Chapter 10: Showdown (part 1/2)

"Are you ready?"

"I'm ready."

"Then let's go!"

Silver and Blaze sprinted to the edge of the open airlock and jumped into space. The artificial gravity lost hold of them both, but after ten seconds their propulsion packs took over, hurtling the hedgehog and the cat across the black void towards the doomsday starfish - the Ultimate Overlord.

Scientists had over the past two centuries managed to work out how it was possible for animaloids to not only survive the freezing vaccum of space, but also breathe and communicate normally. The succesors of those scientists were hoping to find a way to communicate the explanation in lay man's terms sometime before the end of the millennia. The lie closest to the truth was that it was a loophole in the laws of physics. You wouldn't get a better answer until you wielded a PHD in quantum physics, and even then it was a real head-ache. Best not to think about it, really.

At the moment space was a misnomer. Silver and Blaze had to dodge masses of floating debris to get close to their target, and although the chunks of metal had no weight, they had more than enough inertia to seriously hurt anyone foolish enough to get in the way. Silver used his psycho-kinesis to move any dangerous obstacles out of their path, even cutting some of the larger pieces in half by throwing sharp smaller chunks at them. Blaze's fire powers were nullified by the lack of oxygen, so she let her friend handle this one on his own while she stayed close behind him. It was a very rare for Blaze to have no criticism at all to offer, but she would later admit that Silver couldn't have done a better job of getting them a safe passage.

The Ultimate Overlord was busy consuming an orbital platform. It had already noticably increased in mass since it finished absorbing the Prower 5. Two of the montrous tentacles were holding satellites snatched out of orbit, presumably planning to devour them once it was finished with the present task.

"Where are we supposed to land on that thing?" Blaze asked when they were near enough for the sheer mountainous size of the parasite to all but overwhelm them.

"Where else? The eye!" Silver said, pointing to the ocean of featureless black in the centre of the monster.

Blaze couldn't see what Silver was getting at, but she didn't have any better ideas, so she followed him.

-

"What do you think, Omega?"

The robot looked up from the schematics.

"Restoration of Eclipse Cannon within time frame not possible. At present rate of movement, Metal Sonic will cross paths with the Ark in two hours and thirty-seven minutes."

"I thought so. Then I'll have to destroy it myself. Come on, Omega, I'll need your help to deactivate each containment unit without setting off the security systems."

Shadow had thought through a lot of different possibilities when he designed the prison for the Chaos Emeralds. If everything went wrong, and an intruder reached the Emeralds, then the final backup system would force a reaction from all seven Emeralds, causing them to dissolve into energy and subsequently reform in seven random locations throughout the world, as had always happened in the past when their power was fully released. If he and Omega rushed the process they were about to carry through, then they'd run the risk of losing the Emeralds throughout the terrain of Earth, where they could be found, collected and misused by just about anyone.

Shadow's powers were a lot stronger today than when he fought alongside Sonic and his friends to defeat Metal Sonic in the past. Even though Metal had evolved to a considerably higher level this time, Shadow was certain that he'd be able to destroy the villain once he achieved Super Transformation.

The black hedgehog had no idea how wrong he was.

-

Silver cautiously tested the black surface with his boot before touching down.

"Gross!" he uttered with a grimace. "This stuff is sticky, like melted rubber."

"Hmm..." went Blaze as she knelt down and felt the material with her hand.

"Maybe if we try near the edge of the eye. We might be able to get inside- Whoa! What are you doing!?"

For a moment Silver thought that his friend was sinking through the black material as if she were in quicksand, but he quickly caught on. Although she couldn't create fire out here, she was still able to raise the temperature of the black stuff by touching it. The extreme contrast between freezing cold and searing heat created a condition that was easy to break through. Less than a minute, and Blaze had melted a hole large enough for the two of them to fit through.

Silver and Blaze dropped into what resembled a corridor from one of those cheesy old space horror movies. Apart from the fact that the walls and pipes were coloured blue and silver, they'd never have imagined that they were standing inside the body of the robot they'd been hunting since the fateful day it was awoken in a television studio in Central City. It had only been half a week since this all began, but it felt like months. The duo knew the final confrontation was near, and the ominous throbbing coming from every direction didn't help ease the tension at all. The corridor was at a tilt, so by unspoken agreement, Silver and Blaze went downwards.

The run only lasted a little over fifteen minutes, but it felt like two hours. By the end of it, they emerged into a cavernous chamber with tunnels extending out in every direction. The wires and cables that ran through the corridors all met in the central ceilling of this huge room, connecting in a blood-red dome that stretched halfway down to the floor. Directly beneath the dome was a throne. Metal Sonic, as he'd appeared when Silver and Blaze fought him in the studio, sat on the throne with an air of infinite patience.

Silver and Blaze approached their enemy. It was the villain himself who spoke first:

"Silver the Hedgehog and Blaze the Cat," said Metal Sonic in the most accommodating tone that'd ever been heard from the robot. "Yes, I know who you are. I've learned a great many things from the online archives of the world. You've both associated yourselves with Sonic the Hedgehog, and have aided his continued survival against the foes he persists in throwing himself against. Even with all the knowledge at my disposal, I can't see how far into the future or the past Sonic the Hedgehog's influence extends, but you two carry an unquestionable taint."

"Yeah, I met Sonic when Eggman Nega tried to mess with history," said Silver indignantly. "So what?"

"Am I not clear enough? I was created to defeat Sonic the Hedgehog. No, not just defeat, to complete my purpose to the ultimate extent, I must erase every trace of Sonic the Hedgehog's existence. You two, in fact your entire timeline owes its being wholly to Sonic. Merely travelling back in time and killing Sonic could never be enough, for this reality would still continue within an alternate dimension. The only possibility is to rewind time, destroying every moment of history until the present of Sonic the Hedgehog is all there is, with no future yet written. From that point onwards, a new timeline will arise, one where Sonic never existed and never could have."

"But then Earth would be destroyed," Blaze protested. "Dr. Eggman, Chaos, Shadow, any one of them would've ended the world if Sonic hadn't interveened."

"Fear not," Metal Sonic responded. "The planet will still have a guardian. I will assume the role myself. Very soon I will become the ultimate power in the universe. No threat to Earth will ever rival my power."

"And I suppose you'll rule the world, then?" said Silver.

"Heh heh heh. Of course. It would only be fitting for the Ultimate Overlord to rule and control all inferior beings in the universe."

"Dream on, Metal Sonic! We'll defeat you right here and now!" Silver declared.

"That's right," said Blaze. "Your purpose ended a long time ago, and you should've ended along with it. This time we'll make sure you never have a chance to return."

Metal Sonic rose from his throne.

"So be it! This time, let me show you what I'M made of!"

Next:
- The rematch.
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