By RocketDarkness
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I remember the first time I ever became Super Sonic. An amazing shock, to say the least. Suddenly, a burning sensation came over me, as if I was charged full of static electricity. I wouldn't call it painful, just shocking. Yeah, bad pun, I know. Anyways, after a second, the burning sensation simply stopped. But that's not all that happened. I stopped feeling. Not just the burning, but everything. Wind, water, my own body—gone. Nothing. Nada. Just…there. I'm sure this is confusing, but then again, you've never had possession of the seven Chaos Emeralds, have you?
This is why I was so reluctant to see what would happen when I collected the seven transformed Chaos Emeralds, the Super Emeralds. They were much larger, and resembled the Master Emerald in every way. Fitting, I suppose. The Master Emerald did have something to do with the transformation. Exactly what, only Knuckles knows for sure. He's the guardian of the Master Emerald, as well as the Floating Island on which the Master Emerald resides. We never really talked until recently, however. He spent most of his time pulling tricks on us, causing all manner of trouble. Only when we made it to the sanctum of the Master Emerald itself, deep inside the island's core, did we realize the true scope of what was happening. Alas, we were too late. Robotnik was able to get away scot-free with the Master Emerald, electrocuting Knuckles to near death in the process. I can only guess at his condition right now. He must be worried sick about that Master Emerald though. Before he passed out…before he passed out, he activated a bridge high up in the sky, allowing us to wind our way through the floating ruins high up in the Sky Sanctuary. There I alone made my journey to the core of the Death Egg.
Where was Tails? I convinced him to stay with Knuckles, telling him that we needed at least one hero around if I didn't make it back. I didn't have time to see his reaction, I was already long gone, leaving him with a battered, bruised, and unconscious Knuckles. Upon making it into the Death Egg itself before it broke the atmosphere, I zipped across the ship, trashing any badniks that might alert Robotnik to my presense. Bam! Ran right through the tricks and traps of the ship. I figured ol' Buttnik wouldn't have a clue as to what hit him. How wrong I was. How very, very wrong.
Stepping into yet another pipe used to transfer who-knows-what, I suddenly heard the laugh of the evil doctor himself. It was a trap all along! I still berate myself for being so stupid…if I was more careful, I could have easily caught Robotnik off-guard and put an end to his terror, for good. At least I was able to make short work of his newest creation. It crashed down on the very tube I entered the room in, and sent shrapnel everywhere. Robotnik had already disappeared, so I took off down the strip of bridge, high above the ominous Death Egg. That was when the sound began. A loud, rumbling sound. It struck deep inside me, piercing my heart with its dark sound. I remember this moment well; I turned around to find a gigantic robot in Robotnik's likeness rear up behind me, the sound of gears turning and metal scraping against metal echoing from deep within the red-tinted exoskeleton. It destroyed the path I had just come from. There was no turning back. The large metal hands began to try to crush me, shaking the very beam I was standing on each time. Whether he was trying to crush me or bring the beam itself down, I still don't know. Maybe both. Either way would have resulted in one squashed, blue hedgehog. Or in this case, squashed, blue road kill. But isn't road kill always squashed…never mind.
Nevertheless, I knew I had to protect myself and proceeded to destroy each and every robotic appendage as they crashed down, each time seeming to be more and more accurate, until the hands were mangled beyond recognition. It began to rumble after me still, destroying the path as it walked. The platform began to crumble faster. Red-hot flames shot at me from its nose—yes, nose—as I ran down the path, trying to avoid becoming hedgehog pancake. Unfortunately for him, Dr. Robotnik was too intent on destroying me to worry about losing. When he opened the behemoth's chest plate to fire a laser powered by the Master Emerald itself, I was able to get inside and cause enough damage to force the robot offline. Yet, Robotnik did not yet admit defeat! He took off with the Emerald in his Eggmobile. With the ground crumbling faster than ever, I raced down the path, while attacking him until his machine exploded. It missed crashlanding onto the platform, and plummeted towards the main hull of the Death Egg. I looked down, preparing to jump down and liberate the Master Emerald.
THAT'S when all Hell broke loose. A massive spaceship broke loose from the rubble, where it was concealed from my vision. With the Death Egg rapidly deteriorating and Dr. Robotnik getting away with the most powerful jewel on the planet, I knew I had to do something drastic. I pulled out the Super Emeralds. I hadn't dreamed of harnessing the power, fearing what I might become. What if I lost all feeling; became like a robot. Not even having emotion or thought…? The emeralds scared me. Their power scared me. But now was not the time for fear. I suppose that's what makes me a hero. Looking back, there's many times I wished I was never so reckless. I called upon the Emeralds for power, and, like Super Sonic, a sharp jolt of energy, and then feeling disappeared. A bright light appeared in my eyes, bathing my vision in pure yellow light. I closed my eyes, and yet it got worse! Then I realized the light was coming…from me. Pure energy, it felt like. Testing my newfound power, I rocketed up into the air solely with my feet. I did not run, like I used to do as Super Sonic. I was able to actually fly from the amount of raw energy I controlled.
As I rocketed through the Death Egg's thin energy field that was keeping in the normal atmospheric requirements, I could make out a fiery aura surrounding me, slightly distorting my vision. The energy was amazing. Nothing could be more powerful than I! I willed myself more speed, and it came. I could make Robotnik's ship out from the distance, a small blue spec. Or was that a star? Didn't matter, I continued forward to confirm my suspicions. I saw the blue spec turn sharply, and then it disappeared behind a…brown mass? A meteor! But, it was a large one. I flew over to it, and looked around in every direction. Nothing! He had vanished into thin…space. I was about to fly away, when I heard a deep, loud noise come from the inside of the meteor. I thought I was insane. To confirm my sanity, I flew around the meteor again, and found a deep chasm inside. Looking down, my eyes provided all the light I needed to see down into the depths. Light was reflecting from deep down inside. Metal? The ship? Not taking chances on the safety of the Master Emerald, I flew down inside to check. My body illuminated the cave, causing me to realize I flashed more than just yellow. All seven of the Super Emeralds were represented in me, a living strobe light. Now I'll be a hit at parties.
That was when a blaring alarm went off. So he was in here! I speeded ahead; I needed to find Robotnik before he could take off again. A jolting explosion went off somewhere deeper inside, causing the meteor to shake violently. I heard a high-pitched whirring sound. I wish I had realized what it was sooner. No sooner than when I realized the implication of the sound did the meteor explode into thousands of smaller meteorites that hurtled in all directions. More importantly, Robotnik's blue ship had revealed itself. Time to give chase!
I blazed forward, my heart set on recovering the Master Emerald. The meteorites, having appeared to cluster together, created an unfortunate roadblock. Focusing some energy into my hand, I continued on my collision course. As I struck it, I was thrown backwards by the force. I reeled, but not in pain. The meteorite fared much worse. Bits and pieces of it were flung everywhere. Smirking, I continued the chase. Robotnik noticed, and began to launch missiles behind his formidable warship. I dodged them, not wanting to be slowed down any more than necessary. The thin gray explosives flew towards me as I weaved and dodged out of their paths. Some crashed into meteorites, creating even more havoc for the other's targeting systems. Being me, I caught up to the ship in short order.
I never realized the true size of his vessel. A large, polished blue chassis covered the weapon of destruction, shielding it from all damage. I charged forward, but was simply thrown back from the contact. There was no way I could penetrate that much metal! My little test attack seemed to have alerted the ship to my presence. Looking down, I saw rows of plasma cannons popping into place from below the blue hull. Missile launchers appeared near the front of the ship. Silently cursing, I moved from my spot as the plasma cannons began to open fire. Sure, they wouldn't kill me, but they'd be enough to knock me away from the ship. The missiles began to fire, and home in once again. I blew past them, forcing them to turn around. While it provided some time for me, it also gave the missiles more time to reload. A second volley of missiles fired, joining with the first set into a circular formation. I threaded the needle, hoping they would do what I anticipated. Bingo! They followed my path. Right into each other's paths, too. The huge resulting explosion, so close to the ship, sent it violently off course. I flew past the reeling ship and towards a large meteorite. With great ease I pushed the meteorite into the vessel's path, causing it to collide and fracture the large masthead. Like a normal ship, it too had a masthead. Unfortunately, it was simply a disturbing replica of Robotnik's face. Man, that guy is so egotistical!
The masthead groaned in response to the collision, its metal shielding fracturing and splitting apart. A small explosion went off, causing the masthead to be completely destroyed. More explosions went off inside, heralding the internal destruction of the ship. I followed the now-flaming wreck to keep an eye out for any escape pods that had a certain large, green, jewel encased inside. Flames licked at the blue hull, causing the ship to shine with an unearthly glow, then slowly turn black. A loud explosion went off, and the ship blew apart into unrecognizable pieces of scrap. A large robot appeared out of nowhere, blasting past me. With it was the Master Emerald! I turned from the site of the explosion and focused all my energy into my feet. I flew forward, an unrecognizable yellow comet. Robotnik's last ship was much smaller than his normal endeavors, barely large enough to carry the gigantic Master Emerald within its steel palm. The robotic fingers appeared to be draining energy from the huge gem to power the formidable rocket boosters on its back. No match for me—I caught up to it in a split second, flying parallel to it. The mechanical head turned to acknowledge me.
With a burst of flames, the huge ship increased its speed and the machine opened up to release innumerous amounts of small, spiky mines. They hurtled towards me, and I barely had time to get out of the way when I was smacked in the face with a huge red bomb. The explosion sent me radically off course, right into a nearby meteorite. The meteorite was destroyed, while I was merely distracted. Those Super Emeralds sure are something, eh? I weaved between the onslaughts of random explosives released from the ship. Then, with horror, I realized I had less than one hundred rings less! Throughout the numbers of tricks and traps I had to overcome as I made my way after Robotnik all this time, I had collected many, many rings. Only now did I realize my enormous power was draining them almost to nothing. But everyone was counting on me…all my friends back on Mobius. I can't imagine how heartbroken Tails would be if he never saw me again. And Knuckles! Without the emerald, there was no way his island would ever float in the sky again. I had to do this…for everyone! Last chance, no turning back now!
With a war cry, I pushed all my energy into every part of my body. Fire engulfed me as the very molecules around me began to combust into flames. I cut through the machine's red chassis as if it weren't even there. Bursting through to the other side, I found the Master Emerald. It was then the massive weapon of destruction went critical. I ripped the Master Emerald free from the machines securing it, and then flew towards Mobius with all my remaining energy. I do not remember entering the atmosphere. I must have passed out from the levels of physical exertion I was putting upon myself. I do remember attempting to open my eyes as I came to a sudden stop. Unable to, I simply listened to the calming hum of the propeller. It was the Tornado. I could rest. I returned to my blissful unconsciousness. My adventure had come to an end.
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