Equal Footing
Chapter 13: The Brains and the Brawns
Disclaimer: I do not own Sonic the Hedgehog. Sonic and co. are owned by Sega.
Metal Sonic floated just above the ground, every circuit in his body relishing the power he was using. He had no idea what it was except that it was ancient and that with this strength, alongside his other abilities, he would finally prove himself superior to Sonic.
The battle hadn't really started; to be honest it felt more like a continuation of the fight they had on the Mobian's way here but he was winning. He had already forced his rival on to one knee but he was already back on his feet. He expected no less from him, if it was too easy it wouldn't be worth fighting him.
So he hadn't prevented Sonic from reaching Tails and persuaded him to not join Eggman, but he didn't care about that. That was Eggman's plan, and even though he had joined up with him he didn't care about the plan. Fighting and defeating his copy was the only reason he lived, always has been and always will be. The only use his creator would be is to keep the fox occupied long enough for him to deal with the hedgehog before he could take out the fox.
He had never shown any interest in Tails in the past, he was just a liability to Sonic in his eyes. Too weak to present a threat to him, the fox always been an easy kidnapping target to push his organic counterpart to fight him but lacked the same satisfaction as doing the same thing to Amy. But something the speedster said in their last fight had caught his attention.
"I know a two tailed fox who's more me than you will ever be" rang through his cybernetic mind. It made no sense and could not hold any logic, but then again Sonic the Hedgehog and logic never belong together and that was the only reason he had triumphed in the past, critical thinking was not the way to defeat him. After all, he the one who was most likely to predict the hedgehog's moves and even he had abandoned that method for hit him with everything he had by seeing what he was most likely to do next. But it annoyed him...
"I didn't know you still had your glowing trick" the Mobian said with a smirk, his confidence and determination unwavering. "From the second Death Egg thing right?"
He didn't respond. "To be the real Sonic, I have to annihilate the imposter. That I am sure of. So why does he claim that I must do the same to his best friend, the one he refers to as his 'little brother' despite the fact that they were two completely different species. I do not understand..."
Sonic waved his hand. "Hello, you in there metal me?"
"I will have time to ponder this problem after while I watch his grave" the robot decided before he charged his energy and sent a pillar of electricity towards the hedgehog who jumped and bounced on the ground to get enough height to get safely over it. He then performed a homing attack on the machine as the aura faded which connected but as he bounced of him Metal Sonic performed his own homing attack. It was met with a quick punch but was over powered and ploughed straight into him. Sonic hit the floor but quickly got back to his feet to avoid another laser.
"Did you suddenly get better?" the hedgehog asked.
Metal nodded. "The limiter Eggman installed has now been lifted."
He tilted his head in confusion. "Limiter?"
"Eggman put a limiter on my abilities why I was preventing you from reaching this location so that I could not use all of my power."
"Why would he do that?"
"To prevent us from drawing attention to our battle. If I had been using this energy source I acquired in the Lost Labyrinth then it would have escalated our battle, giving the fox a chance to see us and thus causing the mission to fail."
"But it failed anyway, so why are you still here?"
"The plan to obtain the shards and having Tails join us was his idea, I only have one purpose..."
"I know, I know" Sonic quickly interrupted. "Defeat me and become the real Sonic blah, blah, blah. Talk about a one track mind."
"Why ask a question you already know the answer to?"
"Felt like it" he said with a shrug of his shoulders. He then started to run around his metallic counterpart, creating a miniature tornado to form around Metal, who stood his ground and tried to swipe him only to be met with air. "This is for ruining my moment with Tails and putting holes in my home" he shouted before he started to add his own punches and spin dashes as he was running, repeating hitting the robot. This tactic seemed to be working until the machine summoned his purple aura and slammed into the ground, creating a mini tremor which knocked the speedster off his feet for a split second, giving Metal Sonic more than enough time to launch Sonic into part of the workshop's wall that was still standing.
Before he could move the cybernetic hedgehog had gathered the purple energy into a ball and was posed to throw it at him. "You should be more worried about how many holes I will make in you, not your home. Do your best to make this interesting, as I want to remember this moment, the moment where I finally achieve success." He threw the ball at Sonic, hitting him dead on creating an explosion.
"Do not disappoint me, my loathsome copy."
"Sonic?" Tails worried in the air as he saw the explosion.
"Don't let your guard down Tails" Eggman shouted, causing the fox to look down towards his own opponent who swung his spear, creating a crescent wave of energy to shoot towards him. "Take this!"
The orange Mobian narrowly dodged it before quickly moving to the side to avoid the follow up strikes before the human shot four missiles from the robot's back that homed in on the fox. This gave him an idea. "It shouldn't be hard to cause the missiles to crash into each other. I'll use the resulting smokescreen to get to Eggman and attack him directly. I need to see how Sonic is doing and it will take too long to destroy the shield first."
Tails put his plan into motion, quickly flying in circles to get the missiles to follow him before he quickly changed direction, causing two the missiles to miss and come back to get him while the other two changed their course to stay with the fox. Just as it looked like he was ambushed, Tails stopped his namesakes causing him to quickly fall towards the ground. Unable to make the sharp turn the missiles collided into each other creating the smokescreen he desired. Not wasting any time the fox shot in the direction he remembered the Egg Emperor was, curling up in order to perform his own homing attack.
However, instead of hitting the cockpit the mechanic's attack ended up hitting the shield which was covering his target. The robot then swung the shield down, sending the Mobian crashing into the floor. He got onto all fours, rubbing his head as he did.
"Is the best you can come up with?" the doctor taunted earning a scowl from his foe. "Perhaps I overestimated you" he gloated as he swung the spear again. The fox quickly rolled on his side to avoid it before he noticed the robot dash in front of him. "Get ready to be skewered!"
He thrust the spear at the place Tails was before he quickly got onto his feet and jumped backwards. His eyes narrowly as he realised that Eggman had left him an opening. He started to jump and swing his tails hoping to hit the doctor but just as his feet left the ground the spear swung up, hitting Tails with the energy projection at point blank range sending him flying across the clearing and knocking the wind out of him.
"How?" he gasped between breaths. "How could you know what I was going to do?"
"It was simple logic" the human said in his condescending tone. When he saw the confused look on his opponent's face he decided to further his explanation. "You and Sonic claim to be two of a kind, but you and I are as well. We are both geniuses who rely heavily on logic as opposed to more spontaneous people like Sonic. All I had to do was think what the most logical idea was and then think of a way to counter it."
The fox clenched his fist. "That can't be true."
"Oh but it is. Why else do you think Sonic proves to be a consistent problem to my schemes? His moves are chaotic, practically unpredictable. That is why none of my previous machines have failed save one. Metal Sonic is the closest I have ever come to being able to predict and counter the hedgehog, but looking at their battle now it seems even that has failed. You are a different matter, the only threat you process is your brain and that I can easily match and surpass."
"No, I refuse to believe that" he said but even he could deny the doubt that his voice held as he got to his feet. "I can't stop now, what sort of brother would I be if I left my mess for my brother to clean up." He moved over the hole where he could see his best friend clashing with his original rival, as Metal was using his enhanced energy to increase the strength of his spin dash while Sonic was doing his best to counter as many as he could. "All of the odds are against him but he's not giving up. If I am anything like him, I can't stop trying. Not until the very end."
His ears pricked as he heard the cutting of air behind him. He jumped to the air to avoid the waved which went along the ground. "That was a cheap shot."
"I'm the bad guy, I don't play by the rules" Eggman retorted before he continued his assaults with more slashes. The Mobian quickly twirled his tails and took the air to evade all of them, putting more distance between him and the doctor.
"If I remember correctly, if we strayed too far from the Egg Emperor he charged at us with his shield." Just as Tails' thought finished the robot did exactly as he predicted and began to charge at him. Much to the doctor's surprise the fox mirrored him, charging towards him.
"What's he up to?" the human thought but he didn't stop his attack. As they were about to collide the mechanic swerved to the side and went flying past him. "Ah, a back attack. Too bad for you fox boy that I am once again one step ahead." He swung the spear expecting to hit his foe but he met with thin air but he thought he saw an orange blur as he swung it which concerned him. As he brought it up to inspect it he saw Tails holding onto the weapon who jumped and swiped his namesakes at the cockpit, causing the robot to recoil while the fox used his flying abilities to get a safe distance from it.
Eggman realised what had happened, he thought the fox had flown past him but instead he had grabbed hold of the spear, waiting for the shield to be lowered so that he could strike. "How'd you like that?" the Mobian bragged with a determined grin and a pumped fist.
"Congratulations, you hit me once while you have been attacked several times by me" the human pointed out. "I'm still winning."
"Not for long" he countered, annoying the mad scientist to the point where he swung the spear vertically in frustration. Tails easily avoided the wave of energy but he remember too late what was behind him, the house! He turned and looked at horror as the attack went straight through his home, destroying everything in its path.
Sonic had just delivered a kick to Metal Sonic's head and was about to follow up his attack when the energy wave burst through the house right in front him. He looked at the damage, noting that there was now a horizontal line of destruction and several holes in his current abode. "Hey Eggman, some people have to live here afterwards" he shouted. His best friend then came into view on the other side.
"Sorry Sonic, I forgot where about on I was when he launched it. If I had I would have taken it instead..."
He shook his head. "Forget about it, this can be fixed easily if you do it while you would take long to heal if you got hurt."
"You are the one about to get hurt" a metallic voice shouted from his side as the robot doppelganger launched himself at his organic counterpart, knocking him to the floor and trying to slash him with his fingers but the speedster had grabbed his wrists in order to stop the assault.
"I was in the middle of a conversation" he barked at the machine.
"Your mistake" he countered.
"Sonic!" Tails cried as he saw this and immediately started to head toward the hole in his home but was stopped by another wave of energy which also passed through his home. He glared at Eggman.
"Why worry about him when you should be more concerned about yourself?" he said as he launched a barrage of missiles. The fox took to the air to avoid them.
"There has to be away to help Sonic but I can't leave Eggman, we'll be easy targets for the both of them." An idea came to him as he started to descend towards the floor and checked his tails for something, his face lightening up as he found it. He pulled out a gold ring and moved to the thin hole Eggman's first attack had left where he could still see the two hedgehogs in the position he had left them in. "Sonic, here" he shouted as he threw it through the hole.
The speedster knew exactly what it was and used his legs to push Metal Sonic off him and grab it. "Thanks Tails."
His counterpart was already rushing towards him again. "A ring won't save you now!"
Sonic met his charge and thrust the ring into his foe's chest. "No, but a dummy ring bomb meant to stop robots will" he said with a confident grin. Streams of electricity the cover Metal, who found all of his systems unresponsive making him nothing more than a giant doorstop until he could get them back online. "See Metal me, you said I was stronger back during that outburst before but that's not true. I'm always at my best with my friends by my side as nothing beats the true superpower of teamwork. You should know that by now."
He turned to see how his friend was doing through the hole but just as he did he saw the fox slammed into the wall. "Tails!"
Before he could do anything the Egg Emperor swung its spear with Eggman roaring the phrase "Meet your maker!" The wave hit Tails' head and body square on, forcing him through the wall while the attack once again passed through to the other side. Acting quickly he kicked Metal into the attack's path, causing a lot of damage to him as well. As he was doing this Eggman swung spear again, this time slicing the house horizontally split the top half from the house from the bottom half. This caused Tails' workshop to collapse on itself with its owner still inside.
Eggman laughed manically at this turn of events. "Ohohohohoh, you should have taken by offer when you had the chance. Now look where siding with the hedgehog has left you."
Said hedgehog's eyes were so filled up with water that he was having trouble seeing straight. He dashed on top of the pile of debris and started digging through it with his bear. "Tails, Tails! If you can hear me, say something, give me a sign to where you are. Something, anything" he shouted before tears started to roll and his voice turned on him, finding himself speaking quietly although he was trying to shout. "You can't... you can't leave me bro. Not after everything we've been through, not after I'd just got you back... No, you can't... I really can't live without you Tails..."
It was then that he spotted a furry tail in the hole he had created; he could see the shards of Time Eaters' core poking out of it. "Tails?" he asked, his voice heavy with sadness and uncertainty. Know he was close he started shifting the rumble in the direction he knew this friend was in. A minute later he jumped out of the hole with the limb fox's body in his arms.
He shook him. "Tails, wake up." Nothing, if anything his already shallow breathing became even shallower. "Come Tails, get up. If this is a joke it's not funny." After a minute of silence he noted something, his belly wasn't moving anymore. "No, not you Tails. This can't be happening." He hugged the now lifeless body tightly, tears streaming down his face. "No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Please anyone, do something! Tikal, Chaos, Chip, anybody! Just don't this happen." Nothing did happen. "Tails, I'm sorry. I never should have brought you along. But if I didn't then what would've happened to you? What would've happened to me? I needed a friend just as you did. You gave something I never thought I would ever have, a family. Even if was just two adopted brothers it was just what we wanted right?"
He hastily grabbed the Chaos Emerald out of his quills. "Come on, do something!" he shouted at it. "You are supposed to have unlimited power but if you can't save my best friend, my little brother then what good are you!" He thrust it into the ground next to one of Tails' tails. He the realised what he had said. "Little brother, big brother, semi-twin brother, I don't care! Just come back to me, please..."
"This is where teamwork leads you" a robotic voice said from his side, causing Sonic to look only to find that Metal Sonic was back online but had some sparks emitting from several areas where his hull had been broken. "It only leads to misery and despair."
"He won't have to despair for long" another voice said to his other side. The speedster looked to find the Egg Emperor looming over him. "This is it, the moment I have waited years for" Eggman laughed as he positioned the spear over his nemesis.
"You got the fox" Metal countered. "Sonic is mine, remember?"
Sonic couldn't hear the rest of their argument as he was so absorbed by his thoughts. "They don't even care. All they care is me. First they take him away from me and now they don't even care! He was their enemy too but is that how they saw him, as my shadow? I'll... make them remember you." He then shot onto his feet, unknowingly putting his hand on the Chaos Emerald as he did. "I'll make them pay!"
What Sonic didn't notice is that the emerald started glowing, as well as the shards of Time Eater's core.