Previous Chapter Recap: Last time on Sonic Forces! While attempting to come up with new robot designs, Eggman finds a mysterious gemstone lying right at his front door. After being struck by a vision of his heart's desire, Eggman realizes that the gemstone holds a great power and hurriedly begins to experiment on the gemstone, blissfully unaware of the danger approaching...

"Bah! The reading's are all over the place with this.. this thing!" Eggman cursed as he glared at the ruby, suspended in a glass jar with wires. Ever since he found the ruby, Eggman had been spending hours on end attempting to analyze it, with abysmal results. All of his efforts yielded nothing but red static on the computer monitor. Whatever this thing is, its energy signature was far different from anything he'd ever seen before. It only piqued his scientific curiosity all the more.

"Ooh! Ooh! Can I name it?!" Cubot asked excitedly. "What about Spooky Sapphire?"

"It's not blue." Orbot said.

"Anarchy Beryl!" Cubot shouted.

"Too derivative." Orbot said.

"Precious Stone!" Cubot suggested.

"Wrong game." Orbot said.

"No, I will call it... The Phantom Ruby." Eggman said.

"That was going to be my next suggestion!" Cubot whined.

"Hush." Orbot scolded. At that moment, the power suddenly cut off. "Blew a gasket again." Eggman muttered. The base was then rocked by a thunderous explosion. "What was that?!" Eggman asked. That's when another robot sped into the room. This robot was designed to resemble a blue hedgehog. At first glance, one would mistake this to be Sonic the Hedgehog. But this was actually Metal Sonic, a robot crafted by Eggman in the likeness of his mortal enemy.

Metal Sonic was designed to match and exceed Sonic's world-class speed. He also gave Metal Sonic an upgrade that allowed him to copy the skills and abilities of other lifeforms. However, Metal Sonic gained a will of his own and rebelled against Eggman in his own attempt to conquer the world. After he was defeated, Eggman removed the rebellious part of his programming, returning him back to the loyal servant he was.

"Doctor, intruders have breached the main gate." Metal said. Using the built in projector in his optics, Cubot displayed a video of Eggman's Egg Pawns engaging seven jackals in battle.

"But how? The alarm should have warned us!" Eggman shouted.

"It appears they hacked the security system." Orbot said. "That would explain the blackout."

"Curses!" Eggman shouted as he grabbed the Phantom Ruby. "I should've been reinforcing my troops instead of playing with this blasted rock!" At that moment, the Phantom Ruby began to glow brightly and suddenly, hundreds of robots began to manifest around him. These robots were colored steel blue and silver, and had purple eyes. They had a torso in the shape of a hemisphere, with four flashlights arranged in a rectangle on their front and a flat cap-shaped head on top of it. They had relatively short legs, with flat feet and circular ankles, and four-fingered arms that extend almost down to the ground. Some of them were armed with shields and chainsaw swords.

"My Egg Fighters?!" Eggman asked in astonishment. "How the-?!" He looked and the Phantom Ruby and gave a knowing smirk. "Okay, I can work with this! Orbot! Cubot! Fetch me my Egg Walker! Metal Sonic, with me! It's time to put these mad dogs to sleep."


Outside...

"Jackal Squad, move in for the kill!" Zero commanded, pointing his blade at the door. "Raid the base! All that Eggman tech is sure to fetch a hefty bounty!" The other members of the squad rushed towards the door, but just as they got closer, the door opened and out came a mob of Egg Fighters followed by Metal Sonic and Eggman on his Egg Walker which was basically an Egg Mobile, but with extra features. It had a bazooka-shaped Large Cannon on the right side of the cockpit and a large and elevated Laser Blaster on the left side of the rear. On the bottom, it's equipped with two heavily armored legs.

"Egg Fighters, let's give these jackals hell!" Eggman shouted.

"So the final boss is here at last." Zero said. "Take care of the tin cans! I've got the fat man!" At his command, the squad split off to scatter Eggman's Egg Fighters. Sui and Cui found themselves surrounded by a group of Egg Fighters. As one of the Egg Fighters charged at the twins, Cui pulled out a staff and impaled the Egg Fighter, pinning it to the ground. As he began to spin around, Sui grabbed his tail and began to slice off the heads of the other Egg Fighters as he was spun around on Cui's tail. In one fell swoop, the twins took down all the Egg Fighters.

Jacques charged into the fray, cutting down Egg Fighters with his knife. He was soon stopped by Egg Gunners, black colored Egg Fighters that were outfitted with turrets for hands. "It seems you have caught me, my friends." Jacques said. "But I'd like to play a game first." Jacques pulled out a deck of cards and threw several of them at the Egg Gunners. The cards were magnetic and stuck to their bodies. The robots exchanged confused glances with each other and prepared to fire on Jacques, only for the cards to suddenly explode.

"Magnifique!" Jacques laughed maniacally. "Another masterpiece!" As he was busy gloating, an Egg Fighter snuck up behind him and attempted to slice him in half with its sword. However, the Egg Fighter was struck down by several knives, courtesy of Jack. "Merci, Monsieur Jack." Jacques said. Jack gave a thumbs up in return and the two ran off to fight more Egg Fighters.

Jade, meanwhile, was engaging Metal Sonic in battle. The jackal opened fire on the robotic hedgehog with her twin pistols, but Metal Sonic's incredible speed allowed him to evade every shot. Before she would fire another round, Metal Sonic grabbed her by the throat. This was hardly a deterrent for Jade, who simply fired more shots. However, the bullets bounced off of Metal Sonic's armor.

"I think we've established that this isn't working." Metal Sonic snidely remarked.

"I know." Jade smirked. "Just needed you to hold still for a minute." Metal Sonic gave a quizzical head tilt, but before he could react, he felt something hit his back. Metal Sonic screamed in agony and released Jade from his grip as electricity surged through his body. He looked to see Tyler standing over him. "Electromagnetic scrambler. Never leave home without it." Tyler said as he and Jade high-fived each other.

Suddenly, Metal Sonic melted into a metallic liquid. His head now had five long quills as opposed to his regular three, with white stripes and markings around his eyes. The yellow color in his ears had been replaced with red and his nose was now black. He also had gained more pronounced body armor, with black and curved shoulder plates, larger gauntlets and leg armor with pointy knee caps that has white outlines, a plate covering his pelvis and elf-like shoes. He also sported a spiky belt with a black cape that protruded out of the back of his waist.

This was his "Neo" form, part of an upgrade the Dr. Eggman gave him a few years ago. The upgrade, however, caused Metal Sonic to rebel against Eggman and attempt to conquer the world for himself. After his defeat, Eggman erased his corrupt programming, but allowed him to keep the upgrade after seeing how powerful it made him.

Before the two jackals could react, Metal Sonic dashed forward and delivered a punishing kick to Jade's midsection, knocking the wind clean out of her lungs and sending her to the ground. Tyler attempted to attack Metal Sonic with his dagger, only for Metal Sonic to grab him by the wrist and electrocute him. Tyler screamed in pain as electricity coursed through his body. Metal then punched him in the gut, knocking him out cold.

"Turnabout is fair play." Metal Sonic sneered.

Seeing their teammates in danger, the other members of the squad rushed to Jade and Tyler's aid. Cui lashed out with his staff, but Metal Sonic grabbed it and used it to slam Cui to the ground. Sui attempted to slice Metal Sonic with his sword, but the robotic hedgehog shattered the blade with a single punch, then sent him flying with a blast of electricity. Jack threw several knives at Metal Sonic, but he teleported behind Jack and delivered a roundhouse kick to the back of his head, knocking him to the ground.

However, the metallic hedgehog was too late to avoid an incoming missile, fired by Jacques from the missile launcher he had strapped to his back. "Au Revoir, you bucket of bolts." he smirked. The smirk quickly vanished off his face when the smoke cleared, revealing that Metal Sonic had used his Black Shield to defend against the missile. Panicked, Jacques tried to fire off another shot, but Metal Sonic rushed over to him and clamped his hand over the missile launcher, causing it to explode in Jacques' hand.

As he looked over the unconscious bodies of the Jackal Squad, he said to himself, "All too easy".

Meanwhile, Zero was locked in battle with Eggman. Eggman opened fire on Zero with his Large Cannon, unleashing a barrage of shots. Zero spun his sword in front of him to deflect the bullets as he charged towards Eggman. The doctor fired some homing shots from his Laser Blaster, but Zero leapt into the air. Eggman unleashed a barrage of missiles at Zero, but the jackal leapt from missile to missile until he was close enough to throw the Crimson Cleaver right at the Egg Mobile, causing it to explode and knocking Eggman to the ground.

"Damn it..." Eggman growled. He tried to get to his feet, only for Zero to point his blade at his face. "Doctor Eggman, I presume?" Zero mockingly asked. "This looks like checkmate, doc." He raised his sword in the air, ready to strike the final blow. "Now hold still so I don't make too much of a mess." He brought the sword down, intent on splitting Eggman clean in half.

"NO!" Eggman shouted as he outstretched his hand to defend himself, unaware that he was holding the Phantom Ruby. Zero's sword struck the ruby and crimson electricity surged from the gemstone and struck Zero in the head. The mercenary screamed in pain as the ruby's energy overwhelmed him.

He opened his eyes and was struck by a vision.

He found himself standing amidst the ruins of a city. As far as the eye could see, there were nothing but destroyed buildings for miles and miles. The ground was littered with the corpses of fallen soldiers, human and animal alike. But it was when he turned his gaze to the darkened sky above did his eyes truly widen. What he saw...was himself. Only he wore a metallic silver-colored mask While his left eye was visible through a red visor, his right eye was covered by a black lightning bolt-shaped piece, similar to an eyepatch, that was connected to his mask's right ear. On his chest was a strange gemstone much like the Phantom Ruby.

Zero saw himself hovering above the ashes of this destroyed world, surrounded in an aura of dark crimson energy. His very presence exuded dominance. To mere mortals, he was like a god. "What the hell...?" he asked. However, Zero was quickly brought back to reality by a punch to the face from Eggman, knocking him to the ground. At the same time, Metal Sonic dragged the other members of the squad to Eggman.

Eggman gave a hearty laugh. "Now you... You're quite the interesting fellow." he said. "Tell you what; Instead of running around, stealing for your next meal, why don't you come work for me? Together, we can rule the world! And I'll pay you handsomely, of course." He outstretched his hand. "What do you say? Partners?"

"Don't be tempted by him, boss!" Tyler shouted. He tried to stand, but Metal Sonic pinned him to the ground by placing his foot on his back. "We'll be fine!"

"Don't listen to him, Xan!" Jade pleaded. Zero remained silent for the longest time, nursing his injured cheek. Then a chuckle escaped from his throat. The chuckle then grew into a mad fit of laughter. It sounded like the poor jackal had truly lost his mind. Eventually, he calmed down.

"Interesting." he said. "Earlier today, I was telling Jade that I was getting bored with this life of just going through the motions, one day bleeding into the next. And now it took a rock to show me what I was missing. It must be fate. Maybe this was the answer to my prayers all along." He stood up and grabbed the doctor's hand.

"Alright, doc, the Jackal Squad is at your service!" Zero said.

"Splendid!" Eggman said. "Why don't we come inside and discuss this in my office?" Eggman walked into the building with Metal Sonic following close behind. Once they were gone, Jade grabbed Zero by the shoulders. "Xander, what the hell are you doing?!" she asked.

""Boss, this is crazy!" Tyler said. "We were trying to rob Eggman! Why are we suddenly working for him."

"Qui, mon capitan, this seems like madness." Jacques said. Jack voiced his displeasure with a thumbs-down.

"Don't you all get it?" Zero asked. His expression was one of pure insanity. His eyes were wide, his tone of voice almost manic. "This is the answer I've been looking for! This is the chance for a better life for all of us!"

"How the hell is working for Eggman a better life?" Jade asked.

"That rock he was holding... It's got some strange power." he said. "It showed me a vision. A vision of me with powers, ruling over everything! I couldn't make sense of it, but whatever the future holds, that rock is the key." He stared at Eggman as he walked into the building, his eyes fixated on the Phantom Ruby...


Next Chapter Preview: A Vanishing Future. Next time on Sonic Forces! Silver's future is once again thrown into turmoil! A mysterious void has appeared and is slowly erasing everything in sight as well as spawning vicious monsters. Hoping to stop the disaster before it even begins, Silver heads back to the past. Will our psychic hero be able to save his future once again? Find out on the next exciting chapter of Sonic Forces!