Chapter 10: Wow...

Riku felt his ability to stand leave him as he tried to get up from a no less than intense swing from the Dark Stranger's black sword, curved and fogging with vile shadows as its edge slashed through the air. He felt every muscle in his body twitch with fatigue as Revrs attempted to keep his partner's body from turning into putty in the middle of battle. Gemerl defended against Eggman and his new Egg-so-suit armed to the teeth with hammers and rockets, so far he had the upper hand; blasting the missiles with his own weapons and the occasional melee on the rest. Sonic and Shadow, as strong as they were, amazingly had quite the chore of keeping up with Nazo, who imitated their tactic and created a large broadsword out of Chaos energy. As he swung, an X-shaped wave shot forward at the two hedgehogs, catching them by surprise. Sonic flinched, then felt the metal in front of his feet split open as a stone wall blocked the charging attack. His mouth agape at the strange occurence, he felt a warmth under his glove which made him inspect its source; a silver circlet with a small green sphere embedded on its surface.

-Chip*...-

(*Chip was a bug-winged, chipmunk-like close friend of Sonic's in the all console game "Sonic Unleashed")

He smiled before Caliburn interjected his thoughts, " Unless you intended on remaining on the defensive, might I suggest a LESS vulnerable position?" Sonic charged toward Nazo, then leaped high in the air as he brought Caliburn over his head and spun forward in a powerful spin-slash. Caught off-guard, Nazo was hit into Shadow's grip.

"Chaos CONTROL!!!" All stood still as Shadow spun around Nazo, a Chaos Spear replacing footsteps as the Black Blur covered every possible degree of every possible angle and deactivated the Control. Nazo was blasted at all sides as Sonic hit him with the broadside of Caliburn's blade.

" AAAAAARGH, Blast you wretched inferiors!!!" Nazo cursed, peeving the Sacred Sword, "I beg your pardon!? INFERIOR!? I, FOOLISH FABRICATION OF LIFE, AM A SACRED SWORD!! THE INFERIORITY IS WITHIN YOUR OWN SKULL!!"

Gemerl dove underneath the Egg-so-suit's foot and grabbed its ankle. With all the "oomph" his robotic body could muster, he lifted the suit up and pounded it on the ground and tore the entire lower half after hitting it so hard. Unfazed, Eggman activated the emergency boosters, making the suit hover over the ground.

"Prepare for your last upgrade, Gizoid; an upgrade into nothing but scrap!!" Eggman crowed as he fired clusters of rockets at Gemerl. Cockily, the robot simply leaped over them like he was playing a game of Leap Frog with Cream.

"C'mon, Egg-nut, you know I don't fall for that old trick." The Gizoid laughed, casually laying back against a half-shot-into-rubble wall. However, Eggman smirked with a sinister chuckle in his throat. "What's so funny?"

"Oh, this trick is as new as they come!" He pointed in the direction the rockets were headed; the place where the others were in hiding!!

"NO!! You monster!!" Gemerl kicked his jets on as he shot into the air, only to be grabbed by a claw from the Egg-so-suit's back. "The trick is called, 'Eliminate the pests' friends by making the Gizoid arrogant and get off his defenses.' "

Riku and Revrs fired Dark Firaga at them, only to be blocked by the Dark Stranger and shot back at them. Sonic and Shadow were too occupied being bashed by Nazo's endless assualt to do anything while the rockets continued their condeming flight. All seemed written in stone until...

"THUNDAGA!!!" Pillars of lightning shot through the rockets, making them explode several feet away from the others. As Tails and the others wondered at the bizarre turn of events, a duck in a blue suit and a wizard hat stepped alongside a mouse with a Keyblade in his hand and a tall dog with a shield in his. Sensing his old friend's presence, King Mickey called his name and sprinted towards the Egg-Tower. While Goofy kept watch, Donald made attempts to heal Sally, Hope, and Vanilla.

"Can you fix them?" Cream whimpered, her eyes filled with worried tears. Donald curved his beak into an assuring smile, "If I can't do it, then Riku can."

Riku brought Way to the Dawn and Oblivion down on Dark Stranger, making him flinch from the impact and provide an opening for two spin swings and a suplex from Revrs that shifted into a bear squeeze. "Geeergh, don't think... you have me beaten." Dark Stranger then warped out of Revr's hold and seven emeralds shot into the air from where he was. Seizing the oppurtunity, Nazo warped in between them and absorbed their endless power, causing him to writhe in power driven ecstacy.

"AAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!! BEHOLD THE POWER OF THE ULTIMATE BEING!!! CHAOS... METEOR!!!!" Nazo laughed as he he rose his hands and created an expanding sphere of energy. After knocking Eggman into the stratosphere, Gemerl gawked at the large ball and muttered, "Oh, crap..."

(Uh oh, DBZ much? And did i detect a hint of Hellboy too? :P)

Expecting the worse, Shadow grabbed Sonic as Gemrl grabbed Riku and warped to the base of the tower, where they ran into King Mickey.

"Riku, boy am I glad you're alright. And..." Then the King saw Sonic and froze. "SONIC THE HEDGEHOG!! Riku, how in the world did you get to meet him!?" Riku opened his mouth to say something, but was interrupted by Sonic pulling them all out the Chaos Meteor's blast range and back to where a dazed Donald had spent all of his strength makig the three girls concious, but thats as far as he got; they still had to stay within the canisters. Sonic looked at Sally with worry, "Are you alright, Sally?" The chipmunk smiled at him weakly, "Of course I am," then shivered, scaring the blue out of Sonic before she gave him another smile.

"Sorry to interrupt the moment, Sonic," Said a purple cat as she brandished a radiant-looking rapier. "No worries, Blaze, I'm sure he's glad we showed up when we did." Said Silver, unsheathing a weapon of his own, a triangular bladed sword that had a faint aqua marine glow in and around the blade. "Indeed, it would appear that our foe has yet to fight." Caliburn added, his gaze fixed on what remained of the Egg-spire. Above it was a very sinister, very powerful, very...

"Pink!?" Gemerl doubled over at Nazo's super form; it was surounded by halos of light and had a pink color hue on his body. "H-h-h-h-h-h-how lame i-i-i-i-i-i-i-is that!? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!!!" Unfazed by the Gizoid's criticism, Nazo simply waved his hand in their direction. Shadow flinched, "CHAOS CONTROL!!" and then everyone was warped to the inside of a building ten blocks away. "Shadow, what was-!!" Before Knuckles could get his answer, through the windows' view, a vast explosion completely covered the area they had once been and everything within four square miles of it.

"DO YOU SEE IT!? THIS IS THE POWER OF A DEITY INCARNATE!!! YOU WILL ALL PERISH!!!" Nazo echoed, his boasting soon followed by maniacal laughter.

Shade looked at the ground solemnly, "It is as if the past is repeating itself... The Chaos Emeralds destroyed my clan... and now they will destroy once more..." Everyone was silent, all that could be heard was Nazo's laughter as he leveled more of the city.

"INCOMPREHENSIBLE, THERE MUST BE ANOTHER OPTION OTHER THAN TERMINATION..." Omega buzzed as he looked on at the destruction and then to Rouge and Shadow. Rouge, who had her arms crossed over her stomach as Shadow had his eyes closed in deep thought. Then Knuckles slammed his fist into the wall, "NO WAY! IS THIS SUPPOSED TO BE HOW IT ENDS!!?" Riku thought for a moment, "Is there anyway to even up with him?" At first, Sonic was doubtful, then he just remembered! "Caliburn, can you..." The Sacred Sword smiled, "Say no more, Arthur." and then began to glow. Shadow's Arondite, Blaze's Lavietein,and Knuckles' twin axe swords, Galatine, spun around Sonic as golden armor began to encompass his body. "EXCALIBUR!!!" Sonic and Caliburn bellowed as a golden blade-shaped light surrounded Caliburn. All of the amazing things Riku had seen outside of his world had not prepared him for this sight, a million thoughts buzzed in his mind and that could come out was, "...Wow."

Excalibur grinned, "Fool, we have only just begun to amaze!" then a small light appeared on Riku's finger; as it dimmed, a gold ring appeared. Sonic made a rubbing gesture on his own finger and Riku followed suit. A tan-skinned woman with red hair, pointed ears and a genie's attire appeared from the ring.

"You summoned me, O honorable Master?" Then she saw Sonic, "Sonic!? How have you been? You look so... shiny." Sonic smiled behind his closed helmet, "Its great to see you too, Shara. But I'm kinda in a jam, in case the attire doesn't say anything." Shara nodded, "Of course, Sonic. What do you need?" He hesitated, then Sonic said, " I need the Rings." and tilted his head in Riku's direction. With a nod, she summoned seven, frightening-aura-radianting rings that began to pulsate as they surrounded Riku. Slowly, his mind began to cloud with images from his past; Sora swinging a wooden sword, Kairi collecting thalassa shells, of Mom and Dad, being pulled through the darkness, fighting Sora, meeting the King, destroying Xehanort's Heartless, seeing Sora's sleeping form in Castle Oblivion's top floor, pulling off Xion's hood and seeing her face, Xion's asking him if he was angry for her taking his friend away, defeating Roxas with his dark powers unleashed, of Sora fighting by his side at long last, of himself?... no not himself...

During all of this, Riku's body began to flicker and Revrs became visible, to everyone's surprise. "So I have to be the hero too, huh? Heh, fine. Just don't think you'll be an angel...when there's something like a devil in you!!"

With that, Riku, and his conciousness with him, fell into the expanding darkness.