Because We're Sonic Heroes
Chapter 9: Robot Carnival
Team Rose was definitely wide awake after being confronted by that nightmare.
"You guys again?" Eggman groaned as he descended in a hovering machine from nowhere and floated in front of them all.
"Him again," boomed Big.
"Bedtime, kiddies! Now to tuck you in…"
"We found Eggman, Amy…" Cream squeaked. "Now where's Mr. Sonic?"
Amy slightly panicked, glancing around as if Sonic would pop out at any given moment. "Ah…ah…"
"Oh, how cute," Eggman bellowed, flying a little higher than before. "You think your little hero is going to come…well, you're wrong!"
He dramatically pointed forward, causing several of his robot minions to rush forward.
"GET THEM!"
"I think you've underestimated our power!" Amy declared, pulling out her hammer and running into the fray.
"Dr. Eggman, please don't interrupt us," Cream begged, standing off to the side as Amy caused several cases of robot demolition.
"Stay out of our way!" Big boomed as he smashed his fists into the nearest clunker.
Amy and Big alternated attacking robots, since they were encircled around the group. Big would toss Cream at one with his fishing rod while Amy would take the next one in line by surprise and smash it to pieces. Eggman watched in unexpected surprise as Team Rose took down his robots so mercilessly- perhaps he had underestimated them?
Another round of robots was put on the table, and as Amy and Big attacked them, Cream trotted over to the doctor and gave him a questioning look.
"Why are you here, Dr. Eggman? What do you want with us?"
Eggman let out a low chuckle, descending his ride so he could be face to face with her.
"I didn't want anything from you, but now that you have claimed the Chaos Emerald I was after, I have a reason to attack you!"
"We'll never let you have it!" she retorted angrily, clenching her fists. Eggman scoffed in laughter once again, taking aim at Cream. Cream yelped and flew over the projectiles, quickly flying back over to Amy and Big. Amy and Big were back to back, spinning around and destroying the creations with their weapons.
"Just how many of these are there?" Amy complained, grunting as she shattered another one.
"There's no end to them!" exclaimed Cream wearily.
Big was in a fierce duel with a much bigger robot, only to be knocked over and surrounded by nine of the same kind. His ears drooped as his enthusiasm quickly disappeared. "There's too many of them!"
"Hmph, not too bad, I must say," Eggman interrupted, telling his robots to halt for the moment. They continued to surround Team Rose, forcing Amy, Cream, and Big to back up into each other. "But if you really want the madness to stop, just hand me the Chaos Emerald, and my grudge against you babies will be waivered!"
"You'll have to pry it from me if you want it!" Amy barked, standing her ground.
Cream gasped upon hearing her friend's words. "Amy, what are you-"
She felt something bump against her wrist. Glancing down, she noticed Amy was trying to hand her the Chaos Emerald. Holding in another almost uncontrollable gasp, she swiped the emerald from Amy just as Eggman swooped down and grabbed the hedgehog by the opposite arm.
"You propose a decent challenge, girl…and I'll have to take you up on that offer!"
"Amy!" Cream and Big shouted, running towards the doctor. Eggman whirled to face them, stopping them in their tracks.
"Come any closer and I'll take the Chaos Emerald and the girl!"
"Please give her back!" Cream pleaded, looking like she was going to cry.
"Enough already!" implored Big.
Their cries went unheard as Eggman lifted Amy closer to him, causing the girl to yelp.
"This is only the beginning of my master plan…and with your help, I'll be able to complete it!"
Amy winced a little as Eggman shook her, the doctor spouting more and more threats the longer the Chaos Emerald refused to show itself.
Cream was torn between obeying Eggman's wishes and staying out of the way, or revealing the Emerald to save Amy, which would end up disappointing Amy regardless. She snapped out her thoughts when Amy flat-out screamed, followed by Eggman voicing his growing frustration.
"Grrr…give me that emerald or I'll make you regret it!"
"Not on my watch!" Sonic cried, bolting onto the scene and charging straight into the Robot Carnival.
"Sonic!" Eggman and Amy shouted, the former releasing the latter.
Sonic did a backflip and caught Amy, followed by running to the left to get farther from the doctor.
"How come Sonic gets the epic entrance?" Knuckles complained, him and Tails arriving on the scene.
"Well, he was the only one that seemed to know what was going on…"
Sonic set Amy on the ground and turned to face the doctor.
"Sheesh, abusing little girls? You've hit a new low, Egghead!"
"They simply have something I want," Eggman replied, and Sonic noticed Cream whimper out of the corner of his eye. "I was just taking it from them because they have no use for it!"
He fired a missile out of his Egg Pod, aimed at Amy, who was still stunned that Sonic had come back. Noticing that, Sonic tackled her to the ground, the projectile just barely floating over them.
"Do I really need to ask why you were hunting down Eggman?" Sonic asked, sounding a bit annoyed.
"I just wanted to find you, Sonic," Amy said hoarsely, trembling a bit.
"Well, you-"
"Especially after you said you hated me and would rather jump off a skyscraper than marry me!"
"Okay, the jumping off a skyscraper part is definitely true," Sonic said quickly. "But I never said I hated you. I just said there is no way I'm marrying you."
"Aw, how sweet. Can we beat up Eggman now?" Knuckles questioned impatiently.
Sonic flipped to his feet, taking on a battle stance. Eggman, slightly upset that his missile had missed, took his anger out on his nemesis.
"This brings back a few memories, doesn't it, Sonic," he said with a smirk, noting to how he was defending Amy.
"If you mean all those memories of me kicking your butt, then definitely! It's quite a hard thing to forget."
Eggman looked unamused until he shouted, "SMASH THEM!"
Another herd of robots, this group much bigger than anything Team Rose had encountered. Big nudged Cream and pointed.
"I told you."
"Amy, you've got to get out of here!" Sonic hissed under his breath.
"But, Sonic-"
"Amy, please! Just go…for me?"
Amy stood back up and fell silent. She wanted to help Sonic, but also wanted to follow his wishes. She slowly backed away from the battle field, eventually turning around and breaking out into a full sprint. Cream and Big looked back one last time before following after her.
Sonic let out a sigh of relief as Tails and Knuckles skidded next to him, replacing the presence of the team that had just taken their exit. Eggman was a bit miffed that they had allowed the Chaos Emerald he wanted to get away, but watching them get demolished by his robots would suffice as well.
"Mwahahaha…why not have some fun while you can? After all, you only have two days and we know who's going to win!"
"Yeah- us!" Tails shouted, taking to the skies. "You're going down, Eggman!"
"Besides, if Team Rose could take out a mass of your robots, they'll be nothing to us!" chuckled Knuckles, thrusting out his fists and plowing them into any machine in his path.
"Don't get too excited, boys! Those were the easy ones!" Eggman chortled, flying away from the battle field and far away from their reach. Sonic scowled to himself until he heard metallic thumping, and turned to see two huge soldier robots and three Flappers that were spewing electricity everywhere. Sonic then smirked and curled into a ball.
"Well, I'm glad he saved the big guns for us! That was nice of him!"
Sonic threw himself at the soldier robot towering behind him, crashing straight into its torso and knocking it over. Knuckles followed this by running by it, causing the Flapper that was following him to give the soldier the shock of its life. Tails then grabbed Sonic and Knuckles and performed a nasty Thunder Shock, overloading the robot and blowing it to bits.
"Come on, Eggman! How come you don't wanna play?" Sonic mocked, jumping on the second Flapper and tearing its wings off.
"Be careful, Sonic," Tails warned. Knuckles rolled his eyes, grabbed Tails, and hurled him at the second soldier.
"I can take of them myself!"
"Yeah, do that without throwing me at solid metal," Tails grumbled, rubbing his forehead.
Knuckles simply shrugged and proceeded to finish off the soldier while Sonic jumped to the final Flapper. He latched onto its back and steered it into the wall of the nearest building, flipping off just before it exploded. He landed beside Tails and Knuckles, ready for the next wave of foes.
"Looks like there's another bunch of 'em," Sonic declared as the new brigade materialized on the scene. "Come and get some!"
Tails instantly kicked one in the head, defeating it in one blow. "We won't give up so easily, Eggman!"
"They're everywhere!" Knuckles yelped, ducking under a Flapper as it performed a nosedive.
"Hmph, not for long!" Sonic exclaimed, snapping his fingers.
Tails grabbed Sonic, and Knuckles grabbed Tails. The echidna used the full extent of his strength to spin them around, eventually releasing Tails' ankles and sending them flying. Tails let go of Sonic, performed a flip, and kicked Sonic, giving the hedgehog tons of momentum as he curled into a dangerous wrecking ball.
"Blast away!"
Knuckles and Tails hit the floor as Sonic ricocheted over their heads, blasting into every robot on the field. Even Eggman, who was hovering a safe distance away, was slightly quaking at the destructive power Sonic possessed.
Although he had been on the wrong end of it several times…
Sonic alighted stylishly back on the ground, leaving explosions and robot scraps in his wake.
"I've got no time to waste on these pests!"
Knuckles nodded. "What a waste indeed."
"But I spent so long working on them!" Eggman protested, mashing his fists on his dashboard.
"Making robots is the same as breaking them!" Tails retorted, though no one was going to tell him that made little sense.
"What's the matter? Got nothing left?" scoffed Sonic, turning heel and beginning to walk away.
"Yeah, keep 'em coming!" Tails cheered, pumping his fists.
Knuckles stretched his limbs and flashed his teeth. "That was just a warm up for me!"
"Then a warm up is all you'll get!"
Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles snapped their heads to the voice, which didn't belong to Eggman, but belonged to none other than Vector, followed by Espio and Charmy.
"Hey, Chaotix," Knuckles smirked. "Long time no see."
"No see indeed," Espio replied. "Probably because we've been squatting in the equivalent of a shed we can't even pay for."
"It has something to do with jobs we can't seem to find," Vector added, glancing at Sonic. Sonic noticed the look and blinked.
"Aren't you detectives? Don't you get mysteries to solve or something?"
"Not when you're the one solving them all the time!"
Sonic looked thoughtful for a few moments before scratching the back of his head. "Er…sorry, I guess. I never really realized that I was-"
"It's fine!" Charmy chirped, practically shaking. "It's just cool to meet you! You're so awesome, Sonic!"
"Charmy!" Vector grunted, pulling the bee out of the air. Espio shook his head and walked up to Team Sonic.
"Look, we're sorry to interrupt, but our first client in months has ordered us to fight Eggman, so if you wouldn't mind…"
"WHAT?" Eggman suddenly howled, catching both teams off guard. "Who is this "client" of yours?"
"Beats us," Charmy blurted out. "We're getting paid handsomely, so-"
Vector and Espio clamped their hands on Charmy's mouth, but Eggman didn't seem to care. He almost seemed lost in thought…
Sonic glanced from him to the Chaotix, and back again, thinking deeply. He motioned for Tails and Knuckles to follow him as he quickly sprinted away.
"You're really going to leave the fate of Eggman up to the Chaotix?" gawked Knuckles.
"I have to agree, they aren't the most…efficient people," Tails explained nervously. Sonic just shrugged.
"Hey, I probably have been taking away their potential clientele with my good deeds over the months…besides, whether they take care of Eggman or not, he's going to strike again, since there's still two days for us to get to where we need to go…maybe this'll help us get a head start."
"Huh, for you, that's awfully logical," Knuckles pointed out. Sonic smiled.
"I have my moments. Now let's juice!"
So Team Sonic bolted away, with only Vector hearing and hanging on every word they have exchanged. As much as he wanted to rant out his opinion on what he thought, he knew that Eggman had to come first.
"Doctor Eggman…" Vector growled in a hateful tone. Eggman murmured something as he spun his machine to face them instead.
"You've made quite a mess of it here, first with messing with my army and now this," the doctor grumbled just as unpleasantly back. "I'll accept your apologies and payment with your lives!"
"Want some…come and get it!"
"On guard!" Espio called.
"Guard on!" squealed Charmy, receiving a look from Espio. Eggman raised an eyebrow, apparently entertained.
"We'll hold nothing back since you are our client's enemy!" Espio shouted, taking action and running at the doctor. Eggman, hiding a smirk, simply snapped his fingers and summoned up a wall of robots to protect him. Espio skidded to a stop and jerked to the left, avoiding the sudden onslaught of projectiles.
"Hmm hmm hmm…I suppose you could say that," Eggman chortled, slowly edging his machine away from the arena. Espio's eyes grew as he threw ninja stars at the nearest clunker.
"You know who our client is? !"
Eggman chuckled again, this time not holding back. "I think I've got a pretty good idea."
Charmy, meanwhile, was tag teamed with Vector, having the crocodile throw him at the bots and ricochet off of them. He left smoking scrap in his wake, giving him perfect motivation to cheer his little lungs out.
"We're here to beat up bad guys!"
"Get ready," Vector began, taking a deep breath as Charmy jumped on his back. "'Cause here we come! RAARGH!"
Vector started spewing fire, forcing all the robots to flinch as they suffered fire damage. Espio leapt in, completely invisible, and promptly punched them all out.
"It helps that Eggman never makes these things fireproof," the chameleon mused to himself, smirking as the exposed contraptions burst into flames. Eggman scowled as another fleet of his robots was crushed by meddling heroes. He silently sent out another wave, this one containing many small robots surrounding one large robot.
The Chaotix didn't falter, Espio once again the first to leap. He calculated his attack carefully, jumping and aiming his ninja boot directly at the head of the robot. He was just about to make contact when the robot reached up and grabbed Espio's leg.
"What in the-"
The next thing Espio knew, he was being hurled across the battle arena, only to be saved at the last moment by Charmy flying in and scooping him out of the air.
"We could possibly be outmatched," Espio stated, staring back at the robots with a hint of uneasiness.
"Nonsense!" Vector protested, whipping out his microphone and dancing around with it. "They just need to feel the music!"
"…only as long as you never use that phrase again," huffed Espio, pulling out his own instrument. "Doo doo…"
"Bee bee bee! Charmy Bee!"
"Yeah, YEEEEAAAH!"
The robots, even the large one, were forced to stall as the unbearable noise permeated the air around them. Several robots began to short circuit while some simply self-destructed to escape the sound. Eggman himself felt like he was going to explode from the recital, so he made a tactical retreat and decided to leave the teams alone for the time being.
Once the song was over, the Chaotix noticed everything was gone- everything, including Eggman.
"Darn it, he got away…" Charmy said, sniffling a little as he tossed away his drums.
"Aw, look on the Brightside," suggested Vector. "At least the doctor won't be harassing Casino Park anymore."
"His robots are such a disorderly crowd..." Espio trailed, simply waking away from the battle's remains. "Just a waste of our time."
. . .
Eggman was still trying to escape from the park, fretting and fumbling over the fact he lost a Chaos Emerald, was defeated by Sonic once again, and to allow insult to injury, the blasted hedgehog allowed an even more mediocre team to fight him- and caused him to suffer hearing loss!
However, when Shadow jumped out from nowhere with a gravely serious look on his face, a pleasant smirk crossed the doctor's face.
Perhaps this outing wouldn't be so disappointing after all.
"Doctor!" Rouge cried, running up to them with Omega in tow.
"Tell me, Doctor…" Shadow said calmly, yet forcefully. He walked cautiously toward the doctor, almost apprehensively. "What was I doing…asleep on that base? And what about my memory?"
"Your memory? Hmph, what memory?" Eggman bellowed, even throwing up his hands for emphasis. "You have no past to remember!"
A deathly silence crossed the team, and it almost seemed that Rouge was more bewildered than Shadow was.
However, Shadow mirrored her wide-eyed expression, appearing completely taken aback. All he could utter was a very hoarse, "What?"
"No…" Rouge trailed, shakily pulling the inhibitor ring out of her pocket. "It can't be true!"
Her only response was Eggman's deafening laugh, followed by a cascade of robots raining down on them. Shadow was still gob smacked, and Rouge was noticing that he was slowly becoming less and less like himself.
"Doctor, wait-"
"It's useless, Shadow," Rouge sighed, clutching the ring before putting it away again. "We have to fight him."
"But…my memories…me…who…am I?"
"Numerous targets detected outside the perimeter. Prepare to intercept and attack!"
Omega stepped in front of Shadow and Rouge and began rapidly firing, while Rouge was trying to snap Shadow out of his newly induced trance.
"Shadow…?"
Shadow held no trace of emotion- and at the same time, there was a trace of everything as well. Rouge could see it in his eyes; a rapid flood of emotion was drowning Shadow from the inside out, and she had no idea of how to help him.
"This is no time to be unresponsive," Omega snapped in a robotic fashion, being the only thing standing between Rouge and Shadow and imminent pain.
Rouge sighed deeply and left Shadow, throwing herself into the brawl alongside Omega. Her leg kicked through the strong metal, she wove her way through the onslaught of bullets, and at one point she punched right through one.
Eggman knew that if the other teams could trash his army, Team Dark could do the same in record time. He sent in loads more robots, some small, some large, some that could fly, and some that were his very own Egg Pawns, complete with long swords and Eggman-esque faces.
Omega was finding himself outnumbered quite quickly, and Rouge was becoming outmatched. Flappers swooped over her head while Egg Pawns continually tried to impale her with their weapons. She spun around, leg outstretched, to clear some of the clunkers out, but they seemed to never end!
Rouge backed up against Omega, as if that was going to keep her safe for even a few moments longer. But if Omega couldn't keep up with the sheer numbers, then something was clearly wrong. Rouge, in one last desperate ditch attempt, glanced over her shoulder and gave a pleading look to Shadow.
However, he was not where she left him.
"What the-"
To answer her question before she asked, Rouge spotted the Black Blur whizzing around the arena, aimed right for the plethora of robots. Rouge and Omega just looked on as Shadow crazily zipped back and forth, taking out two or three robots every time he happened to stop. His fist plowed into robots that stood in his way as he sprinted around, his leg met with the ones that tried to attack, and his quills shredded through the rest of them regardless of what they were doing.
Rouge, Omega, and even Eggman gawked as Shadow single-handedly brought down the troops. Rouge tried jumping in again, but Shadow nearly ran into her as she did so. Gulping, she retreated for the moment, forced to watch the enraged hedgehog rampage on machines.
Eventually, Shadow started to run out of robots to crush, and he was getting pretty sick of seeing their faces, plastered with Eggman's cheesy expression on them. He pulled out his Chaos Emerald and held it high above him, drawing more negative energy than positive. Rouge happened to noticed this and inwardly winced.
"Scanners detect something very bad is about to happen…" Omega trailed, taking a few steps back.
"Yeah, no kidding," gulped Rouge, inching behind Omega even more.
The remaining robots and Eggman would have liked to retreat, as would have probably been the correct choice, but Eggman was curious as to what untapped power Shadow possessed.
As if he didn't know already.
Shadow began to glow red, as Rouge and Omega claimed he had before, slowly losing control of himself. Everyone watching had to shield their eyes as a huge burst of energy emerged from Shadow, engulfing the surrounding robots. The earsplitting sound of several explosions rang out, causing Rouge to press her ears tightly around her head.
"I have no ears and that still manages to upset me," Omega muttered.
"Worthless pieces of junk…" Shadow finally said at last, watching as the smoke cleared out and leaving many scores of robot scrap piles. It was almost a little scary, seeing pieces of machines laying everywhere, smoke flittering about, and an unnerving feeling filling the air.
"A group of sentry robots: destroyed!" announced Omega, feeling it to be necessary.
Shadow glared up at Eggman, making the doctor cringe and back away slightly. He then turned to his teammates, with Omega holding Rouge, and Rouge with her eyes wide and mouth slightly agape.
The hedgehog blinked, taking a double take on what he had just performed. He stared at his hands, then at the massive destruction he had caused.
"Perhaps…it's true…perhaps I have nothing to remember…and I am destructive…"
Needing a moment alone, but not waiting around for any permission, Shadow took off, leaving his team behind. Rouge stepped forward to go after him, but was halted by the sight of Eggman finally taking his leave.
"I believe our time is up," he claimed, ascending into the night sky. "I'll see you again, soon…"
"Eggman, you'll pay for this!" Rouge growled, clenching her fists. "I know you lied…I know you're lying…you have to be lying…"
She fell to her knees, feeling very defeated. She had no idea what Eggman had meant- he could have been simply messing with Shadow, or he really was the one who took away Shadow's memory and was trying to trick him…or he could've been implying something that the team hadn't discovered yet.
Regardless, now Shadow was desperately conflicted, and it was going to take a lot of convincing to pull him back on track again. As Rouge glanced up, gazing at the stars, she knew there was one thing she was going to have to do, even though it was very risky.
"I need to find Sonic…"
Well, things are certainly heating up now, aren't they?