits, with my blade tainted from the blood. It didn't help, so I abandoned family and friends, and lived alone in isolation for 8000 years, to forget the pain."

"Who are you? Are you the one that was controlling this bastard!"

"Yes, I had to. For you see, I need you to get stronger. I am sorry I had to use such means. I've been there before, but I need to force you stronger then you are." The voice paused "but unfortunately, his usefulness almost rivals yours."

Ivo's body disappeared from Dark Sonics hands.

"You bastard! It was you. You killed them! Now I'll kill you!"

"Don't be so hasty. You can't just go kill anyone you like. You have to be responsible with this newfound power."

"You've talked too much."

With a boom Dark Sonic rushed to where the voice was coming from and struck out, hoping for the element of surprise, but he didn't connect with anything. All he felt was the metal crashing onto his shoulder. Dark Sonic collapsed and skidded across the floor.

"A little hasty aren't we? Oh well, we'll fix that."

That was all he heard as he returned to his normal self and started to pass out.

"Damn you..."