Episode 63: Assault on the Tryphon
On the Crimson Egg, a loud radar beep filled the bridge. The ship, at the moment, hid behind a large brown asteroid.
"Dr. Eggman! Our scanners have detected two Chaos Emeralds! They are on that giant planet," Bokkun jubilantly exclaimed.
Around the asteroid, away from the ship, was a gigantic green spherical battle station, made up of what seemed like giant looms of dull-green metal sections weaved together, giving the fortress an elegant, foreboding appearance.
"Hey, that isn't a planet!" Decoe yelled.
"It's a Metarex base. This fortress is the MXS Tryphon," Eggman grinned, "These Metarex are evil overlords after my own heart."
"Looks like those Metarex are serious about keeping those last Chaos Emeralds. That thing could take out planets on its own," Bokkun spoke.
"Hey, hold on! There are two radar blips around this asteroid field," Becoe said, putting them both on the screen.
"Metarex ships?" Eggman asked.
Immediately, a striking blue-yellow-white space frigate and an imposing yet elegant green dagger-shaped warship appeared on two different screens, both of them also hiding behind asteroids.
"It's the Dreadnought and the Blue Typhoon!" Eggman exclaimed.
"Darn, they got here before us," Decoe lowered his head, "Now how are we supposed to get the Chaos Emeralds?
"There's no need to panic," From the spiral staircase next to Eggman's pod, Rouge made her presence, "Eric and Sonic haven't stormed that place yet."
"What are you doing here, bat girl?" Eggman growled, "Can't you see we're busy?"
"Good to see you too," Rouge rolled her eyes. "I came up here because I had an idea, one that could get you the Chaos Emeralds for yourself. But since you obviously didn't want to hear it..."
She discreetly hung a small heart-shaped locket from her hip, deliberately positioning it where only Bokkun could see it. The small blue robot began to shake in panic.
"Wait Doctor, let's hear her out," Bokkun closed his eyes. Rouge winked at him, while both Decoe and Becoe gave her very suspicious glances.
"Oh alright!" Robotnik crossed his arms, "This had better be good."
Rouge flew up and sat on a console. "There's no way you're gonna break into that place by yourself. It's not like we can knock on the door and ask politely for the Chaos Emeralds. I doubt even Sonic would be able to do it."
Eggman shifted in his seat. "What are you proposing?"
Bokkun gave a nervous glance at Rouge.
"Well, we stand a better chance working together," Rouge shrugged, "If all three of us combined our efforts, it would be cakewalk."
"You want us to join up with Sonic and Eric?" Eggman stroked his legendary mustache, "Come to think of it... that's not a half-bad idea. When they're not looking, we can snatch all the Chaos Emerald right from under their noses!"
"Your genius always makes me happy Doctor," Becoe smiled.
"OHOHOHOHO!" Eggman chortled, "It's brilliant! I'm glad I thought of it. Decoe, get the Blue Typhoon and the Dreadnought on the line. It's time we had a little chat."
...
Eric and his friends were talking around the bridge, trying to decide on the course of action.
Just a minute ago, they had tried to see what the defense system on that station was by throwing a small asteroid with the cargo claw. Before it had even cleared the asteroid, many small beams of yellow light vaporized it in an instant.
"Holy shit nigga, that bitch got a powerful defense," Eric said with the obvious poor grammar that hallmarked his favorite way of talking.
Fang rolled his eyes, "Speak English mate, it's getting embarrassing."
"There's a kid in here you know," Sonya snidely remarked, glancing at the confused Alice sitting in her chair.
Everybody was interrupted from their conversation by a message coming up on the screen. The familiar jowly guise of Dr. Robotnik appeared with a big smile.
"Hey, it's my old friend Fatass!" Eric grinned, "Is that a Chaos Emerald in your jacket or are you just happy to see me?"
Sonya pushed the green hedgehog aside. "What are you doing here Robotnik?"
"I'm here because the last two Chaos Emeralds are hidden inside the Metarex fortress. That Metarex fortress is locked up tight, but if we worked together we could get through it in a jiffy," Eggman offered.
"Sure!" Eric replied almost immediately.
"Now hold on for a sec-" Mighty began to step forward.
"Great, it's a deal then," The main screen shut off.
Sonya got up from her chair and smacked her boyfriend upside the head. "Next time Doctor Robotnik makes you an offer, you say no!"
"We don't have a choice," Shadow, who stood stoically with his arms crossed, stood up and opened his eyes.
Fang readied his weapons, "Eggman's got the equipment and the know-how to get in there."
"Bakayaro..." Sonya cursed under her breath, "You guys do realize he's gonna betray us right? You know how he is."
"Your point?" Mighty smiled, "Compared to fighting a Shroud Prime, beating Eggman is a vacation. And with Sonic at our side, we barely have to do anything."
"I guess," Sonya sat back into her chair.
"We have to help," Alice's soft voice could barely be heard, "Those Chaos Emerald can't fall into the wrong hands. Please."
...
The young fox known as Tails sat up from his bed in a cold sweat, in his comfortable but definitely not lavish quarters on the Blue Typhoon.
He had recently been having nightmares about his parents and his life before he met Sonic, when he was shunned by everyone and everything. Tails hated the memories more than anything. But they didn't usually come to him as much as they did this time. They usually came to him only in times of extreme stress or serious depression.
Tails felt his whole body shaking, and his hands vibrating. An endless pit in his stomach seemed to form, and all of a sudden, he started to feel nauseated.
The young it looked at his hands for a moment; to his shock, they seemed to get wrinkled and had various dark-green veins showing in a web underneath his skin. Intense light started to flash in his vision, making him dizzy and disoriented for a moment.
"Ugh... What the..." Tails muttered.
As quickly as it came, however, it left him. Tails's body returned to normal, and he didn't feel anything anymore.
He was stopped from pondering the mysteriousness of his condition when a familiar red echidna stopped by the door to his room.
"Tails! Come up to the bridge," Knuckles said, and then ran away. Tails slowly got up and followed him, his shoes clanking on the metal floor.
Soon, tough, they both arrived on the bridge. Tails noticed immediately that they were in fact hiding behind a large brown asteroid.
"Hey guys, why are we behind an asteroid?" Tails asked.
Sonic put up a picture of a large metal green sphere out in space just around their position, its size dwarfing that of a small moon nearby.
"Whoa! What is that?" Tails asked.
"The scan says it's a Metarex base, the MXS Tryphon," Knuckles explained.
"'Tryphon'?" echoed Amy.
Cosmo turned to the pink hedgehog, "A great spirit of legend. My sister used to tell me stories of it. The sun goddess Tryphon was the mother of all the Seedrians, the one who brought my people to life from the soil and chose us to be her people."
Chris understood, "That's really interesting."
"Guess she messed up big time," Knuckles murmured, earning himself a death glare from Amy.
"Is it true?" said Tails.
"Huh?"
"Do you know if the story is true or not?" Chris clarified for her.
Cosmo shrugged. "I have no idea. Maledict and the Demons ruled our people before Tsali came. Many Seedrians worshiped him instead, at least until the war."
"Your people worshiped the devil?" Sonic raised an eyebrow.
"I don't know that whole story. I never saw my home planet," the Seedrian bowed her head sadly.
The crew of the Typhoon were halted from their discussions by the Eggman's ugly mug appearing on the main screen.
"Eggman! How did you get through my firewalls?" Tails glared at the screen.
"That's not important right now. You better listen up, cause I'm not gonna repeat myself! The remaining two Chaos Emeralds are inside that base. Since we can only get them together, I think we should help each other out. Eric and his crew have already agreed to help," Eggman presented his ultimatum.
"Because we all know how trustworthy you are," Amy sarcastically agreed.
Sonic stood there rubbing his chin for a few seconds. But then, he straightened up.
"Done," Sonic finalized.
"Wait, what?" Amy turned to him in shock.
"Great! This is how we'll do it," Eggman began to explain, "Eric and his friends will lead a group of us right into the fortress using Chaos Control. They'll deactivate the security systems and defense network, and distract any Metarex snooping around. While they're doing that, another group will go in and find the Emeralds. We need to get out before they get their systems back up."
"So what about the two Chaos Emeralds?" Knuckles asked.
"Whoever finds them first keeps them," Eggman presented a new challenge.
Sonic smirked. He always loved races, because he always won them. The picture of Eggman then switched to a picture feed of Eric and Shadow.
"I'll take Sonya and Mighty to take down their security," Eric chose before he turned around, "Fang, you take Alice on the E-Dreadnought and help Sonic."
The picture feed once again changed to Eggman, "Well Sonic, what's your choice?"
Sonic pondered for a few seconds. "I'll take the X-Cyclone with Tails and Chris. Amy and Cosmo can come with us in Amy's new starfighter. Knuckles, you stay on the Typhoon with Cream so you two can back us up."
"Why do I have to stay behind?" Knuckles shouted.
"Because you can control the Master Emerald, in case we need to use the Sonic Driver or make a quick escape," Amy retorted. The echidna grumbled, but he knew she was right. They needed a metaphorical trampoline under them if things went fubar or Eggman betrayed them. Whichever came first.
"I don't like this. Eggman isn't gonna play fair," Chris warned as he stood up.
"Don't worry, this isn't gonna take long," Sonic assured with a flamboyant wink, "Those Metarex rust-buckets will never even see us coming."
...
With a flash of green, Eric's group of mock commandos appeared in a corridor of the station. All of them, with the exception of Eric and Shadow, had weapons slung over their backs.
"Where's the main control room?" Shadow said. Eric, on a small mini-map on his wristwatch, marked the spot.
"It's somewhere in the equatorial quadrant. And fortunately, we're really close to it," Eric replied. "This way!"
"How coincidental..." Fang murmured as he ran after Eric down the green corridor.
In barely a minute, the group had finally entered the command center; a small room filled with control panels.
"So... Which one deactivates the defenses?" Mighty asked.
"Hmmm... Aha!" Sonya suddenly exclaimed, running over to a particular group of panels in the corner. She started hacking into it, though neither Eric nor the others could tell how she was doing it.
Eric tapped his foot impatiently, "C'mon, it shouldn't take that long."
"You try hacking into a Metarex military database then!" Sonya glared at him, trying to focus.
"It's not that hard. Just gotta press this button." His hand reached for a green switch to his left.
"DON'T-"
The message "Defense System ONLINE: Unauthorized Access Detected" appeared in large lime-green letters. And then all hell broke loose as alarms filled their ears and the consoles began to shut down. Line after line of Metarex computer code began scrolling down each own, deliberately crashing the systems to prevent tampering.
"Wrong button," Mighty quipped.
"No shit," Sonya had to use all her willpower to stop herself from punching the green hedgehog in the face.
Mighty threw up his hands, "Thanks Eric, you're a huge help,"
With a sudden an mighty crash, the door to the central database exploded in a cloud in smoke. Mighty, Eric, and Sonya all readied their weapons to ventilate whatever came through the door. No metal dinosaur or kill-bot appeared. Instead, a small female bat in black leather appeared in the smoke.
"Sounds like you could use some help."
"Oh Rouge, glad it's you," Sonya lowered her weapon, "Thought you were a Metarex."
Mighty did the same, "I thought you were with Eggman."
The bat didn't reply, but she pushed Sonya out of the way and began overriding the system. The purple hedgehog had no idea what the bat did, but when she finished the alarms deactivated and the consoles began to reactivate one by one.
"Eggman's laughing started to get on my nerves," Rouge explained.
Shadow cracked a very rare smile before focusing on the mission at hand. "Sonic, the defense system is down. You're cleared for approach."
"How did you even get here anyway?" Mighty tilted his head.
Rouge shrugged her shoulders, "What, you didn't think a girl like me wouldn't have my own starship?"
Mighty sweatdroppped, "Uh... I guess not."
"Let's get, Sonic's probably ahead of us!" Sonya commanded. The heroes filed out of the room.
Unknown to them, Rouge did not follow. She waited until they turned around the corner. Then she hid in a darkened corner, took a knee, and activated her communicator.
"Lord Maledict," she said, "Sonic and his friends just deactivated the Tryphon's security systems. The last Chaos Emeralds will soon be theirs."
"Beware, Tsali has found the station. He is not to be underestimated. Meet them in the core of the station. Your reward will be forthcoming."
...
Closing into the inner areas of the fortress, Tails Chris, and Sonic were flying in the X-Cyclone. Amy's starfighter and the Egg Mobile followed behind.
As Tails flew around in what seemed like the vast web of the station, Sonic was simply looking around and marveling at the architecture. It seemed more like a void of green spider-webs than a real fortress, like a tangled spider web of connecting corridors.
"We're coming upon a service corridor, it should lead straight to the core! Hang tight!" Tails said. He maneuvered the plane into a small opening deep inside.
Amy turned to Cosmo, "Is Eggman still behind us?"
The Seedrian turned around, "Yes."
"Good, keep an eye on him," The pink hedgehog smiled.
Unlike the rest of the fortress, this hall was a standard monochrome, not green like the exterior. It was surprisingly large, and it was easy to fly a plane through, especially for a seasoned pilot like Tails.
In a few minutes, the mock convoy of starships exited the tunnel into a gigantic ejection shaft, as wide as the Blue Typhoon was long.
"Hey, up there!" Sonic suddenly spotted a group of pterodactyl-like robots flying down the shaft straight at them from above.
"Metarex sentries, twelve o'clock high!" Amy exclaimed, and fired the cannons on her ship. Small laser streaks extending right towards the Metarex, who attempted to dodge. However, the blasts hit them anyway, and the stricken robots went plunging down into the blackness.
"How deep is that shaft?" Amy asked.
"I don't know, but I don't think we wanna find out," Chris replied.
"The core is just above us." Tails yelled, and sped up his plane so that it didn't take as much time. However, as he did so, the nauseating feeling that Tails had before struck again, but this time, about five times worse.
Tails entire body shivered and his breathing became low and shallow. To him, everything seemed to go in slow motion for a couple of moments as his heart hammered in his ears and his adrenaline level skyrocketed.
"Hey Tails, what is it buddy?" Sonic asked from the backseat, noticing Tails's condition.
And just like last time, it vanished randomly, just as quickly as it came.
"Uhh... Nothing." Tails said, taking a deep breath, and resuming his flying. He opened the cockpit so Sonic could leap ahead up the the core high above them.
Then his attention was distracted by one minor detail. The Egg Pod was gone, and so were it villainous occupants.
"Hey were did Eggman go? Amy, what's happening back there?" Tails contacted the other ships in the convoy.
"He was just behind us," Amy replied over the radio.
"That means he bailed," Tails scanned the skies and the X-Cyclone's radar, "Keep your eyes peeled, he could-"
Tails got cut off by an explosion that jerked the Cyclone to the right and forcing Sonic to hang on to the open cockpit for dear life. Amy narrowly flew out of the way before she and Tails collided. Both of them looked back.
"I've lost control of the plane!" Amy yelled over the radio to the other aircraft, "The controls are getting jammed!"
Tails quickly noticed that his own craft didn't respond either.
"Tails, why are you slowing down?" Chris yelled.
"It's not me! I can't control my plane either!" Tails tried everything he could, but nothing worked.
From the darkness of the shaft below, the Egg Mobile and its nefarious occupants rose. Decoe and Becoe, large mechanical arms attached to their backsides, stood up in the pod.
"Nyeheheheheheh!" Robotnik chortled through his space helmet, "You tried your best, but I'm afraid our little game ends here."
He zoomed up to the disabled Cyclone. Chris and Tails ducked to avoid being decapitated as the two robots swept their arms and ripped the glowing gems from their slots.
But just as the Egg Mobile began to approach Amy and Cosmo, three shots rang out. From the E-Dreadnought, Fang stood up in the open cockpit, smoking revolvers in hand.
His aim was true. The shots hit the pod's engines, causing them to sputter and begin to smoke. The vehicle began to lose speed very quickly. With that, Sonic the Hedgehog leaped from the Cyclone's cockpit directly in front of Eggman's stunned features.
"Uh-oh..." Decoe cowered, Robotnik himself began to sweat as his archnemesis grinned in victory.
"Dodgers 2, Giants 0!" Sonic quipped as he ripped the Chaos Emeralds directly out of Eggman's palms.
With a forceful kick, Sonic sent the Egg Mobile and its screaming occupants falling into the darkness below and promptly landed back onto the Cyclone. He eyed the E-Dreadnought and waved at Fang the Sniper. The purple weasel tipped his hat in reply.
"Nice shot Fang," Tails thanked him over the Cyclone's radio, "We're here. The core is right above us!"
...
In only a few minutes, they had reached the core area; a giant, dimly-lit room that was more like a huge solid dome with a couple small buildings inside of the dome itself.
Tails and Amy landed their own craft on the flat floor with relative ease, thanks to the hover mode installed on both of them. The heroes jumped out of their craft and looked about.
No sooner did they land that Eric and his crew entered the chamber from the hall to their right.
"So, where are the Chaos Emeralds?" Sonic asked to Eric.
"Here they are!" Cosmo shouted, standing by a couple of glass cases filled with water seated on pedestals. Two Chaos Emeralds were contained in them.
Using apparently instinctive knowledge of the Metarex control systems, Cosmo shut down the containment around the Emeralds. The water from inside drained into the pedestals, and the glass cases opened up.
"See Eric, I told you I was the fastest thing alive!" Sonic taunted. Eric grumbled a little.
Shadow stepped forward. "I see you haven't lost your touch faker."
"Hey, look up there," Sonya exclaimed, pointing up to the ceiling, "Is that a Planet Egg?"
In a large crystal ball mounted on a tall pedestal was the Planet Egg that controlled the fortress and its power supply. It pulsed, energy surging through a network of wires and pipes.
Tails spoke stroked his chin, "I guess my theory was right. The Metarex must be using the Chaos Energy inside it to power this fortress. I guess that's why they were experimenting on them."
Then the blast doors on the other side of the core chamber snapped open. Metarex robots and troopers poured in, their glossy eye ports focused on the trespassers. Wave after wave appeared from the black halls beyond, until the heroes were completely surrounded.
"Looks like the Metarex aren't gonna let their Chaos Emeralds go without a fight!" Sonic cracked his knuckles.
The heroes moved themselves into a circle, ready to be mobbed at any moment. But then they began to glow. The robots around Sonic and friends began to spark with electrical disturbance. They writhed, their systems shutting down as dark power overwhelmed them.
One by one, they fell apart. Bursts of Dark Chaos Energy blew them apart, bolts of power incinerating the largest ones with Metarex kept coming - and the more they poured into the chamber, the more were destroyed. By the time the remaining Metarex retreated in disarray, the chamber was filled with scraps of metal and debris.
And then, a flash of azure light filled the room and Tsali the Ultimate Weapon made himself known. The final Chaos Emerald sat in his hand. Cosmo cowered at the sight, hiding behind Amy and Sonic.
A smirk appeared on the black fox's face. "Fancy meeting you here. Not."
"You just don't know when to quit do you?" Sonya raised her plasma rifle.
"Well, this is a rather awkward situation," the destroyer of worlds mocked, his smugness radiating around the room, "But I'm fine with it. You brought me Cosmo and the rest of the Chaos Emeralds after all."
"It's time to end this once and for all, Tsali! You're gonna pay for all the people you killed!" Sonic challenged him.
"I don't know what you or your friend Maledict is up to," Shadow stepped next to Sonic, "But after what I've heard, I know you're nothing more than a murderous psychopath with delusions of grandeur."
"I guess that makes two of us Shadow the Hedgehog," Tsali taunted, "That's a tall accusation for someone who nearly wiped out all life on a planet because they didn't get to fuck their girlfriend."
Amy, Cosmo, and Sonya gasped loudly.
Tails glared at him, "And that is a tall insult from someone who has wiped out whole planets for no reason at all!"
Tsali's smile grew even larger. "Looks like nothing gets past you, Tails."
Shadow's hands curled up into fists, his rage boiling over. Tsali's words were unforgivable. There would be no mercy now, no quarter given. He would pay.
"Ya know Tsali," Eric stepped forward, "I like messin' around as much as the next guy. I mean, I don't give a shit. Everyone knows that. You've been running around causing havoc, but that don't mean you're a god. I am the only god here!"
Fang snickered in response to his inane rambling. Both of the hedgehogs looked at Sonic, who turned to them.
The blue hedgehog smiled, "Shall we?"
Shadow extended his hand, and the Chaos Emerald flew right out of Tsali's palm to him.
At that moment, like a bunch of rainbow butterflies, all of the Chaos Emeralds started to glow brightly and levitate in the air, floating slowly around the trio.
Sonic, Eric and Shadow all put their hands on each other's shoulders, like they were about to do a team cheer before a sports game. The three hedgehogs were totally bathed in a bright light, blinding everyone in the room.
When the light faded, everybody stared upon the trio.
The hedgehogs had harnessed the full powers of the Emeralds; Super Sonic, Super Shadow, and Super Eric. Sonic now had yellow fur, Shadow now had gold fur, and Eric had bright-silver fur. All three of them had red pupils, and their quills pointed slightly upward. All three of them also had bright gold (and in Eric's case, silver) auras around their skin.
The three super-hedgehogs all looked at the Ultimate Weapon, completely unimpressed with their transformation.
"I guess you didn't learn your lesson the first time," Tsali spoke, levitating into the air with his Dark Emerald floating above him and a cobalt energy sphere around him, "I'll enjoy ripping your limbs from your sockets!"
Extending his hand, Tsali was about to unleash a collection of Dark Chaos Spears. Until, faster than even Tsali could react, Eric teleported and kicked him in the head from behind. Tsali cried out in shock as he was blasted forward
But his pain would not stop there. Before he hit a wall, Shadow had teleported in front and hit Tsali in another direction like a game of volleyball.
With Sonic into the mix, the battle became nothing more than a pummeling match, until all three of them drove Tsali into the floor with a single massive three-way punch.
The Ultimate Weapon crashed into the metal floor, cracking it somewhat. With a teleport, Tsali was back on his feet, still resistant and stubborn as ever despite the power of his three opponents.
"THAT'S IT!" The Ultimate Weapon screamed at the top of his lungs, gathering every remaining bit of Dark Chaos Energy he could possibly muster, from his own Dark Emerald and all of the Chaos Emeralds.
Great azure lighting bolts shot out at Sonic, Shadow, and Eric. The entire room began to vibrate as if there was an earthquake from the sheer magnitude of Tsali's stand. Their friends were forced to seek cover from the storm, unable to move without getting bathed in radiation and dark power.
The bolts of lighting began glowing as they penetrated the three hedgehog and literally began sucking the Dark Chaos Energy from their bodies through the tendrils, drawing them into Tsali's own form. The android fox promptly noticed his backup Dark Chaos Energy batteries recharge to their full capacity.
By the time he had finished, his three hedgehog opponents were on their knees, panting and wheezing from the energy that had just been sucked out of them. Tsali, meanwhile, was all charged up and ready to go; in fact, his body was still glowing blue from the overcharge.
"I am Tsali, the Ultimate Weapon!" His howling voice echoed with untold power, "I have cleansed worlds in blood and chaos! I have broken the power of empires and brought the greatest of the galaxy to their knees! And I will not fall to a hedgehog!"
Tsali and the hedgehogs didn't even notice it until the Emeralds came to float around the hedgehogs like bubbles. Within seconds, Sonic, Shadow, and Eric were back on their feet and back into their Super forms.
"CHAOS TORRENT!" Tsali shouted. From his hand, a cyclone of Dark Chaos Energy swirled right towards the three Super hedgehogs.
Though Sonic and Shadow were ready, Eric hadn't noticed that it was aimed right towards him. Before even he could react, the cyclone slammed him backwards every which way before it fizzled out. Fortunately, thanks to his Super form, he was still up to the fight.
"You're mine!" Sonic flew forward as lightning speed. Before he connected, however, the Ultimate Weapon jumped out of the way. While he wasn't looking, Shadow fired several regular Chaos Spears at him; they slammed into the robot fox's backside.
However, Tsali didn't even grunt in pain. Instead, he spun around and launched a very quick Chaos Superblast at Shadow, which hit the Super hedgehog square in the torso and sent him crashing into the wall.
Sonic came at the black fox again; once more, Tsali apparently was ready, and he blocked the attack as he spun around facing Sonic. Tsali immediately sucker-punched Super Sonic right in the face.
"GAHH!" Sonic recoiled back from the blow. Even though he was in his Super Form, the thick metal-reinforced fist of the Ultimate Weapon was still extremely painful.
Shadow teleported in front of Tsali and unleashed a hyper-speed kick combo. Using his own hyper reflexes, Tsali blocked all of them with his metal arms. Then, it was Shadow's turn; he also recieved a crippling metal punch in the face courtesy of Tsali's power.
The black fox came forward for another hard blow; before he hit Sonic again, Eric launched a Chaos Superblast that hit Tsali square in the back, causing him to stagger forward and distracting his attention. The beam of Chaos Energy had depleted his energy reserves quite a bit. Each of their blows activated his reactive armor systems, slowly draining the his energy batteries. And now it was adding up.
Eric, sensing that his foe was weakened, flew at him again, but he was stopped dead by a concussive blast of Dark Chaos Energy from Tsali, which was then followed up by a series of hyperspeed punches and kicks that nearly took Eric out of the fight before he was distracted by Shadow coming at him.
Before the two-tailed android could unleash another attack, the three hedgehogs appeared together a few meters in front of him.
Tsali remembered his low energy levels, and thus began charging himself up once again.
"That's enough!" Shadow yelled.
All three hedgehogs instantly launched themselves at Tsali in sync. However, all three of them were stopped by a fast Chaos Shield. They struggled, and the cobalt bubble bent in response to their force, but still held firm.
Their enemy smirked; they couldn't penetrate his defenses. That is, until he noticed something on his HUD. His Dark Chaos Energy battery monitors flashed bright red.
Tsali knew all too well what that meant. His opponents' attacks had drained his Dark Chaos Energy cells too low. His shield promptly vanished, unable to sustain itself from lack of power.
The three hedgehogs circled him like sharks around a kill, pummeling him and buzzing into him mercilessly. Without giving him a single chance to defend himself or strike, the three hedgehogs slowly beat his metal body to a pulp.
Finishing the job, Shadow and Eric launched a Chaos Superblast at a large beam high above them. Taking parts of the weakened metal ceiling with it, it fell upon Tsali's stunned body and crushed him underneath a ton of flaming debris. The others, coughing from the smoke and dust of the epic duel, left their cover.
No movement remained. Against all odds, the Ultimate Weapon had been defeated.
Sonic whistled and high-fived Eric and Shadow. "That was TIGHT!"
"Perfect as always," Shadow commented.
Eric smirked, "Bitches don't know 'bout my Chaos powers."
"Yeah!" Chris and Sonya cheered for their Chaos-powered friends. Amy charged and glomped Super Sonic with all her might. The yellow hedgehog didn't mind. He too was happy.
"I can't believe it..." Cosmo muttered in awe, "You did it Sonic... You actually beat Tsali..."
The Super hedgehog winked, "It was all for you Cosmo. Your family can rest in peace now, and you don't have to worry anymore."
Tears of joy welled up in Cosmo's eyes. "Thank you... thank you all. I couldn't have done it without you."
Sonic floated over to the pile of debris, "Now we just need to find th-"
"RAAARRGGGHHH!"
The pile of metal on the floor was instantly blown away in a blue flash, and Tsali slowly rose to his feet, looking nothing like he did before. His black fur and flesh boiled away, his brilliant chrome exoskeleton fully visible, his visible eye cameras still glowing a brilliant azure. Dark Chaos Energy charged and sparked around his metal body. Dirt, grime, burning oil, and pieces of charred skin clung to his skeleton.
"This guy just doesn't give up, does he?" Shadow murmured.
"If I'm gonna lose it all here, then I'm taking you with me!" Tsali's damaged vocal chords warped his voice almost beyond recognition.
Cosmo took a step forward towards Tsali, surprising everybody, until she stood before the battered android.
"Tsali, I've had enough of questions. Now I want answers. Why do you want to kill me so badly? Why did you kill my family? Why are you doing all this?" Cosmo demanded.
Tsali raised his head up and spat, coating her dress with a repulsive mixture of repair fluid and blue blood.
"Fuck you!"
Before she could react Tsali teleported forward - a few inches in front of Cosmo - and clamped his metal hand around her neck. Cosmo desperately tried to struggle in vain against Tsali's suffocating grip, staring into the robotic eyes of the one who had killed her family.
From the background, Fang the Sniper loaded an armor-piercing bullet into his rifle and carefully aimed at Tsali's legs. making sure that he didn't shoot Cosmo by mistake.
He fired twice. The bullets sailed straight through Tsali's kneecaps. Without his Chaos powers to deflect the rounds, both shots easily penetrated his skeleton. The fox staggered backward and he released Cosmo. He fell to the ground, the rounds severing both of his legs. More azure blood and repair fluid dripped from them, coating his chrome skeleton.
Tsali slowly dragged himself away, but he didn't get far before even his great strength finally failed him.
"Are you okay?" Amy ran up to her Seedrian friend.
Cosmo coughed and looked over her dress, "I think so..."
Super Sonic zoomed forward and put one foot on Tsali's broken form. The fox's body heaved and cracked, his critical bodily functions failing one by one. Bits of flesh and organs seeped from the pulverized metal.
"It's over Tsali!" He said, "Give us our Planet Egg back and we'll spare your life."
"Let's just kill him now," Shadow suggested, "He's too dangerous to be left alive. And he insulted Maria."
"I agree!" Sonya stepped forward with rifle at the ready, "He's nothing more than a rabid animal needing to be put down. If we let him go, he'll simply plunge the galaxy into more suffering."
"But if we kill him, we'll never find out where he took our world's Planet Egg. Our planet will die!" Tails played devil's advocate.
"I don't mean to sound like I've turned traitor, but Tails here is right," Fang agreed with the fox.
"Without our Planet Egg, this whole adventure was pointless," Mighty also concurred.
"Cosmo, what do you say?" Amy turned to her friend, "Tsali took the most from you. He killed your whole family and wiped out your entire race. You should be the one to decide."
Everyone else in the room turned to stare at the Seedrian. She froze, extremely uncomfortable with the attention. Cosmo never dreamed she would even see the one who took everything she loved brought to justice, nevermind deciding his fate.
The Seedrian walked forward, until she stood over Tsali and looked deep into the cameras he once used for his eyes.
Half of her - the half she always kept pent deep inside her - wanted to rip him to pieces until he was nothing but scrap, to laugh while wallowing in his blood. She wanted to hear him scream for mercy as she strangled him with his own bowels. The temptation was great, almost too great for Cosmo to handle.
She knew she was better than that. Mother was better than that. Galaxina was better than that. None of them wanted revenge. They wanted to live in peace. Tsali was the ones out for revenge, and his hate tore the galaxy apart.
Cosmo took the deepest breath she had ever taken.
"Let him live."
"What?" Sonic and Shadow exclaimed.
"But Cosmo, he killed your family! He murdered everyone you loved!" Amy protested, "And he's killed billions of others!"
Cosmo closed her eyes. "If I do it... If I kill him... I'll be just like him. I'll be the one willing to hurt others for revenge. I don't want revenge anymore. All I want... is a new start. I just want peace."
"Well, I don't like it but Cosmo's made her choice," Sonic honored her, "He gets to live."
"Hear that bakayaro?" Sonya leaned over Tsali's crippled form, "We felt like being nice. You got lucky today."
Tsali did not respond. His remaining limbs thrashed as his spine began to break apart from strain, and then they stopped moving as paralysis set in.
Without warning, Sonic suddenly felt something burning his hand. He looked down.
Glowing blood-red, each Chaos Emerald began to float and pulse with unbelievable and unknowable power. Sonic grabbed one in his hand before it could get away - and then it began to burn hotter than any fire.
Eric yelped loudly as he dropped the two Chaos Emerald in his hands, "HOT HOT HOT!"
The colors of the Emeralds began to melt away like a rainbow, dark power seeping and twisting them. They took on a life of their own, spinning and wobbling wildly as if they were being held up by strings.
"What's going on?" Even Shadow struggled keeping the gems close.
Tsali coughed and sputtered, his mouth forming into a robotic grin. He lifted his head as best he could, "The Chaos Emeralds... they're calling to their master... they knew he's close..."
"Their master?" Shadow glared at him.
Amy readied her hammer, "Who's here? What are you talking about?"
The half-broken android fox laughed, coughing up his own organs as he did so. Then Tsali began to whisper and mutter in Demonish. None of the heroes could understand him, but they didn't need a doctorate in Demon language to understand what happened next.
From the opposite side of the chamber appeared a great tongue of smokeless fire, its incandescence illuminating the whole room. The floor burned, but nothing was consumed.
A voice spoke from the flames. "You have failed me Tsali, and I see now that direct intervention is required."
With those words, Tsali's whole body was enveloped with bright red light. When it dissipated, he was back to normal. His skin, eyes, and fur had completely regenerated. His legs had supernaturally repairing themselves, and the ebony fox got to his feet immediately.
None of the heroes could believe what just happened in front of them.
"What the fucking shit?" Eric cried out incredulously.
Tsali readied another attack, an evil grin plastered on his face. "And now's the part where I decorate this station with your entrails!"
The flame spoke again, its voice telepathically beamed into the minds of everyone in the room.
"You will not. It is my turn."
"But-" Tsali stuttered as he turned to address the flames, "No, not again! I can end this hedgehog forever!"
"I will not lose the Chaos Emeralds because of your incompetence for the second time, Tsali. You will leave us now."
"Fuck you!" Tsali pointed at the flame, "I got all the Chaos Emeralds here just as you asked me to! You promised me-"
The Ultimate Weapon didn't even finish his reply before a burst of red energy consumed him, and the fox was gone when it dissipated. Meanwhile, the supernatural blaze continue to roar.
"And now to you Sonic the Hedgehog. I have awaited this day for a long, long time. Your power is great but ultimately meaningless. You fumble in your ignorance and your stubbornness will be your undoing. Your adventure has continued because I have allowed it, and now it comes to an end."
"Who are you... and how do you know who I am?" Sonic asked.
The smokeless fire began to flare up, glowing ever brighter and ever hotter.
"I am Master of the Emeralds. I am the god of this world, the Evil One, prince of the powers of the air."
Sonic and his friends could feel their skin begin to blister as the flames grew higher and higher, spreading slowly and deliberately around them. The heat warped the walls around them.
"My eyes bring perdition, my hands reap what is sown. My words strike fear into the hearts of mortals. I am Lord of the Demons, Conqueror and Unifier of the universe. I am the roaring lion that devours the souls of my enemies."
The raging inferno parted in two. A tall figure shrouded in a hooded black cloak rose from the flames. The figure was about nine feet tall, his legs reptilian and covered by glimmering gold-and-red armor plating. His visibly shriveled six-fingered hands also poked from his satanic robes, covered with flames but not singed by them.
Great waves of hellfire swirled like a living canvas around him, curving and twisting to his dark whims. The unquenchable flames shifted upon the wall behind the god that stood before them. A great red flaming pentagram, with the terrible skull of a hedgehog inside, formed and silhouetted him.
He spoke again, "I am the Old Serpent, the Dragon that cleanses the stars, maker of all the dark places of creation."
And then he rose and pulled back his hood.
"I am Lord Maledict."