A/N: Here it is, finally got to it and was able to really do it justice. Hope you enjoy! Holy sweet Jesus this story completely switched file locations and I nearly had a heart attack because I couldn't find it and I was super scared I'd have to rewrite ten thousand words! Enjoy!
This was it, his preparations complete, Tails now simply had to wait for his foes to arrive. Using the downtime he had to formulate a strategy against the largest band of enemies he or his friends had ever fought at one time, who no doubt would end his life if he lost, and win. At least the disease was all but dead and he could finally stop having a small heart attack everytime he had a cough or sneeze.
"Nicole, I might lose this. I'll die if I lose…actually to be honest we both know I won't be able to do this alone. So I want you to know and to tell everyone else I love them."
'Tails…we love you too. Good luck."
Quickly before his emotions got the better of them he cut the line and crushed the headset.
'Fighting them head on is straight up suicide. If I'm going to have any chance at defeating them I will have to split them up, I just hope this works. Who knows maybe they're moving really slow and won't get here until-'
It unfortunately turns out that his waiting and time for plotting was up. Fortunately for once, his vantage point on the top of one of the larger buildings in Mobotroplis hid him from sight, at least for now, but what he saw nearly made him lose hope.
It turns out that it was not just Scourge and his Destructix crew, deciding that now they wanted to pick a fight, but them as well as Eggman himself in a fancy new mech-suit that looked very sturdy, and had somehow convinced Miles along with Metal Sonic to fight with them.
'Fuck.'
With Scourge and the Group
"What's the matter with this place? It's a ghost town. Eggman isn't this place supposed to be the hometown of those Freedom Losers?"
"According to scans, there is a mass of of life forms gathered underneath the castle surrounded by a very large blast shield on all sides. It seems the freedom fighters are there as well." Metal Sonic droned out before his creator could answer the question as he had been taking passive scans of the area and was well aware of the explosives, but said nothing out of curiosity to see what they would be used for.
"What are they underground for? Metal, run a more complex scan of the surrounding area see if they have planted an ambush." Eggman ordered, his large mustache and larger belly bouncing and moving as he spoke.
Metal was silent for a moment until he revealed what he had learned. "Scans show explosives planted underground, but too deep to cause any real damage unless you were standing directly on top of them, and one Mobian life form and no others."
"Which of them is stupid enough to face all of us alone? Is it blue?" Scourge asked immensely curious at the guts and stupidity his lesser copy was showing.
"It's Tails." Miles said. He had remained silent throughout the trip not at all comfortable being here and even more wary at the robot's very flimsy allegiance to Eggman and even more flimsy allegiance to them. This had made him wary of both the robot and the doctor.
"No seriously who is it? Blue's little sidekick doesn't have the balls to face any of us alone without Blue himself actually being there to hold his hand."
"Scourge." His girlfriend Fiona said.
"What Fi?" He responded.
"Look ahead, he's standing there." She accentuated her point by pointing her finger directly at the two tailed fox who was standing there, and to his credit wasn't going to back down regardless of how much he was scared , with his arms crossed and his tails occasionally twitching behind him ready for a battle.
Scourge stared for about five seconds before he busted out laughing joined shortly by his girlfriend and Eggman. After regaining his composure to a point, Scourge began insulting the fox.
"Look at him standing with his arms crossed trying to look badass! Oh man that's funny, man kid I got to hand it to you." He began slowly walking up to Tails until he was directly in his face, though was a little surprised he had to look up just that little bit, it didn't dismay him one bit.
"I'm so surprised by your guts that I'll let you get the first punch. Here right in the face." Scourge said pointing right at his cheek.
"Pucker up." Tails answered already having a small plan in addition to the plan he already had.
What Scourge failed to notice was that when Tails punched him, it was with a chaos charged fist hitting Scourge as if someone hit him with a truck.
He was sent flying back a few feet before righting himself. His expression turned from one of pure rage to that of surprise when he had to dodge the chaos spear his hand was charging. He was able to sidestep the blast and immediately charge straight for Tails along with the Destructix. Eggman, Miles and Metal stayed behind because they weren't needed yet.
"Metal." Eggman commanded.
"What?"
"As soon as you see an opening, end this battle."
"As you command…"
"So impatient." Tails then dodged a punch from Scourge and then had to immediately dodge another kick from Lightning Lynx and then another punch from Scourge and then another by Lightning and then another and then another so he had absolutely no time to throw in his attacks. Until they backed off just long enough for Sergeant Simian to attempted to squash him with a very large piece of rubble which he was forced to take flight to dodge.
It was here that Tails made his first mistake and tried to take a breather in his domain. But he forgot about Flying Frog's extending tongue until it wrapped around his leg rendering him an immobile flying target that was perfect for Predator Hawk to capitalize on.
While Tails was far smarter than an average Mobian, there was simply a limit to even how much he could process at once. Which is why when he was completely blindsided by Predator Hawk's flying tackle that slammed him into a building hard enough to crack the wall. But Flying Frog, still holding on with his tongue, flung him into the ground hard enough to bounce off of before he could get his bearings. But now Sergeant Simian, who had waited patiently up to this point, slammed the piece of rubble as big as himself onto Tails hard enough to bury him under parts of the rock and the ground.
"All right Monkey! Not bad, let's get to that castle now-" Scourge was cut off by something that actually surprised him greatly. Tails unburied himself and got up.
Sure he was now far more bloody, but other than that and the slight stumble he had when he got to his feet, he acted no worse for wear. In fact he was smiling even as his own blood dripped down from his head creating small pools beneath his feet.
"You could have told me we were getting serious now! Because I would have done this!" He was then gone in a flash reappearing behind the flying Hawk looking ferociously pissed. Breaking his wing and axe kicking him into the ground while shouting,
"The air is my domain you worthless bird! You are below me in the food chain for a reason!" Though he wouldn't say it out loud the fact he had crippled the bird was out of luck and shock. Now that he had demonstrated chaos control the rest would be prepared if he did it again.
"In fact most of you are below me in the food chain! I think It's time I started proving it." Quickly Tails charged straight at Scourge and dodged him at the last moment goading him and Lightning into a chase that led them a few miles away.
"Why are we out here?" Scourge asked Lightning who was next to him preparing to assault Tails.
"He's leading us away, we are the two biggest threats to his ground fighting abilities. But I'm more interested in how you survived getting crushed by Simian." While Lightning greatly hated the freedom fighters. He had to respect the fighting ability of their individual members.
"I'm not allowed to die because too many people are counting on me. You're right Lightning, look back at the city." He chose during the chase to finally enact his biggest plan in order to separate the group, that is, leveling the city. Well a few specific buildings.
"Chao!" He vanished again but this time he appeared on one of the buildings he didn't destroy and promptly collapsed.
'Why did I make such a stupid mistake! I knew fighting them all head on would only lead to bad things! But I let my ego get in the way and look at me! I can barely move. Calm down now Tails, you still have work to do get up! GET UP!'
Though he tried with all his might the most he could do was get to his knees, every inch of his body burning with pain and fractured bones. Though he was forced up the rest of the way by none other than Metal.
"Stand. You still have work to do."
"Why…are you helping me?"
"I'm not." Metal then kicked Tails harder and faster than his broken body could react and was sent hurdling off the roof and was only saved a harsher fall by Predator Hawk hitting him with another flying tackle. It was so hard it fractured several vertebrae and nearly ruptured several major organs. With his forward motion stopped cold he could only plummet straight down onto the cold hard ground.
Thankfully he still had some use of his tails and was able to stop before he hit the ground, but while they had the strength to hold him up his legs and arms didn't. As a matter of fact he couldn't feel his legs. He was still reeling from the tackle.
He vaguely remembered barely crawling his way into some shelter, most likely a hollow toppled building, and then his pain faded but he couldn't move.
"You are the chosen one? Destined to save the multiverse?" A voice Tails didn't recognize said. Something about it though was comforting, it was obviously his ally and he could feel the being's immense power that it was hiding. The only thing that Tails could compare it with was Sonic's hyper form. Even then…
"Yeah…w-what…about it?" He could barely speak even though he felt no discomfort, perhaps the tackle had paralyzed him.
"If I saw you in any other situation in this sorry state I would let you die. But you showed a lot of courage. I will help you, but I will only restore you to your peak physical condition. No more."
"Deal…who are you though?" He could feel his strength returning but he was still curious to know who this distant voice was.
"What you are supposed to be." Just like that Tails felt one-hundred percent again and the voice was gone.
"All right…where's that bird?"
Five Hours Later
Despite it having been several hours everyone in the group had not been regrouped. Only Fiona, Miles, and Eggman were in a group. Everyone else was searching for Tails, or at least that's what they thought. In truth Tails had removed Predator Hawk and Flying Frog from the equation with only minor difficulty.
Predator went down when he fell for the age old bait and switch and bam. Unconscious bird. Flying frog was a little trickier but ultimately was able to be tied up and hung with his own tongue. They would be no more problematic. Though he was immensely curious how he seemingly recovered from his broken wing so quickly.
The entirety of most of the city had become a completely closed off maze mostly protected from Metal's occasional strafing run. But generally it favored Tails's far more stealthy approach.
Though taking down Simian would be difficult. He decided to leave him for later and find Fiona and take out all the easy stragglers first. He just hoped he didn't run into Lightning or Scourge Or Miles or anybody he would have to actually try to defeat.
Unfortunately luck had a different choice. As he was jumped from behind and a boot met the back of his head cutting it open. Turning to meet his foe he saw Sergeant Simian bust through the wall to his right and take him through another wall and threw him against the wall he didn't break.
Tails was able to right himself and use the wall as leverage and catapulted himself into the stomach of the colossal ape. Stunning him and quickly swept the feet out from under him and used a chaos charged punch into his gut and then several more right into his face until his body stopped responding to the blows. Then for safety he broke Simian's knees.
Finally he had a moment to breathe and that was quickly taken from him when a steel pipe was smashed into his gut.
"HRK!" Then a second blow followed to his left arm was followed by a sickening crunch. The pipe was swung again but this time he caught it and whirled the person holding it to beat them within an inch of their lives.
Though he got a good enough look he could tell that Fiona had swung the bar, he didn't see her kick him in the stomach and she used that opportunity to get some distance, while unfortunately losing the pipe in the process. But she wasn't alone.
Miles stood behind her smirking to himself. But after she backed off he stepped forward himself with a smug posture about himself that really rubbed Tails the wrong way, or at least more than usual.
"Tell us something Prower. How exactly can you still stand? By all accounts you should be dead. Do keep in mind if you try to run I have my own version of your chaos control." Miles asked, though he wasn't really curious he just needed Fiona to drop her guard.
"It's something you two wouldn't understand, Fiona maybe if you actually care about Scourge at all, but you, Miles, wouldn't understand." Tails answered.
"You're dodging the question."
"My friends and this whole city became infected with this new disease. It's original symptoms seemed identical to that of a common cold. But over time it would change to severely weaken the immune system as a whole. Everyone is sickened to the point they can't move. That's why I faced you all alone, if I die no one can protect them so even if it costs me my life none of you will touch them!"
"How touching, but what if I told you I wasn't your enemy?" Miles answered.
"Miles what are you talking about?" Fiona got her answer when without warning Miles reached out and stabbed her in the chest and she clutched at her now open wound in a vain attempt to close the wound and dropped to her knees.
"Fiona! Miles what the hell did you do?!" Though she was his enemy and had just broke his arm she didn't deserve to die.
"Simple, making your job easier. I've been planning on betraying the two of them for sometime now. I just didn't want to fight them and the Destructix-" Without a warning of his own Tails charged a chaos spear quickly and close enough that Miles wasn't able to dodge but only brace himself. But instead of detonating like usual Tails forced it not to but to keep dragging Miles through several walls, buildings, and debris piles.
Eventual he let it explode only to check on Fiona's condition, but in fear of being found he picked her up with his good arm and used chaos control to warp them somewhat far away from the scene. Into a moderately sized building's lobby that was still standing.
"W-why are…you…h-helping…me." She asked weakly.
'Why did I help her…why did I bother attacking Miles just to save her? I…I don't know why.'
"I just acted on instinct, it doesn't matter who they are, if someone is about to die I just act. I don't think. Are you all right?"
"N-no my…heart….I think he got it."
'I could save her or let her die…she did betray all of us, slap me in the face, and…'
"Fiona if you had had the opportunity to kill me back there would you have done it? Be honest with me."
"I…intended to…but I couldn't…make myself do it."
'Man I have to save her.'
"Here hang on. I'll take you somewhere you'll be able to recover."
"Thank you…Tails."
He then chaos controlled to someone who wasn't bound to be all that happy.
In the Acorn Bunker
"Tails! Oh thank god you're all right! I thought the next time I'd see you you'd be dead!" Nicole was so relieved to see Tails alive that she almost completely ignored the bleeding fox in his arms.
"Why did you bring her here?" She asked already grabbing equipment to patch Tails up.
To her surprise he denied the medicine and placed Fiona on the bed so she could rest and only asked that Nicole save Fiona.
"Nicole I'm not done out there. There were more of them than we thought. Just the Destructix are out of the way, but Fiona was betrayed and she doesn't have long before she bleeds to death! You have to save her!"
"Why would I-" Tails cut her off.
"This isn't up for debate, I'll explain everything when I get back, and I mean everything please just do this for me please. I don't want blood on my hands and she doesn't deserve to die!"
"But-"
"Nicole! I'm out there fighting to the death to protect everyone in here and buy a little more time so everyone heals. Once they do we win! Just do it!" He was starting to get upset but it went away when Nicole sheepishly looked away and agreed.
"Good and Nicole, this time I won't make it back. Even if my plan works it won't change the odds in my favor much." Just like that he was gone, leaving Nicole worried as hell and on the verge of tears hoping to everything she believed in that Tails would survive this ordeal. It didn't do much to bring her hopes up when Fiona grabbed her hand and told her he would be fine. She could only hope Knuckles got here in time.
Back with Tails
This was the last battle, beaten but not broken, a useless arm and sheer bravado were all that held back the single most dangerous enemies they had ever fought that were Lightning Lynx, Scourge the Hedgehog, Dr. Eggman, an extremely pissed and lightly battered Miles, and Metal Sonic who all seemed in much better condition than he was in. Eggman hadn't done a single thing and he was already half beaten.
Though nobody would harm his friends, he was willing to admit that this would likely be his last fight. His only hope was to delay the fight for as long as he possibly could and hopefully all of his friends would be well enough to fight them all off.
Scourge and lightning charged together while Miles took to the air to seal off any air escape. Tails waited until Scourge and Lightning were merely inches from him and chaos controlled right into Metal's face and warped them both away before the metal hedgehog could react.
Somewhere Outside the City
They reappeared deep into the neighboring forest where Metal grabbed and threw Tails away towards one of the nearby trees only for him to chaos control again. Leaving Metal to switch to a scanning mode to find him again only to receive a blow to the back of the head and then another and another, his scans showing only occasional pulses of chaos energy and nothing else.
After a minute of this he switched to a different tactic and brought up his black shield, which Tails bounced off of as it painfully shocked him, in order to get a moment to fully scan the area as well as his opponent.
"I see now how you can continually abuse you chaos control ability without destroying your body. You're wearing a power ring that you weren't before, when did you get that?" It was impressive, no one could really compete against chaos control at that level other than Shadow the Hedgehog.
"I don't have to tell you anything, but I do know something about you." Truth be told he couldn't just spam chaos control as much as he was without consequences. Even his chaos enhanced body couldn't handle it for long. That's where the ring came in to play, it would channel the chaos energy through his ring instead of his body, but it still relied on his own power and he couldn't get the power boost that would normally come with carrying a power ring. Though even with the ring he still suffered side effects, just to a much lesser degree. If he survived he would probably be sick for a while.
"What is it?"
"Your processor is too slow to detect EMP grenades." As soon as Tails mentioned the EMP grenades Metal's visor changed to one of glee. Though he was hit dead on with the explosions his expression didn't change even as his body shut down and he crumpled to the ground.
It was here Tails made his second mistake and sighed a breath of relief, without warning Metal jumped up and broke both of his tails before using them to throw him back first into a tree cracking and splintering said tree.
"You are a fool to think I wasn't smart enough to fix the fatal flaw that all machines have." Here he picked Tails up by his throat and slammed him into the tree again, him coughing up blood on impact as a result and with his good arm desperately trying to pry off the unforgiving metal vice around his throat.
"My role in this assault was to assist the green one and the lynx in the defeat of Sonic. What you fail to realize…" Here Metal grabbed the power ring and crushed it into dust.
"Is that the limits of your own mortality sealed your fate from the beginning. Only the hedgehog has ever defeated me and you stand absolutely no chance."
"*cough* I knew full well going into this battle that I wouldn't make it out alive." Metal noticed out of the corner of his visor that Tails broken arm was beginning to move again.
"I also know full well that I shouldn't be alive right now. Someone or something saved me." His pressure sensors and hydraulics were beginning to be overloaded by Tails right arm and had grabbed his other arm with his left one, despite how he he had just broken it.
"I have a small secret, when I get beaten on to the verge of death I change." Despite his left arm being broke, Tails was forcing Metal on his knees.
"I relish in staring death in the face and you will have one chance to leave with your life." Quickly and very hard, he kicked Metal square in the visor, cracking it in several places, while yanking back on his arms and tearing them off in the process.
Metal rolled several times and without his arms was unable to roll back onto his feet, leaving him flat on his back. Soon enough Tails pinned him down with his foot and smashed him in the face with his own severed arm.
"Leave and don't come back or I will end you!" Metal weighed his options, he had very limited vision and a severely handicapped fighting ability and Tails seemingly pulled a complete reversal and seemed completely capable of ending him. So he did the smart thing and ran.
Back with the Group
"Where's your robot Eggman? Tails was crippled and it shouldn't have taken this long." Scourge asked having already waited a whole hour and Metal still wasn't back. He really wanted to have a piece of Tails after what Miles said he did to his squeeze.
"I'm right here and here's your robot." Tails said appearing some distance away and tossing the severed arm of Metal Sonic at the feet of the Doctor.
"What!? Impossible! How did you defeat Metal in your sorry state!?" Eggman all but shouted, only barely holding back his astonishment.
"Oh I didn't defeat Metal, I destroyed him. He ran with his tail between his legs. Now, who's next." He wasn't positive but he was completely positive that when this strength faded he would collapse and wouldn't get up again.
"I'm next you welp! I'm impressed with everything you've done so far but it ends here!" Scourge said having to respect at least what he had done.
But suddenly Tails realized that the last of his strength had left him and he wasn't even able to get off of his knees.
"Well then… end it." Tails rasped out using his hand to gesture towards himself to egg him on further with a big grin in his face, despite being in the worst pain he had ever been in and being unable to get off of his knees. He would accept death with blood-soaked smile on his face.
In the end Scourge hastily accepted the bait and dashed towards Tails like a madman along with Lightning but they were each stopped dead in their tracks with Scourge being launched off to the right, through a window and Lightning straight up into the air by a familiar black and red hedgehog, and a red echidna respectively.
"Sorry I'm late Tails, I got a little help." Knuckles said turning and patting the stunned fox on the back.
"Knuckles! Shadow! Oh thank god you two showed up! I-" Tails began but was cut off by his own body nearly giving out on him in relief, thankfully Knuckles caught him and righted him only to be blindsided by a very strong hug from a very tearful fox.
"I thought I was going to die!" His tears of relief and joy flowed unburdened while Knuckles comforted him as if he was still a small child, but he couldn't bring himself to interrupt.
"Where are the rest of them Tails?" Shadow asked under the impression that the Destructix were here as well.
Tails regained his composure and wiped the tears away from his eyes to address Shadow.
"I took care of them and Metal Sonic, and these guys are all that's left."
"Very impressive Tails, you've done enough, now go and rest. We'll handle these guys." Shadow said.
"No way! I can still fight!" Tails said not content with dumping all of this burden on the shoulders of the two of them.
"Tails listen to us. Just by looking at you my body hurts, you've been fighting too long and too hard. You need-" Knuckles was interrupted by Scourge using his own version of chaos control to drag Tails back into the group of enemies leaving Knuckles and Shadow helpless to help him.
"Listen up." Scourge began, his arm wrapping around Tails's throat tightly, while his other pressed on the back of his head ready to apply pressure. "This little welp has caused a lot of trouble and if you think I'm gonna just let him go that easily you're stupid."
"Let him go!" Knuckles yelled beginning to step forward.
"No and if you take another step closer I'll snap his neck like a twig." Now the situation that seemed like Tails would walk away alive was turning into one where no one would.
"And to show I'm serious…" Scourge let himself drift off as he smashed Tails's already damaged arm over his knee. Making audible crunches as his bones snapped and grinded against each other, stopping Knuckles and Shadow on the spot.
"You really are a monster." Shadow said through his teeth in frustration. If Tails had just left like they said then this wouldn't have happened.
"Oh you bet I am." Here is where Tails, after all of the pain he suffered, finally could stand it no longer and he passed out.
Tails Mindscape
"Get up you miserable little cretin."
Though a voice was deliberately speaking to him the only response Tails gave him was just fidgeting around a little bit.
"GET UP!" This time though the voice was successful in stirring Tails from his sleep with the addition of a boot to the head.
"Uhg…where am I? Why am I wet? Why does my head hurt?" He had a lot of questions that needed answering. Wasn't he just in the middle of the battle of his life?
"Well for starters, you're in your mind, your subconscious is flooded with pain which is the water, and your head hurts because I kicked you." The voice said in a bored tone.
"Hey I remember you! Who are you and why are you in my head?" Something was off, he was offered help by this thing, but he seemed odd…
"I've already told you." It began, a figure forming in front of Tails that ended up being the spitting image of himself if only with much more ragged fur, much larger claws, and no gloves. All of this and the screaming feeling of instability this mobian emitted everytime it spoke. Like it was always on edge and ready to leap at anything.
"I am what you were supposed to be. Or rather, all of your inner hatred that was supposed to be who you were." He said, circling and gesturing to either himself with pride or Tails with disdain.
"If you are part of me then why can I only hear you now? Why haven't you ever tried to contact me before? Pardon me if I'm not shocked at seeing another duplicate me. I already met every single version of myself and learned about most of their lives when I saved the universe ten years ago when I transformed into Titan Tails." Tails said, very wary about his apparent inner evil.
"Because you were still too young and full of hope. Untainted by the hidden knowledge of the evils of those you try so hard to protect. You know full well that not all of the people you are fighting so hard for are innocent. So you recently have been giving me more and more energy and you were just recently wounded and exhausted to the point I could finally break free of the restraints you put on me. I'll be blunt here…" He had kept up his pacing around Tails the whole speech, referring back and forth to himself and Tails the whole time switching from different emotions, occasionally glaring heatedly giving a very tense feel to the whole room or wherever they were.
"I am the person you would have been if Sonic had never found you. Instilling in you those pesky feelings about protection, love, and family. It makes me sick. That fool Miles is a good example…perhaps if he wasn't so held back and patient. But I digress, we need to fix the situation at hand. Namely you being used as a hostage." He stopped pacing and finally began addressing Tails somewhat normally.
"I agree but what can I do at this point? I'm too battered and beaten to do anything. Hey wait…"
He raised a questioning eyebrow, a movement that didn't fit him at all.
"What happened to all that power you had when we first talked?" This thing was nowhere near as strong, he could feel it, almost as if it was a husk of its former self.
"You have been steadily draining me this entire fight, as you know when beings get as powerful as your so called 'super' and 'hyper' forms, they need to either have a steady energy supply or end the battle quickly. I only have a little of my power left and I have no choice but to give it to you. Keep in mind it will still be far more powerful than what you have ever experienced. Referring to Titan Tails, you were so young and weak then that you could not even begin to comprehend its actual power and limitations. So here, take my hand and end this battle." He extended his hand and for once didn't seem paranoid and schizophrenic about his actions.
"Not yet. If you could have this at any time why didn't you contact me at the beginning of this battle? You obviously care about my life yet you let me charge suicidal into a fight we both knew full well I wouldn't walk away from? Also how have I been draining you of your power?" There were so many questions this thing needed to answer well before he would accept any gifts.
He smiled darkly. "As much as I hate to admit it, we are alike in a few ways. Such as our love for battle, our habit to enjoy taunting death, the fact I let you borrow my power when you get pushed to that extreme, and our fondness for that fox. Let's be honest here, we both know you have one hell of a libido and you, not me, were planning on using your little heroism act as a way for , shall we say, intimate moments. I'll say that I have a large fondness for most of the women you hang around with."
"How dare you say something like that! I ought to-"
"You've done it before."
Okay he had done it before, but that raised the question as to how much of his life he knew about. He must have been watching his life play out.
"Okay I admit it, but it wasn't why I saved her. Why didn't you help me a the beginning?"
"I didn't want to."
"You still haven't given me any reason to trust you."
"Well with my power you'll be able to save your friends. With my power you'll live. Do you need any more reasons?"
"This all seems so convenient. What's the catch?" This kind of deal doesn't just come without consequences, let alone twice.
"Well for me to give you my power I have to control your body. Before I was just giving you ownership of my some of my power briefly, but if I give you anymore I'll cease to exist. Otherwise I might not make you give me control." His paranoid tone was back, along with a crooked smile that fit him far too well.
"I…I guess I'll agree. But don't kill anyone!" This thing was obviously unstable and things could go wrong with no restrictions.
"Great, and one more thing…" He began, both of them beginning to fade away.
"I'm not giving control back."
"What!?"
Back in the Real World
"Understood? Get on the ground." Scourge ordered, still holding the unconscious Tails as bargaining material.
"It seems we don't have a choice. Do as he says." It was against Knuckles very nature to be submissive, but in this situation he didn't have a choice.
"Good, now Lightning tie em' up. When the kid here wakes up we'll kill them." Scourge was grinning he had beat the two of them as easy as cake and it was so simple. But he wasn't prepared for how far exactly they were ready to risk Tails life.
Just as Lightning got within arm's reach of Shadow and Knuckles, Shadow used chaos control to appear beside Scourge and Knuckles launched himself at the speedy Lynx. They must of forgot that Scourge himself could react at the speed they moved and so he broke Tails's neck.
Or at least he tried before he was hit square in the face by Shadow's roundhouse kick and sent flying because Tails had secretly given them an ok signal to attack. He was secretly restraining his movements by sliding his chin into the groove in Scourge's arm and stopped his neck from violently snapping.
Tails took this opportunity to jump straight in front of Eggman's cockpit and throw a chaos spear that violently exploded creating a small crack in the glass protecting him. Though the blast still rocked the machine onto its back the crack in the glass rapidly fixed itself. Quickly before Eggman could react Tails slammed back into the glass with both of his feet and was about to throw a chaos spear straight into the large crack but was driven off by a big hand swatting him away.
Though Tails, using his recently healed body, was able to right himself and skidded a few feet before stopping. But Miles was waiting and aimed a slash of his claws, attempting to decapitate him, but Tails anticipated it and ducked. Driving a series of powerful punches and kicks into his opponents abdomen and face before jumping away as Miles attempted to detonate an anarchy spear in his face, succeeding to degree.
With Shadow
Shadow chased after the form of Scourge tumbling away but was surprised when he used a reverse spindash that caught him off guard and smacked into his abdomen sending him back a few feet before batting the incoming green ball away with a smack.
"Chaos control!" Shadow shouted disappearing and leaving a series of small balls around Scourge that he had to use his own anarchy control to escape.
But Shadow kept up the pressure, forcing Scourge to warp away quickly in fear of blowing up into lots of bloody fragments. Eventually Scourge couldn't keep up fighting at this pace and was caught in a series of chaos explosives that bounced him around a few times before being hit square on with a chaos spear. The explosion created a sizable impact crater and sent a smoldering green hedgehog away and laid unresponsive.
Shadow made a move to leave but before he could he was blindsided by a much stronger spindash than before, and then another that sent him into the air where Scourge bounced off the walls to kick Shadow directly into the ground. Leaving a small crater.
"Thanks for the energy boost bucko! Don't you remember chaos doesn't bother me anymore? I'm only green because of it hello!? That explosion hurt though." Scourge said, casually grabbing Shadow by the throat and punching him in the face whilst throwing aside his broken sunglasses.
"Now I'm going to leave you here for now because I have some unfinished business with that little punk who's…hey wait a minute. How can he even use his arm, let alone fight off both Miles and the doctor? How strong did that kid get? Something smells fishy." It didn't make sense, in a one on one fight he could see Tails as a challenge but not the force they brought with them. But somehow he was still kicking and fighting as hard as ever.
"I don't know, but you aren't going anywhere until I can't walk. You see…" Shadow began, slowly bringing himself to his feet.
"I never fight at my full strength. You know this, Sonic knows this, and all my employers know this. You may be stronger right now but you don't stand a chance when I get serious." Though he wouldn't remove his limiter rings yet, he knew that Tails needed as much time as possible to fight Eggman and Miles, Knuckles could handle himself.
With Knuckles
Knuckles was never one to fight fast, more along the lines of violent and instinctual. Which is why after several failed attempts at even striking the speedy cat became fed up and smashed into the ground with both of his fists into the ground hard enough to severely brake and misplace the terrain around him, yelling as he did so.
This small earthquake like attack was enough to trip up Lightning for just a moment, a moment Knuckles took full advantage of by driving his fist squarely into the cat's face. Watching smugly as the body became a ragdoll when he was launched back.
"Come on that's not all you got! You can hold your own against Sonic for a while…at least until he always beats you." Knuckles taunt worked just like he wanted it to after Lightning shook the cobwebs out of his head and dashed straight at him.
Knuckles threw another haymaker but was surprised when his fist went right through an after image. Almost immediately after did a knee find itself driving into his stomach, but nothing happened. Lightning, greatly confused, jumped back from another punch, glaring at Knuckles and silently demanding an explanation.
"Oh you're wondering why that didn't hurt much? It's because you're stupid Ninjustu fighting style is designed to hit lightly and break the opponents guard. Well buddy I don't have a guard!" Knuckles accentuated his point by charging at a confused Lighting intent on sending him through a building.
With Tails
Tails was sent reeling by the explosion from his counterpart, rolling away and out of control before he eventually lost enough momentum to right himself. Before he could get to his feet Eggman raised a few compartments on the front of his Mech revealing too many missile silos to count. He fired them and Tails's eyes went wide before taking to the air in an attempt to shake the heat seeking missiles. Though both Miles and Eggman expected this and just as he was about to shake them Miles appeared in front of him too quick for him to react and was punched square in the face turning all of his forward momentum into backward momentum.
Quickly Eggman revealed a much larger hidden silo that launched a single much bigger missile, well more like a rocket. Tails recovered from the blow and shook the stars out of his head and his attention was immediately drawn to the giant missile flying straight at him.
'It's too fast to dodge!' Tails thought frightfully, but just before it hit him he had an idea. Just before the missile hit him he moved just enough out of the way that he merely rolled off of the warhead rather than detonating it. But just before it got out of his grip he grabbed one of the tail fins and blew out the engine by using a chaos spear. He then used every amount of strength his tails had and pushed against the rocket around, pointing it square at the two of them.
"Is he going to throw that at us!? Doctor, how big is that payload?" Miles asked somewhat fearfully.
"It doesn't have one anymore, watch this." Eggman was completely calm when he noticed that Tails was directly behind the engine. Pressing a button that was on his console caused the back of the rocket to pop off, revealing another engine about to go off in Tails's face.
Tails's eyes widened and he yelled loudly as the engine ignited directly in his face scorching his torso badly before he chaos controlled away, only just managing to avoid third degree burns on his face. The heat seeking missiles returning and smashing into the rocket creating a very badly choreographed fireworks show.
"Excellent contingency plan Doctor, but where did it come from?" Miles asked, lowering his guard slightly as it seemed Tails wouldn't reappear anytime soon.
"That rat has done something similar before, so I planned for it in case he was actually here." Eggman replied.
"So how did you fit a missile of that size in their?"
"Storage dimension rifts. Infinite space and thousands of rockets and missiles and rockets of several sizes all primed and ready to detonate. All I have to do is select the correct missile silo and away they go!" Eggman explained twirling his mustache and grinning madly as he did so.
"Very impressive, you'll have to show me something like that later. I'd love to keep the anarchy beryls out of Scourge's reach and call upon them whenever I needed them. Now where is he?" Miles raised his guard once again, prepared for the worst.
"Right here."
With Shadow
The two hedgehogs were engaged in a series of spindashes colliding in the air creating two small sonic booms between them and sending the two of them flying away into buildings, debris, and off the roads into everything and frequently each other and creating loud snapping sounds everytime they parted.
It became a battle of endurance to see who would lose stability first and in the end the both of them did and both of them smashed their skulls together into very vicious head-butts that left both of them heavily bleeding from their forehead and heavily dazed.
His brain rattled and most likely with a concussion Scourge threw his own health to the wind and dashed into Shadow sending him flying and, still dazed, was unable to right himself and smacked back first into a building where just as he was falling down was smashed again by Scourge who at this point may have been in no better condition as he could no longer make himself stand and Shadow lied mostly unresponsive only attempting to force himself to his feet.
Shadow, having no other option, was forced to try and remove his limiter rings seeing no way the fight could continue for either of them. But Scourge put a stop to it by stomping on his hand, his relative dizziness the only thing bothering him as the adrenaline of a good fight pushed the pain from his mind, at least for now.
"No, that's not happening. Now I'm finished with you. I'll let you live so I can finish the rest of you in front of each other. Trust me it'll be great." What Scourge failed to notice was that Shadow was capable of a very powerful attack.
"Chaos blast!" Suddenly Scourge was sent reeling and smoldering away and Shadow took a moment to rest. Before a very bad realization struck him, was Scourge capable of absorbing all the damage from his chaos blast?
With this frightening realization Shadow forced himself to his weak feet only to have his eyes widen in horror, Scourge was up and looked no worse for wear then when they started. Quickly before he could react Shadow removed his limiter rings but in his haste ignored that Scourge appeared behind him and now he suddenly felt very faint.
Before his vision faded to black he could hear Scourge laughing at him and thanking him for the refill and that he was going to go kill all of his friends.
With Tails
Just as Miles turned, Tails fired a chaos spear over his head and nailed Eggman in the dome and cracking it. Then in quick succession Miles was hit with two very powerful chaos spears that sent his body flying into Eggman's dome. Then before he knew it his hand was suddenly on fire.
Tails had pinned his hand, and by extension him, to the dome of Eggman and had pinned Eggman himself down as well holding both of them in place, with only his chaos spears that wouldn't detonate.
"You aren't going anywhere. This ends now." Out of the corner of his eye Tails saw that Knuckles was about to deliver the finishing blow to Lightning Lynx. He assumed Shadow was finishing up Scourge now. But it gave him a devious idea.
"Knuckles! Toss him here!" Obligingly Knuckles did so, while smiling.
"You are going to wish you never raised you hand against me." Lightning Lynx spat out.
"Eat me." Then Tails grabbed a still standing building and revved up his tails to an insane degree while using the other hand to choke out the lynx.
Miles was in fear for his very life there was no way this attack wouldn't kill him. The chaos spear embedded in his hand wouldn't give even an inch. There was no way for him to escape, unless…
Tails then rocketed off towards the two using Lightning as a battering ram, but just before he reached them the chaos spear holding Miles dissipated and he leapt out of the way just mere moments before his oncoming doom.
Fortunately Tails had more than enough momentum to go through Eggman's cockpit, the building behind him, and tumble himself for a few hundred feet. Rubbing more and more dirt into his already bloody body.
Somehow Lightning seemed to survive, as evidence by his occasional spasm, and the pod racing away seemed to show that Doctor Eggman had survived as well. When he tried to move Tails noticed that he had really overdone it and could barely get his body to respond to him.
"I went way overboard and didn't kill anyone. What a pity. I'll just have to make it up by doing away with those two instead." When he took a step forward Tails was disappointed to learn that he would have to limp or fly back, so he flew back into town square where both Scourge and Miles were standing, the latter apparently having found some bandages to wrap up his hand. But what drew his attention much quicker was the fact that both Shadow and Knuckles had been knocked unconscious.
"So it's just the three of us now. Wonderful." Despite the ridiculous odds he was still ecstatic about the upcoming battle and showed it by wiping the blood from his face and wiping away the dirt off of his torso burn. Luckily the nerves had been burnt and it didn't hurt, third degree burns were nice like that.
"You don't stand a chance. I beat both of these fools into submission and your next!" Scourge said pointing at both of his rescuers, not so much anymore. It seemed nothing would work out today and everything would rely on him.
After his outburst the skies themselves reacted to the upcoming duel and it began down pouring heavily on the three fighters. Matting down their fur and wiping away the dirties of battle.
"How fitting for a fight like this." Almost as if on cue a lightning strike landed right behind Tails and blackened his entire front half illuminating his eyes and nothing else. Though the same happened to the two on the other side as well, nature itself was acknowledging today's battle with an accepting finale.
"Before we start kid, answer me a few questions." Scourge asked, having had a few nitpicks ever since this whole thing had started.
"What is it?" Unlike the other two, Tails had several open wounds on his person and the rain only made him soaked in his own blood. Giving his fur a redder hue.
"Where is everyone else? Why were you the only one that showed up to fight us? I was expecting an all-out battle royal here and instead I get you. Who against all odds should be dead several times over. Why aren't you intimidated? You seem different than before." Scourge was very curious, he knew where everyone was but he didn't know why.
But at his last question Tails smiled darkly. "So you noticed? How much else have you noticed?" He answered, deliberately ignoring the rest of the questions and stepping forward.
"Have you noticed how no matter what injuries I sustain none of you can keep me down?" He continued asking while stepping forward, and something instinctual made the two of them step back, at this point they both knew something was horribly wrong.
"Have you noticed how you brutally broke my arm and yet I can use it unhindered?" He continued stepping forward and Miles and Scourge threw up their guard and took another step back, and then another.
They both looked at each other and despite their differences and quarrels decided to put them behind them. Neither one like the other but something was worrying them. They jumped apart and attempted to overwhelm Tails by attacking from different fronts.
With Miles sealing off the air and Scourge on the ground he didn't have the luxury to split them up again, he'd done it too many times for them to fall for it. He couldn't abuse his chaos powers anymore, his energy levels were too low for him to reasonable do anything with it other than fly. But before they could really attack Tails stopped them.
"Is that a warp ring on your wrist?" He asked.
Confused, Scourge glanced at his said wrist and looked back still confused but more curious. "Yeah why?"
'Oh that gives me such a devious idea. I think my world has had enough punishment today, let's have a change of scenery eh?'
"Do you have a way to get back to your world without it?"
Miles answered for him, as Scourge was unsure of how exactly dimension hopping worked in the first place. "Yes, there are several ways if you know where to look."
"Good, you'll need it." Tails then disappeared behind Miles in a flash of green and attempted to strike him, hitting only empty air as Miles disappeared in his own flash of green and struck Tails in the back instead with an anarchy spear.
The spear carried Tails several feet before the explosion sent him flying farther, rolling in the ground before standing again only to be blindsided by Scourge several times before smacking him away with his tails.
"I think you'll understand by now that that little trick won't work anymore. A surprise is only a surprise for so long Prower." Miles said, gloating the whole time he was lowering himself to the ground.
The series of blows had left him fairly battered and more bloody then before, it was even more obvious that Tails would not be able to continue his battle for long. Scourge was basically fresh and Miles was fine, not great but he was managing.
"Well, then is this…surprising?" Tails said, holding up the warp ring he had pilfered from Scourge. Grinning hugely the whole time.
"Now the way I see it we have two options here. But answer me this first. How many people are over in your world could drive me out of it?" Tails thought he finally had an edge on the two of them, he had been at a disadvantage the whole day and now the tables had finally turned.
"There are a few, and if you set foot in that world you won't leave. Honestly, you should know that." Miles answered, knowing full well Tails could barely stand let alone demolish a full city like he was intending.
"That was what I was hoping not to hear." He said, his grin disappearing as his arm flopped to his side only just clutching onto the ring to stop its activation.
'I guess I don't immediately have all of his attributes like I thought I would. No matter this battle is almost over'.
"Well today's been fun kid, but it seems you're finally running out of juice. But before I end you and your pathetic little existence, where's Fiona?" He may be evil, but he knew Fiona had plenty of uses left and throwing away something that useful had consequences.
"Her? Well I wouldn't hold much hope for her after what Miles did. Even though she is being taken care of she'll probably still die." Maybe he could still fight if he could open an opportunity.
"Hmph, oh well." Scourge charged again only to be stopped and diverted by a blue blur.
"You! I guess it was only a matter of time before you showed up! Scourge we have to leave, the rest can't be far behind!" Miles shouted, quickly retreating to the side of his hated ally.
Scourge had weighed his options if Sonic showed up long ago, he would defeat him like he had his more powerful duplicate.
"As if! Blue's mine! I'll take payback for my girl on your girl Blue. I've been waiting on this all day!" Scourge said, bracing himself for a real battle.
"I know what you're talking about Scourge, I want to know what happened too but I think it's time to juice!" Sonic said charging up a quick spindash that led Scourge and him throughout the battle tested city.
"Do what you want, I'm leaving." Miles said, not confident in his ability to fight every freedom fighter even if Sonic lost. Scourge would be fairly beaten.
"You aren't going anywhere." Tails said throwing several chaos spears at Mile's direction, though everyone of them missed his vision was completely worthless with the debris and smoke that raised up.
Taking to the sky, Miles began to scan the battlefield only able to spot Sonic and Scourge's speedy battle, the two of them creating similar shockwaves that the previous hedgehog battle had created. Though his attention was diverted to dodging a chaos spear which allowed Tails to close the distance and engage him in hand to hand.
Though what Tails wasn't expecting was Miles being relatively inept when it came to physical combat, most of his moves were easily readable and countered fairly easily and with a particularly vicious head-butt that stunned Miles long enough for Tails to grab one of his tails and swing him around and directly into a building.
Here is where Tails made his last mistake, he charged intent on finishing his battle with Miles when he unexpectedly anarchy controlled directly in front of him and punched straight through his sternum. The two of them stayed like this just soaking in the result of their scuffle.
"I applaud you…Miles. You defeated me, but you haven't killed me." All of a sudden Miles felt an iron clad grip on his hand and was unable to remove himself from the recently created hole in Tails's chest.
While Miles's attention was diverted Tails elbowed him in the face, sending him reeling and pulling his hand out with an audible pop. One more time he punched Miles to stun him long enough to throw him, with all that was left of his might, straight into the ground. Then while he was dazed Tails moved as much chaos energy into his hand that he could.
Soon enough his hand was literally glowing green as his arm shook with the effort to keep it stable. Tails then threw it straight into the ground and it grew in size almost immediately to at least five times bigger than himself. At this point, instead of a spear, it more resembled an extremely unstable bomb. It had grown in size to the point that Scourge and Sonic stopped their duel to see it. Gawking long enough for Scourge to get in a cheap shot.
But Miles realized what was upon him and layered his hands with anarchy so he wouldn't be obliterated and stopped the ball from exploding, but could do little else. Now Tails was extremely exhausted at this point and if this next plan failed he would have to rely on Sonic. Tails yelled and charged straight into his chaos ball, vanishing inside, to reappear directly in Miles face to hit him hard enough in his wide eyed face to break his nose.
Now Miles had destabilized the ball and the both of them were sent flying by its explosion, interrupting the two hedgehogs battle by smashing into several debris piles and through at least one building.
"Tails!" Sonic shouted completely forgetting his battle at hand in fear for his best friend.
"Hey! get back here and fight me!" Scourge shouted while chasing after Sonic.
When the blue blur arrived at the scene his breath stopped, he wasn't sure which of the two of them were standing, only that the more seriously wounded one seemed to be glaring at him. He tensed himself for a fight from both of them.
'All right he's down, all of these fools are resilient I'll give them that. But I don't think I can keep this body alive and fighting at the same time…'
Tails made a move to speak but only froze and collapsed under his own weight. His body finally demanding he stop.
"Tails!" Sonic said, dashing forward to stop him from splattering himself on the concrete.
"Come on man! Speak up! Tails you better not die on me!" Sonic almost shouted, tears routing towards his eyes. He had finally got here and was about to save him and this happens, he was a terrible big brother.
"Sonic-" A familiar female voice shouted but cut off as she took in the sight in front of her.
"Sally get out of my way! I have to take him to Nicole!" He shouted, turning into his famous blue blur.
"Sally gurl! Where's he goin'? Where's Tails?" Bunnie said in her southern accent. Concern marking her features.
"Oh god…we might have been too late…"
A/N: Cut, wrap, and print. This is much bigger than most of my stuff and it's all one big fight. I decided to go with this over the other version that didn't really make any sense. Regardless though, I am very happy with this version.