Right then, you might remember that I said in the last chapter that I might upload faster? Yeah... that's not gonna happen. Basically, I've got exams and stuff to study for, so if you're looking for the next chapter then it might not be up until June, or maybe even the end of June.
So yeah. By the way, I jump around between characters quite a lot in this chapter, and it's the first time I've really done that extensively. As such (you know what's coming) opinions are appreciated.
Anyway, on with the story!
Standard disclaimer still applies.
Sonic just barely leapt out of the way as an energy ball slammed into the ground where he had been standing moments ago. Within a second of his foot touching the ground he was sprinting away, putting as much distance between himself and his attacker as possible. Mecha Sonic had become little more than a golden blur as it shot to and fro across the clearing, launching energy balls and explosive rings left right and centre. Without warning it changed course and ploughed downwards into the grass, where it began spinning furiously towards Rouge. The bat attempted to leap over the spinning robot, but it was only thanks to the intervention of Shadow that she avoided being ripped apart.
Re-materialising on the opposite side of the clearing from the emerald-fuelled mechanoid, Rouge and Shadow evaluated the situation. They, along with Sonic and his friends, were fighting against a robot that would have been difficult to beat at the best of times, but it had used the Master Emerald to power up into its super form and had the team rapidly approaching their last legs. Metal Sonic's loyalties in the conflict remained ambiguous; if Mecha Sonic made to attack him he'd fight back, but otherwise he seemed determined to put Sonic down for good.
"Shadow..." Rouge panted, "How do we beat this thing?"
Shadow shook his head, and grimly said, "We can't. All we can do is wait until its chaos energy runs out and it returns to its normal form." He observed as Knuckles grabbed Amy by the wrist and yanked her out of Mecha Sonic's path, before sprinting around the shrine to regroup with Sonic and Tails. "However, I'm not sure we can last that long. Even if we can, I doubt that this island will stay afloat long enough to let us take advantage."
"So what do you think we should do?"
"Move!" Shadow grabbed Rouge by the wrist again and ignited his jet-skates, shooting off before he was incinerated by one of Mecha Sonic's energy balls. Looking up, he noticed that the robot had its hands on its hips and its head thrown back; almost as though it was laughing at them.
Atop the now-empty shrine, Metal Sonic watched the battle detachedly, carefully calculating his next move. He had already lost the Master Emerald a second time, and he refused to lose his right to take Sonic's life to his super-powered brethren. Glancing down at his rival, he saw that he seemed to be discussing a plan with his comrades. The fox nodded at an unheard sentence and started running for his craft, which stood in its walker mode a short way in front of Metal Sonic's perch. His proximity sensors suddenly went wild, and he dissolved into a mercurial substance just as a barrage of explosive rings slammed into the shrine.
Knuckles looked up in horror as his charge's former resting place was blown apart. A snarl snaked its way onto his face and his namesakes clenched tightly as he watched the one responsible come to a halt above himself and the others. The robot appeared to be laughing; taunting him. He tensed himself and prepared to lunge, but a gloved hand on his shoulder stopped him. Rouge gave him a meaningful glance, before taking her hand away and running off to distract their attacker's attention. It worked, and Mecha Sonic followed her, leaving Knuckles to fume at the invincible robot.
Meanwhile, Tails climbed into the cockpit of his craft and, pausing only to let Amy clamber in with the limp form of G-mel in her arms, ignited the jets on the base of his machine's feet and lifted off. Quickly changing the Cyclone back into plane mode, he shot off in a wide circle around the battleground, attempting to gain a missile lock-on on Mecha Sonic. His target was constantly on the move, however; it disappeared sporadically, before blurring into existence somewhere else in the clearing, attacking, and then disappearing again. The young fox fumed and continued circling; using careful bursts of the Cyclone's mounted vulcan cannon to draw Mecha Sonic's attention from his friends.
Sonic bounded through the smoke rising from the remains of the shrine and tried to score a high-impact spin attack, but was intercepted by another spin attack before he could reach his target. Rolling along the ground as he landed, he quickly regained his bearings and leapt out of the way as Metal Sonic charged towards him.
"Come on Metal!" he shouted, "Couldn't this grudge of yours wait 'till we've taken care of golden boy up there?!"
Metal Sonic didn't even grace him with an answer; he simply ignited his engine again and blasted towards Sonic, curling into a spin attack and simultaneously activating his black shield. Sonic growled and leapt over the attack, corkscrewing in midair to land facing his opponent, before launching a spin attack of his own. He crashed into his doppelganger's back just as his shield deactivated, and sent him sprawling to the ground. Before metal could get up, Sonic rushed forward and aimed a hefty kick at the robot's midsection, aiming to put some distance between them. Metal's clawed hand closed around his ankle as he got close, however, and he found himself launched across the clearing to impact with one of the surrounding trees.
Metal Sonic rose to his feet and made to pursue his rival, but before he could the ground in front of him exploded and he was sent crashing backwards into the mud. Mecha Sonic curled into a deadly ball above him, before crashing down into the spot where its brethren had lain moments before liquefying again. Reassigning its primary target to the nearest enemy, Mecha Sonic activated its own jet engine and blasted towards the recovering form of Sonic.
Before it could reach him, however, Shadow burst from a green flash and grabbed the top of the robot's head, before disappearing again, taking Mecha Sonic with him. Sonic recovered his senses just quick enough to see this, and just quick enough to dodge the incoming fist of Metal Sonic, which crashed through the trunk of the tree he had been thrown against.
Not bothering with a witty remark, Sonic kicked Metal's temporarily stuck body where his gut would have been, before following up by jumping into the air and spinning down into the doppelganger's head. Metal crashed to the ground as Sonic bounded away to regroup with Knuckles and Rouge, who watched from the remains of the shrine.
"You guys okay?" he asked as he reached them.
"What do you think?" Knuckles snapped bitterly, before Rouge could answer, "I've lost the one thing I'm sworn to protect, my island is being destroyed around me, and on top of that, we're going to crash any minute!"
Sonic dismissed him with a wave of his hand. "You lose the emerald all the time, Knux, don't worry about it. We'll get it back."
"And how are we going to do that? I don't know where Shadow and that thing went, but I can guarantee that it'll be back any minute to finish the job. How can I possibly get to Eggman and fight it off at the same time?"
Sonic opened his mouth to reply, but was forced to join his two comrades in leaping out of the way of a laser blast, which sliced through the rubble of the demolished shrine. Metal Sonic's air intake valve smoked slightly as he advanced on the trio, an almost demonic gleam in his artificial eyes. The three picked themselves up just before Metal reached them, but before the robot could strike it received a powerful blow to the side of the head and was sent sprawling. Shadow rebounded from the strike and landed gracefully, turning to face his comrades.
"Nice one Shad!" Sonic exclaimed, giving his dark companion a thumbs up. Shadow sneered and turned to Rouge, the blue hedgehog's praise not even registering with him.
"I teleported the other robot out into the middle of the ocean; we have some time to come up with a plan."
"How about we come up with a way to get me onto Eggman's ship?" Knuckles cut in, interrupting Rouge before she could reply again.
"I could teleport you to the Doctor's vessel, but I may need all the power I have to combat Mecha Sonic."
"Why not get the fox-boy to get you up there?" Rouge said evenly.
"Yeah!" Sonic chimed, "Hold on; I'll go talk to him." He disappeared in a cloud of dust, and when the group next caught sight of him he was sprinting up a tree and jumped from the top elegantly onto the wing of the passing Cyclone. A few seconds of discussion followed, after which he hopped back down, landing right in front of his waiting friends.
"Right, Tails reckons it's probably best if we all pay Eggman a visit, seeing as this island's about to drop into the ocean and all."
Shadow glanced at Rouge, who gave him a very slight, almost unnoticeable nod, and he brought out his emerald again.
"Stand close," he told them, "CHAOS CONTROL!"
Metal Sonic watched on as the four disappeared in a green flash. Quickly realising where they must be going, he turned and punched one of the remaining pieces of rubble with enough force to launch it across the clearing. Now, not only did he have to deal with Sonic and his friends, he'd have to go up against his creator, who was by now in possession of the Master Emerald. On top of that, his super-powered brethren would arrive any minute to defend its master, and it would no doubt try and destroy him as well.
A rumble from the earth beneath him prompted him into action. As the island began to drop towards the ocean below, Metal Sonic activated his jet engine and blasted into the sky, tailing the fox's plane to his former master's craft.
Dr Eggman couldn't be happier. For what seemed like the first time in years, his robots had actually accomplished what they had set out to do. Mere minutes ago Silver Sonic II had arrived on-board with the Master Emerald, and it's near limitless power had since been installed in the ship's engine room, bringing all of the craft's systems back on line. The damage from Metal Sonic's power surge had been mostly repaired, and he was just preparing to make his escape when he saw a bright green flash on the aft deck. Eggman sneered; it would appear Sonic and his friends weren't quite done yet. The echidna in particular looked angry.
He barely noticed his sensors telling him that Angel Island was dropping towards the ocean as he tapped commands into his consoles. Bringing all cannons back online and activating the Shadow Android legions, Eggman pulled a small microphone towards him and issued his only warning.
"Sonic, I would advise you and your friends to get off my ship immediately! If you don't, then my cannons will tear you to shreds!"
Down on the deck, Sonic yawned. Same old Eggman; all talk, nothing to back it up. It came as a surprise, then, when an array of nearby cannons took aim at the four and opened fire. A barrage of lasers, bullets and missiles pelted the deck mere seconds after Shadow warped them out of the way. Instinctively splitting up to lessen the size of the target, the group began running towards the control tower.
Sonic jumped as three cannons on either side of him exploded. Looking up, he grinned widely upon seeing the Cyclone swoop down low and launch another missile barrage. The cobalt hedgehog poured on the speed and blasted forwards, eager to reach Eggman and stop him before any of his defences got lucky and score a hit on his friend's small craft. He was almost at the tower, mere seconds away at his extreme pace, when he tripped and was sent sprawling across the metallic ground.
Quickly jumping to his feet, Sonic saw the case of his fall advance menacingly, crimson eyes glowing with unmatched malice. Metal Sonic wasted no time in activating his jet engine and shooting towards his rival, who immediately put Eggman out of his mind and charged towards his doppelganger. The two curled into spin attacks simultaneously and crashed together with the force of two wrecking balls colliding, sending a wave of sound hurtling across the ship.
Shadow and Rouge advanced together, dodging turret fire and rapidly approaching Eggman's refuge. Shadow noticed the Cyclone overhead just as he launched a chaos spear at a particularly bothersome turret, blowing it to pieces and littering the deck with scrap metal. He signalled for Rouge to advance, and was about to advance himself, when without warning the deck in front of him exploded. A silver ball blasted from the wreckage into the air, soaring in a wide arc before uncurling and landing on its feet mere metres from the GUN agents. The black and yellow grid of its eyes locked onto Shadow and Rouge as it looked up, and its forearms opened into a pair of rapid missile launchers.
Not waiting for it to make the first move, Shadow charged towards Silver Sonic and delivered a crushing kick to its already weak head, where Sonic had impacted it back on Angel Island. The robot reeled slightly, giving Rouge the chance to rush in and deliver a flurry of kicks, surgically weakening the robot before it recovered and went on the offense. Silver Sonic suddenly grabbed her leg, its grip as tight as a vice, and launched her into Shadow, sending the pair crashing backwards along the deck. Silver Sonic quickly recovered from its assault and raised its arms, launching a barrage of missiles at its downed opponents.
On the other side of the ship, Knuckles was gradually making his way to the tower. Finally reaching its base, he found a door and punched his way inside, sending the thick piece of metal crashing into the corridor beyond. He wasted no time in dashing through the complex, searching for any sign of Eggman, and more importantly, his emerald. Finding nothing on the ground floor, he began searching for an elevator to ascend to the upper floors, where Eggman would hopefully be, ready for a good beating.
By now his island had to have crashed, and just thinking about it filled the crimson echidna with rage. The master Emerald was his charge, his one duty, and Eggman had, not for the first time, stolen it from him. He could remember years ago, when he first met the crazed scientist, he had actually trusted the madman. The human's claims that Sonic and Tails were emerald thieves made perfect sense to him, and he had become the scientist's willing agent. That all changed when Eggman stole his charge to fuel his space station, the Death Egg, however, and ever since he had been fighting against the Doctor.
Finding an elevator, he stepped inside and found a button marked "CR"; which, presumably, stood for Control Room. Knuckles pressed this switch and stood back as the metal box began ascending, cracking his knuckles violently. Eggman was about to get what had been coming for a long time.
The Cyclone's engines roared as it ducked and swerved out of the path of incoming projectiles. Tails' face was furrowed into a frown, and his tongue stuck out in concentration. One slip-up, one tiny miscalculation, and he'd be blown to pieces. Amy, sat behind the auburn-furred fox, understood the situation perfectly and forced herself to stay silent. She cradled the limp body of G-mel in her arms, and just looking at the injured robot filled her with dread. What if Tails couldn't repair him? The mechanoid brought such happiness to her best friend, Cream, and she just couldn't bear to see that sweet, innocent face show anything other than a cheerful smile.
Tails pulled the craft into a tight barrel-roll, dodging and simultaneously launching a barrage of missiles. He had destroyed at least half of the aft deck's cannons by now, and it was taking less and less effort to dodge incoming attacks. That was only a good thing, as it allowed him to check on his friends. Glancing over the rim of the cockpit, the young fox scanned the ship and quickly saw them; to his horror, Sonic was engaged in a fierce battle with Metal Sonic, their battle destroying entire sections of the deck as they clashed. Shadow and Rouge were fighting the updated Silver Sonic, and Knuckles was nowhere to be found. Tails could only hope that meant he'd made it into the Control Tower.
"Um... Tails?" Amy said hesitantly.
"Sorry Amy, I'm a bit busy right now!" Tails cried, avoiding a pulse of vulcan fire.
"No, you really need to look at this!"
Tails dispatched the cannons that were firing at him and brought the craft around to face where Amy was looking. His face quickly switched from determined to frightened, and then slowly back again. A golden speck was churning through the air towards them, slicing clouds in two as it approached. It had to be Mecha Sonic.
Mecha Sonic streaked towards the control room, where its master had just sent a distress signal from. Apparently the master was under immediate threat. Ignoring all else, the chaos-fuelled robot reached the ship and, barely missing the retreating Cyclone, blasted forth to protect the master.
The Doctor stood, hands clasped behind his back, facing the elevator. He had detected Knuckles' approach the moment he entered the tower, and as soon as the echidna entered the elevator he had sent for Mecha Sonic. It wouldn't have been difficult to escape; other than the main elevator, there was the hidden elevator he had used earlier to travel down to his lab and release his approaching saviour, as well as the teleportation platform in the corner of the room. However, Eggman wanted to meet Knuckles face-to-face; perhaps to simply annoy him, or, if possible, dissuade him from further conflict.
The metal doors opened, and Knuckles stepped forward. His face was the very epitome of rage as he advanced, and that barely changed as Mecha Sonic flew through the remains of the room's shattered window, landing between him and Eggman. If anything, his face only darkened further.
"Still hiding behind robots Eggman?" he spat, halting his advance.
"Hardly hiding, echidna; it's just that, unlike you, I know when to step back and let someone else do the work."
"You're a coward!" Knuckles shouted suddenly, "Now where's my emerald!"
"You don't actually expect me to answer that, do you?"
The crimson-furred echidna lost his temper prematurely and, losing his sense of rational judgement, lunged at the still-glowing robot between him and his enemy. Unsurprisingly, he was swatted aside like a fly, crashing into the wall of the room with a mighty crunch.
"Knuckles my boy..." Eggman said, his tone mocking, "You really should just call it a day."
"I'm not leaving without my emerald!" Knuckles sprang to his feet and ran at the Doctor, catching him by surprise but not moving fast enough to dodge the golden fist of Mecha Sonic. The blow landed hard across his chin, launching him into the air and straight out of the open window, falling to the deck below. Eggman watched on almost pityingly, before turning to his creation and giving the order he should have given as soon as it arrived.
"Get them off my ship. I don't care how you do it, just get it done. Try not to kill them, but do what you need to."
Mecha Sonic nodded and activated its jets, rising into the air and blasting out of the window after its prey.
A row of turrets was sheared in half as Sonic dodged his enemy's plasma laser, before he launched forward into a straight punch, cracking Metal Sonic's jaw with enough force to stagger him. He recovered immediately, and grabbed the hedgehog's leg as he attempted a low spinning kick, picking him up and tossing him into the air. Unable to get his bearings, Sonic was helpless as Metal blasted upwards and sank his fist into his gut. The blow both winded him and sent him spinning even higher, before the punch was followed up with a rib-crushing axe kick.
Sonic slammed into the metal deck, just as Knuckles managed to right himself and flip into a clumsy glide. The echidna dropped out of the air and slammed onto the top of one of the few remaining turrets just as Mecha Sonic sliced the air he had just occupied and blasted into the distance. Knuckles watched on in horror as the golden robot's flight took it directly into the path of the Cyclone, and without even slowing down tore through the craft's wing.
Tails wrenched with the controls as his plane lurched to one side, desperately trying to keep it in the air. Amy's screams went unnoticed as he realised that there was no way to keep the craft in the air, and prepared himself for a crash landing. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Sonic continuing his fight with Metal Sonic, and an idea suddenly struck.
"Amy!" he shouted over the rushing wind, "When I say now, jump!"
"What?!"
"Trust me! You'll be helping Sonic!"
"Well... if it's for Sonic, then okay!"
The young fox nodded and violently wrenched the plane to the side, falling rapidly towards the two blue combatants. Deliberately aiming for the pair of cobalt hedgehogs, he licked his lips and stood up slightly in the cockpit, ready to leap from his craft. Sonic, who had just been slammed onto the deck again, looked up just in time to see the Cyclone slam into the deck and skid towards him.
"NOW!" Tails leapt from the cockpit, followed closely by Amy and the still-limp G-mel. He grabbed the pink hedgehog under the armpits and began whirling his namesakes rapidly, slowing their fall and coming to a gentle stop on the deck. To his right, Sonic put his weight on his hands and thrust his legs out behind him, mule-kicking the approaching Metal Sonic and using his frame to launch himself into the air. He curled into a tiny ball, just barely passing over the skidding plane, and landed in a clumsy roll.
Ripping up sparks from the rapidly shredding deck, the plane tore on towards Metal Sonic. Tails couldn't see exactly what happened, but it appeared as though the robot was crushed by the plane and slammed into the wall of the control tower. Fuel ignited inside the plane, thanks to sparks from the colliding metal, and without warning the whole thing exploded in a mighty plume of flame. Amy dropped G-mel and rushed over to Sonic, who was shakily rising to his feet, and grabbed him tightly around the waist.
"Sonic!" she cried, "Are you okay? Oh my poor, poor Sonic..."
"Geroff," Sonic moaned, pushing her away, "I'm fine. Metal's the one not getting up any time soon."
"Oh, you were so brave!"
"Yeah, yeah..."
Tails, meanwhile, looked over G-mel. The robot seemed to be fine, but until he got him back to the lab there was nothing that could be done for him. Standing up, he was greeted by an enthusiastic thumbs-up. Sonic grinned widely, before stepping forward and ruffling his young friend's hair playfully.
"Nice idea with the plane, buddy. But you know, I had Metal right where I wanted him..."
"No problem Sonic," Tails replied with a grin, "D'you think Metal's finally gone?"
"Course he is! There's no way he's gettin' out of that mess." Sonic jabbed his thumb at the huge hole in the side of the tower, which had been filled to the brim with flames and metallic debris. The fox nodded happily, before his smile faded and he pointed over Sonic's shoulder, his mouth drawn into a tight grimace. His friend turned his head quickly, and quickly grabbed Tails and leapt out of the way of Mecha Sonic's dive. Amy squealed, but managed to retain her wits and dashed over to G-mel, scooping him up and running off to find cover.
Sonic pushed Tails away as they landed, getting his friend as far away from the golden mechanoid as possible. Rolling onto his back, he was greeted by a metallic claw which wrapped itself around his neck and hoisted him into the air. Mecha Sonic's single visual sensor bore into Sonic's emerald eyes, and for the second time that day, Sonic found himself terrified by a doppelganger of himself. This robot could rip him apart at a moment's notice.
Then, without warning, a purple laser slammed into the golden robot, staggering it enough to drop Sonic. The hedgehog sank to his knees, and just as Tails reached him to try and pull him away from his attacker, Metal Sonic blasted forward, dodged through his brethren's barrage of energy balls and grabbing it by the throat.
"The hedgehog is mine," he snarled. "CHAOS CONTROL!" And, using Mecha Sonic's own chaos energies, he disappeared in a bright green flash, taking Sonic and Tails with him.
Knuckles slammed fist-first into the spot where Mecha Sonic had been moments before, aiming to crush the robot's skull. Amy watched on with horror as he began sinking punch after punch into the deck, cursing his lateness, and realised that her two best friends had just been whisked away to some unknown place with two of their most dangerous enemies.
Sonic and Tails were gone, Shadow and Rouge were nowhere to be seen, and she and Knuckles were trapped on Eggman's ship with no real way to escape. And there was a very good possibility that Silver Sonic II was still out there somewhere.
Sonic... what should I do?