Chapter 19: Seven Minus One Equals Doom

Sonic and Luigi were well on their way towards the Koopa Kingdom when the Lakitu arrived.
Luigi jumped at it but Sonic held on to him by the suspenders. "No! No, we need that one to help us. Hey, trust me, alright?"

Luigi didn't want to trust the hedgehog, but the princess had been unusually severe about his orders. Come to think of it, even giving outright orders was unlike her. She usually just asked politely if the brothers would help save the kingdom for her. Surely...she couldn't possibly be falling for the hedgehog, could she? So what if he saved her once - Luigi had saved the princess lots of times.

"You've got a message for me, haven't you?" Sonic asked the Lakitu, peering into its camera.

"Er, yes," said the Koopa on the cloud. "The message is, Sonic! I've found another Chaos Emerald. One of the native mushroom-people had discovered it and donated the gem to a museum. I've sent a squad of Koopas to retrieve it. That only leaves the Emerald in the posession of Metal Sonic, plus one more.

Or perhaps not. I didn't want to reveal this to you until I had investigated the matter properly, hedgehog, but there's a considerable chance than one of the Chaos Emeralds remained behind in my base on Earth. I admit now that I was foolish to expect my machine to be able to excercise the same amount of control over the Master Emerald as its natural guardian, Knuckles, but the Master Emerald may still have had enough power awakened to restrain one single Emerald. This doesn't change our plan, of course, as six Emerald should still be enough to Chaos Control back home. You won't be able to access your Super form, but there's no reason why you should need it he- AIEEE!!"

The message that the Lakitu had been so expertly replaying in a perfect impersonation of Eggman's voice ended abruptly in a death scream, as a tremendous surge of burning energy crushed the Koopa into the ground and cremated it in seconds.

Super Metal Sonic descended slowly from above, ominously. So complete was his triumph that he wanted to savour the moment. It would serve him as a fond memory in his eternal existence as Overlord of the planet. This planet or the one he was created on - it made no difference. Once his programming was complete, he'd have a whole universe to explore, conquer and destroy as he pleased.

"Whoa!" Sonic uttered. "New paint job, Metal?"

Super Metal lazily extended an arm and obliterated the ground Sonic was standing on before making his split-second escape. Sonic doubled back across the barren area, grabbed Luigi by the waist and accellerated. The hedgehog knew better than to look behind himself, but if he had, he would've been surprised to see the orange and black Metal Sonic remaining floating in the air, not making any attempt at pursuit.

"You can run, you can hide, but I will hunt you down and destroy every place you seek shelter in," Super Metal declared. "If this planet must be made a smouldering ruin before your death at my hands, then all the better!"

Luigi hanging over his shoulder, feet pumping at blurring speed, Sonic had to muster all his concentration for the tricky task of examining the broken camera that'd been thrown clear when the Lakitu was killed, all the while dodging rock formations and leaping narrow streams of lava.

YES! There was still a light on. Sonic had to hope that Eggman was still recieving on the other end of the line.

"Eggman! Bring the three Chaos Emeralds to-to- Luigi! What's this place called?"

"The vaaaa-haaaaley of B-Bowseeer!!"

"Right. Valley of Bowser." This wasn't even the fifth time Sonic had had to listen to someone while carrying them at neck-breaking speeds. He could translate elongated gibberish quite well in the circumstances. "I've seen Metal, and he doesn't have a Chaos Emerald with him anymore. Only...he doesn't seem to really need one right now. Anyway, I think I can track the missing one down. As long as you've arrived by the time Metal catches up with us again, I should be able to use the six Emeralds to send all of us back together. Then I'll get the seventh Emerald back home, become Super Sonic, defeat Metal, and it's a job well done. Yeesh. I hope you can hear this, doc."

Ten minutes and several hundred miles later, Sonic and Luigi arrived at Bowser's ominous and now slightly ruined castle. The narrow stretch of land leading over the sea of lava to the drawbridge had been collapsed recently, but Sonic was able to jump the distance, just barely. Now, for the first time since he started running, Sonic took time to look behind him. There was no sign of Metal, and the way the robot was glowing right now, he'd be pretty darn easy to spot even at a distance. Luigi staggered over to the nearest column, trying to steady himself while he waited for the world to shift back into focus. He was aware that he might hurl.

Sonic took out one of his Chaos Emeralds and watched the patterns of light within the gemstone. "Yeah," he said. "There's definitely an Emerald somewhere in this castle."

Luigi did hurl. Sonic grimaced. "Er...why don't you catch up, huh, pal?" he said before rushing up the stairwell.

Still far away, but getting closer, was Super Metal Sonic. He was hoping to extend the chase, but if Sonic failed to live up to expectations, then the medieval castle would make a fitting tomb.

Next: Chaos Clash Redux