Chapter 11

A Ruby's Identity

The Phantom Emperor started up the steps, but Burning Blaze got in his way. "Oh no, you don't!", she said. She started blinking; "Not yet!", she said as she felt her superstate form beginning to fade. The Phantom Emperor backhanded her away as she lost her superstate and headed towards Tikal and Vector. She hit the wall and fell back behind Vector before Vector knew what happened; meanwhile, Super Sonic noticed that the Master Emerald was glowing as he had his hands on it after lifting himself up. Super Sonic felt a lot of energy surge through him from it and he looked around and noticed the Chaos Emeralds were also glowing.

The Chaos Emeralds began to blink white as the Emperor of the Phantoms arrived at the top step. The Master Emerald turned bright green and the Chaos Emeralds grew in size. "I sense intense energy coming off from the Chaos Emeralds! What's going on?", Asked Tikal as she was laying down with her eyes closed, still in pain. Each Chaos Emerald grew to the size of the Master Emerald as everyone watched the rare event. "The Super Emeralds!", both Tails and Eggman pointed out in unison.

Super Sonic gave a smirk to the Phantom Emperor, as he began to turn white. The Phantom only stared as the hedgehog was captured in a bright light. "Now you'll see what happens when you mess with my friends!", Sonic yelled and then screamed as his aura flared up like fire around him. The light became so bright that everyone had to look away. The aura became multicolored and his fur started to turn as white as snow as the Emperor took a step back. The light disappeared, revealing a white hedgehog with a colorful aura, and everyone could feel the intense energy of the transformed hero.

"Hyper Sonic!", yelled Tails as Doctor Eggman yelled, "Hyper Sonic!?". "This fight just entered another level!", Hyper Sonic said confidently with his fist balled up and near his face. He looked at the Phantom Emperor with a smirk then grinned as he chuckled. "This is the most powerful form I have ever achieved. Think you can handle it?", Hyper Sonic asked. The Phantom Emperor remained silent but jumped back onto the ground away from the bottom step of the Altar. Sonic seemed to vanish and reappear several feet in front of the Emperor. "He's so quick now, I didn't even see him move!", remarked Vector. "Yeah.", said Espio. "Cool!", said Charmy. "You can do it, Sonic!", cheered Amy.

Tikal felt better as she stood up and walked over to the nearest injured Mobian, which happened to be Blaze. She began to heal Blaze and then Knuckles after. Hyper Sonic and Emperor of the Phantoms were staring each other down as the tension between them grew. 'Not going out there.', Tikal thought to herself seeing Shadow and Silver on the other side of Hyper Sonic. Hyper Sonic was everyone's last hope, either he would be victorious, or he would lose, and if he loses, who knows what horrors might await everyone.

The Phantom Emperor made the first move, running towards Hyper Sonic then disappeared and reappeared directly in front of him. Sonic hop-stepped left almost instantly as the Emperor attempted a punch. "Hehe. You'll have to be faster than that.", Hyper Sonic boasted as he rubbed his nose then performed a backflip, and tucked his knees in and wrapped his arms around them, spinning rapidly in the air. He blinked and appeared behind the Phantom Emperor and untucked his legs, kicking him forward. Hyper Sonic did a handspring forward and then blinked again and appeared next to the Emperor, kicking him to the side. "What's wrong? Can't keep up?", Sonic Boasted as he kept appearing all around the Phantom Emperor and punched, kicked, and kneed him about, every which way.

At one point, the Phantom Emperor threw out his hand and time froze as Sonic was coming at him. The Phantom Emperor then started to rapidly attack Hyper Sonic before he allowed time to continue, and Hyper Sonic fell to the ground and held his stomach. "Agh!", Hyper Sonic yelled in pain. "What just happened!? Why is Sonic on the ground?", asked Amy. "He must have manipulated time!", answered Eggman as he too was surprised. The Phantom Emperor then kicked Hyper Sonic away before holding his staff in the air. "How in the world is he still able to fight Sonic in his Hyper form!?", Asked Tails. The Phantom Emperor lifted up into the air as everyone wondered if Hyper Sonic was okay. Everyone was worried, especially Tails; suddenly, Espio remembered something that important.

"He has the Phantom Ruby!", shouted Espio. "What!? I thought we got rid of it!", exclaimed Tails. 'That's right! How careless of me to forget! I could get it back!', Eggman selfishly plotted over in his mind as a small grin appeared on his face. Tails ran over to Hyper Sonic as he knelt down to check on him, then looked up at the Phantom Emperor as he had both arms out. The Phantom Ruby within his staff lit up as swirls of black and magenta colors began to appear around everyone's surroundings.

Hyper Sonic pushed Tails away and got up. "I'm fine, Tails.", Hyper Sonic said to him. Tails flew back but froze in midair by the Phantom Emperor. "Tails!", shouted Hyper Sonic as he looked up at his best friend. He jumped up and homing attacked at the Emperor, which caused him to release Tails from his power. Tails quickly made his way over to the Altar, as he knew that he wouldn't be of much help against such a foe. Hyper Sonic began to constantly homing attack the Emperor as everything became random swirls of magenta and black. "I feel like I'm falling!", said Amy. "M-me too!", said Vector. "It's a trick!", said Tails.

The Phantom Emperor smacked Hyper Sonic away with his staff. "No more playing!", Hyper Sonic said as he recovered and hovered at the same altitude as the Emperor. Sonic streaked across the entire area, breaking the sound barrier and the illusion that the leader of the Phantoms had casted. "That's incredible!", commented Charmy as he couldn't see Hyper Sonic. Hyper Sonic used his Lightning Attack at the Phantom Emperor, as he flipped to the ground and cratered. "Now I'll show you what I can really do!", Hyper Sonic said as he flew all over the place near the ground, causing the ground to break and the broken pieces to get caught in the strong air current that formed behind him as he moved. The Phantom Emperor got sucked into it and was being slung around. He stabbed the ground with his staff and hung on before the Phantom Ruby made a familiar sound, causing the air current to fade away. He stood up as Hyper Sonic stopped in front of him.

Hyper Sonic quickly kicked him up, the Emperor flew straight up faster than sound! Hyper Sonic appeared above him and did a flip and a kick that sent him down at an angle, but he was redirected horizontally near the ground as Hyper Sonic appeared next to him and kicked him again. The Phantom Emperor managed to bounce off the wall and rocketed back at Hyper Sonic. He collided with him as Hyper Sonic flew off the cliff and through another cliff. He quickly recovered and did another Lightning Attack, as everyone closed their eyes due to the bright flash that followed. The Emperor rolled and flew down to the ground as he dropped his staff. "How do you like that!?", Hyper Sonic commented. The Phantom Emperor arose from the hole in the ground. His armor was cracked and in some areas, it had broken off.

Sonic repeated his previous attack again and again as he zipped by the enemy and appeared standing on the ground. The Phantom Emperor wasn't seen as everyone looked around, but after a few seconds, a body fell from high in the sky. The Phantom Emperor slammed ten feet into the ground and his armor was shattered by this point. A hand reached out of the hole as the Emperor pulled himself up out of it before hobbling while trying to stand. "He's still alive!?", said Knuckles, astonished. He looked completely wrecked as his body was busted up; he held out his hand as he was limped over and his entire body began to crack as magenta light peered out of them.

"He did it!", Yelled Charmy as everyone watched in amazement. Hyper Sonic looked at the others and gave a thumbs up while smiling. "No, wait! Look!", exclaimed Tikal as she pointed behind Hyper Sonic. "Huh?", Hyper Sonic said alerted as he turned around to see that the Phantom Emperor's body fell off of him, revealing himself to actually be fully crystalline like the Phantom Ruby itself. "What!? How!?", Hyper Sonic exclaimed in wonder. The Phantom swiped his hand to the side as a massive black hole with magenta colors formed near Sonic as his hyper form ceased.

"No!", exclaimed Eggman as he ran over to the staff that glowed brightly as the Phantom Ruby made one of the familiar sounds. Before Eggman could grab it, the staff flew towards the massive black hole. "Noooo!", He said angrily as we watched it enter the hole. "Come on, Eggman! We have to go now!", exclaimed Sonic as he started to get pulled into the black hole, while the Phantom Emperor walked over. {Buddy} quickly ran over to Sonic as the Phantom Emperor grabbed Sonic's shoulder. "Aughh!", yelled Sonic as he was being pulled on. {Buddy} jumped and used {his} shoulder to knock the Phantom Emperor away from Sonic as he was sucked into the black mass. {Buddy} had {his} grappling tool readied as {he} grabbed Sonic and shot out the grappling hook at the Altar of the Emeralds. It wrapped around one of the pillars and both {he} and Sonic were pulled to safety as everyone headed to the Master Emerald Shrine while Tikal began saying the mantra her grandmother had taught her. "The servers are the 7 Chaos. Chaos is power... Power enriched by the heart. The controller is the one that unifies the Chaos.", Tikal chanted. The Master Emerald and the Chaos Emeralds began to glow and a bright light engulfed everything.