The basic rule of all magic stems from one thing: the concept of Faith. In order to understand magic, you must be able to believe in it, pure and simple.
From thereon out, pure willpower and the elements around you are what bring out the best in Magic. The problem with magic is that you can only do so much with it and only if you follow it's rules. Life Magic is the most sacred of all, and for those who are not "chosen" to be given free rein over it, the consequences for attempting it...
Can leave eternal scars.
Episode Five:
The Heavy Rain Brings a Heavy Burden
豪雨は、重い負担をもたらす
It was the morning after that fateful evening they'd discovered what had become of Dulcy and Maria. Sonic and his brother Tails were now at Central HQ, hoping to visit Rouge and Shadow because they wanted to know what would happen to the thing that had become a chao...the being that had, at one point, been two separate beings.
The rain was relentlessly pouring down upon their heads as they made their way up the stairs into the warmth of Central City's main headquarters, yet the permanent chill of guilt continued to follow them. Sonic rapped his knuckles on Rouge's doorway as Tails stood behind him, and Rouge soon answered the door, looking the two over.
"It's not even 8 AM and you're already up? What's the matter with you two? What can I help you boys with?" She wanted to know.
"...uh...Rouge...what's going to happen to Dulcy and Maria?" Sonic mumbled nervously, rubbing the back of his neck. "I can't stand not knowing."
"Neither of us can." Tails admitted, nodding his head.
Rouge blanched slightly. Her pink eyes nervously looked to the side. "...well, the original plan was that that sonofabitch Gerald was going to have his license as a State Metallurgist taken away, and then he was going to fry." She told them all. "But...but he and the chao that the dragon and the human were turned into are dead."
Tails's eyes went wider than saucers as Sonic's head shot up, and his face became pale. "What?" He squeaked out.
"Or rather, they were killed...murdered last night." Rouge added quietly as she stepped out of her office, carrying a metal clipboard with her. She sighed deeply as she walked along the hallway, the horrified brothers walking alongside her.
"Dead?" Tails asked.
"You would have found out eventually, it's better I told ya now."
"By WHO?" Sonic demanded to know, a dark and furious glint entering his eyes as he clenched his fists tightly, walking after Rouge with Tails following after.
"Truth is boys, we're not sure. I was on my way over to Gerald's place right now."
"We're coming with!" Sonic insisted.
"No." Rouge said, turning around and holding her gloved hand up, shaking her head.
"Why the hell not?!?" Sonic demanded to know.
"...it's...it's best you don't see." Rouge spoke softly. And with that, she turned on her heels, heading down the hallway, leaving Sonic and Tails by a small portrait on the wall of Dr. Eggman himself. Sonic bowed his head slightly, then furiously slammed his fist into the wall, making the painting fall to the ground.
"DAMMIT!" He screamed.
...
...
...
... "Looks like this disgusting freak's always one step ahead o' us." Mighty muttered to the others as he knelt by the currently-covered-up, slightly decaying corpse of Gerald Robotnik.
"We've GOT to catch him. And soon." Knuckles said angrily, slamming his fist into his palm. "If this rate keeps going at the rate it's going then..." He shuddered in a mixture of disgust and fear.
"Yeah, no kiddin'." Mighty agreed with Knuckles as the guards stood around them, Shadow folding his arms, looking deep in thought, eyes closed tightly.
"...you sound like you expected this to happen." Shadow murmured. "...what's going on?"
Elsewhere, somebody as making a speech...but this was not just ANY "somebody". This was a somebody that, by all rights, out to have been worm food. Yet instead, Snively Robotnik stood at his podium, arms stretched up, hands clenched into fists as he spoke fervently.
"I know how furious all of you have been at the lies and falsehoods of Religion. Less than a week ago they spread more falsehoods through our fair city of Knothole to destroy all we've created here, to create a power vacuum so their forces of ignorance could take hold! But Science will not allow the candle of wisdom to be so easily snuffed out by lies and cheap tricks!"
The crowd of people before the podium roared, holding torches and pitchforks into the sky, the burning flames from the torches so bright that they almost made the stars themselves fall down from the heavens above.
"Worse still, those Central City forces who blindly follow the lie of Religion and enforce it a gunpoint, are going to shove their faith down our throats! WILL-WE-ALLOW-IT?!?" He roared furiously. "NO! NO! NO!" He howled, slamming his fists into the podium with every single "No" that he uttered. The crowd began to chant along. "No, no, no, no" and soon they were worked up into an enormous fervor, rushing through the streets.
"Let's get those Central City jerks!" Somebody roared out.
"Hey, hold on!" Somebody yelled, a human teenager. "How can you trust what he says? Think for yourself, dude!"
"Shut up! You're just a pawn of the military!"
"A stupid human!"
"Frag 'em all!"
Meanwhile, a certain long-haired hedgehog grinned as she watched the entire scene unfold from the top of Snively's laboratory, at the highest point of his lookout. Grinning to herself, the one known as Sonia laughed. "Ha-ha-ha! Ohhh, I do love my work sometimes. I guess it's true...the Devil's greatest trick was convincing the world he never existed." She remarked with a girly giggle as the tegu lizard nearby nodded.
"Uh-huh, uh-huh." He agreed.
"Aren't they all such idiots, Biolizard? Just goes to show you that Sapients are just as dumb as humans."
"Dumb-dumb-dumb-dumb-dumb!" Biolizard said in a singsong manner.
"I told you, you've got to stop watching that show. You won't learn anything from it." Sonia commented. "Besides, humans made it, and personally, they wouldn't know good humor if it up and bit them on the ass."
"Quite possibly." A voice spoke up. They turned their heads to see Snivley ascending the stairs to the lookout where they were. "But one thing I ADORE about humans is they make excellent scapegoats. Nothing like a race riot to really put a smile on one's face, eh?" He asked, his grin the work of demons.
"C'mon get happyyyy!" Biolizard sang out.
"It was all so easy. Just a little manipulation of information, I whip people up into a bit of a frenzy, and then they do the rest." Snivley told them all, looking over Knothole with the other two.
"admittedly Sonic did interfere a bit, but we actually made good use of it. And now look. Bloodshed leading to more bloodshed, hatred leading to more hatred, the endless cycle of violence and cruelty. All of it swells up to feed the war within the Earth, carving a crest of blood into the land and making HIM stronger." Sonia whispered, looking out over the city as the sun began to set and cast fire-like light across the horizon. "They try and try but just-never-learn."
"That's why we can do anything we please to them, right?" Snively asked, a big grin on his features, and this made Sonia give a devilish grin.
"Will a buncha people kick the bucket? Buy the farm? Cease to be?" Biolizard asked.
"Oh, definitely. Hundreds, I'd imagine." Sonia said in a tone so casual that you'd think she was talking about the weather.
"Can I eat the ones that shuffle off this mortal coil?"
"No, you'll get gas." Sonia said, patting the tegu lizard on the head and shaking her own. "And stop watching those TV shows. You'll rot out what little a brain you have."
"Now-now, SOME of their entertainment is actually entertaining. In fact I might stop in to the big city to watch some prostitutes beat each other up later." Sniveley added cheerily.
"Okay, I can't stomach that nasally voice anymore. It's making me want to vomit." Sonia finally said, folding her arms and turning on Sniveley, who calmly smiled.
"Oh, fine, fine." He said, shrugging as slowly but surely his flesh began to dissolve away, sloughing off his body in tiny flakes to reveal blue metal beneath, with sharp grey/silver claws and a robotic form. "What, you don't like me setting the mood? I don't mind. Why should I have this appearance anyhow? He's all bald...wrinkly...too..."
Soulless red eyes glinted as a hedgehog-esque robot stood there, arms folded, with a mouthless face unmistakably showing disgust. "ORGANIC." Metal Sonic remarked with a sense of finality.
"You really enjoy seeing prostitutes fight? How cruel you are." Sonia laughed.
"Cruelty's a HUMAN emotion, Sonia. One shared by you Sapients and by my loathsome copy." Metal Sonic commented." I'm merely efficient and-"
"GAAAAAH!" A voice screamed. The evil threesome turned their heads to see one of Sniveley's lab assistants gasping in horror, dropping the clipboard in his hands. He had apparently seen everything and had only JUST worked up his courage. "You FREAK...what the...what the hell happened to the REAL Dr. Sniveley? What the hell are you?!" He gasped.
"...he called me a freak. I feel so...insulted." Metal Sonic commented, rolling his eyes, his metallic voice ringing with sarcasm as Sonia looked to the side.
"Can I eat him?" Biolizard asked. Sonia and Metal Sonic looked over to see he was drooling.
"...uhhhh..." Sonia blinked a few times.
...
...
...
... "So..." Metal Sonic commented calmly as he leaned against the wall with the Biolizard's very loud lip-smacking ringing in both he and Sonia's ears. "I recently checked the military news database after some hacking. It appears as though the Spear of Life is dead."
"Who gives two shits about Gerald? He might have been Eggman's grandpappy, but you know how Ivo HONESTLY felt-" Sonia began.
"I DON'T give two shits about Gerald. It's the KILLER I'm interested in. It's him. The one from before." Metal told her.
Sonia's eyes became dark slits. "...him?" She asked.
"Him." Metal agreed.
"...speaking of Central City, isn't The Burning Metallurgist stationed there as well?" Sonia wanted to know, brushing some of her eggplant-colored hair back.
"Yes, and apparently so is "Fatty" Maurice, aka The Blue BLOB." Metal Sonic added, his laughter sounding like a soda machine was hiccuping.
"...Sonic himself, eh?" Sonia commented calmly. "How interesting. I'm annoyed that he interfered with our work, but we can't let him die either. He IS an important sacrifice..."
"Ooh, that was tasty!" Biolizard announced, turning back to Sonia and trying to hug her.
"Wipe your mouth after you eat, honey bunch." She said dryly. "So then, the robot...his name's-"
"Omega? As in the Greek Letter Omega?" Shadow asked, looking at Mighty and Knuckles as they sat in his office, with Rouge sitting on the edge of Shadow's desk.
"Yes. We call him by the symbol he has emblazoned on his frame: the letter that means "Omega", for "End"." Knuckles said, nodding his head, his dreadlocks slighty stiffening in simmering fury over what had happened over at Gerald's estate.
"He's elusive too. He always seems to elude capture." Mighty added. "But our superiors want him caught, and on top of that, my work at the court-martial office is pilin' up too. Paperwork be draggin' a brother down." Mighty muttered, rolling his eyes.
"He's killed 5 people here in Central City, and five others outside, all of them State Metallurgists." Knuckles went on.
"He's the one that did in The Imperator too." Mighty told Shadow.
"It was HIM?!" Shadow gasped. "But he was supposed to be one of our most skilled..." Shadow's eyes turned to look away slightly as he growled darkly. "This is more serious than I thought."
"So you should increase your escort and lie low for a while. Play it cool. I'm tellin' ya this as a friend." Mighty insisted. "I mean, the only State Metallurgists around here have been you and Gerald, right?"
"...oh no." Rouge gasped.
"What?" Knuckles wanted to know.
"...no. I'm NOT the only State Metallurgist in Central right now." Shadow whispered, eyes widening in horror.
...
...
...
...our two brothers were sitting at Central City park as the rain continued to pour down onto their heads. They sat together, looking out into the grey haze that filled the park as water continued to "plip-plip-plip" down from the skies. A statue they were sitting under as they sat on a bench (one of Eggman himself) had water dripping off a pointing finger to land between the two.
They'd been silent for a long time, just thinking. But now Sonic put his thoughts into words.
"I've been thinking for a while about what it means to be a Metallurgist. To know Metallurgy is to understand the flow of the World, to bring Faith and Logic together in holy matrimony, to make life better for the people." Sonic murmured. "The world has a balance. Good and evil. Life and Death. One cannot upset this balance, but should seek to uphold it. That's what our teach used to tell us, remember?"
"...yes."
"...but we didn't' really understand, did we? That's why we tried to bring Mom back, even though we weren't "chosen". And now here I am, wondering "Why do I need this "privilege" to fix a wrong that can't be fixed"? Why can I never act fast enough? Do enough? I'm such a dumbass."
"I thought the rain would make me feel clean. But the more it hits me, the dirtier I feel." Sonic told his brother.
"I don't even HAVE a real body. Everything is muffled...everything is deadened." Tails murmured sadly, and he would have cried then and there if he could have, but tears were a gift of the truly living, and he had no body that could weep. "I can't feel the rain. I feel dead inside. I want to go back to how I used to be. Even if it means upsetting the balance for just one moment." He told Sonic as Sonic bowed his head and Tails looked up into the rain.
A robot stood there, watching them solemnly. He'd been listening to everything they'd said for the past five minutes, having hidden behind the statue, but now he looked them over with a mixture of solemn intent. He was surprised at how little regret he felt for what he was about to do.
"You're Sonic the Hedgehog? The Blue Blur?" The robot asked quietly.
Sonic looked up to see a clawed hand being raised up, and his eyes widened in horror. He was stuck like a deer in headlights, unable to move away...
Luckily his brother snatched him away from the robot before it could grab him and Sonic lay on the wet ground, looking up with horror at the robot as he and Tails gazed upon this new attacker. The hedgehog was suddenly filled with a sense of utter terror...a miasma of darkness was creeping off of this being that gazed at them with cold red stones for eyes...
But finally he found himself speaking...
"RUUUUN!" He screamed.
And he and Tails DID run. They raced out of the park, going as fast as they could, but the rain made the ground slippery. They were sliding left and right as they desperately tried to get away from the robot, that continued to chase after them, eyes set with dark resolve.
"Why the hell is this guy after us?" Sonic yelled. "I'm noit the kinda guy to make enem-"
SFX: Waa-waa-waaaaa!
"...okay, scratch that, but I've never done anything to get somebody to wanna freakin' KILL me!" Sonic remarked in confusion as he and Tails raced down the main streets of Central City, panting and heaving as the rain continued to pour down. They finally raced into a nearby alleyway, only to find...
"...oh shit." Tails murmured. The robot had guessed which way they would run and was now at the opposite end of the alley. They tried to turn around-
The robot held a claw tip up and a single speck of purplish/black magic swept forward, and an enormous barrier was erected, cutting Sonic and Tails off from returning to the alley. Skull-shaped indentations began to moan from the wall as Sonic looked at the robot.
"Who the heck are you? What's your malfunction?!"
"Just as there are those who create, such as you...there are those who destroy." The robot spoke simply.
"Oh, the "Cats and Dogs" argument, huh?" Sonic asked, frowning as he held his fists up and his body began to glow with yellow light, Tails taking up a fighting stance as well. The robot looked them over as Sonic's fur turned yellow and if it could have, it would have grinned.
"So you're not afraid." It spoke up.
They rushed forward at the same time. Two fists surged forward...
"But..."
THWISH!
They missed.
"You're too slow."
One clawed hand grabbed ahold of Tails's side.
SHA-THROOOOM!
Dark magic swirled around the fox's body and he gasped in horror as Sonic screamed. "NO!" He roared out as Tails hit the ground, his entire form shimmering before finally showing off his true form.
The robot blinked in surprise. "...a disguise so potent it could cloud even my sensors...a teenage Metallurgist traveling with an enchanted fox doll. You're an awfully strange pair." He decided, turning to Sonic who was kneeling by his fallen, gasping and wheezing brother as white fluff billowed out of the wound like lifeblood. "I thought my Touch of Darkness spell would finish you, but this is taking longer than I thought."
"Don't think I'm gonna follow your SCHEDULE!" Sonic roared out in a fury, as black lightning streaked across his yellow-furred form, his eyes becoming a foul dark red for a moment as he rushed forward...
The robot's claws shout out and grabbed his arm. "You are not using your arms again." He spoke up.
Pain. Knives being stabbed into his arm and twisted as dark fire wrapped around him, and it looked like blackened ash had been permanently scrubbed into his arm. He felt a sickening chill suddenly rising through his body and Sonic fell to his knees, gasping as Tails tried to get up, but to no avail.
"No...no...brother..." Tails whimpered.
"Any final requests?" The robot inquired. "Perhaps a prayer to God?"
"I think God hates me, no offense." Sonic mumbled. "...tell me. Am I the only one you're after?...or...or are you gonna kill my little brother too?"
"If he interferes, I WILL have to slay him." The robot spoke solemnly. "But right now, my only target is you, Sonic the Hedgehog."
Sonic gripped his knees tightly. "...then promise me you won't touch my brother." He spoke quietly.
"I promise." The robot said firmly, nodding as he reached out with his claws for Sonic's bowed head.
"No...NO! Leave my brother alone! LEAVE HIM ALONE!" Tails screamed.
BANG!
A shot echoed through the air and the robot turned to the side to see Shadow the hedgehog lowering a gun, giving it back to Rouge. "That's enough." He spoke out, with guards on all sides to his left and right, a sleek black car behind him. "You've been an absolute pain in my ass, Omega. Now it ends. You're going into custody for the killing of 10 State Metallurgists...and..."
He frowned darkly. "One recently FIRED Metallurgist and an innocent chao." He added.
Sonic's eyes widened and he stood up, a furious, baleful glare entering his eyes as Tails gasped. That had been HIM who'd done the deed at Gerald's estate?
Omega simply stared at Shadow, Rouge and the assembled guards. He didn't move. He didn't blink.
"You don't deny it?" Shadow asked quietly, red eyes staring into red.
"You users of Magic tap into the Elements of the World. You are playing with powers that you are not meant to have. NO being is meant to mistreat the World for their own goals, and you Metallurgists use the World's aura for your own gains constantly!" Omega defended.
"Fine, I can understand you getting annoyed with magic users that use the element of Metal to make free Gold, or those who use the elements to commit crimes. But why only punish State Metallurgists? There a thousands of Magic users across the Earth." Shadow commented.
"If you get in my way, I'll just eliminate you." Omega said coldly.
Shadow raised an invisible eyebrow. "Oh you WILL, will you?" He asked. "You can TRY." He said, clenching his fists.
"Shadow, wait..." Rouge began.
"Shadow?" Omega's eyes widened slightly.
"Yes. I'm Shadow the Hedgehog, THE BURNING ALCHEMIST." Shadow stated proudly, eyes glittering like fire.
"You've saved me the trouble of coming after you..." Omega whispered, claws twitching in eagerness. The unmistakable aura of sheer diabolical glee began to pour off his body. "Oh, what a GLORIOUS day this is!" He hissed.
"You know who I am and you STILL want to fight with me? You're a fool!" Shadow roared out, about to flick a burning arrow of flame at Omega...
THA-THWUMP!
Rouge knocked his head down and whipped out two pistols, unloading them at the robot as he quickly jumped away on jets that sprung from his back, landing with a THA-THUD by a nearby shop, looking smug.
"What the hell did you do that for!?" Shadow snapped at Rouge.
"You're useless in this rain, sir." Rouge informed him.
"..." Shadow sighed, hanging his head.
"Careful sir, those deep sighs are gonna throw your back out." Ray informed Shadow as Omega laughed.
"Ha-ha-ha-ha! So many enemies to destroy..." Omega laughed. "All of you want to interfere, eh? Then I'll eliminate you all, one at a time!"
"YOU CAN DAMN-WELL-TRY!" Knuckles roared out.
THA-THWAAAAAM!
It almost connected. Knuckle's punch would have gone right through Omega's chassis but the robot slid to the side in time to avoid the strike as Knuckles removed his namesakes from the street, his eyes burning brightly. "So, you're fast enough to dodge my strike...I'm impressed. But if you think I'll go easy on you, you've got another thing coming! I'm the Stone First Metallurgist, Knuckles the Echidna!" He roared out, holding his fists high. "Try putting ME to death!"
"One after another. This is my lucky day." Omega spoke up.
"Well, you clearly don't want to give up. Fine. As one warrior to another, let me show you one of my Clan's most interesting techniques." Knuckles told Omega, holding up his palm as a large slab of stone suddenly appeared in it. He held his fist up, and then with rapid-fire strikes, spiked bullets made from the stone shot out each time he struck it, forcing Omega to swerve around and dodge as Knuckles smiled with pride, "The Pink" sparkling around his head.
Unfortunately, since he kept missing, the strikes DID slam into the ground over and over, tearing up the whole place.
"AH! Knuckles!" Rouge yelled out.
"Don't go a-tearin' up the street, big guy!" Vector insisted.
"Yeah boss, it's a pain for us to clean up later!" Ray agreed.
'Tear up? Tear up?" Knuckles asked. "Destruction and Creation are two sides of the same coin! They are part of the Balance of the world that we must uphold!" He roared out, rising up on a pedestal for some reason as the famous Knuckles clan's "Pink" sparkled all around him and he held himself up proudly...making everyone else sweatdrop at how he was wasting magical power to allow a pedestal to be formed and a random spotlight to suddenly shoot up from the ground to illuminate him.
"...our hero, ladies and gentlemen." Rouge remarked.
"If you were a Metallurgist you wouldn't think me so crazy. I think a fellow man of magic knows what I say...or rather, mechanical monstrosity of magic." He looked over in Omega's direction.
"Yes...yes, he's right." Tails realized. "He's using the rarely-used element of Darkness in his attacks! No WONDER we were so scared...Darkness naturally invokes negative emotions like fear and terror from others..."
"The hypocrite...ranting against magic when he uses it himself..." Ray murmured.
Meanwhile, Knuckles was rushing in at Omega, punching and jabbing with his fists, moving as smoothly as the flow of rain from the heavens. The robot did all he could to dodge and swerve away, avoiding the attacks as best he could as a burning pink aura surrounded Knuckles's body, turning his fur to a slightly lighter shade of red...almost...
"So much...pink..." Omega murmured as he dodged an uppercut. "This echinda's swings are powerful and he's fast for his size...and then there's those magic techniques of his..." He jumped into the air as Knuckles punched into the ground, sending enormous, metal-coated spikes up from the road. "He's very dangerous, but he keeps on getting in close...and when he swings too wide..." He thought to himself.
Suddenly Knuckles raised his arm. This was it. Omega was about to rush forward and grab with his claws to perform his technique when Knuckles suddenly stepped backwards...
And Omega realized why as he saw something out of the corner of his eye. He moved too slowly...
BANG!-BANG!-BANG!
A chest compartment's top was blown off by Rouge's rifle shots and they saw something...something that made their eyes widen. There was no creature inside this robot. No living thing driving it like with Gamma. This was a pure machine, powered by the unmistakable power source...of a very large, glittering multicolored ring. This was a Life Ring from Shanazar.
"A Shanazaran?" Knuckles gasped as Rouge blinked in surprise.
"...perhaps...there are too many of you." Omega murmured.
"You're surrounded. You can't escape." Shadow told him firmly.
Or so he thought. Omega raised his hand up and then drove it into the road. THA-THROOOOOOOM! A scream of a thousand voices filled the air as dark smoke obscured their vision. They all coughed and coughed as the smoke finally faded away to reveal...he'd blown a hole open in the road and had escaped through the sewers.
"Dammit. He's gone. I'm...I'm sorry I screwed up." Knuckles told Rouge. "I should have given you a better shot."
"No, I should have aimed a bit higher." Rouge apologized, shaking her head as Sonic ran over to Tails.
"Oh, is it over?" Mighty asked, sitting atop the car.
"What the hell!? Where were YOU?" Shadow wanted to know.
"Hiding. I've got a wife and kids to worry over, remember?"
"You could have, I dunno, THROWN YOUR KNIVES OR SOMETHING!!!" Shadow snapped at him. "We needed the help!"
"Don't go dragging me into this, I don't have the powers you Metallurgists have, I'm just good with a shiv!" Mighty protested. "Don't just stand there!" He told the guards. "Circulate his description to the people in the city and let's go get him!"
"Brother? Miles, Miles you okay?" Sonic asked.
Tails whacked him in the face and Sonic blinked. It didn't actually hurt, but the blow itself was stunning. "You IDIOT!" Tails roared at him. "You stupid, stupid IDIOT!"
"Hey, don't talk to your brother like-" Sonic began.
Tails grabbed the sides of his head, and he sounded on the verge of tears. "I'll talk to you how I feel! You need to stay alive! You're the one with the skill, you need to find a way to get or bodies back! You need to find a way to save people like Maria and Dulcy! I won't let you put yourself in danger just because of ME!" Tails screamed at him. "You...you stupid jerk!"
"...yeah...we look terrible...don't we?" Sonic asked, sighing. "...but we're ALIVE, aren't we?" He asked.
"Yeah...we're alive." Tails admitted as the clouds above them began to slowly dissolve away, and sunlight began to poke through to illuminate the land. "...we're alive."
...
...
...
...everyone was sitting together in Shadow's office as Heavy and Bomb sat on a couch, a guitar in Heavy's hands as Shadow folded his arms and turned to look over at them, with Tails's open "wounds" covered by thick bandages and Sonic's currently-cursed arm similarly covered. He was unable to use it now...it was as if the entire thing had been cut off from his shoulder.
"So...who were the Shanazarans?" Sonic wanted to know.
Heavy began to strum on the guitar as Bomb cleared his throat. "Okay, go ahead, explain." Shadow said, sighing.
In 1649, in Shanazar...Robots of every single make came from near and far,
They defied their masters, they defied the laws, and they said
"We only ask for what is ours. We come in peace", they said
"To dig and sow...we will work the land in common, and we'll make this desert grow!
What was divided...we will make whole! So Earth can be a common treasury for aaaaall!
The sin of property we do disdain...No one has any right to buy and sell the earth for private gain!
By theft and murder, they took the lands...now everywhere the walls rise up at their command!
You made the laaaaws to chain us well! Your clergy dazzle us with heaven or they damn us into hell!
We will not worship...The God you serve...The God of greed who feeds the rich while poor men starve!
We will live together without swords! We will not bow to masters or even to your Lord!
Our souls are human, our bodies steel...but we swear that we will make our dream come real!
From the men at Central...the orders came...they sent out all their troopers to wipe out the Robot's claim!
Their heads were crushed! Their limbs were torn! They were dispersed: Only their vision lingers ooooonnn!
"And that's who the Shanazarans-" Shadow began.
You poor take courage...
You rich take care...
The Earth was made a common treasury
For EVERYONE to share,
All things in common...
All people one...
"We come in peace"...
The order came to cut them doooown!
"...OKAY. We get it." Shadow told Heavy. He sighed, then turned back to Sonic. "They were all robotic citizens. Pure through and through. They felt that the Earth should be kept pure and unspoiled, and that it was important not to get involved with Magic, to leave it be and to focus not on building big cities but in being farmers and tenders of the soil. Central City ordered a crackdown on them after several incidents led up to a tourist couple getting killed in the city. Robot blamed Robot and a civil war broke out. Central tried to send in troops to put this down, but one uprising led to another and soon all of the nation of Shanazar was united against Central, demanding that they leave. And in response..."
"The MAN issued an extermination campaign." Heavy finished with bitterness.
"WHAT?" Tails gasped.
"Dr. Eggman ordered the nation to be put down for good, and State Metallurgists were to be brought in as weapons against the Shanazarans. We did..." Shadow folded his hands in his laps and sighed slightly. "...we did our job very...very well." He murmured. "That's why there is some justification in seeing one of their kind take revenge."
"It's NOT justice." Sonic spoke up suddenly. "Not every State Metallurgist around nowadays took part in that campaign, did they? I know I didn't. The war wasn't right, but they lost. He should be focusing on forgiving, even if he can't forget...rather than continuing a cycle of hatred." He said firmly.
"The next time we see him...we kick his ass. Agreed?" Shadow asked.
Everyone in the room nodded. Mighty turned to Sonic. "Hey. Whatcha gonna do now?"
"...I think..." Sonic spoke up quietly. "It's time we started walking forward. But before we can do that, we need to make a trip back. We've got to get my brother's enchanted doll body repaired AND my arm de-cursed, and there's only two people we know who can do that...and for FREE..."
"So...you mean?" Tails spoke up.
"Yep. Time to head back to our friendly neighborhood White Mage!" Sonic laughed. "Won't Amy be surprised?"
ENDING CREDITS!
(Sonic and Tails are sitting underneath a tree in chibi form as a sun is setting in the distance. A single apple falls down into Sonic's hand and he catches it, looking it over.)
Ano hi mita sora akane iro no sora o nee kimi wa oboeteimasu ka
yakusoku chigiri shoka no kaze ga tsutsumu futari yori sottaaaa!
(Now a chibi version of Amy is seen sitting by a pink chao that looks like her. She pats it on the head as she waves to Sonic and Tails, who go flying by through the air, yellow and orange auras around them respectively)
Muri na egao no ura nobita kage o kakumau!
(Now the two go flying by Mighty, Shadow and Rouge, who wave at them. They wave back, then slam into Knuckles, not seeing where they're going.)
Dakara kizukanu furi saisei o erabu!
(Knuckles growls, then holds them into the air and tosses them off screen, letting out a roar as "The Pink" covers his body and he poses)
Teeburu no ue no furuenai shirase machi tsuzukete
(Tails is shown holding a picture of him, Sonic and Mom, head bowed, wishing he could cry.)
Kuuhaku no yoru mo kuru hazu no nai asa mo zenbu wakattetanda!
(Sonic holds up his hands and clenches them into fists. The rings on his wrists and legs glow brightly as his fur turns gold, and he rises into the air like a glowing bullet, ripping clouds to shreds)
Ano hi mita sora akane iro no sora o nee itsuka omoidasu deshou!
(Sonic and Tails fly past the various villains we've been introduced to, forcing them off the road they were walking on)
Hatase nakatta yakusoku o idaite futari arukidasuuu!
(A drawing of Sonic and Tails in chibi forms is now shown in the hands of the REAL Sonic, as Tails stands nearby, sighing, wishing that his brother had more talent considering how childish the drawings are)