FLIGHT OF THE HALBERD: PART 10
Sonic VS. Razorbeard: Endgame
When we last left our heroes, they were steadily making their way up towards the bridge to finish off the Black Hole Army once and for all. On the way though, they got an unexpected welcoming by Meowth and Evil Bomber. Our heroes fought valiantly, but it didn't take long before trouble reared its ugly head. With as much massive damage to the Halberd that's been done, the ship tipped on its side, sending everyone towards the sky. Sonic and the gang got a hold of a ledge, but Meowth found a way to hang on as well! With Meowth taking down everyone but Kyle and Sonic, Kyle made the risky move to let go with Meowth holding onto him, now leaving only Sonic to face off against the powerful Razorbeard on his own. We now join the Blue Blur on his ride up to the bridge, where the greatest fight of his life is about to take place…
The elevator creaked and rattled as it slowly made its way up to the bridge. The higher it went, the more uneasy Sonic became. He had never been in a situation like this before, and now the fate of the world rests on his shoulders. "Sighh…come on Sonic, you can do this," he thought to himself. "If Kyle were here, what would HE do?" Before he could think anymore, the elevator began to slow down; he had finally reached the top. Sonic began to psych himself up for the upcoming faceoff with the metal menace, Razorbeard.
A small bell rung softly in Sonic's ears. The elevator doors slowly opened, and he quietly snuck around the hallways leading to Razorbeard's domain. After a few minutes, he came upon a large metal door with a keyboard. Upon further investigation, the small machine read, "Enter password." Sonic thought for a moment, then he typed in "Black Hole Army." But the security system merely buzzed at him and recited, "Incorrect password. Please try again." Sonic became annoyed, and finally he said, "Oh, forget this! I'm gonna do this the old-fashioned way!" He pounded away at the door, putting dents over the surface of it. With the metal structure weakened, Sonic gave the door one final blow to blast it out of its holding place.
Sonic stepped into the new room and looked around a bit. Electronics were running at full capacity, and a mysterious figure stood at the windows, staring towards the orange sky. Sonic took a few more steps forward and shouted out, "All right Razorbeard…the jig is up. Why don't you just come quietly?" The figure, which did turn out to be Razorbeard, turned around and stared at him with an evil glare. The beeps and blips of the electronics suddenly stopped, and the room fell completely silent. Then, Razorbeard spoke.
"Well, well, well…you've finally arrived," he began to say. "I was actually starting to get worried about you. Was your trip up here…enjoyable?" "Hardly…we nearly got shanked by debris and my friends are freefalling in the air right now. Thanks to you, I'm the only one left!" Razorbeard chuckled and continued, "Hehehe…so you're gonna be the only one that's got the guts to take me on? Funny, I've never known you to be this courageous before. Either you're really brave…or really STUPID!!" Sonic's anger quickly escalated.
"Pft…save your breath, hedgehog. I suggest you save your energy…I'd prefer to kill you while you're at your full power. Honestly, I don't know where you got the idea that you thought you could beat me. That prick Kyle must be force-feeding you these lies! But what does he know? He's just a dumb, no-good, piece of…" "JUST SHUT UP!!!!!!" Sonic rushed towards Razorbeard and planted a solid fist in his face, sending him flying towards the wall and damaging a lot of equipment. Although dazed for a moment, Razorbeard got back on his feet and laughed. "Ahahahaha!! So that's how you wanna play tough guy?!" He brushed himself off, then powered up. "Fine then…shall we?" Suddenly, he vanished into thin air.
Sonic looked around the room, panicking about where Razorbeard could have run off to. But before he even had a chance to think of where to start, the metal menace suddenly appeared behind him. "Hehe…boo." THWACK!! Razorbeard dealt a harsh uppercut to Sonic and smashed him straight into the ceiling. After he fell to the ground, Razorbeard then unleashed a swarm of punches, kicks, and other powerful moves before grabbing him and hurtling him into the steel wall. Now in a daze, Sonic was barely able to stand up. He tried charging towards Razorbeard, but with the lack of energy, he took merely 3 steps before falling to the ground and fainting.
"Hahahahahaha! You're a persistent little twerp aren't you?! I guess you don't know when you're beat. Perhaps I should help remind you…" Razorbeard slowly walked towards Sonic, ready to execute a finishing move that would end everything that we had worked so hard for. However, with every part of his body in extreme pain, Sonic somehow gathered the strength to move around. He took his arm and appeared to reach for something. "Eh? Wait…what are you doing, hedgehog?!" Suddenly, Sonic pulled out…
"Yes! The Chaos Emeralds!!!" Razorbeard stepped back in shock. "NO WAY!!!!! How the heck did you get those?! I thought the other twerps had them!!!" "Guess again, Razor-butt! Now it's time for me to show you what I can REALLY do!!" The Chaos Emeralds began to spin around him as he levitated off the ground. As the Emeralds spun faster, a bright light emanated from Sonic. After a few minutes passed, his transformation was finally complete.
Sonic's body changed from blue to gold, and a yellow glow beamed around him. Floating in mid-air, his casual smile was replaced by a determined grin and a downward slant of his eyebrows. He gave off an energy signature so strong, the guys and I could feel it 10,000 feet below him. "Wow! Did you guys just feel that?" Tails exclaimed. I stared into the sky and replied, "I did, Tails…Sonic has finally realized his true power. Using the power of the Chaos Emeralds, he's turned into…SUPER SONIC!!!"
Razorbeard frantically backed into a corner as Sonic hovered towards him. With fear in his eyes, he sputtered out, "I…I've never seen anything like this! Wha…what ARE you?!" Sonic snagged the titanium tyrant by the throat and replied, "I'm the guy that's gonna kick your scrawny, metal ASS!!!" He spun around in dizzying circles and flung Razorbeard towards the ceiling, but the villain managed to ricochet back to the floor and recover from the attack. "Grrr…I don't know how you got so powerful, hedgehog, but I do know one thing for sure. Only one of us will be leaving this ship alive!" "Well then I guess there's only one way to find out who that is, huh?" The distant sounds of explosions echoed through the mangled wreckage of the command center. "Very well then, hedgehog…BRING IT!!!!!"
For several minutes, punches and kicks were thrown, bodies were slammed, and stuff got blown UP. Sonic and Razorbeard were both evenly matched, matching each other's attacks move for move. Suddenly, Razorbeard took his arm, quickly sharpened it and lunged towards Sonic. At the last second, he dodged, leaving Razorbeard flat on the ground and helpless.
Sonic jumped at the opportunity and hammered a fist straight onto his back. The metal menace yelped out in pain as Sonic continued his onslaught. After a few well-placed attacks, Razorbeard lied crumpled on the ground like a worn-out soda can. Sonic finished off by throwing him upwards, letting him drop, then smashing his face with a massive kick. The force of the blow was so tremendous that he blew straight through the metal walls and crashed all the way at the other end of the halls. With no more strength left, Razorbeard gave in to his defeat, and after a brutal fight, finally got KO'ed. He passed out onto the cold steel floor.
The power of the Chaos Emeralds wore off soon after the battle, and Sonic reverted back to his regular blue self. He walked towards Razorbeard's unconscious body, checked it out to make sure he was down, and finally said to himself, "I…did it…I actually beat Razorbeard all by myself!" He took a moment to soak in his victory. Suddenly, a ringing came from his ears. "Huh? Who the heck is calling me on my Codec at a time like this?!" He answered the call, and much to his surprise… "This is Sonic?"
"Sonic, it's Kyle! What's your status? Are you all right?!" "OH MY GOD! KYLE!!! You have no idea how glad I am to hear your voice!" "Sonic thank goodness, I thought after seeing all those explosions you were a goner! How'd it go?" "It was a tough fight, but thanks to the Chaos Emeralds, I managed to pull through. I don't think Razorbeard's going anywhere for quite some time…hehe." "Yes!! Excellent work Sonic, I knew I could count on you! But don't celebrate just yet…you've still gotta find a way out of there! I'm gonna put Tails through, he has an updated map of what's left of the ship so he can guide you out. Hang on…OK Tails, you're through!"
"Thanks Kyle! Okay Sonic, here's what I have so far. You'll need to bust through the wall to your right. Through this hole there should be about a 20 foot drop below you. Once you reach the bottom, the damage from the ship should form the path that you need to take out to the deck and straight off towards solid ground! Think you can handle that Sonic?" "Hey I've made it this far, haven't I Tails? Sounds like a piece of cake!" "Okay then, we'll be waiting for you. Good luck! Now here's Kyle back…there ya go!"
"Much appreciated, Tails. Sonic, once again, I'm proud of you for what you did up there. You make it back down here and we'll be sure to celebrate in style. And I suggest you hurry too…that ship's looking awful close to crash-landing in the ocean! Get moving, we're waiting for you!" "I'm on it! Thanks for all the support, everyone. I'll see you guys soon!" "Roger that. Godspeed, Sonic…Kyle out."
Sonic switched off his Codec and looked for his exit route. But before he could do anything, alarms started blaring like crazy. An automated voice announced, "Warning! Warning! 5 minutes until self-destruction!" Sonic freaked out and shouted, "Wait WHAT?!?! No one told me about this thing blowing up!!!" He frantically looked for the right wall to bust down, but since he was in such a hurry, he decided to just smash EVERY wall in one fell swoop. Sonic eventually found his path, and he sped off towards the exit.
Debris and explosions filled the narrow halls behind Sonic as he ran for his life. Suddenly, he skidded to a stop at the end of a ledge overlooking a steep drop. "I guess this is the fall that Tails was talking about…well, here goes!" As he leaped off, a tremendous explosion sent fire and smoke flying through the hall that Sonic came out of. Pieces of metal became raining daggers as he fell towards the ground below. Moving swiftly through the air, Sonic was able to dodge the shrapnel with ease; with the final run set before him, he took off at full speed hoping to escape with plenty of time to spare. "1 minute left until self-destruction!" the voice blared. Sonic ran and ran as fast as he could, with the sight of daylight drawing ever closer. But before he reached the outside, a thunderous blast threw him off his feet.
With his exit now blocked, Sonic quickly got back up to find an alternate route, only to find a dark but familiar figure looming above him. "No…it can't be…!" The shadows lifted to reveal the assailant's identity. It was Razorbeard, battered and beaten but somehow still alive! He breathed heavily, glared at Sonic, and snarled, "I told you once, hedgehog…only one of us is leaving this ship alive! Now I'm gonna see to it…THAT IT'S NOT…YOUUUU!!!!!!!!"
Razorbeard tore up a large steel plate from the ground and hurled it at Sonic, turning the grating into a large razor blade. But he dodged it quickly, nearly getting sliced apart. Looking for the right opportunity, Sonic sped away and dashed through the hole left from Razorbeard's entrance. "Oh no you don't, hedgehog! I won't let you get away from me THAT easily!!!" He flew down the corridor and chased after Sonic, determined to take him down along with his mangled ship.
Sonic ran for his life as shrapnel and energy bombs generated by Razorbeard rained down upon him. Every step he took felt like a crawl trying to evade the massive onslaught. The attacks inched closer and closer towards his position, but just as soon as he thought he was done for, Sonic suddenly came upon a dead end; at the bottom of the wall, a small, thin hole could be seen with sunlight shining through. He quickly fell to the ground and slid on his feet to fit through the tiny crevice. "Where do you think YOU'RE going, twerp?!" "Away from you, Razor-butt!" "Wha…?" Razorbeard looked back up in front of him, but by the time he saw the wall zooming his way, it was too late.
As Sonic hopped back to his feet, he saw the indentation of Razorbeard's flattened body in the wall. He scoffed at his misfortune, then ran across the deck, almost home free. But like a stomped cockroach, Razorbeard refused to stay down. He hammered his way through the wall, and with his sights set on Sonic, jettisoned his way towards the end of the ship. "Ha…ha…almost…there! If I can just hit this giant debris ramp, I'll be in the black!" Suddenly, Razorbeard landed in front of the junk pile with a devastating slam. With his escape now blocked, Sonic quickly screeched to a stop; now there was nowhere left for either of them to go.
"END OF THE LINE, HEDGEHOG!!!" Razorbeard barked at Sonic. "You've been a thorn in my side for long enough!! You couldn't leave us alone, just HAD to dig deeper didn't you?! Well now look where we are…our teammates ditched us, with just the two of us on a fiery, screaming, metal death trap on its way down to the ocean! And if I'M going down, then goddamnit I'm taking you with me!!!!! So, any last words before I gut you like a fish…punk?!" Sonic stood paralyzed with fear, until something suddenly caught his eye: Razorbeard's hat was in perfect alignment for Sonic to perform a Homing Attack, which would knock Razorbeard off balance. That would give Sonic the chance he needed to escape to freedom. After scoping out his trajectory, he finally said, "Yeah…just 4. GET OUTTA MY WAY!!!"
Sonic curled up into a tight ball and began to spin rapidly. Razorbeard looked on in confusion. "What the heck…?" Once he built up enough momentum, Sonic shot himself forward with tremendous force and slammed into Razorbeard's face, leaving the villain dazed and disoriented. "Smell ya later, Loserbeard! Hehe!" With his escape route cleared once again, Sonic dashed towards the debris ramp at top speed and launched off into the golden sky.
Razorbeard regained his composure only to see that his enemy had escaped. "No! NOOO!! THIS CAN'T BE HAPPENING!!!!" Sonic leaped onto large pieces of the ship using them as stepping stones, managing to escape danger; the metal menace could only watch in anguish as the Halberd, along with his evil scheme, sank into the sparkling sea. Before Razorbeard disappeared out of sight, he screamed with rage, "I CAN'T BELIEVE I LOST TO THAT WRETCHED "
After hopping and jumping across the debris, Sonic finally flew towards a nearby cliff and landed on solid ground. "Ohhh sweet earth…how I've missed you!" He threw himself down onto the dirt and stared at the clouds above. It was over…after a snare drum battle, the DCI World Championships, a scary fall into the Pacific, a nostalgic fight with Meta Ridley, an Arwing dogfight, a close call with the Combo Cannon and the Heavy Lobster, destroying the Halberd's reactor, and ultimately, putting a serious beatdown onto the Black Hole Army…this ordeal was finally over. Suddenly, Sonic heard some familiar voices hollering out to him.
"Sonic!! You're okay!!!" the guys cried out. They ran over to him and tackled him, smiles a'plenty. "Okay guys, okay! Get off of me! Haha…I've been through enough already!" Ty pulled Sonic up off the ground and exclaimed, "Crikey mate, you were amazing!" "Yeah man, I can't believe you pulled that off!" Tails chimed in. Sonic blushed in embarrassment as the others praised him for his excellence. Not much later, Sonic saw me walking towards him.
I put my hand on his shoulder and said to him, "Hey dude…I can't even begin to tell you how proud I am of you and what you did up there. You've become more of a true hero than I could ever be. Way to go, Sonic…you really pulled through for us." "Thanks a lot Kyle…I'm glad I could finish the job for you guys. Actually, amidst all the chaos and stuff…it was kinda fun! Haha." All of a sudden, a mysterious shadow appeared in front of us. The figure spun around and flung his wings apart.
"Meta Knight!" we exclaimed. Sonic approached him cautiously and said, "Hey…sorry about your ship, Meta Knight." He stood in silence for a moment, then whispered, "You did the right thing, Sonic…thanks to you and your teammates' efforts, the Black Hole Army has been thwarted, and with the Halberd out of their possession, the world is safe once again. Everyone owes you a great debt of gratitude, Sonic Heroes. I only pray that this time of peace doesn't end soon." I stepped forward and replied, "With us around, I don't think you'll have to worry about that." We stared out towards the ocean as the last remnants of the Halberd could be seen exploding and sinking into the deep. Meta Knight then proclaimed, "It seems it is now our time to part. I bid you farewell, Sonic Heroes…and thank you…for everything." He spun his cape around, and as quickly as he appeared, he vanished into thin air.
With our eventful adventure now drawing to a close, we walked back towards civilization, wondering what to do next. "Man…some vacation this turned out to be," I muttered. "You're telling me! I need a vacation from THIS vacation!" Sonic replied. As we neared the city of San Diego, we noticed something rather strange, but very pleasurable to see. I hollered out, "Whoa! Guys, look! It's our RX-8!! And with all of our stuff still in it!" It looked like our vacation was back on track!
We hopped in and buckled up, but Sonic made no effort to get in. I asked him, "Umm Sonic…are you going with us?" "Oh I'm goin' all right…I'm goin' to whoop you guys in a race!!" We looked at each other for a minute, but then Shadow butted in. "Hmph…is that a challenge? Because if it is…I'm more than willing to take you on. You owe me a rematch from last year anyway!" "Hehe…all right Shadow, you wanna play this game? Then let's go!!!" Sonic and Shadow dashed off onto the seaside roads. "Whaddaya say, guys? This looks like it'll get interesting!" And with that, I revved the engines, hit the gas, and with the rest of my friends along for the ride, we drove off into the sunset, ready to finish our California vacation in peace.
THE END