Mega Sonic: Part 3
"This is a pretty nice party," Roll smiled as she looked around. The gang had finally managed to schedule the event to celebrate Ray achieving super mode and pretty much everyone was there. "Where did you say you got the supplies from again?"
"Someone you'll probably meet sooner or later," Tails casually sidestepped the question. (1) "Me, I'm more wondering what the Chaotix told Charmy since he's not looping."
"Simple," Mighty chuckled as he came up to the two. "We told him there would be cake. What's up?"
"Nothing much," Tails shrugged. "We had a side trip to the Sol dimension recently. Blaze says 'hi'."
"Cool," the armadillo strong man smiled. "And what about this 'self-roboticization' training I've heard about?"
"Oh, that," Tails rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "It turns out all of us who were turned into the Roboticized Masters, loopers and non-loopers alike, picked up a minor glitch in our Yggdrasil code, at least that's what Sonic said Hermes told him."
"We are so sorry about that," Roll apologized with the tone of someone who had done so before, and was fully intending to continue for as many times necessary.
"It's cool," Tails waved off the apology with Mighty nodding in agreement. "Anyway, it's not dangerous according to Hermes, but what seems to have happened is that our Roboticized Master forms are... tucked away inside ourselves. Kind of like the subspace pocket, except totally different."
"Meaning you have absolutely no clue," Mighty deadpanned.
"Not really," Tails rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment. "But what it does mean is that if you focus on it just right, you can turn into your Roboticized Master form. And also turn back to normal the same way."
"Self de-roboticization?" Mighty's eyebrows went straight up. "That might be the handiest thing we've ever come across."
"Okay dad," Roll's voice interrupted the conversation as she spoke into her communicator, "I'll tell them."
"What was that?" Mighty asked.
"You remember leaving one of your old beat-up Extreme Gears where the 'ancient lost technology' would be found and brought in for study?" Roll asked.
"Yeah!" Tails smiled with excitement. "You mean...?"
"Dad's just finished testing the first few prototypes," Roll grinned back. "Light Labs Extreme Gear ships out to stores tomorrow. You all should be getting your own personalized ones in the mail at the same time."
"Yes!" Tails cheered. The baseline challenge run Aunt Sally had asked for meant no Extreme Gears until they came across one legitimately or a third Unawake party invented it. Admittedly arranging for Dr. Light to get ahold of one from Tails's subspace pocket was technically cheating, but the fox figured he could slide on the issue.
"No Loophole Abuse next time, Tails!" (2) Sally admonished the fox.
"Aw, give tha kid a break Sally-girl," Bunnie defended him. "After all, I seem ta recall ya whippin' out an Intelligent Device on little ol' Ixis Naugus earlier this Loop."
"Indeed," Bunnie's husband agreed, "and one shuddairs to think on what you deed to zat Mammoth Mogul personne. Why, I am gettink ze shiverings just thinkink about eet!" (3)
"The actions were at odds with your declaration that this would be a 'baseline challenge run', Sally," NICOLE added.
"Alright, alright," Sally raised her hands in surrender, "point taken."
"You were pretty awesome Aunt Sally," Tails offered.
"Boss..." Storm hesitated as Jet grasped the large yellow gem. "Why are we stealing dis again?"
"Fool..." Jet sneered at his dimwitted, if loyal and strong, companion. "The Chaos Emerald is precisely what we need to lure out Sonic the Hedgehog."
"And we want to do dat... why?" Storm didn't seem to understand. No matter how many times Jet explained the concept of reliving periods of time, in any life, Storm never seemed to get it. At least Wave got it, even if she seemed resigned to the whole affair.
"Because," Jet decided to just cut to the chase, "he is the only one in the world that can rival my speed. And I will not rest until I am the undisputed champion."
He glared, causing Storm to flinch back, and then decided to throw his companions a bone.
"Besides, the Chaos Emeralds are needed to activate the Key to Babylon Garden."
Both of them looked up sharply at that. The Key to Babylon Garden was a translucent glowing cube that had been handed down through the leadership of the Babylon Rogues for generations, but there was no indication that its power was anything more than a legend or that the object itself was more than a fancy paperweight.
"W-w-wait..." Wave stuttered in shock. "You mean..."
"We will challenge Sonic and his friends to race for the Emeralds," Jet told them. "I get the chance to defeat him and we gather what is necessary to unearth our heritage. I told you I'd done this before. Now... follow my lead."
With that, Jet turned his Extreme Gear towards the window and blasted out into the "City of the Future" known as Monopole.
Sonic grinned as he watched the familiar figures take off down the street on super-fast hover boards. "Tails?"
"They've got the emerald, as usual," the fox grinned and pulled his new Light Industries board, custom-made by the doctor himself no less, out of his subspace pocket.
"Then let's get 'em!" Knuckles grinned as he did the same.
"All units," the police band crackled from the earwig Sonic had decided to wear for this, "suspects are southbound on 45 riding what appear to be hoverboard model Extreme Gear."
"Roger that," an unexpected voice replied on the same frequency that made Sonic grin wider. "We are en route to intercept."
"Well," Sonic chuckled as he raced after the Babylon Rogues, "this just got a lot more interesting..."
"B-b-boss!" Storm yelled forward. "We got guys following us! And they have Extreme Gear too!"
"What?!" Wave seemed shocked. "How...?"
"It doesn't matter!" Jet insisted. "Stick to the plan!"
Sonic raced ahead of the police cars as Tails and Knuckles kept Wave and Storm occupied to challenge Jet directly. The two did a few quick test bumps to gauge the other's skill, and Jet grinned.
"Not bad," the green-feathered hawk taunted. "You learn just as fast as always."
Sonic blinked at the implications. "You've... done this before?"
"More than you could imagine," Jet grinned darkly. "And this time there will be no question of who is the fastest!"
"I've got the gray one in my sights," a voice came over the police band in Sonic's ear before he could process Jet's statement.
"And I the female," a feminine voice responded.
"Take them out," the voice from before ordered. "I've got the leader."
"Well," Sonic returned Jet's grin, "you picked a really bad time to do this."
"Boss!" the panicked yell of Storm rang out. "Help!"
"We're under att–" the voice of Wave cut off suddenly.
"You see," Sonic dug deeper as Jet turned back in shock at his comrades' cries, "you haven't met the Man yet." (4)
"The who...?" Jet expressed his confusion just in time for an energy bolt to hit his Extreme Gear and send him tumbling down the street.
Jet groaned and picked himself up off the street to look at who had dared attack him. Floating right before him was a blue armored human (5) on a red Extreme Gear with an arm that ended in a cannon pointed at him. As he watched, the figure jumped off of his Extreme Gear, which itself twisted and reformed into... a dog?
"What...?" Jet stared in confusion.
"Jet the Hawk," Sonic grinned as he dismounted his own Extreme Gear which seemed to just... vanish into thin air, "meet my 'big bro' Rock Light, the Mega Man. Rock, meet Jet the Hawk."
"Nice to know," Rock nodded as two more human figures arrived on Extreme Gears behind him. A yellow-armored female carrying Wave whose Gear turned into a cat and a red-armored male with shades carrying Storm whose Gear turned into some bizarre spherical bird. "Jet the Hawk, by the authority vested in me you are under arrest for theft, destruction of private property, and reckless endangerment. You have the right to remain silent..." (6)
Jet just tuned out the rest of the speech. This... this was the most humiliating thing that had ever happened to him.
"Mayor Dorado, this is highly irregular," the police chief huffed as the man in question continued to flash his high wattage grin.
"Ah, but it is absolute brilliance itself!" the mayor of Monopole gesticulated grandly. "Imagine: A race using the latest and greatest extreme sports invention in the history of the world! The ultimate grudge match to determine one thing: Who in the world deserves the title of 'fastest'! With the ultimate glory prize, the Chaos Emeralds themselves. And since the city is the current owner of the Yellow Emerald, I, Mayor Leonardo Dorado, am prepared to drop all charges and offer it to the Babylon Rogues as their entry fee if they agree to race for fame and glory in the name of our great city!"
"Indeed," Dr. Light nodded from nearby. "From what I can tell, there is no inherent malice in the actions of the Babylon Rogues. Merely a desire for competition and some misguided notions as to how one organizes such things."
The chief sighed heavily. "Very well, mayor, but understand that when election time comes around the people will be holding you responsible."
"And I fully intend that when they remember this, the first word they think of will be 'wow'!" the mayor continued grinning. (7)
Jet stared at the widely grinning human and considered the offer. Beside him, Wave and Storm looked utterly and completely confused. Jet couldn't really blame them. Something like this had never happened on any of his previous trips back through time.
"So... we agree to race on behalf of your city in a tournament event and you just... set us free and let us use the emerald as our entrance fee? ...Why?"
It just made absolutely no sense to him. What the heck did this guy get out of it?
"Because I saw the footage of your little high-speed chase before it was cut off and the only thing I can say is WOW!" the sheer energy from the exclamation made all three of the Babylon Rogues jump. "You three are amazing! Sensational! And people all over the world will want to come see you race! For glory! For fame! For the title of 'world's fastest'!"
"...Still not getting what's in it for you," Wave stated after a long moment to recover from the way the man had leaned into all of their personal spaces.
"All business, I see," the man straightened up. "I can respect that. You see, all these people coming in for a racing event as big as this will be will be spending money on places to stay, food to eat, souvenirs to take home. Lots of money coming into the city means a big boon for our economy. And since this is an election year, that can only boost my chances of being re-elected as mayor. The boost will come whether you win or lose, technically, but with you agreeing to race on behalf of the city it will be a much bigger boost if you win."
"...Boss?" Storm was the first one to speak.
Jet sat and pondered the offer some more. It sounded like plenty of benefits on both sides if he did and no benefit at all if he didn't. Plus, if he played his cards right, he could still salvage his original plan.
"Okay," he said at last. "We choose the locations for each course, your people set the course itself, and you've got yourself a deal."
"Ladies and gentlemen!" the voice of Mayor L. Dorado boomed out across the city. "Announcing the EX World Grand Prix! Using the latest in extreme sports technology, the Extreme Gears, this is the ultimate race! Seven teams with three racers each will face off against each other in a series of extreme races for glory, fame, and the right to call themselves the 'world's fastest'!"
Sonic, along with Knuckles and Tails, blinked as the announcement continued. This... was different. Usually Eggman was making this announcement.
"Teams have one month to register themselves and their Extreme Gear as well as pay the entrance fee of one Chaos Emerald! It's going to be one wow of a time in this supreme winner-take-all event folks!"
"You sure, dad?" Rock blinked as Dr. Light handed him the Chaos Emerald he'd been studying for the past few weeks.
"Of course," Dr. Light smiled. "I know how little you, Roll, and Blues get to compete for fun. Go ahead, take it, and hopefully the fate of the world won't be on the line this time."
"Thanks dad!" Rock smiled as he accepted the gem.
"Funny," Bass raised his eyebrow as he accepted the gem from his father, "I thought you needed this for that Time Skimmer project you've been obsessed with lately."
"I thought I did," Dr. Wily's muffled voice emanated from under some sort of contraption that looked like he'd strapped a cockpit and a space-age engine to a metal box. "But I was inspired to a new power source last night which will make the Chaos Emerald superfluous. Feel free to use it as your entrance fee. And remember to crush your opponents under your heels boy!"
The last part faded as Bass exited the secret lab in the G.U.N. base, and ran straight into what would be an odd scene anywhere else.
"No, Omega," Rouge facepalmed, "you may not blow up the other racers." (8)
"Then I see no reason to enter," the destruction-oriented robot turned to walk away.
"Eh, we're only allowed three anyway," Shadow shrugged.
"My Chaos Emerald, my rules Amy," Sally put her foot down. She may not be able to keep Amy from following Sonic into this tournament, but she could keep an eye on the girl. Plus she was wondering how she matched up against other racers in an event like this. (9)
"Go Team Acorn!" Cream cheered as she hugged her new Extreme Gear.
"And... done!" Rotor exclaimed as he put the finishing touches on the Extreme Gear he'd been customizing. "That's it, we're ready."
"Think Sugah-hog will be surprised to see us there?" Bunnie smiled from her seat on her husband's lap off to the side.
"So..." the shadowed figure stated, "you want us to race for you in this grand prix, and are willing to spot us both the Chaos Emerald and the Extreme Gear, on the condition that we win you... what again?"
The chair the figure was addressing swiveled around to reveal Dr. Eggman, his fingers steepled menacingly.
"The treasure of Babylon Garden," the mad scientist spoke in a tone that brooked no failure. "Secure that for me and you three will be handsomely rewarded."
"No sweat," the shadowed figure grinned maliciously. "The Hooligans are on the job."
"Hey Sal!" Sonic grinned as he spotted the princess walking to a team locker room with her Gear, special made for her by Uncle Chuck in his current job at the new Knothole Tech (10). "Nice to see you here! You on Team Hottie or something?"
"I'm here with Amy and Cream under the flag of Team Acorn," Sally gave the hedgehog a bemused look.
"Ah, so ignore the crazy on one and wait about ten years or so on the other," Sonic nodded sagely. "You see Bunnie and the others? They've got some sweet rides with them for sure, just none as sweet as you."
Sally rolled her eyes. "You are incorrigible."
"Well now," Rouge smirked as she and Shadow watched Bass get as close to making a hormonal fool of himself as either of them could imagine, "looks like our little black prince has his eyes on a golden princess."
"Bass is attracted to power and warrior skill," a calm voice from behind only failed in surprising both of them due to Rouge's bat hearing. Turning, they saw the mechanical brothers of Bass's apparent love interest watching the scene with bemusement. The one in red continued speaking. "And Roll has proven herself very capable time and again in her clashes against Bass's father, his creations, and Bass himself."
"I'm surprised you're taking this so well," Shadow observed.
"Oh," the brother in blue smiled serenely, "if Bass screws this up, we've got dibs on whatever's left of him after our sister gets through."
"Uh-oh," Rotor whispered as he ducked back around the corner he'd been about to turn. "Don't look now, but it looks like this race has some trouble brewing."
Exchanging glances, Bunnie and Antoine proceeded to glance around the corner as discreetly as possible.
"Sacre-bleu cheese!" Antoine whispered. "Ze Hooligans!"
"What are those three varmints up to?" Bunnie whispered back.
"Well, they have Extreme Gear, so..." Rotor left that hanging.
"So we should all be prepahred for some dirty racin' out on tha track," Bunnie nodded as she pulled back from spying on the three infamous mercenaries.
"Ladies and gentlemen!" the voice of Mayor L. Dorado boomed out over the crowd. "Welcome to the first ever EX World Grand Prix!"
The resulting cheers were deafening.
"And now it's time to meet the racers! First up, riding the latest from Light Industries, is the supreme extreme adventuring team of Sonic the Hedgehog, Miles "Tails" Prower, and Knuckles the Echidna, TEAM SONIC!"
The crowd roared as the three rather famous adventurers strode to the starting line.
"And right behind them, also riding the latest from Light Industries and needing almost no introduction at all for saving the world several times over, are the heroic robot siblings: Mega Man! Mega Woman! and Proto Man!"
The explosion of noise grew deafening enough that the declaration of their team name, Team Light, was barely audible.
"But we're just getting started folks!" the mayor announced once the cheers had died down enough. "Racing for the Guardian Units of Nations with Gear from Mr. X Sporting Goods, are Shadow the Hedgehog! Rouge the Bat! and the Black Prince himself: Bass!"
The name of Team Dark was drowned out in a tumultuous outpouring similar to that which had greeted the Light siblings.
"And we're not even halfway through yet!" the mayor grinned brightly as he continued. "Riding on Gear from Knothole Tech, we have Antoine D'Coolette, Bunnie Rabbot, and Rotor Walrus, better known to the world as the FREEDOM FIGHTERS!"
The cheers for each individual had been of a level that, while excited, could still best be termed 'polite', but the team name was apparently much more well known as the crowd erupted with cheers for the famous group that fought against oppressive conquerors of all kinds.
"And what competition these days would be complete without an all-female team determined to show the world that the ladies are just as good as the men?" the mayor asked the crowd. "Also riding Gear from Knothole Tech are Cream the Rabbit, Amy Rose, and Her Royal Highness: Princess Sally Acorn of Mobotropolis!"
It instantly became clear that even if the crowd had no clue about who the individual members were, the idea of genuine royalty racing in a sports competition was a big deal. The name of Team Acorn went almost unheard in the din.
"Ah, but it's not all wine and roses folks!" the mayor's words induced an anticipatory silence. "There's a few thorns in this lineup as well. For now we have the villains of this event, racing for Robotnik Corporate on Gear from their subsidiary Accelovice, we have Nack the Weasel, Bean the Dynamite, and Bark the Polar Bear, THE HOOLIGANS!"
The angry boos from the crowd were almost as loud as the previous cheers as the team of morally bankrupt mercenaries strode arrogantly towards the starting line.
"And last, but certainly not least, racing for our own fair city of Monopole on the Babylon Standard, and let me assure you folks, Babylon sets a high standard indeed, Jet the Hawk, Wave the Swallow, and Storm the Albatross. The one, the only, BABYLON ROGUES!"
Many hadn't heard of the Babylon Rogues until a short while ago, but the grand prix advertisements had been hyping just about everything, including the ancient and infamous band of treasure hunters. As such, the crowd was perhaps more excited to see them than they were anyone else who had so far been introduced.
"And now," the mayor's voice settled the crowd back into an anticipatory state, "without further ado, it's time to begin the first race! Racers! On your marks!"
The racers all took a stance, each and every one looking intent and focused.
"Get set..."
The racers began backing up a few feet before they broke into a run for the starting line in order to build up momentum before mounting their Extreme Gear. The trick in this stage was to get as close to the starting line at a full run as possible without crossing it before the starting signal and getting a penalty as a result.
"GO!"
Wave sauntered off the bridge and towards the arena, smirking to herself. The fox might be unnaturally good at customizing for an amateur, but with the little gift she'd left, there was no way th–
"I saw what you did there," the voice of her leader Jet jolted Wave out of her thoughts.
"Jet!" Wave gasped despite herself. He might still be mostly the same Jet she'd grown up with, but he was also different. And it was... a little disturbing at times. "I... I didn't see–"
"Remove it," Jet ordered her.
"...What?" Wave stepped back.
"Whatever you did to sabotage their Gear, remove it," Jet repeated, his gaze boring a hole through her. "We are here to prove ourselves the best. The true masters of the skies and the worthy heirs of Babylon. To even think of winning by sabotaging the competition is to admit otherwise, and I will not have it. Ever."
"B-but..." Wave faltered at the intensity of emotion behind his gaze. "Yes... Right away." (11)
Rouge cursed as yet another of Bean's bombs nearly caused her to crash. Even with the score penalties for excessive force (12), the behavior just wasn't abating all that much.
She certainly hoped that Omega never learned of this. The robot would be positively insufferable if he learned that anyone even partially got away with such behavior.
Nack fumed in the Hooligan's locker room. He didn't care that all the spectators pretty much hated his team. He didn't care about the multiple false starts he and his team had been charged with so far. Nor did he care about how many rules were being broken out on the track. (13)
No, what he cared about was that they kept getting caught and penalized for it! What was the point of cheating if you ended up worse off than before?
At this rate, the only way they'd win is if everyone else DNF'd. (14)
Hmm... that was certainly a thought. Now... how to convince Bean to go along with smaller explosives...
"Do ya see it?" Storm asked with worry.
Wave blinked as she spotted the device Storm had found on his Extreme Gear. The big dumb guy was right, that wasn't supposed to be there. "Yeah, I see it. Good job finding this Storm."
A quick check revealed similar devices on her and Jet's Gears as well. Huh. Looked like someone was looking to fix the race. Too bad for them that the Babylon Rogues weren't pushovers.
"Ladies and gentlemen!" Mayor L. Dorado's voice boomed from the stadium set up in the desert ruins. "We now come to the last race of the first ever EX World Grand Prix, and it's a real nail-biter! Team Sonic is in the lead on points, but the Babylon Rogues and Team Light are right on their tails! And the other racers shouldn't be counted out yet! Only a handful of points separate all but the furthest behind from the leaders, and as we've all seen so far, anything can happen out there which means it's still anyone's race folks!"
Sally yelped as her Extreme Gear lurched suddenly and sent her tumbling, the same happening to almost all of the racers around her. All except a select few.
The smug taunting looks of Nack the Weasel and his team set her blood boiling. So she took some vicarious pleasure when those same looks were wiped off their faces as the Babylon Rogues failed to succumb to the sabotage.
Jet scowled as he examined what Wave had given him. He'd suspected her of performing the sabotage, only to learn that someone had tried to sabotage them as well. And if nothing else, he trusted Wave to be honest with him.
He stalked up to what was supposed to be the winner's podium, where the seven Chaos Emeralds rested, and grabbed the microphone.
"The results of this race must be thrown out," he proclaimed to a stunned crowd and held up the device for all to see, "due to sabotage."
The stadium went nuts for several minutes before he could continue.
"These devices were found and removed from my team's Extreme Gears, but apparently not from other teams'," he informed the crowd.
"A severe charge," the mayor's voice interjected. "An investigation will have to be launched and the race re-run at a later date."
Many groans were heard from the audience at that announcement. During this time, Wave came up and whispered something in Jet's ear.
"Not necessarily," Jet spoke up, causing confused silence. "I've been told that the damage to the Gears is minimal and superficial. Repairs can be made in about an hour or two. At which time we can run the race over. At a new location."
"A... new location?" the mayor expressed the confusion of everyone else.
"A little surprise track I've had planned since this started," Jet grinned and took out a glowing translucent cube and held it up. The Key to Babylon Garden. "Ladies and gentlemen," Jet announced as the Chaos Emeralds lifted up and began to circle around the cube Jet held over his head, "I give you the true final racecourse of the EX World Grand Prix!"
The emeralds glowed and shot rays of power into the Key to Babylon Garden which then shot a beam out into the desert. There was rumbling as the ground shook and the sand out in the distance exploded upwards as something rose out of it. As massive torrents of sand poured off the object, it was revealed as a huge ancient stone city that floated serenely in the air.
"I give you the ancient homeland of the Babylon Rogues! The race to determine the true masters of the skies and the fastest in the world shall be in Babylon Garden!"
The Light siblings had been upset that they hadn't managed to detect the sabotage devices on their transformed companions. However the damage had been superficial enough that all three had agreed to upgrade the foreign object detection and leave it at that.
But Bass? Bass was positively murderous over the fact that someone had hurt Treble. Heaven help whoever it was, because when he found them...
Nack was less put off by the latest development than one might think. Sure, it pretty much killed any chances the Hooligans had for winning the prix since there was just no time to sneak more of the mini-bombs onto the competitors' Gear, but that wasn't the ultimate goal. No, the goal was the Treasure of Babylon and the foolish hawk had practically handed it to the Hooligans on a silver platter.
All they needed to do was let whatever chump won open the way and then they'd swipe it and collect their payday from Eggman.
"You know," Sonic conversed with Rock as the latter performed the minor repairs to Rush, "I think that El Dorado guy has been rubbing off on Jet. It's funny, I really don't remember ever encountering him before... and I know I'd remember that personality of his."
"It's a little hard to forget," Rock chuckled.
"Ah, he's from your place?"
"Yep. He's usually the one who renames the place I live 'Mega City'."
"My sympathies," Sonic offered. "Seriously, watching the guy in action is enough to make me tired."
"What are you up to Jet?!" Wave practically yelled at her leader. "'To determine the true master of the skies'? Did you seriously just bet our heritage on a race?!"
"Are you saying you don't think we can win?" Jet gazed at her calmly. "Are you saying we can't prove ourselves worthy?"
"No boss," Storm answered instead, "but... why do we gotta anyway?"
"Hmm..." Jet actually appeared to give the question consideration. "I suppose in some way I keep forgetting that the two of you never remember doing this. Maybe it's that I've uncovered the secrets of our heritage enough times that it's lost the sense of wonder you still have. Or maybe I've been spending too much time with that mayor. In any case, the idea of not taking it for granted, of earning our heritage in the arena of the skies against the only worthy opponents I've ever faced, just... appeals to me."
Both Storm and Wave stared at Jet as that hung in the air between them.
"But make no mistake," Jet smirked confidently, "I intend to win. And this time nothing is going to stop me."
The anticipation in the air could be cut with a knife. Cameras had been hastily set up and several companies that made large hovering pleasure craft had been contacted to rent quite a few to serve as makeshift bleachers for the aerial racetrack. The mayor had been increasing the tension by calling the mapped out course the 'Babylon Proving Grounds' and everyone present was going to be talking about the event for years to come regardless of the outcome.
But now preparations were done. The Extreme Gear had been repaired and the racers assembled. It was time to find out who would be crowned the 'World's fastest'.
The race was everything promised and then some. Near-wipeouts abounded in the high winds of the course and the racers themselves seemed out for blood at times. But in the end there could only be one winner.
As the finish line approached, the three jockeying for first were Sonic, Jet, and Rock. Not far behind them the main pack was jostling for position, and it seemed that Wave and Storm were trying to break out from the group.
Sonic and Rock exchanged a glance and grinned. They might be competing, but nothing in the rules said they couldn't gang up on another racer. They adjusted to come up alongside Jet, timed the perfect moment, and made to slam the leader of the Babylon Rogues from either side...
And Jet chose that precise moment to boost forward, allowing his opponents to slam into each other. The lateness of impact threw off both blue heroes' balances and they lost control, falling back and tumbling off their boards right in front of the main pack. Wave and Storm jumped high over the wipeout which proceeded to then take out half of the main pack.
A few managed to escape disaster, but not with enough speed to challenge the Babylon Rogues as all three crossed the finish line to cheers that shook the heavens.
"Ow..." Sonic grunted as he finally crossed the finish line, just behind Rock and just good enough for last place. He hadn't felt this boneheaded over a mistake in... a long time.
"Yeah," Rock laughed, none of his good humor lost despite losing, "that was some wipeout, eh?"
"Definitely," Sonic chuckled back. "It might even make my top ten."
Jet had been in something of a daze since he crossed that finish line and the adrenaline wore off enough for the realization to sink in.
He'd done it. He'd won.
He'd finally beaten Sonic the Hedgehog in a race. No tricks. No cheats. No excuses. Heck, even the advanced Gear specs he'd memorized had more or less broken even with whoever ran this 'Light Industries' place he hadn't heard of in previous trips back. In the end, it had all come down to a single moment where his superior skill had finally shone through.
He still couldn't quite believe it. But here he was, striding confidently to the Gates of Babylon with the Key firmly in hand. Shortly, he would use the Key to open the Gates and reclaim the heritage of his ancestors, for once... for once... an honor that he'd earned rather than been granted out of misplaced pity.
Talking the mayor into holding the victory ceremonies at the gates to the inner sanctum of Babylon Garden earlier had been simple. Pretty much the only thing the man hadn't budged on was assigning cameras to follow them inside so the unveiling of the Treasure of Babylon would be visible to all present.
Though Jet hadn't fought all that hard against the concession. After all, it also meant that everyone would see him trounce the Guardian of Babylon on his Extreme Gear, a feat that Sonic the Hedgehog normally accomplished instead. Combined with no sign of that inept wanna-be Eggman and Jet was chalking this up to the best day he'd had in several lifetimes.
Nack and the Hooligans watched patiently from the back of the crowd as the Babylon Rogues opened the Gate to Babylon Garden's inner sanctum. A quick use of some personal cloaking devices, rather expensive ones at that, and the Hooligans followed them silently in. Now all that was needed was to wait for the Babylon Chumps to take out any defenses and they could make off with the treasure.
Rock was taking some good-natured ribbing from Roll, complete with a poorly-hidden smirk from Blues, when the roar sounded from inside the gates. Whipping their heads towards the live display of the interior as many spectators shrieked in alarm, all three saw what looked like some massive genie monster appear out of nowhere, his lower body disappearing into some giant floating bottle.
As they watched, the entity roared at the Babylon Rogues once more and the gates began to close. That was all the prompting the Light siblings needed to call their animal support units to transform back into Extreme Gear mode and race inside.
Jet stared back at the guardian confidently even as Wave and Storm backed away in fear. Sometimes the guardian spoke, sometimes it didn't, and sometimes it was supposed to but the systems that allowed it had degraded over time. In any case, he'd seen Angelus, the guardian, defeated enough times that he knew exactly what to do. Heck, he was prepared to do it faster than Sonic the Hedgehog ever ha–
A trio of energy shots struck Angelus's bottle, shattering the mobile holographic generator that produced the guardian's image and hid away the Treasure of Babylon.
"Are you all okay?" the blue one, the one Sonic had called Mega Man, asked.
"Yeah," Wave looked relieved to have been rescued, as did Storm.
"That..." Jet tried to keep his fury down. He really did. "That was the Guardian of Babylon! The final test of worthiness for those who seek the Treasure of Babylon! Our final challenge to reclaim our heritage!" 'And they took it out in seconds!' Jet fumed. 'Even Sonic the Hedgehog never did it that fast!'
"Oh..." Mega Man and the yellow-armored girl, Mega Woman, at least had the decency to look apologetic.
"You should have said something," the red one, Proto Man, stated calmly.
"Yeah," the blue one apologized sincerely. "If we knew it was just a test we'd have never–"
*Bang*
The one known as Mega Man jerked as electricity arced over his form.
*Bang*
The one called Proto Man was next, a sparking hole appearing in his armor halfway through turning around, as Mega Man fell to the floor with blank eyes.
*Bang*
The one known as Mega Woman blocked the shot with a broom of all things, only for the electric arcs to render her immobile. The whole situation was so surreal that Jet was just now looking towards the source.
There. The inept racing team known as the Hooligans, with their leader Nack holding a long-barreled gun with a sophisticated-looking aiming device attached to the top. A weapon known to many as a sniper rifle.
"Hmph," the weasel snorted as he took aim again at the now paralyzed female. "Not bad. But not good enough."
*Bang*
The yellow crystal on Mega Woman's helmet shattered with vigorous sparks as she went down.
"Now," Nack the Weasel, known in some circles as Fang the Sniper, pointed the gun at the Babylon Rogues, "if you three would be so kind as to hand over the Treasure of Babylon, we'll be on our way." (15)
The crowd had gone quiet as the events on the giant screen sunk in. But one in particular was taking it worse than anyone else.
Dr. Light's heart had stopped as he saw his children, estranged and not, gunned down with what he was certain were specially designed anti-robot bullets. His analytical mind, even in shock, could recognize the combination of an armor-piercing projectile which then unleashed a power surge internally to devastate mechanical systems.
'They should be alive,' he tried desperately to convince himself. 'You made certain their IC chips had the best surge protection you could devise.'
He knew the specs. He'd designed them himself. It was just... they'd never had to prove themselves in conditions so critical. He simply couldn't be sure they were enough.
Jet had been furious at the interlopers who interrupted his moment of glory, yes. But they were warriors, regardless if they were made of metal or not, and what was more they genuinely didn't know what they had interceded in. But these... these... these three didn't even deserve the lofty title of thieves.
Yes, he had been furious. Now? Now he was so far beyond fury that he'd lapped back into total calm. To either side of him he saw Wave and Storm waiting for his decision and repressed a proud smirk. They had come face-to-face with the holographic guardian, been rescued by noble (if misguided) warriors, had those same saviors mercilessly cut down in front of them, and their lives threatened by the attacker. And they still listened to him first.
Loyalty that pure was worth a million treasures, even to an ancient band of treasure hunting pirates like them.
"You want the Treasure of Babylon?" he repeated with all the ominous calm found in the eye of the storm.
"If you don't mind," the backstabber asked with feigned politeness.
"Very well," Jet closed his eyes and prepared himself. "Wave? Open the chest and retrieve the treasure."
Wave blinked in shock and looked into his eyes before responding. "Of course Jet."
To his credit, Storm was silent as Wave, betraying nothing, not even what she'd seen in Jet's eyes, opened the treasure chest and retrieved the sole object within. To the casual observer it appeared to be a rolled-up rug or small carpet, mostly blue in color but trimmed with gold and some red as well as a few other vibrant colors.
Jet held out his hand and a moment later, Wave had placed the item within it.
"Now hand it over," Nack made a 'gimme' gesture with his hand as he kept the gun trained on the Rogues, "nice and easy."
"Sure," Jet smirked, getting a confused look from all three Hooligans at the confidence in his expression. "Catch."
The Treasure of Babylon sailed into the air as Jet threw it to the Hooligans, unrolling as it went and blocking their view.
"Ooo... shiny!" Bean pounced on Nack's hat to admire the object, further obscuring the sniper's vision as Jet began to gather thrust in his Extreme Gear.
Before the Hooligans knew what was happening, Jet had burst forward, instantly accelerating to maximum as he twisted a path around the mercenaries, created a vortex of wind, and vanished from sight.
"Did you really think to command the wind?" the voice of Jet seemed to come from nowhere, causing Nack and Bark to look around in confusion while Bean was distracted by the unfurled carpet that was the Treasure of Babylon whipping around in the sudden twister. "To steal from the sky?"
"Where are you?" Nack demanded as he tried to search for the hawk.
"Here!" Jet yelled from above as he boosted straight down the middle of the three, causing a burst of wind that scattered them like leaves.
As the Hooligans tumbled across the floor, Wave caught the treasure and calmly rolled it up again. Storm, it seemed, had caught something else.
"Boss, what should I do wit dis?" the albatross asked as he held up the sniper rifle Nack had previously been holding.
"Dispose of it," Jet ordered as he saw what his muscled friend held.
"Right away, boss!" Storm smiled as he clenched his fist hard. A moment later and the sound of protesting metal could be heard as the weapon was rendered completely useless.
"Wha–!" Nack yelled as he watched his weapon turned to twisted scrap. "Do... do you have any idea how much that cost me?!"
"Be glad it's not your neck..." a weak voice struggled out, and all present turned to see Proto Man force himself to his knees and aim his arm cannon at Nack. "If your little trick bullets had actually killed my brother or sister I would have returned the favor right now."
"Then they're...?" Wave asked with some audible relief.
"Alive," Proto Man confirmed. "Nack missed vital systems on my brother and our helmets are thicker than the rest of our armor, and Nack hit the thickest spot on my sister's. They'll need repairs, but they'll be fine. As for you," Proto Man addressed the Hooligans.
"I suggest you leave while we're feeling charitable," Jet finished, the towering form of Storm pounding a fist into his palm behind him suggested what would happen if they ignored the offer.
"Hooligans..." Nack growled out. "Retreat."
Jet and the others watched as the three sped off towards the opening gates.
Nack and the other Hooligans sped out of the gates, and immediately ground to a halt as they almost crashed into a shimmering forcefield. Behind it were a slew of robots mounted on Extreme Gear and aiming weapons at them. Most appeared to be a variety of the Joe series, all currently with arm cannons trained on the Hooligans, but three were clearly different.
The one apparently generating the forcefield looked like a buff human with blue arms and legs, yellow gloves, cyan boots, and a giant red V-shaped torso armor that hid all but his eyes and had a stylized lightning bolt on it. The one in the back had blue armor with green boots, gloves, and helmet as well as a soot-black face where only the eyes could be seen. The one in front, and apparently the leader of the trio, looked like someone had crossbred a fishman and a scuba diver. He had green and yellow armor with pink trim, particularly on the knees and flipper feet, with a blue air tank connected to his helmet (which oddly had a yellow mohawk attachment on it) and in his hands held a trident that vibrated ominously. (16)
Behind them was a gathering of the world's heroes, those that just so happened to comprise the other racing teams, which just flat out looked pissed. (17)
"Nack the Weasel, Bean the Dynamite, Bark the Polar Bear," the aquatic robot declared, "the security forces of MeteoTech hired for this event do hereby place you under arrest."
"Bombs just want to be free!" Bean yelled cheerfully as he flung a spread of explosives at the robots, which proceeded to detonate harmlessly on the forcefield.
"Run for it!" the voice of Nack yelled as the smoke from the explosions obscured their forms. A moment later and the three could be seen tearing away from Babylon Garden as fast as their Extreme Gear could carry them, Bean being carried by Bark while apparently calmly holding his wrists out to be cuffed.
"Wait, if Roll agreed to be your girlfriend, then why have I never seen the two of you dating?"
"*sigh* Because she told me that she didn't want to start dating until I could remember after Awakening."
"Um..."
"And while I don't know what the weird inflection on that word is supposed to mean, I do know that it's more than just coming out of a rest cycle." (18)
Rouge shook her head of the thoughts as Team Dark closed in on their quarry. The award ceremonies had been halted while Dr. Light attended to his robot children. Unwilling to risk teleporting them in their condition despite knowing full well how safe his own technology was, repair supplies had been transported in so he could work on-site. And yet aside from Team Dark, the attending crowd hadn't thinned. If anything, the mass of concerned onlookers had been increasing when they left.
"Found them," Shadow's words drew the rest of the team's attention to the sight below where the Hooligans were ditching their Extreme Gear and boarding Nack's double-sidecar hoverbike the Marvelous Queen.
"Thanks," Bass told them. "Just remember, no help unless I give the signal. These guys are mine."
Rouge and Shadow nodded, even though they planned to give help from behind the scenes anyway. Shadow by making sure the Hooligans never received any reinforcements that might come to aid them and Rouge with a darling little undervalued technique from the Pokemon branch known as Disable.
Surprisingly, Roll needed the least amount of repairs. Aside from the mess that was the front of her helmet, she had suffered nothing more serious than a blown fuse. A quick replacement with a fresh component and she was as good as new, if minus her helmet.
Rock on the other hand had some fairly extensive internal damage to his body. Nothing that couldn't be fixed in time, but it would be a while before he was back to peak operational condition. For now though, Light's youngest son was insisting that he be present for the award ceremony and the presentation of the Treasure of Babylon even if he had to be carried.
The treasure itself almost seemed lackluster given the trials and protections placed around it, but Dr. Light noticed something about it even before the Babylon Rogues unrolled the item so the crowd could see it in its entirety.
"My word!" the scientist exclaimed from his front-row seat next to his younger children (19). "Is that material what I think it is?"
"Good eye old man," Wave gave the doctor a look that betrayed how impressed she was. "It is indeed the same kind of material used to make Extreme Gears."
The crowd began murmuring as the information worked its way around, and everyone's attention was riveted when Jet brought out the translucent cube known as the Key to Babylon Garden and held it over what to most looked like an ornate throw rug or small carpet for a moment before both began to glow.
And then the item rose off the ground slowly to hover in the air as the fabric rippled in the wind. By the end of the day most of the world knew two things for certain: The Treasure of Babylon was a prototype of the Extreme Gear which was even now taking the extreme sports world by storm, and it was a genuine-for-reals legendary flying carpet.
Nack swore when his precious ride was shot by energy blasts from a black-armored individual. One he knew as Bass, Dr. Wily's black prince, followed by that robotic wolf of his.
"What the hell is wrong with you?!" the mercenary weasel yelled as he drew a pistol and aimed it at the robot. "No one shoots up my bike like that!"
*click*
Nack blinked and tried to fire again without success as Bass strode forward without any concern whatsoever. "Bean!"
"Gotcha boss!" Bean saluted and dove for the robot, producing several bombs that... failed to light their fuses. "Huh? What's wrong with you guys? Are you si–"
Nack gulped a bit as not only did Bean's explosives fail to ignite, but the nutty duck was casually backhanded into a nearby rock and fell unconscious. Bark tried to rush the robot only to be pounced on by the robo-wolf who pinned Nack's silent muscle to the ground and looked a single command away from ripping the polar bear's throat out.
"Look," Nack fished for something to get him out of this situation, "that whole thing on the track was just business you know? Nothing personal."
"You hurt my dog," Bass growled as he grabbed the weasel by his jacket and hoisted him face-to-face, just as Nack remembered that the robo-wolf had the ability to transform and that the robot's Extreme Gear had the same coloration as the metal animal.
"A s-simple misunderstanding!" Nack sweated nervously.
"And then..." Bass's grip tightened, "you shot my girlfriend. In the head. So don't you dare tell me it's not personal..."
As the robot's other arm began to morph into a weapon, Nack wondered what his chances of living through the next five seconds were.
Jet whistled to himself as he strolled down to his office aboard the Babylon Rogues' zeppelin. He might have won the competition, but the mayor guy had pulled him aside to discuss making the whole EX World Grand Prix an annual thing. And... the idea actually appealed to Jet in a way that it never had when Eggman was running the show. But for now, he wanted to sit at his desk and bask in the glory of the new trophy sitting in a case by the wall.
"Hey Jet," a familiar voice interrupted the moment the leader of the Babylon Rogues entered. "Got a moment to talk?"
Jet turned to see Sonic leaning calmly against the wall of his office like he belonged there. After a moment of surprise, he decided to humor the hedgehog. "About what?"
"Back in Monopole, before Rock nabbed you, you said you'd done this before," Sonic replied casually. "How many times?"
"More than you can imagine," Jet sneered.
"Dude," Sonic laughed, "you couldn't write numbers that big using the walls and teeny handwriting. Seriously, how many?"
"..." Jet had lost count early on, but he reluctantly admitted his best guess.
Sonic nodded thoughtfully. "That would pretty much make you the sixth Crash Generation looper from our universe."
"The what?" Jet blinked in total confusion.
Dr. Wily smiled to himself as he finished flight preparations for the Time Skimmer. As far as G.U.N. knew, the device could only be used to view events in the past or most likely future. And for the most part, that was correct. However, one could physically land in another time period provided they had enough energy to both deliberately choose their destination and make the return trip as well.
For this test, he'd set the dial to, oh, about two hundred years in the future. He wanted to see what the world looked like a good amount of time after he gained control of it. If he was lucky, maybe he could visit the history museums and see the records of his eventual glorious victory.
Smiling in a way that betrayed nothing to the G.U.N. techs observing the test, not to mention the brass funding this and other projects of his, Dr. Wily pulled a lever and activated the time jump.
"So..." Jet, now in his seat behind his desk, took a moment to digest the lengthy explanation his rival had given him, "not only are you 'looping' as you put it, but you've been doing it much longer than I have."
"Pretty much," Sonic confirmed.
"I see... How much were you holding back?" Jet accused.
"Not as much as you're thinking," Sonic shrugged. "Honestly, I just used Gear recently developed by Rock's dad instead of the special models that I save for competitions between loopers. As for skill, I promise you I brought my best game. I tried holding back against a version of you who wasn't Awake once and it wasn't pretty."
"Good," Jet growled. "I despise charity from my competition."
Sonic just waved off his rival's comment. "Anyway, since you're looping you'll want to practice this."
Jet blinked as Sonic pulled small handbook out of nowhere and handed it to him. Taking it automatically, Jet noticed the two-tailed fox friend of Sonic's... Tails... on the cover and the title... "Subspace Pockets and You?"
"It's a really useful technique," Sonic assured him. "One you'll want to learn as soon as possible and practice with regularly. The book goes into some detail, but essentially it's a way to keep your stuff from one Loop to the next."
Jet pondered that for a moment.
"Oh, and once you get that down, let me know and I'll show you the Ping," Sonic added. "So you can let others know when you're Awake and stuff."
"And why would I want to let you know that?" Jet smirked at his rival.
"What?" Sonic chuckled. "And miss the next time members from the Looper Racing Circuit are in a Loop together?"
"The who?" Jet was beginning to feel a bit out of his depth at the rapid-fire of new information.
"Basically a bunch of speedsters and serious racers from across the multiverse who like to get together and challenge each other to races," Sonic explained. "Aside from me and a few others from our branch, the LRC has Rainbow Dash, the Flash, Quicksilver, Lightning McQueen, Speed Racer (no, seriously, that's his real name), Kamen Rider OOO: aka Hino Eiji, Fate Testarossa, Blurr, Cheetara, Dash Parr, Captain Falcon–"
"Whoa, whoa!" Jet interrupted. "You can't seriously expect me to believe that all of these people are top notch racers! I haven't even heard of any of them!"
"Dude," Sonic gave Jet a tolerant look, "we're talking about a gathering of racers from multiple realities where 'grand champion' and 'fastest in the world' are almost entry requirements."
"And you're asking me to join?" Jet repeated as that sunk in.
"Jet," Sonic shook his head. "Aside from the Hooligans and your teammates that grand prix was pretty much an entire field of loopers whose experience was equal to or greater than your own."
Jet leaned back in his chair and pondered that for a bit. "Who's the current champion?"
"The racing champion of the multiverse?" Sonic grinned with approval that Jet was aiming straight for the top, just like he always had. "Right now that would be Herbie."
"And who is Herbie?" Jet asked.
Sonic considered the question for a minute. "Nah, not ruining the surprise. I'll make you a deal though: You buy the picture that someone's guaranteed to take of your face when you find out and let me see it and I'll show you the one they took of mine. Oh, and you might want to keep this date in mind!"
Jet accepted a calendar page for what looked like next year with a circled date on it. "And this is...?"
"It's when Tails predicted the last of those Arks of the Cosmos will fall to Mobius," Sonic reminded Jet. "Those things are always a lot of fun. Plus... there's something I'd like to try with them if you're willing."
"Like what?" Jet eyed his rival suspiciously.
"...I'll give you a choice," Sonic offered. "I can tell you right now, or you can meet me next year with your Ark and race for it."
Jet didn't even have to think about his response.
Silver the Hedgehog floated along with his telekinetic powers over the ruined city on his usual patrol and pondered the state of the world. As he did so, his thoughts went as they often did to an old man...
"Whatcha building?" a young Silver asked the old man.
"I am building a robot," a grayed wild-haired partially bald man with intense eyes and a large mustache snorted in annoyance. "Go away."
"Everyone says you're here to save us from the Flames," the young hedgehog ignored the dismissal.
"They are much more appreciative of my talents than most," the man continued to work without looking at the youth. "I am currently building a force capable of combating these 'Flames'."
"Why?" the young Silver asked. "Everyone else just wants to run and hide while it burns away everything else."
"Because this world is mine," the man hissed vehemently. "Mine by right of being the most brilliant, the most talented, and the most capable! And I will not permit some mindless flame beast to deny me that right! My latest creation will be able to easily trounce even the most terrifying of lava monsters that this... 'Iblis' creates!"
"Will he really be that strong?" Silver questioned curiously.
"Of course he will!" the old man seemed insulted. "I have spent my life fighting against misguided 'heroes' who would deny me my rightful place. Heroes who would trounce this 'Iblis' in an instant! And I have studied all of their powers and abilities. The analytical mind and calm demeanor of the Mega Man. The ruthless physical prowess and melee skill of the Mega Woman. The military scanners and hardware of the Proto Man. And the combat programming of my own son... Along with a support unit of his own that can withstand the harshness of these molten fiends and a few surprises of my own invention, he shall be invincible!"
"Wow..." Silver's eyes shone with the interest of youth. "What's his name gonna be?"
"I shall call him... Quint."
"Silver!" the familiar voice shook the psychic hedgehog out of his memories. On the roof of a nearby building stood the robot he'd just been thinking about. Clad in the green and lime armor he was built with, blue shades hiding his face, a yellow 'V' crest on his helmet and the crimson red battle jackhammer Sakugarne flung over his back. Beside him stood the purple-furred feline pyrokinetic known as Blaze who had mysteriously appeared a few weeks back. (20)
"What's wrong?" Silver called back to his friends.
"He's appeared again!" Blaze informed him and Silver felt his anger spike.
Iblis. Quint was indeed everything that the old man had promised, but Iblis was immortal. He could never die for good. But that never stopped Silver and his friends from trying.
"Sun of Soleanna, guide and watch over us with your eternal light..."
As her words echoed across the gathered crowd, Princess Elise touched the torch to the pedestal, causing flames to race along the ornate centerpiece of the city as fireworks were released into the air.
"This has been an entertaining celebration," Rock observed from his spot on a nearby rooftop. "Thanks for inviting me."
"Yeah, this is a pretty sweet shindig every time," Sonic agreed from his perch next to the blue bomber. "Right up until Eggman crashes it seeking the 'Flames of Disaster'."
"Speaking of which..." Rock interrupted as scanned the skies, spotting several incoming missiles headed for the general area.
"Yep," Sonic smiled. "That's our cue."
With that, the two blue heroes jumped into action liked they'd agreed on. They would both intercept the missiles and then Rock would take on Eggman's robots while Sonic got Elise as far away as possible.
Bass snorted as the explosions behind himself and Shadow died down. Eggman's defenders were just plain weak.
The communication watch on Shadow's wrist crackled to life. "Transmission from HQ. There's an SOS coming from Dr. Eggman's Base. Our last communication with the infiltrating agent was 26 hours ago. We expect an immediate rescue, Agents Shadow and Bass."
Then again, as Shadow placed a hand on his armor and prepared to Chaos Control them both inside the outer walls, Bass had to admit that the whole 'agent' title had a nice ring to it.
Blaze readied herself along with a still Unawake Silver and this Quint fellow she'd never met before as the massive lava beast Iblis rose out of the ever-hot lava at the base of the destroyed city. With her experience in the Loops, she could seal the monster herself now, but...
Well, she was curious as to how the presence of Quint altered things. She'd keep the solo-seal option open in case he and Silver weren't able to manage things with just her baseline abilities as backup. (21)
"I still can't believe you two were sent in after me," Rouge huffed from the backseat. It didn't matter how many times it happened in the Loops, the whole thing still rankled her.
"Why?" Bass grinned as he opened fire on the surrounding robots from the aptly named 'shotgun' seat while Shadow both drove and fired missiles from the armored jeep the three had appropriated. "Embarrassed to be seen with us?"
"No," Rouge grumbled. "It's just that this was supposed to be a stealthy mission."
Sighing, the spy/thief pulled a ominously glowing object out from behind her.
"Speaking of the mission, don't either of you want to know what this is?" she asked. Shadow already knew about Mephiles's prison from multiple encounters with it in the Loops, but Bass's reaction could prove interesting.
"Can it blast Eggman's sentries to smoldering scrap metal?" the black-armored robot asked.
"Probably not," Rouge wondered why she'd expected anything more sophisticated than that.
"Then I couldn't care less," the super robot snorted as more of Eggman's robots, one a giant dog, landed in front of them. "Oh, look. They're trying to keep us from getting in."
"More fools them," Shadow grinned as he gunned the accelerator.
The massive form of Iblis was beaten, again. It was not the first time Quint had defeated the beast, and he was fully certain it would not be the last. For as many times as he, and then Silver and now Blaze, had defeated the monster, it simply rose back up from the ashes once more.
"How can we completely destroy Iblis?!" Silver punched a broken pillar.
Quint silently observed Silver's anger. It was something he shared. But the knowledge of how to destroy Iblis for good had been lo–
"By knowing the truth of course," a new voice interrupted them. Turning, all three beheld a black hedgehog atop a pillar that no longer held up anything above it. "Just as a flower comes from a seed or a chicken from an egg, everything has an origin."
Quint noted the instant distrust that sprouted on Blaze's face, but paid it no immediate heed. Many would feel the same way about his creator after all. (22)
"You need to find the being originally responsible for this catastrophe," the mysterious hedgehog continued.
"And who is that?" Quint challenged. "And how can such knowledge aid us?"
Bass screwed up his face as Rouge gave the rundown on this Soleanna place that apparently featured prominently in Eggman's recent plans. It wasn't a backwater by any stretch of the imagination, but it also wasn't really at the forefront of anything.
As much of an idiot as Eggman could be at times, he was still almost as smart as Bass's dad. If he was interested in the place, then there was a reason for it.
And why did he keep getting the feeling that the glowing ornate thing Rouge had swiped was watching him?
"To rewrite your future, the past must be changed. You must eliminate the individuals who awakened Iblis. You must destroy the Iblis triggers."
Quint shook his head free of Mephiles's instructions as he activated his sensors and looked around. So this was the past... Before Iblis was set loose to destroy everything. A time when his own creator was alive and his ambitions not yet drowned by the sea of flames the future would become. And while he was no longer certain that his creator's ambitions were well founded, it remained that any future would be better than the one that currently existed.
Off to his side, Quint saw Silver shaking off the effects of Mephiles's time travel and smiled slightly. The hedgehog had grown up to be a mighty warrior, a valued ally, and a trusted friend.
Silver turned his gaze on Quint and for a moment, he seemed not to recognize his oldest friend. But the moment passed as the hedgehog's eyes lit with understanding and Quint chalked it up to a mild and temporary side effect from the journey. (23)
"Come Silver," he spoke, idly noting that Blaze had failed to appear in the same location the two of them had, "it is time that we fight to change the future. So that all may indeed have a future."
It was time to locate the Iblis triggers and ensure that they never freed the monster.
Blaze sighed to herself as she examined the world of Sonic's time. Mephiles had separated her from everyone else as usual, likely because he could sense that she'd act as a voice of reason and counter his manipulations.
Dealing with Silver's baseline insecurity if he wasn't Awake would be bad enough. But the apparently ruthless nature of Quint? With a clear target? That was a recipe for disaster.
"Damn..." Rock swore as he watched Dr. Eggman fly away with Elise, even though the princess had tossed them the Chaos Emerald she'd come to possess.
"Eh, don't feel too bad," Sonic consoled the robot Anchor. "Eggman tends to be pretty determined about getting his mitts on information and the people who have it. In fact, I think we blew my old record out of the water for keeping her away from him before he managed to distract us enough. At least when I'm not using out-of-Loop powers. Besides, if he doesn't get Elise he tends to blow the city up trying."
"That really doesn't make me feel better," Rock replied. "We need to get her back."
"And we will," the blue blur assured him. "And she'll be fine when we do. The girl may not look it, but she's a tough one. But first it's time to do the detective thing, chase ol' Egg-face down and find out what he's up to. And since you're visiting, you wanna take point?"
"...Sure."
When Rock had sent out a distress signal that Soleanna was under attack by Dr. Eggman, his brother and sister had contacted the Freedom Fighters and responded as quickly as possible.
Of course, trying to meet up with him and Sonic amidst the chaos of the city was proving problematic and the group had split up. At the moment Roll was paired up with Amy (having been a hair slow on calling a partner and not simply taking off on her own like Blues) when the pink hedgehog let out a cry of joy.
"Sonic!" she tore off towards a hedgehog that, even in this light, Roll could tell was definitely not Sonic. The figure next to him though was unmistakable.
Quint. Of course, she hadn't yet met the future clone of her brother this Loop, which left the question of how to play this. Considering Amy hugging the strange hedgehog, she decided that if it was working for her...
"Rock?" she approached the two with a look of confusion on her face. "What are you doing in that get up?"
Amy chose that moment to realize that she wasn't really hugging Sonic, Roll idly recognizing Silver, and slapped the poor guy.
"Our apologies," Quint stated politely, "but I fear we're not the ones you seek. I am known as Quint, and this is Silver."
"Sorry," Roll apologized as well, "but even with the shades you look remarkably like my brother. We're trying to find him and his friend."
"We too are searching for someone," Quint added.
"Then we'll help you!" Amy promised instantly, grabbing Silver's hand and Roll suppressed a chuckle at the look on the hedgehog's face. Awake or not, it was clear he wasn't used to female attention.
Taking a moment to send an alert to Blues and the Freedom Fighters, Roll decided to follow the three and make sure they didn't get into too much trouble.
"Sonic!" Elise exclaimed as the blue hedgehog from before crashed into her cell, followed by a two-tailed fox and the blue robot. "Mega Man!"
"Please, call me Rock," the robot hero smiled.
"You came to rescue me!" the girl exclaimed with relief and rushed forward to hug the two blue figures.
"Well, of course," Sonic grinned. "We always keep our word!"
"Look out!" the fox yelped, pointing to a large dog-like machine outside the cell in which rode Dr. Eggman.
"Well, well, it looks like I have a little pest control problem," the mad doctor sneered at the heroes. "Leave now! The princess is mine until I unlock the secret to the Flames of Disaster!"
"Yeah, not happening!" Mega Ma–Rock stepped in front and defiantly leveled his arm cannon at the war machine.
"It would appear," Quint observed drily as Amy Rose continued to drag Silver through the desert sand in search of her supposed boyfriend, "that your friend's idea of aiding our search is to conscript us in aiding with hers."
"Yeah, she takes a little getting used to," Roll admitted.
"Out of curiosity," the robot from the future inquired, "how long did it take you?"
"Any day now..." Roll laughed weakly and rubbed the back of her head.
Quint was silent for a moment before snorting in amusement.
Bass wasn't really paying attention to the history lesson Rouge insisted on giving as the three strolled through the castle ruins. Oh, he was recording every word, but it was all boring junk about some failed energy project that blew up in people's faces called–
"The Solaris project," the sudden voice of Dr. Eggman cut into his thoughts. "An ambitious undertaking named after the eternal sun god they worshiped."
"Well," Bass observed as he took in the doctor's latest personal battlecraft. "This just got interesting."
"Indeed," Eggman replied calmly. "Bass, Rouge, Shadow. As much as I'd love to catch up on old times, I'm on something of a schedule. So if you would kindly return the Scepter of Darkness you stole from me."
With a grin and a slight motion of his head, a number of Eggman's robots dropped down to surround the group.
"Sure thing, doc," Bass grinned as he swiped the thing from a surprised Rouge. "Hope you've got enough super glue."
"NO!" Eggman yelled as he grasped what the anti-hero intended to do just in time for the device to crack and shatter in Bass's grip.
A dark energy burst forth, causing all of Eggman's robots to fail and making Bass grimace as it tried to do the same to him. He hadn't felt anything that sinister since his dad played with the dark energy he'd extracted from the alien robot that Duo guy had called Slur. It had been one heck of a power boost when he'd had it, but it had given him this niggling phantom pain that he liked to equate to heartburn in humans.
Then some massive shadow... thing... leapt out of the ground, making Eggman take off in a panic like Hell itself was after him. Then it went after the robots, passing through Bass last and leaving a cold sensation that made him wonder if some denizen of Hell had actually been unleashed. It ended by striking Shadow's... shadow, maker Bass hoped that wasn't going to end up a pun, which then rose up to form an off-colored clone of Bass's friendly rival.
"Oh, how ironic fate can be!" the thing laughed without displaying any evidence of a mouth on the faux-Shadow form. "I would never have believed I would be released through the actions of the Slur-touched or that I would revive through your shade! I thank you Bass Wily, Shadow The Hedgehog!"
"...The hell are you?" Bass grunted as the figure gave a mocking bow.
"I am Mephiles," the figure rose up slowly and began to stride forward at a slow, ominous pace. "Mephiles the Dark. What, did you forget me? I owe much to you the two of you. Oh yes." A malevolent purple energy orb formed in the figure's hand. "What you gave to me, I now return to you! A one-way ticket to oblivion!"
The orb expanded suddenly, encompassing all four of them before any could react and the next thing Bass knew he, Rouge, and Shadow were in a crumbling ruin overlooking an equally crumbling city.
Elise smiled as she ran alongside her rescuers into town. The two were so amazing in her eyes, and it sounded like they had equally amazing friends, like the fox who had led that man's forces away to help her escape.
Her heroes. Rock.
"As long as you're happy, that's enough for us."
And Sonic.
"Nothing starts until you take action. Don't waste time worrying that you could use doing."
Yes... She would do her best to be happy. For them. And she would do everything she could to prevent Solaris from becoming the Flames of Disaster again.
Silver was still trying to take everything in. The odd Quint individual he remembered from this lifetime's childhood, the strange old man who had built Quint that Silver now knew to have been Dr. Wily, the presence of Mega Woman in the Loop... He just wasn't sure how it would play out.
"Amy! Roll!" a voice rang out. "How've y'all been!"
And now it looked like the Freedom Fighters had come along for the ride this time around, as evidenced by the waving Bunnie Rabbot and Antoine that Amy and Mega Woman were rushing to join. No, Silver wasn't sure how events were going to play out, and messing with things blindly could end in disaster. Plus he still hadn't located Sonic or the second 'Iblis trigger' this Loop that he strongly suspected was Mega Man.
'Hmm... I wonder how Quint and I would fare against the two of them...' Silver wondered. As fortune would have it, he spotted the two with Princess Elise at that precise moment. 'Looks like I'll get to find out.'
Whispering for Quint so that Amy and her friends wouldn't overhear, Silver motioned his friend towards the blue duo.
Sonic blinked as two figures appeared in his and Rock's path. Silver and a green armored robot with blue shades and a large red object slung over his back... that Quint guy from Rock's neck of the multiverse. The one Waltz had offed that Loop when they'd met in the Wily Egg.
"It's them," Quint stated. "The Iblis triggers."
Sonic noticed Silver giving him the 'play along' signal discreetly and made a similar motion to Rock.
"What are you goofballs on about?" he pretended to have no idea what was going on. "Who are you?"
"It doesn't matter," Silver stated as Quint hefted the red object, apparently the pogo stick from hell, in front of him threateningly.
"For the good of the future," the green robot intoned as his weapon cracked the ground from the almost casual motion, "you two must be destroyed."
Elise watched on as her heroes fought against the sudden challengers. The power being thrown about was immense. While Sonic and Rock fought with speed and arm cannon respectively, the strange hedgehog rapidly threw around furniture, boxes and debris with his mind and his green-armored partner unleashed energy blasts and physical blows from his odd transforming weapon that blew craters in the street and buildings alike. The surrounding area was quickly being torn to pieces as surely lethal blows missed their targets.
She was still trying to figure out what she could do to help when metal arms grabbed her from behind.
Quint had to admit that the cry of someone in distress had distracted him, and in that moment the Iblis triggers had tried to escape.
He growled and silently ordered Sakugarne to link with his arm and activate its power cannon mode. "Don't turn your back on–"
*Clang!* *Boom!*
Quint grunted as his weapon was knocked off course by a powerful strike from what appeared to be a broom. The signature, and highly effective, weapon of Roll Light, the Mega Woman.
"Don't you dare try and kill my brother!" the yellow-armored girl robot snarled at him.
"Y'all heard the lady!" the voice of the cybernetic rabbit he'd seen Roll greet before joined the confrontation. Her mechanical arm was morphed into an energy cannon and the male coyote stood beside her in a clear combat stance with sword drawn.
"You were after Sonic and Mega Man?!" Amy yelled incredulously at him and Silver. "Were you seriously going to kill them?!"
"They are responsible for destroying the world," Quint glared back at them.
"Eez zis some kind of joke?" the coyote scoffed. "Zose two are ze last in ze world who would do such a think!"
"Believe what you will," Quint told them as he hacked into the teleportation network of this time and laid a hand on Silver's shoulder. "But in the near future the actions of those two will unleash global devastation!"
And with those parting words, Quint teleported himself and Silver away from the confrontation.
"Geez," Sonic huffed after he and Rock left the fight. "Is Quint always that intense? That pogo stick of his is rough stuff..." And don't think he hadn't noticed the smug grin on Silver's face. Oh, he was going to have words with that guy later.
"More or less," Rock breathed heavily to circulate more cooling air over his internal systems. "Though Sakugarne doesn't normally have a pile-driver/boxing-glove mode. Or a super cannon mode for that matter." (24)
"So just the massive pogo-jumps that make the ground explode when he lands," Sonic snarked. "Yeah, that's much better."
"Could be worse," Rock noted. "He could have had the beam saber upgrade."
"Ugh, I can do without another round of Darth Time Traveler..."
"There you two are," Blaze accused as she finally caught up with Silver and Quint. "I've been looking all over for you..."
"Blaze...?" Silver asked with a convincingly solemn tone. Heck, Blaze's only clue that it was an act was the pre-arranged hand signal they had telling her he was Awake and not wanting to rock the course of events too much. "To kill in order to save the world... Is it the right thing to do?"
"Right or wrong matters little," Quint answered before Blaze could. "If we do nothing, then nothing will change."
Blaze joined Silver in looking at Quint with surprise. Ruthless the sentiment might have been, but there was wisdom in it. Much the same wisdom Blaze recalled imparting to Silver herself. (25)
"Regardless, the situation is more complex than we've been told," Quint continued. "The Iblis triggers are in pursuit of a 'Dr. Eggman' who has a base nearby which may contain further information."
Two teams had been assembled to recover Elise. The Freedom Fighters, Blues, and Roll were off sabotaging the doctor's base while Sonic, Rock, Tails, and Knuckles fought their way in from the front.
Rock had no idea what was up with Eggman most days. First he said he'd 'let' them hold onto the Chaos Emerald and now he was suddenly demanding they turn it over in exchange for Elise? Did the guy even know what he was trying to do?
"You're late," the voice of Eggman sneered as the four heroes entered the inner chamber of the base.
"We have the Emerald," Rock glared as he held up the gem. "Now let Elise go!"
"All in due time," Eggman grinned triumphantly as a pedestal rose up from the floor. "Place the emerald there."
Rock glared at the man and, knowing full well that he had something planned, did as instructed. Even though he could see Elise shaking her head, silently begging him not to.
"Always nice to work with a professional," Eggman grinned as the pedestal retracted, taking the emerald with it. "Allow me to introduce you to the Solaris prototype."
Elise's gasp as the chamber activated was audible even over the hum of the sudden energy field that encompassed the heroes. After a few moments of fruitlessly trying to break free, the four were lifted off their feet as the field intensified.
"With this machine, I will be able to control the flow of time itself!" the voice of Eggman was the last thing they heard before they all vanished.
The trio of Quint, Blaze, and Silver all stared up at the robotic sentry that had descended to engage them. It was, in essence, a floating weapons platform with glowing hover engines that could be repositioned for precision movement, four 'arms' that appeared able to be positioned parallel or perpendicular to the ground and housed a large number of missile silos and machine guns in addition to possessing heavy armor, a pulsing crystal that Quint's sit-rep scanners showed was both the reactor as well as a powerful laser, and atop a rotating sensory platform. The transponder identified it as an 'Egg Genesis'.
"Silver," Quint spoke as the machine began targeting them, "'Death From Above'."
A moment later, Quint and Sakugarne were wrapped in Silver's psychokinetic power and flung high into the air above the machine while Silver himself and Blaze took on the dangerous task of drawing its fire.
When he was directly over the behemoth, Quint set one foot on Sakugarne's foothold and another between the handlebars. It wasn't the most stable position, but it was a bit more aerodynamic and allowed Quint to aim as well as shoot down any incoming fire without throwing his targeting off too much. And one more reason...
"Sakugarne, engage downward thrusters," Quint ordered as he finished linking his feet to their footholds and his support unit complied, its handlebars becoming jets normally used for its jet adaptor mode, and began to rocket downwards far faster than gravity could possibly pull it. The 'pogo-stick from hell' as some called it tore through the armor of the war machine like a steel nail through warm butter and burst out the bottom in a spray of crystal shards from the destroyed laser weapon and finished by cratering the ground in an eruption of powdery snow.
The war machine gave a protesting groan as its systems failed and it began to crash to the ground. The first legs to impact snapped off after a moment of protest, and the direction of the crash was changed from straight down to an angle that came nowhere close to hitting the robot beneath it.
Silver and Blaze came rushing up to check on Quint as the snow settled to find the robot casually brushing snow off of his armor. As the two slowed to a more sedate pace upon seeing that their friend was fine, Silver spotted an object in the snow. A blue crystal cut into a pristine faceted polygon.
"Hmm...? What's this?" Silver puzzled over it, and Quint scanned the object.
"Energy readings indicate it to be one of the lost Chaos Emeralds," the robot proclaimed.
"Yes," Blaze nodded. "Gems of immense power that respond to thought and emotion. It is said that if you gather all seven, a miracle will occur."
Quint turned pointedly to the feline.
"I have encountered them before," Blaze allowed, but declined to elaborate.
"Then we should hold onto it," Quint nodded to Silver who stowed the Emerald on his person.
Elise clasped her hands and began to pray. That man had told her of his intentions to use some power she possessed to revive the Flames of Disaster and rule the world. But the Flames... The Flames of Disaster brought only death and destruction. They could never benefit anyone...
This she knew for certain.
Now, she only had to figure out how to stop this and get her heroes back.
"Princess Elise?" a voice sounded behind her, causing her to whip around towards it. Just coming in from the entrance that man hadn't left by were a quartet of mobians and a yellow-armored girl who looked like Rock's sister beside a red-armored boy with shades in his helmet and a scarf around his neck.
"Y-yes?" Elise asked hesitantly.
"I'm Princess Sally Acorn, leader of the Freedom Fighters and Sonic's commander," a ground squirrel in a form-fitting blue vest and bike shorts combo introduced herself before gesturing to the armored girl, "and this is Mega Woman and Proto Man, sister and brother of Mega Man."
"Call me Roll," the girl smiled. "After we get you out of here of course."
"Speaking of which," the armored boy identified as Proto Man interrupted, "we need to get moving."
"O...of course," Elise agreed as she followed the friends and family of her heroes out of that man's clutches.
Rock looked around the new chamber he and the others had been deposited in. A quick scan revealed identical proportions to the one they'd just come from, with deviations concurrent with significant aging and neglect.
"Well," the familiar voice of Rouge sounded from above, "look who's here..."
"Heh," the voice of Bass chuckled. "This just got interesting..."
"The coast is clear," a pink hedgehog stated as the others led Elise out of the room. Elise was a bit surprised to see yet another member of her rescue team, but followed along with everyone. Despite the large group, they seemed to be doing quite well in evading detection.
"Intruder Alert! Intruder Alert!"
But then she supposed it couldn't really have lasted.
"Warning! Prisoner has escaped! All units begin search and recovery! Repeat–"
"Well, that's it for stealth!" Sally declared. "Full press! We have to get Elise out of here!"
With that, the group broke into a run. Energy weapons blazed, blades flashed, hammers pounded, robots were thrown into other robots, and several times Elise had to use her mysterious ability to create protective barriers to defend everyone. The problem was that the robots were starting to come in greater numbers.
"We need a new plan!" the hefty walrus yelled as he lifted another of their attackers and used it as a bludgeon.
"I'm thinking!" Sally yelled back.
"There!" Proto Man yelled as he spotted a train off to the side. "Stow away on Eggman's train! I'll run interference and draw them off!"
"I'm helping!" the pink hedgehog declared, hefting her hammer.
Proto Man glanced over at Sally who nodded after a moment's consideration. "Suit yourself."
With that, the Freedom Fighters and Mega Wo-Roll rushed Elise over to the train where they snuck in after they were certain no one was looking and hid themselves. The sounds of combat outside the train faded as the battle moved elsewhere until all was silent.
Then the hatch to the train opened and Proto Man jumped in, without the pink hedgehog. "We split up to draw Eggman's forces apart, but most of them followed her. Amy said she was going to make a run for Soleanna and lead them on a wild chase, so I doubled back after taking care of the few that came after me."
The rest of the group nodded as the situation sunk in. Now they could only wait.
"This is the distant future, far removed from our usual time. At least 200 years have passed, perhaps more."
The calm voice of Shadow echoed in Rock's processors as he fought his way through the devastated city ruins infested with hostile lava creatures. What could have caused this? And if he was here and able to see this nightmarish future, did that mean it had to happen?
No... No, he couldn't think like that. What would come would come, but he would always do everything in his power to prevent a tragedy like this from occurring.
Bass frowned as he blasted more of the lava beasts. They might seem fearsome, but they were all pathetically weak. And while the prospect of blasting their practically endless numbers had appealed initially, it had just gotten boring after a while.
Besides, Rouge had found the Chaos Emerald they needed so there was no real reason to stick aroun–
Bass blinked as something out of the corner of his optics registered. Was that... Omega?
A quick transponder ping to the robot got back a standby mode reply. No external access permitted. What the hell...?
"Are you certain? If we eliminate them, it will prevent this destruction?" Rock heard a familiar voice, so much like his own, come out of a room from which light emanated. Motioning for Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles to be quiet (which they already seemed to be doing) he peered in stealthily.
Inside the room were several figures. Quint, who he'd heard speaking stood with Silver and interestingly enough Blaze. And they were speaking with someone who looked just like Shadow.
"The Day of Disaster," the Shadow-like figure spoke in a voice that was most certainly not the ultimate lifeform's. "Here are my records of this event. This was when Iblis was freed and his flames released into the world."
Rock could only stare at the images of Soleanna, images that had to have been from close to when they were flung into the future, were brought up. A bit of enhancement on his optics let him read the accompanying text, revealing that it was talking about events two days after Eggman's initial assault with reports that Princess Elise had gone missing in the aftermath. As he read this, the faux Shadow handed the purple Chaos Emerald to Quint.
"I see them," the green-armored robot murmured. "A blue hedgehog and the blue robot my own basic design was based on... So these two are the Iblis triggers?"
"I don't believe it!" Blaze hissed, but the others seemed to pay her no heed. As Rock and the rest of his group watched, the false Shadow used a technique to send all of them back in time.
Bass grinned as he watched the worm-like form of the lava beast Shadow had called Iblis jump out, grab the Chaos Emerald they were all after, and scare the goody two-shoes out of their pants. Finally, something worth fighting!
Rock idly wondered why Shadow, Rouge, and Bass hadn't followed them back through the portal to the present as he grabbed a stray newspaper. A quick scan and analysis revealed that they still had time before the cataclysmic events learned of in the future, but no information on the status of the princess...
Bass was about to follow Rouge through the rift when he sensed something. Turning, he saw that Shadow was also distracted. A short distance away, a mass of gaseous darkness reformed itself into the off-color Shadow clone Mephiles.
When Shadow took off after the one who had stranded them in the future, Bass didn't even give the rift a second glance before he followed.
Rouge smirked as Omega accepted the Chaos Emerald and prepared to essentially shut down for a couple hundred years. Shadow had stayed behind to fight Mephiles so often that it no longer surprised her, which meant that she needed to send the Chaos Emerald and backup to the future. And time travel delivery was so much more feasible when you knew someone who could take the long way.
Bass couldn't hold back the sneer on his face as Mephiles tried to talk them into joining the dark being. As if they couldn't read the subtext. Yeah, humanity would probably go on a witch hunt if the world ended, and he and Shadow would likely be at the top of a lot of lists, but it was clear what Mephiles wasn't saying: That the devastation was his own doing while wearing Shadow's face.
As if they'd ever side with the guy who was intending to frame them.
"We make our own destiny," the voice of Shadow dripped with contempt for their mutual opponent, and Bass couldn't help the dark grin that split his face.
And then Mephiles flashed with darkness, turning into what looked like a crystalline version of his copied form.
'Well, look who finally decided to get serious,' Bass thought as Mephiles the Dark summoned a horde of clones.
The two dark heroes charged, only for Mephiles to dive at Shadow and disappear into his... shadow...
"The hell?!" Bass yelled in disbelief as he took aim at the bizarrely flat image of Mephiles that seemed attached to Shadow's feet and didn't even bother to mirror his movements.
"Ignore him!" Shadow yelled. "Stop his clones!"
Bass listened and began blasting away repeatedly, but the horde seemed endless.
"It doesn't matter how many you defeat," the echoing voice of Mephiles mocked them.
"I don't need to defeat them all!" Shadow growled. "Just enough to get warmed up! CHAOS BOOST!"
"Graaaah!" Mephiles yelled as the chaos-infusement of Shadow's body broke their connection and he was forced into a solid form. "Dance my shadows!"
"Yeah, dance!" Bass laughed as he began blasting the flimsy clones with wild abandon before they even got close to his partner, allowing Shadow to wail away on the original until he managed to break away.
"Grrr..." Mephiles began forming an energy sphere in his hands. "Take this!"
"You first!" Bass yelled as he blasted the energy with his arm cannon, destabilizing it enough that it exploded in Mephiles's face.
"Gah!" Mephiles gasped as he fell to his knees. "You..."
"Yeah," Bass grinned as he stepped up besides Shadow and aimed his buster at Mephiles, "us."
Mephiles roared and blasted them both with dark energy from zero build up, catching both anti-heroes off-guard and flinging them back roughly.
Bass grit his teeth as he watched Mephiles stalk towards them. That... that had hurt. A burst of machine gun fire interrupted whatever would have happened next, and all three turned to see Omega. Back online and staring Mephiles down with deadly intent.
"Now is the designated time," Omega intoned. "I shall assist."
"Heh..." Bass grunted as he forced himself to his feet. "The destruction buddies are back together again."
"Indeed," Omega agreed as he readied himself for battle.
Mephiles simply fell back and began to surround himself with clones again, but they proved little protection as Bass and Omega, as well as Shadow with a gun Bass didn't recall him having a moment ago, opened fire with extreme prejudice.
In short order, Mephiles was sent crashing to the ground, his clones unable to hold their form with their maker defeated. But even then the evil-eyed being stood and began to form a time portal which he went through, clearly intending to leave his foes stranded in the future.
With no time to waste, Bass, Shadow, and Omega all made a break for the portal and dove through with moments to spare.
The lead with Eggman hadn't panned out. The base had been on high alert, preventing the three from entering and getting the information they wanted. But as they walked back towards Soleanna, they spotted a dark hedgehog.
"Mephiles..." Blaze hissed.
The dark hedgehog turned stiffly towards them.
"Tell us..." Silver began. "Who are these Iblis triggers? Why would they act to destroy the world?"
"It is a good question," Quint added. "The very idea that these two would unleash a horror such as Iblis is met with incredulity at best and often open hostility. They seem to only want to protect and defend. Why would they even do what you claim?"
"Why do the reasons matter?" Mephiles returned calmly. "Unless you complete your task, your future will remain the same... forever. They are currently at the terminal station. It's now or never if you want this."
The three looked at each other for a moment, but when they looked back Mephiles was gone. (26)
"Why are you following me?" Shadow asked. They'd gotten back just fine, met up with Rouge, and he'd gone off to settle things with Mephiles as usual. While he did on occasion take Rouge and Omega with him, he still considered Mephiles a personal affair.
"Don't you remember?" Bass sounded half an excuse away from mocking Shadow's apparent ignorance. "Mephiles recognized both of us. I'm the 'Slur-touched', or didn't you ever bother to read my file on what I got up to with pops several years back?"
"..." Shadow had to admit to himself that he might have skimmed a bit here and there. "How would Mephiles recognize the traces of Slur's power anyway?"
"Who knows?" Bass shrugged. "Slur was a living avatar of malevolence before he got himself scrapped by Duo and his power extracted by pops, Mephiles seems to be a living mass of malevolence... Maybe they knew each other in evil high school?" (27)
Shadow bit back a snicker at the thought of Mephiles in school. "Maybe. In any case, we have a train of Eggman's to stop and a few questions to ask the doctor about Mephiles."
Elise stifled a startled cry as another explosion rocked the train the Freedom Fighters and Rock's siblings were smuggling her out on. As far as anyone knew, that man was clueless as to her presence on his train, but it seemed an error had been made and someone was determined to destroy it regardless of who was present on board.
"Mega Woman?" Sally asked Rock's sister.
"I have radio contact," Roll answered. "They're closing in! Get ready to abandon the train!"
"Hold on tight princess!" the walrus, Rotor, told her as she settled on his back.
The red-armored form of Proto Man turned and blasted a hole in the train and a moment later all within had jumped out and started racing along the ground, joined shortly by a pair of blue figures.
"I knew you'd return!" Elise exclaimed as the presence of her heroes finally registered. "You had to!"
Any response was cut off as the heroes glanced to the side and dove out of the way of a massive impact. The Freedom Fighters and Rock's siblings skidded to a halt and stood ready to face whatever had emerged to interfere in the rescue.
"This time there will be no more interruptions!" the voice of Quint rang out from the dust could the impact had produced as it cleared to show him posed dramatically atop the weaponized jackhammer Sakugarne, itself embedded in the ground, with the silver hedgehog perched on his shoulders. "The Iblis triggers must die!"
"Get Elise out of here!" Rock yelled to the Freedom Fighters and his siblings as he and Sonic moved to engage their opponents. Elise felt Rotor move with the others to remove her from the scene, only for the way to be blocked by that man in one of his machines.
"Going somewhere?" the madman taunted. "You didn't think I hadn't noticed, did you?" (28)
"Eggman!" the Freedom Fighters took up battle stances.
"If you really want to know, you should go find him yourself. But here's a hint... It's all linked to the Soleanna disaster 10 years ago."
Bass scowled as the words rang through his head again. Eggman clearly knew more than he was telling anyone, or was ever going to be willing to tell, and from the way Shadow had reacted he wasn't at all surprised.
The scowl deepened as he saw the newcomers face off against Sonic and the Mega-twerp. He and Shadow might not be in the market to off their rivals anymore, but that didn't mean the job was open to anyone else!
"It's time to end this!" Quint yelled as he and his partner prepared to fight Sonic and Rock, ignoring the other confrontation, only for a pair of black figures to interpose themselves.
"Mephiles?" Quint uttered in confusion. "and... are you Bass?"
"I am," the black armored boy grinned.
"And I am Shadow," the black hedgehog next to him huffed. "Shadow the Hedgehog. We will be your opponents."
"Yo, Mega-twerp!" Bass called to Rock. "We got these losers!"
Rock and Sonic nodded knowingly before breaking away to go after Eggman.
Dr. Eggman cursed to himself. Those pesky Freedom Fighters and the siblings of that loathsome Mega Man had managed to get past him, but he was slowly catching up. Yes, then he'd have his prize, the princess of Soleann–
An impact rocked his craft, causing him to look back and see Sonic and Mega Man closing in at high speed.
"I don't have time for this..." he growled and punched in a few commands. "Egg Genesis! Crush them all!"
"So what's your beef with the Mega-twerp anyway?" Bass glared down his green-armored opponent as Shadow squared off against the silver hedgehog.
"You use a derogatory term to describe the Iblis trigger," the unknown robot replied, "but the facts betray you brother."
Bass blinked, and widened his eyes as his opponent raised the blue shades in his helmet to reveal a face identical to the Mega-twerp's.
"The f–?" Bass blurted in shock.
"My name is Quint," the Mega-twerp look-alike explained as he lowered the blue shades back into place. "Dr. Wily, our father, created me during his travels to the future to destroy Iblis. I was constructed based on the plans from which were made his most tenacious foes. From the Mega Man I was granted problem solving abilities, from the Mega Woman I was given an affinity for ruthless cleansing, from the Proto Man I was gifted a suite of military tactical analyzers. And of course my battle routines and combat programming are based on your own, brother. With an arm cannon, a support unit, and a copy chip of my own I was pieced together from future technology and the best traits of all of the legendary robot heroes of this era."
"Sounds impressive," Bass got himself under control and called Treble in for the first time since this incident began. "But can you do this? Treble! Super Adaptor!"
"Sakugarne!" Quint roared himself. "Super Adaptor!"
Both robots joined with their support units, but as Bass flexed the wings of his, he blinked at the form Quint's took. A streamlined jetpack with metal wing-fins wasn't that odd, but the asymmetrical armor beefing out Quint's left fist to a few times its previous size was. It made him look like...
"Sakugarne's super adaptor was given the data of another legendary robot hero of your era," Quint brandished the oversized fist as it began to glow with energy. "Duo's."
"You talk big!" Bass challenged and charged at his opponent, arm cannon blazing. "Let's see if you can back it up!"
"As you wish!" Quint charged as well, rearing his glowing fist back to strike.
"Things have been going differently this time," Silver observed as he and Shadow took the duel as an opportunity to talk. The blows would look real enough to an observer, but they knew the other wasn't giving it everything they had. "Is it because of our visitors?"
"More or less," Shadow replied calmly as he dodged some telekinetically thrown crates. He tended to indulge Silver. The time traveler tended to Awaken in the middle of events with little-to-no ability to plan alternatives, leading to more than a few epic gaffes when the plans of other loopers derailed what he'd been expecting. "We haven't been sticking religiously to the script, but most of the changes are due to Rock and his friends. From what I hear, they declined foreknowledge in favor of reacting to events as they happened."
"Probably for the best," Silver nodded. "You never know how your own presence changes things in someone else's Loo–"
The conversation was cut off by an explosion of force off to the side and both hedgehogs looked to see the form of Bass in his super adaptor armor crashing into a cliff face and being embedded a few feet in.
"Is your partner...?" Shadow left the question hanging as Bass extracted himself and re-engaged Quint. (29)
"Nope," Silver shook his head. "Not Awake or enhanced by anyone who was to my knowledge."
"Impressive," Shadow allowed. "Anyway, how do you want to play forming the rift? We'll need both of them since Mephiles recognized Bass when he was released."
"Hmm..." Silver pondered for a moment. "How about..."
"He's still coming," Blues observed as more robots showed up in the wake of Egg Genesis before turning to Sonic and his brother. "You two get the princess to safety. We'll hold him off."
"Right," Sonic shot the red raider a thumbs up as he picked Elise up in his arms.
"We should be able to lose him in the jungle," Rock observed.
Bass and Quint stood a few paces apart, glaring at each other and calculating their next moves when Silver was flung through the space between them. In the direction he'd come from stood Shadow, holding a Chaos Emerald.
"Don't bother getting up," Shadow sneered. "With a Chaos Emerald I can control time and space. You have no hope."
"We won't give up!" Silver snarled as he struggled to his feet and brought out an emerald of his own. "It all depends on us! We can't lose... Not when we're so close!"
Silver charged at Shadow who responded in kind.
"Chronos..." Silver gathered power through his emerald.
"Chaos..." Shadow did the same.
"CONTROL!" they both met in the space between their partners and released their power at the same time, throwing both back and creating a space-time rift in the space between the four figures.
"Heh..." Bass grunted as he considered Silver. "Not bad. It's not everyone who can pull that trick."
"We won't let anyone get in our way!" Quint glared as he moved to stand with Silver.
"We'll change the past and save the world!" the time displaced hedgehog finished.
"Mephiles isn't trying to help you create a better future..." Shadow snorted derisively. "He's trying to eliminate the past you want to save."
Bass considered the expressions of shock and came to a conclusion. "We're all being played here it seems. No one in this time or the future is going to give us a straight answer. The only place we're gonna get that..."
Shadow nodded as Bass looked pointedly at the shimmering time portal. "...is ten years in the past. If you want the truth, follow us."
With that, Shadow jumped through the portal, followed shortly by Bass. After a moment to consider, Silver and Quint followed them.
Elise marveled at the sight of the flowers blooming around the lake. As hard as these events had been, they had also been strangely... liberating. She'd felt stifled as a princess before, unable to change things. But now... even though she'd done very little, she felt more capable than she ever had. She...
She didn't want this to end.
"Become a strong queen, my daughter. One who doesn't cry, no matter what happens."
But, as she looked towards her heroes, both waiting patiently, she knew it had to. And soon.
Four figures emerged from a portal in a long metal hallway and looked around. However, any thoughts or questions were interrupted as a massive explosion shook the facility. Exchanging a glance, the four raced towards the source of the blast.
Arriving, they saw a devastated lab with several scientists lying unconscious or dead through the broken observation windows. Leaping down, the four began to examine the scientists for any who were alive and conscious enough to offer an explanation.
Bass went to check on one man where he sensed the strongest lifesign, only to get no response when he shook the man. The search for answers cut off as all four were distracted by a glowing object, an orb that glowed as bright as the sun, in the center of the lab as the smoke cleared.
"Is that...?" Silver began as the sun-bright orb dimmed and cracked in half. One half fell to the pedestal below and became a shadowy ooze while the rest remained floating and took on the angry glow of molten lava.
"Iblis!" Quint hissed at the fiery portion as he put the pieces together.
"And that black shadow is the original Mephiles," Shadow finished as the two pieces began to gain coherence enough to individually move towards the room's exits, each heading towards a different one.
"They're escaping!" Quint cursed.
"We'll go after Mephiles," Bass's tone wasn't one for argument.
"And we've got Iblis," Silver nodded as he and Quint went after the fiery entity.
"W-wait," the groan of the man Bass had checked stopped he and Shadow. Bass idly noted a girl that had previously been hidden by his form, shielded from the blast. "Seal it with this..."
The man held out an ornate object, one identical to what Mephiles had been trapped in. Bass couldn't quite suppress a smirk at the utter irony of the situation.
In what Bass considered an amusing twist, Mephiles had tried to possess him, only to find out that his prior tolerance for Slur's 'evil energy' allowed him to not only resist control, but also keep Mephiles from escaping while Shadow sealed his form.
"Who... who are... you? Why would... one touched by... Slur... oppose... me...?" Mephiles gasped out as Shadow began the sealing process.
"I'm Bass Wily," the robot grinned victoriously as Mephiles's shadowy form began to be sucked into the ornate scepter the two had been given.
"And I'm Shadow. Shadow the Hedgehog," Shadow finished.
"I will... remember you both..." Mephiles promised as it was sucked into the scepter. "Your deaths... will be... certain!"
Quint had long ago copied the psychokinetic abilities of his friend Silver, and more recently the pyrokinetic powers of their new friend Blaze, using the biometric scan upgrade to the Copy Chip Dr. Wily had installed in him. However, since they were usually alongside him in battle he generally found using those abilities redundant.
But for the purpose of holding fast the fiery proto-form of Iblis, he quite eagerly made an exception. The problem... the problem was that holding Iblis seemed the only thing they could do, and neither of them possessed infinite reserves.
The two spotted movement at the same time, and turned to behold one of the injured scientists from earlier carrying an unconscious young girl in his arms.
"What are you doing here?" Quint demanded. "It's not safe!"
"I have my duty..." the man wheezed with determination and began to limp towards the altar Iblis's form was immobilized over. "This Living Flame has been entrusted to the royal family. The Flames of Disaster will awaken if nothing is done! That... must not happen."
The man Quint was now deducing to be the late Duke of Soleanna, which would likely make the girl in his arms Elise, carefully placed his apparent daughter on the altar. He then brought out a Chaos Emerald from within his robes and began to gather power with it.
"Eternal Sun!" the man declared with strength his injured body did not truly possess. "The Living Flame that has been entrusted to the royal family! Fall into slumber with a royal soul!"
As Quint and Silver watched, the flaming form of Iblis was sucked into the gem and then transferred into the girl on the altar. As the last traces of it vanished, the two beings from the future released their psychokinetic fields. Then the strength the man had shown left him and he stumbled. He struggled to the girl and picked her up, using what had to be the last of his strength to place her in Quint's arms.
"I'm sorry..." the man gasped, "but... can you take her to a safe place?"
"We can," Quint nodded.
"That's a good girl, Elise," the weakening man said tenderly, confirming Quint's suspicions, "Remember, be brave. Don't cry, no matter what happens. Otherwise your tears will call forth the flames inside you... Become a strong queen, my daughter. One who doesn't cry, no matter what happens. And... Live... happily..."
And with that, what little life the man had finally left him.
Shadow and Bass walked out of the complex with the scepter to see Silver and Quint standing outside, the latter holding the girl from before.
"Were you successful?" Quint asked.
"Yes," Bass nodded before shooting his partner a smirk. "Shadow has sealed the 'Shadows'."
"The 'Flames' have likewise been sealed," Silver told them as Quint placed the girl on the ground and propped her unconscious form net to a tree.
Shadow then placed the darkly glowing scepter on the ground nearby.
"You're just going to leave it?" Quint asked confused.
"Why not?" Bass shrugged. "It's not like we don't know what happens to it."
"Indeed," Shadow agreed as he brought out his Chaos Emerald in preparation for creating a portal to the time ten years hence.
"Of course," Silver nodded as he brought his own out.
"Chaos..."
"Chronos..."
"CONTROL!"
The four all leapt through the portal, but the duo of Silver and Quint took a moment to look at the sleeping girl before they did.
Rock breathed a sigh of relief. Elise was finally safe back at the palace and now–
His musings were cut short as he saw the latest model of Egg Carrier begin to enter the city's airspace.
"Princess Elise, ruler of Soleanna..." the voice of Dr. Eggman boomed forth. "By refusing to negotiate with me, you have forced me to take drastic actions. [Amy is seen in the crowd witnessing the Egg Carrier before turning to run away.] Meet me at the specified point alone 4 o'clock today. Failure to do so on time, Will result in my leveling of this city so that nothing but ashes remain!"
"So..." Rock turned to the hedgehog next to him with more calm than he felt, "this is what Eggman does when he can neither get nor hold on to Elise?"
"Every time," Sonic nodded.
"..." Rock stared back up at the craft before whistling for Rush and activating his super adaptor in the next moment, cocking his Mega Buster when the process was finished. "I'm going to go register a complaint with the doctor. You want to come with?"
"I wouldn't miss that for anything," Sonic smirked.
Elise stared up at the massive battleship hovering over her city. She had no doubt that man... Eggman... would do exactly what he promised. There was only one course of action to take.
"Well, look who's back," Rouge huffed as Shadow and Bass hopped out of the time portal that appeared. "Did you find what you were looking for?"
"Almost," Shadow replied. "We need you to access GUN's database. Specifically, find out what materials the Scepter of Darkness was made from."
"That all?" Rouge smirked and brought out an object from behind her back. One that looked identical to the scepter they'd just used in the past. "Done and done."
Bass grinned. "I knew we kept you around for a reason."
Blaze looked up as the time portal formed and both Silver and Quint emerged. She had, as she often did, elected to stay out of the direct confrontation between Silver and Sonic and instead watch from the sidelines as her friends went back in time to when Iblis and Mephiles first split apart.
"You're back," she observed. "What did you discover?"
"Sonic and Mega Man... are not the Iblis triggers," Quint admitted.
"I see," Blaze kept her face carefully neutral rather than smirking like she wanted.
"What is going on?" Silver asked as the noise of the townsfolk began to increase.
"The word's been spreading fast," Blaze informed them. "The princess turned herself over to Eggman after he threatened the city."
"What?!" Quint's alarmed exclamation cut off Blaze before she could say she was seeking allies for a rescue mission. "What if... what if Dr. Eggman is planning to release Iblis?"
"Which way did Eggman head?" Silver asked her. Blaze pointed and got a nod from her friend. "Sonic and Mega Man would surely be following. I think I know where we can intercept them."
As he rode on Rock's back up to Eggman's flying battleship, Sonic did his best to lighten the mood. Unfortunately, all of his attempts fell flat as the robot was currently as talkative as, well, a rock.
"Good thing all of Eggman's robots are weak to lemons, right?" the hedgehog attempted.
...Nothing. This was worse than he thought. The whole lemon shooter thing hadn't yet failed to get a response out of his 'big bro'.
Eggman... He was insane. He wanted to use Solaris to rule over time, clearly having no idea what kind of damage he'd really do. She wondered if he even cared.
Sonic jumped off of Rock's back as the robot set down on the deck of the Egg Carrier and began stretching as Rock disengaged from Rush and sent the robo-pooch away.
"Alright," Sonic grinned as Eggman's defenses trained on the duo and prepared to open fire. "Let's get this p–"
A spread of Metal Blades from Rock slicing those defenses to ribbons cut off the boast.
Sonic turned to look at Rock questioningly and did not like the expression on his friend's face. For the first time he could remember; baseline crossover, tandem run, or the current fused Loop; Rock actually looked the part of a robot.
The expression didn't deviate the slightest bit as the blue bomber strode forth at a leisurely pace and used his vast array of Master Weapons to cut down Eggman's defenses and sentries as fast as they appeared. Without hesitation, without emotion.
And without mercy.
Roll was in the middle of a long internal bout of swearing. After everything they'd gone through to rescue Princess Elise, after all the work they'd done fixing up Soleanna after Dr. Eggman's initial attack and the subsequent skirmishes, the guy just swoops in and holds the entire city hostage if Elise didn't give herself up.
And for some reason no one could seem to raise her brother or Sonic, which left her and the Freedom Fighters, including Tails and Amy, to race after the latest model of Egg Carrier in the hopes of getting her back before Eggman completed his dastardly plans.
Roll and the others skidded to a halt as a large number of Eggman's robots landed in front of her. Great. Just great. She didn't have time for–
Her annoyance cut off as the robots were grasped in a psychokinetic field before being blasted by a massive burst of plasma energy. Silver and Quint landed before them, the latter shouldering Sakugarne as it transformed back from super cannon mode. The feline pyrokinetic she recognized as Blaze followed shortly behind.
"You..." she spat at Quint. "Looking for another shot at my brother?"
"...No," Quint admitted reluctantly before shooting a glance at Silver under his blue shades that few would have been able to spot. "Not anymore. Circumstances have... changed."
Silver stepped forward and continued for his partner. "We need to rescue the princess as quickly as possible."
"Then stop talking and start running," Roll only glared at the two for an instant before she resumed pursuit of the Egg Carrier.
"Shadow... Even if you believe everyone in the world will be against you. Know that I'll always remain by your side. Remember that."
"...You know, I've been meaning to ask: Why do you always say that?"
"Because I always mean it you doof!"
Bass filed away that little tidbit in the back of his mind. Rouge may have liked to tease Shadow frequently and was certainly the most sentimental of the group, but Bass couldn't recall her saying anything so... touchy-feely before.
'Eh, whatever,' Bass shrugged mentally as the full Team Dark headed for the ruins in pursuit of their quarry. 'Mephiles first, my teammates' collective oddities after.'
Elise waited patiently. Every time Eggman got distracted enough to look away from her, she inched over to the control panels. She didn't quite know how it all worked, but she knew enough from her father's work that operating something like this without precise care tended to cause all sorts of problems. And she wanted to cause as many as possible as quickly as she could, even if it meant crashing the ship with her on it.
Ironically, her plan to cause problems on the ship was interrupted when alarms started blaring incessantly and Eggman began to panic and scream that they were going to crash.
"No!" Tails yelled as explosions rocked the Egg Carrier and the craft began to lose altitude, still too far for any of those on the ground to catch up to it before it impacted. "Elise!"
"Damnit all!" Quint swore. "If the princess dies in that crash...!"
"I know..." Silver lamented, even as he privately wondered where Sonic was right then. If he'd gone along with events like Silver had silently requested, he should have been right here chasing after the Egg Carrier with the others. "We could use Chronos Control to send someone back in time to get on the ship before it takes off, but without a second Emerald..."
Silver could probably use the Time Stones in his subspace pocket instead, but... Well, every so often the energy of Solaris surrounding these events reacted badly if he tried. Best not to risk it if he didn't have to.
"...Why is this happening?" Eggman railed at his own craft as it continued to report system failure after system failure. "Noooooo!"
Elise found she was wondering that as well when the door to the control room gave a screeching protest as it was peeled back by a pair of armored hands. Behind the door stood her heroes.
"Sonic!" she cried with relief as she ran to them. "Rock!"
"It's over Dr. Eggman," Rock leveled a blank glare at the man as Sonic motioned Elise behind them.
The doctor stamped his foot like a child throwing a tantrum before reaching over to pull a lever on the control panel. "I'm not finished yet!"
The front of the control room broke away from the rest of the craft, leaving the heroes and Elise behind, and reformed into the latest version of the doctor's personal craft. A flash of red light and a robot dog stood with them as well.
"Rush, protect Elise," Rock ordered.
"We've got the Eggman," Sonic flashed her one of his cocky grins.
"You two have been thorns in my side for too long!" Eggman sneered as his personal craft docked with another mecha, forming the bottom jaw of a dragon-like beast. "This time, I'll finish you once and for all with my Egg Wyvern!"
Rock simply jumped out of the devastated control room, Sonic following right behind.
"I finally got a lock on my brother!" Mega Woman reported. "He's still not responding to his comm, but I've got a fix on his position! He's aboard Eggman's vessel!"
"I see him," Quint confirmed as flashes of digital light could be seen on his blue shades. "He and Sonic are fighting Dr. Eggman."
"That's good," Blaze nodded. "If they're already there, then Elise is in good hands. They won't fail."
"Agreed," Quint nodded.
"We..." Silver turned to the others. "We should head back to our own time now. We just need to find a second Chaos Emerald and–"
"Did someone order a Chaos Emerald?" the voice of Knuckles cut in as the echidna glided down to meet the group, the form of Proto Man on an Extreme Gear, which turned into Beat as he jumped off, right behind him.
"We found this in Eggman's hideout when we went to trash the place," the echidna nodded to where Blues was holding the red emerald. (30) "If you need it, you're welcome to it."
"Thank you," Silver accepted the emerald and held it up with the white emerald he already had. "Chronos Control!"
With that, a portal back to the future opened up for the trio of Silver, Blaze, and Quint.
"Mephiles!" Shadow yelled as Team Dark entered the chamber to see the crystalline facsimile of the ultimate lifeform hovering above.
"I was expecting you sooner," the darkly glowing form turned around slowly to show that he had a Chaos Emerald in his possession. "As you must know, you're already too late. But there's still time for you to change your mind. Join me, Shadow, Bass. Let us teach this world a lesson and rewrite the future."
"Oh, piss off!" Bass derided the dark entity. (31)
"What?" Mephiles the Dark looked taken aback by the declaration.
"Like you'd ever be willing to work with anyone!" Bass accused. "I know your type! You don't want to rule or get revenge, you just want to wipe out everything until you're all that's left!"
"Such a pity," Mephiles levitated the Chaos Emerald into the air over his head where it began to flare with power. "Truly a shame that you wish to go against me!"
All of Team Dark was flung back by the wave of force, but all remained on their feet.
"Drown in darkness!" Mephiles yelled before diving into the floor and becoming a massive puddle of shadow that spread across the entire surface.
And then the giant shadow beasts began to claw their way out of the massive oozing puddle of darkness that was Mephiles.
"Are you ready, Silver?" Quint asked as the three arrived in their desolate future.
"Yes," the hedgehog nodded. "I know what to do. Today, we will defeat Iblis once and for all!"
"Then we'd best hurry," Blaze smiled at the two. "I can already sense his flames rising again."
Sonic was prepared for a typical knock-down drag-out with Eggman's toys, but just like with the rest of the ship Rock seemed to have other ideas. He went in with Mega Buster blazing, switching between Master Weapons with every couple of shots, probing for a weakness.
Eggman used the laser spread to try and take back control of the fight, only for Rock to use the Mirror Buster to send them all right back.
The mad scientist then tried to swoop in close, only for both heroes to jump on and grab the metal horn. Rock slashed away at the canopy with some of his melee weapons while Sonic threw his weight on the horn to mess with the guidance and ram the craft into the falling battleship. And as they jumped off, Rock peppered the Egg Wyvern's back with Crash Bombs.
As they landed on another perch, Eggman tried to take aim with missiles from the machine's tail, only for Rock to hit them first with a spread of Dive Missiles, causing them to detonate early and damage the craft. Rock then followed up by ripping a large piece of the hull off with the Strong Arm and simply throwing it at the war machine. As Eggman tried to shake off the unexpected impact, Rock unleashed the Astro Crush.
One of the solid light meteors that rained down knocked the canopy clean off and Rock wasted no time leaping out towards the craft. A pair of Metal Blades took care of the laser guns mounted on the front and Rock landed right in the cockpit and dashed towards Eggman, grabbing his collar, lifting him bodily into the air, and slamming him into the metal of his own craft.
"N-now just hold on a moment...!" Eggman pleaded. "I-I'm sure we can talk this out..."
"Talk, Eggman?" Rock's eyes narrowed dangerously. "Is that what you wanted to do when you flew a warship over the city and threatened to burn it and everyone in it to ash?"
"A m-m-misunderstanding...!" Eggman chuckled weakly.
"No Eggman," Rock cut off anything further, "I understand perfectly. You want to use violence to get your way? You want to bring overwhelming firepower to the table to get what you want? You want to level armies that stand against you without mercy? You want to play for keeps? Just remember:"
At this, Rock brought Eggman's face to inches from his own and glared with all the warmth of absolute zero as the Egg Wyvern began to fall apart around them.
"So. Can. I."
(32)
Sonic looked at where Rock appeared to be a moment away from murdering Eggman (who appeared to be a moment away from wetting himself), then at the disintegrating battleship around them, and made a decision. Racing back to where they'd left Elise and Rush, he let loose a sharp whistle that got the dog's attention.
"Yo Rush!" he yelled as he skidded to a halt. "Elise and I need a board buddy! We gotta split pronto!"
Rush barked excitedly before shifting to his Extreme Gear form to an amazed look from Elise.
"What is...?" the princess stared at the device that had previously been a robotic canine.
"It's an Extreme Gear," Sonic grinned as he picked Elise up in one arm and the board in the other. "You worried?"
"Don't waste time worrying that you could use doing, right?" Elise smiled at him. "So let's do this!"
"That's the spirit!" Sonic backed up to get as much runway as he could. "Hold on tight now!"
Elise did as instructed, and only barely kept her grip as Sonic raced for the open air, threw the board out in front of him, landed with Elise right behind him, and accelerated faster than the princess had ever thought possible.
"Th-this is amazing!" she marveled as the wind whipped around them.
"Isn't it though?" Sonic grinned back at her and angled towards where Rock was still staring down the doctor. "Yo Rock! Time to blow this joint!"
"Y-you're just going to leave me?!" Eggman's eyes bulged out as Rock released him and stepped towards the edge of the cockpit, whose hover engines were starting to sputter ominously.
"Is the parachute you're wearing operable?" the robot glared at the man.
"W-w-well... yes... I suppose..." Eggman gulped.
"Then happy landings," Rock waved as he activated the Ray Glide and jumped after Sonic and Elise.
With all of Team Dark working together, Mephiles's giant shadow beasts went down as fast as he could summon them. However, Mephiles himself proved elusive until Shadow once again used the Chaos Boost to force him out into the open.
Attempting to surround and blast them with clones proved fruitless as Bass and Omega were simply faster on the draw, and soon enough Mephiles was retreating to the top of the chamber to gather all his power for one final blast while annoying them with cheap after-images. But the semi-solid after images proved Mephiles's undoing as Shadow used them as stepping stones to climb after the shadowy being and deliver the final blow.
"No..." Mephiles tried to deny reality as his crystalline form began to lose form and melt into the shadowy goo he was originally. "I am... forever... I am... invincible..."
"Yeah," Bass scoffed as he and Shadow stepped forward with the new Scepter of Darkness and began the sealing process, "you keep telling yourself that."
Mephiles was sucked up into the scepter and for a moment it looked like everything would be fine, but then the dark glow dimmed, cracks formed in the scepter, and with a blinding flash Mephiles broke free.
"Fools," the resulting swirling maelstrom of shadow taunted. "The 'I' of now has absorbed your power through our convergences in the past. What may have worked 10 years ago, no longer does!"
As Mephiles resolved back into his crystalline hedgehog form, a burst of power knocked all of Team Dark head over heals. Twin flashes of light resolved into a pair of Chaos Emeralds, the one Mephiles had held and the one previously in Team Dark's possession, rotating around each other in an infinity pattern.
"You must realize now that you cannot hope to stop me with your limited power," Mephiles continued as a sea of clones appeared.
"I said it before," Bass grunted as he and the rest of Team Dark got to their feet while a flash of light heralded Treble teleporting in, "and I'll say it again:"
Treble jumped up, his body twisting and reforming around Bass to form the super adaptor armor as Shadow unlocked his inhibitor rings and unleashed a wave of power that wrapped around all the members of Team Dark. And as one, Team Dark finished Bass's proclamation.
"Piss. Off."
Silver, Blaze, and Quint skidded to a halt before the caldera as the full behemoth form of Iblis rose up out of it and roared its fury.
"All right Iblis!" Quint declared dramatically.
"This time, we finally stop you!" Silver finished.
The gigantic beast simply roared at them again, spewing flames from all over its body.
"I'll distract him from the air, Silver!" Quint yelled as he ordered Sakugarne to transform into its Jet adaptor mode and took off.
Silver nodded as the lumbering form of Iblis began advancing on him and began grabbing boulder-sized stones with his psychokinesis and lobbing them at the gargantuan foe. Blaze stood back and targeted incoming volleys from Iblis with her pyrokinesis so they wouldn't his Sliver. For almost a minute this went on as Iblis strode towards Silver and Blaze, as well as the edge of the caldera, finally reaching the foothold and grasping it with both hands as it leaned down to roar in its opponents faces, even as Quint continued to pepper the beast with plasma fire.
"Now Silver!" Blaze yelled.
Silver wasted no time in flinging himself through the air at Iblis's head with his telekinesis, gathering his strength as he went. He landed on the behemoth's head and poured everything he had into what passed for the monster's mind. As the beast reared back in agony, Quint jumped off of his support unit.
"Sakugarne! Super adaptor!" he yelled, and once more joined with the mechanized weapon to become the Duo-like warrior. The petpack on his back flared to life and Quint gathered energy in his massive armored fist as he streaked towards the off-balance Iblis.
"Finish it!" Silver and Blaze both yelled as Quint punched the lava beast at full speed, blowing straight through its head and out the other side.
The form of Iblis groaned loudly as it crashed into the caldera with an earth-shaking thud while Quint flew back to Silver and Blaze, his armor glowing slightly with heat, but otherwise unharmed.
As he landed, a massive pillar of flame rose up and formed into a swirling spherical inferno. The true energy form of Iblis.
"Now to seal you!" Silver declared as he took out the Chaos Emeralds.
"Wait," Blaze told him. "Iblis is living flame. It won't accept you as a vessel. Let me. The flame is part of my soul. My spirit. Seal Iblis within me and then send us both to another dimension. One with powers that can deal with a being of living flame with ease."
"But Blaze..."
Silver was cut off as Blaze grabbed the emeralds from him and used their power to draw the fiery form of Iblis into herself within moments.
"You are so naive, Silver. I've always liked that about you. But sacrifice is part of life. You'll never get anything if you aren't willing to give something up in return," Blaze smiled at her psychokinetic friend before turning to the other. "And Quint, the unexpected hero with the ruthless charm. Remember: When one is willing to destroy in order to secure a better future, one should not be surprised if destruction is all that future holds."
"I... understand..." Quint replied. "And thank you... my friend."
"Now Silver!" Blaze ordered the hedgehog.
"But... why do you have to go?" Silver gave her a searching look. And for a moment, Quint thought he heard an 'always' in that sentence. (33)
"Oh, Silver," Blaze smiled. "I'm from another dimension in the first place and as much fun as I've had with you two, it's high time I went home. Don't worry about us. We have a power back home like the Chaos Emeralds, but aligned to flame. Iblis will not trouble us."
Silver was silent for a long moment before he nodded, accepted the emeralds from Blaze, and opened the portal. With a flash of light, Blaze was gone and the dark clouds of ash that had hung over the world for as long as any living in that time could remember began to clear.
Elise hung on tight as the... Extreme Gear cut through the air in and around the debris of the exploding ship at Sonic's direction as they all headed for the cliff. Off to the side, she could see Rock gliding along, just keeping pace with them and couldn't suppress the whoop of joy that bubbled up in her throat.
It was close, but the three of them just barely cleared the top of the cliff as the ship impacted below and all three of them went tumbling across the grass.
Elise found herself laughing, drunk on the adrenaline of the moment, before she realized that her laughter was being echoed from both sides. Turning her head, she met the kind eyes of Rock, so at odds with the fierce expression he'd turned on Eggman. He looked better this way in her opinion.
"You look happy," he smiled at her.
"I am," she replied.
"That's good."
Quint stared off into the distance as something niggled at his processor. Despite misadventures through time, he, Silver, and the now absent Blaze had finally defeated the Flames of Disaster known as Iblis once and for all. The future, for the first time since long before he had been constructed, actually seemed promising.
So why did he feel like he was missing something?
"To rewrite your future, the past must be changed."
"Don't you dare try and kill my brother!"
"Who are these Iblis triggers? Why would they act to destroy the world?"
"You were after Sonic and Mega Man?!"
"You must eliminate the individuals who awakened Iblis."
"Eez zis some kind of joke? Zose two are ze last in ze world who would do such a think!"
"Why do the reasons matter? Unless you complete your task, your future will remain the same... forever."
"Right or wrong matters little. If we do nothing, then nothing will change."
"Mephiles isn't trying to help you create a better future... He's trying to eliminate the past you want to save."
"It's not like we don't know what happens to it."
"You need to find the being originally responsible for this catastrophe."
"I knew you'd return! You had to!"
"Don't cry, no matter what happens. Otherwise your tears will call forth the flames inside you..."
"You must destroy the Iblis triggers."
"Remember: When one is willing to destroy in order to secure a better future, one should not be surprised if destruction is all that future holds."
Behind his blue shades, Quint's eyes widened in alarm.
"Quint?" Silver asked, sensing his friend's sudden distress.
"We have to go back," Quint said. "It's not over... I know what Mephiles is planning... We have to go back and stop it."
Silver blinked, but took out the Chaos Emeralds he still had and held out one in each hand. After making sure Sakugarne was secured to his back, Quint reached out and covered the emeralds with his own hands.
"CHRONOS..." the two proclaimed together as they gathered power, "CONTROL!"
Roll, Blues, Knuckles, and the Freedom Fighters; Sally, Tails, Bunnie, Antoine, Rotor, and Amy; stood at the same cliff where Silver, Quint, and Blaze had left them when Team Dark approached.
"I still can't believe that asshole got away," Bass grumbled.
"Easy come, easy go," Rouge waved off the robot's irritation. "At least we recovered the yellow and green emeralds."
"Who?" Blues's expression suggested a raised eyebrow behind his shades.
"Someone named Mephiles the Dark," Shadow began.
"Yeah," Bass huffed, "poser hid out in a sea of clones of himself so we all opened an epic can of whoopass on them, only to find out the original did a runner."
"Huh," Rotor rubbed his chin thoughtfully, "I wonder where he we–"
The opening of a portal cut off Rotor's question as Quint and Silver dropped into the middle of the group.
"Quint? Silver?" Roll blinked in confusion. "I thought you went back t–"
"No time!" Quint yelled. "Where are Sonic and Mega Man?!"
"They just finished tearing Eggman a new one," Amy answered with confusion. "Why?"
"Mephiles was telling the truth!" Quint yelled, looking as close to a panic attack as many of them had ever seen a robot get. "Sonic and Mega Man really are the Iblis trig–oof!" (34)
Roll growled from where she'd knocked Quint to the ground. "I thought you were over that idiocy already!"
"You don't understand!" Quint yelled. "Iblis is sealed in Elise! Those two are now Elise's treasured heroes! The seal can only be broken by sadness!"
Roll blinked as a sinking feeling hit her.
"It's not their actions that will release Iblis! It's their deaths!"
Out in the jungle, Mephiles stared into the depths of the purple Chaos Emerald he held. Had his face possessed the ability, he would have smiled.
"That was so amazing! The wind, the freedom, flying without a care in the world," Elise sighed as she walked along with her heroes back towards Soleanna. The red-armored dog called Rush, who had been the 'Extreme Gear' Sonic had flown her out on, bounded about as playfully as a real animal. Suddenly, Elise turned to Sonic and Rock. "I want to learn how to do that!"
Sonic blinked at the declaration, but Rock simply smiled. "Why not? I think we can give you a few lessons once we get back to Soleanna."
"Really?" Elise looked excited at the prospect.
"Sure!" Rock agreed. "Let me just... that's odd. I've got multiple incomings, and fast. Roll, Blues, Bass..." Rock put a hand over his eyes and peered up into the sky where multiple dots were coming towards them fast. Zooming in, he identified... "That... looks like almost all of our friends and rivals. And I don't think this is a celebration party..."
"What?" Elise frowned. "You beat Eggman, right? What could still be wrong?"
Between the two groups, the purple Chaos Emerald rose up and formed a barrier that halted their friends and rivals from getting any closer. Rock almost missed the build-up of energy that followed shortly, especially since it was coming from behind him rather than the front. A moment before the freezing effect of Chaos Control took place, Rock called up and activated the Time Stopper even as he turned around to watch a crystalline hedgehog that looked suspiciously like Shadow finish rising up out of the ground and take aim at both himself and Sonic.
Rock didn't have time to think, he simply acted. Throwing himself to the side, he knocked the immobilized Sonic out of the path of the blast meant for him. Unfortunately, this put him directly in the blast instead.
The world seemed to freeze in place as all present took in the sight of Mega Man held in midair by one of two beams of energy before the beams vanished and he was allowed to fall to the ground.
"Sonic? Rock?" Elise's voice trembled as she turned to look at her heroes lying on the ground.
"Ow..." Sonic groaned as he rolled over. "What was that for, bro?"
The menacing laugh of the crystalline hedgehog, Mephiles, was his only answer.
"Bro? ...Rock?"
"Rock!" the voice of Roll cried as she raced past the now downed barrier towards her brother.
"Rock?" Elise moved to roll the blue robot over, and gasped in horror at the gaping hole in his mechanical torso. At the sight, her eyes welled with tears. "NOOOOO!"
And with that cry of anguish, the world ended.
"Finally, the seal is broken! At long last, I'll be able to join with you! Iblis! Now, Chaos Emerald! It's time for the final curtain call!"
Those words and an advancing wall of light were all anyone could remember as they came to.
"What is this place?" Amy asked as she opened her eyes to see what looked like pieces of Soleanna floating in a shadowy void lit only by a sun-bright light directly overhead.
"What the hell did Mephiles just do?!" Bass roared as he looked around him. "Show yourself asshole!"
"The Chaos Emeralds!" the voice of Silver exclaimed. "They're gone!"
"Oh, mah stars!" Bunnie looked around. "What all just happened?"
"The princess shed tears and released Iblis," Quint spoke morosely.
"And Mephiles joined with him," Shadow added.
"And became Solaris," Rouge finished just as a rectangular contraption with a bubble cockpit appeared in their midst.
"What in...?" Tails jumped.
"Scanning," Omega intoned. "Mystery craft matches specifications of prototype Time Skimmer which vanished from the G.U.N. facility with Dr. Wily some months prior."
"I was wondering where he went," Blues stated.
"Blasted temporal distortion springing up out of nowhere!" the doctor's voice could be heard swearing as the cockpit opened. (35)
"He's fine," Bass snorted as he turned to check on Treble who had transformed back from his Extreme Gear mode.
"Fine..." Sally mulled the word over. "No... Rock!"
As one, everyone recalled the events immediately prior to Mephiles joining with Iblis and turned towards the sight of Elise crying over Rock's immobile form. Sonic and Roll stood beside her looking shocked while Rush, along with Tango and Beat (having also turned back from Extreme Gear mode), nudged the robot expectantly.
"Rock!" Elise wailed. "Rock!"
"What in the world?" Dr. Wily exclaimed as he took the sight in.
"Some joker named Mephiles blasted Mega Man through the chest and then joined with a fire entity called Iblis..." Knuckles began.
"To form Solaris?!" Wily screeched. "You let Solaris be reborn?! You fools!"
"What does that mean?" Knuckles growled.
Ignoring the echidna, Wily stormed past all of them and marched up to Rock's prone form.
"Blast it all!" the doctor cursed before turning to glare at Rush. "Well?! What are you waiting for, mutt? Activate that super adaptor of yours and join with your master!"
Rush growled at Dr. Wily, Tango joining in with a loud hiss as well.
"Don't take that tone with me!" Wily yelled back. "Do you want to save Mega Man or not?!"
Rush growled some more, but obeyed, transformed, and joined with the downed robot.
"Better," Dr. Wily huffed as he examined the damaged hero, "but we're still running out of time. Without a properly equipped lab, he can't be repaired fast enough."
"The Chaos Emeralds," Sonic spoke up. "They can heal anything."
At that moment, the bright light overhead began making odd alien sounds.
"You had to let Solaris form," Wily growled.
"What is Solaris?" Quint asked. "You never gave me any data on this entity."
"I didn't?" Wily seemed surprised at the oversight. "Well, in that case, I suppose I should correct that now. From what I could deduce from ancient records, Solaris is a trans-dimensional entity of immense power. If not tightly controlled by someone of sufficient intellect, it would be able to consume all existing timelines until all that ever was collapsed into nothingness."
"How do we stop it, pops?" Bass folded his arms.
"Stop it?" Wily raised an eyebrow. "It is a creature that exists simultaneously in the past, present, and future. Stopping it in any one of those would mean nothing at all."
"You seem remarkably calm for someone who just declared things hopeless," Rouge observed.
"As if the lot of you don't make a hobby of proving such assumptions otherwise," Wily retorted.
"You're sure the emeralds can heal my brother?" Roll finally turned to ask Sonic who nodded firmly.
"Elise," Silver stated to the weeping princess. "You were the vessel that was used to seal Iblis."
"Indeed," Quint agreed as he joined his friend. "You should be able to use the gems' power to heal Mega Man."
Elise looked at the hedgehog and robot from the future for a moment before nodding firmly. "I'll... I'll do it!"
"Okay," Sally announced as she held up NICOLE who was scanning the shadowy void, "NICOLE's radar shows that the emeralds have been scattered across the surrounding area. Sonic and I will stay here to guard Mega Man and Elise while the rest of you pair off and search for the emeralds!"
"Right!" everyone else confirmed as one.
"Remember!" the voice of Dr. Wily came over the communicator, "the time-space rift we are in is unstable! Eventually it will collapse, so hurry!"
Knuckles and Blues noted the urgency of the mission as they fought their way through the hordes of lava and shadow beasts that infested the warped version of the valley where the old castle of Soleanna resided. In the distance they could see the crimson glow of the red Chaos Emerald.
Bunnie and Antoine couldn't help but smile as they blasted and slashed their way through their foes towards the blue Chaos Emerald. The world might be ending, they might be having to dodge deadly time-space rifts that would rip them apart on contact, and this might be the last way they'd pick to spend time at the beach (warped or not), but if nothing else they were together.
"Keep your head about you Sugah-Twan!" Bunnie yelled as she shot another flying thing out of the sky.
"But of course mai cherie, I am nothink if not ze 'Cool Man', no?" the coyote swordsman waggled his eyebrows at his wife as he cut down another shadow beast.
"Ah think yer more playboy than 'cool man' hon," Bunnie smirked at her husband.
"I would nevair suggest such a think!" Antoine feigned mock offense.
"Ah get it," Bunnie mock-pouted. "Y'all don't think I'm 'bunny' enough fer that kinda thing, eh?"
"Mah petite," Antoine leveled a desirous gaze at the cyborg lapine, "if we were not fightink for our lives, ze fate of ze world, or ze life of a friend, I would show you right here and now precisely how 'bunny' I find you, yes?"
"Well, now if Ah don't call that incentive to finish up fast!" Bunnie grinned as she began charging a powerful blast of energy.
"Then for life, for liberty, for love, I strike!" Antoine yelled as he slashed an entire group of beasts back into the ether from which they'd sprung.
"Don't let them push you into the rift!" Quint yelled as he used the oversized fist of his super adaptor form to punch another giant warrior out of the way. Not resting, he and Silver continued to fight their way through the warped version of the desert to the west of Soleanna and the surrounding mountains.
"I got it!" Silver yelled as he unleashed his psychokinesis on all of the surrounding foes and cleared the way for his friend. "Get the white Chaos Emerald!"
"You know," Rotor mused as he and Tails blasted their way through the twisted rendition of the jungle south of Soleanna's valley towards the cyan Chaos Emerald, "I think using the Tornado like this might be cheating the baseline challenge run rules."
"Eh, keeping things in subspace pockets is a gray area," Tails shrugged as he opened fire on another lava beast. "The manufacture, weapons, and modifications were all done this Loop."
"With Dr. Light adding suggestions your baseline self might not have thought of," Rotor clarified.
"He's not Awake, so it's not cheating!" Tails sing-songed.
Bass in super adaptor mode and Omega were taking their time fighting through the distorted volcano interior, gleefully obliterating everything in sight as they made their way to the green Chaos Emerald.
Roll thought the screwy rendition of Eggman's base in the snow-capped mountains north of Soleanna was really creepy as she and Amy fought their way towards the yellow Chaos Emerald.
Tango and Beat had been left behind to help guard Sonic and Sally guard Rock. The fighting had ultimately been light compared to those going after the Chaos Emeralds, but it hadn't been nonexistent.
NICOLE beeped and began speaking. "All teams have reported in that they have successfully located and secured the Chaos Emeralds. They will be returning shortly."
Shadow and Rouge stood before the purple Chaos Emerald amidst the misshapen and devastated cityscape from the future.
"Well, that's a wrap," Rouge smirked. "We do make a great team, right?"
"...What you said before," Shadow interrupted, "about always meaning it when you say you'll always remain by my side. Why?"
"Oh for the love of..." Rouge huffed in irritation. "You are so damn slow on the uptake!"
"What does that mean?!" Shadow glared.
Rouge pinched the bridge of her nose for a moment before responding. Instead of chewing her partner out, she grabbed him by the scruff around his neck and pulled him into a deep and intense kiss.
"There!" she said when they parted. "Does that answer your question?!"
"Yes..." Shadow blinked for a bit. "I just wonder... Why didn't you do that sooner?"
Rouge stared at Shadow incredulously for a moment before fuming. "Men!"
"So I guess a date is out of the question then?" Shadow smirked.
"Listen buster," Rouge poked a finger into the smirking hedgehog's chest, "if you expect to make up for being so damned infuriating for so damned long, it better be one hell of a date!"
"I was thinking we'd go and 'liberate' the ill-gotten gains of a few of the world's most notorious criminals," Shadow offered, still smirking. "Money, valuable artifacts," he went in for the kill, "jewelry..."
"Oh, and I suppose we'll have to give it all back to the rightful owners or something," Rouge snorted.
"Do I look like an altruist?" Shadow raised an eyebrow.
Rouge blinked for a moment. "Yeah, okay... It's a start." (36)
"Ready Elise?" Sonic asked as the last of the seven Chaos Emeralds was placed around the critically damaged Rock.
"Yes," the princess of Soleanna nodded from her kneeling position before closing her eyes and clasping her hands in prayer as she called upon the power inherited through the royal bloodline of Soleanna to invoke the Chaos Emeralds.
Everyone watched the tableau in silence for several moments before the princess began speaking.
"Oh Chaos Emeralds, gems of miracles. Please heed my call," Elise spoke and the emeralds began to glow brighter with power. "I wish to save this world. I wish to cleanse my father's sin. And, I wish for Mega Man to rise once again!" The emeralds began to rise into the air, with the body of Rock rising with them as Elise stood and walked towards the floating hero. "You and Sonic have given me so many things. Now it is my time to return the favor. I care not what happens to me. But please heed my voice. Rock... come back! To me... To us!"
Elise then placed a kiss on the crystal in the center of Rock's helmet and a flash of light obscured everything. When it died down, the golden armored form of Super Mega Man floated before everyone. He slowly drifted to the ground just in time to catch Elise as she collapsed from the strain of the immense power she had channeled.
"Thank you Elise," Super Mega Man smiled as the princess's head stopped swimming.
"Yo, bro," Sonic grinned as Elise stood up and stepped away. "Looking good."
"Heh," Super Mega Man chuckled as he turned to Sonic, the hedgehog flanked by Shadow and Bass on one side and Silver and Quint on the other, the robots still in their super adaptor armors. "I heard some of what we're up against while I was out. So, you ready?"
"For what?" Quint asked in puzzlement as he joined Silver and the other three in forming a circle.
"This," Super Mega Man said as pure Chaos energy rushed from him across the rest of the circle, empowering each into super forms of their own. The usual golden form of Super Sonic stepped forward to join Super Mega Man and turned to look at the familiar pale gold and red forms of Super Shadow and Super Bass plus the similarly pale gold forms of Super Silver, and surprisingly Super Quint.
"...Okay," Super Quint allowed as he flexed his oversized fist and felt the power flow through his systems. "This could work."
"Then let's go!" Super Sonic yelled as he led the charge straight up towards the bright light of Solaris with the rest following an instant behind.
"Okay," Super Mega Man stated as they beheld the form of Solaris, an alien beast that seemed to be made of pure energy with its arms and torso encased in solid energy shells. The hands were formed with three fingers each and the head had a pair of what looked like a cross between horns and antlers, also with three prongs each. Behind it floated six cones and its torso terminated without anything resembling legs. "It's a trans-dimensional being that exists in all times simultaneously. But from the information Dr. Wily is feeding me, we should be able to use the time-space rift to strike from multiple time periods without actually leaving it."
"We've got the future," Super Quint spoke for himself and Super Silver.
"And we'll take the past," Super Shadow nodded as Super Bass slammed his fist into his palm.
"Which leaves us with the present," Super Sonic nodded. "Okay, break!"
Super Silver grunted as he used his super-charged psychokinetic barrier to catch and return Solaris's meteors from the being's left side. It was all too easy to catch anything solid, but the lasers tended to take their toll on his super form if they hit.
Of course, he usually didn't have a partner.
"You think to harm us with lasers?" Super Quint stated as he interposed himself between Solaris and Super Silver and caught the blast in his oversized palm where it condensed into an orb of energy. "Let's see how you like it!"
The blast of Solaris's own weapon being thrown back by Super Quint was enough to shatter the already damaged shell of its left arm.
"Heh," Super Bass observed from Solaris's right side as he and Super Shadow fired volley after volley of super-charged Chaos Spears, "a trans-dimensional being... This might actually be a fair fight!"
"How interesting," Super Shadow smirked as he dodged incoming fire from Solaris and shot off another volley, "I was thinking the same thing!"
Both were having so much fun blasting away that neither could tell which of them fired the volley that finally cracked the shell on Solaris's right arm.
Super Sonic and Super Mega Man grinned as the shells on both arms fell away at the same moment, now they could finally start working on the center shell that concealed Solaris's core.
Super Sonic shot forward in an aura of energy to impact with the armored shell and right behind him were several of Super Mega Man's giant energy blasts which shattered the protective covering. Falling back, Sonic began to rev a Super Spin Dash on the end of Super Mega Man's energy cannon as the robot charged up.
"SUPER SONIC SHOT!" the two yelled as the joint blast tore through Solaris's core.
"Is it over?" the voice of Super Quint asked from the void as the unarmored form of Solaris faltered and fell.
"No..." the equally disembodied voice of Super Shadow declared as Solaris rose up again in a new form, one that appeared to be a stylized angelic icon with eight energy blades that formed wings and the menacing red core in its center. "It's just getting started."
Super Mega Man sighed. "Why can't this ever be easy?"
"Yeah, right Super-twerp!" the derisive voice of Super Bass rang out.
"He's right," Super Sonic grinned. "That wouldn't be any fun!"
"Insignificant specks," a sinister voice rang out from Solaris. It was similar to the voice of Mephiles except... more. "I can perceive all of time. Even if by some miracle you prove victorious today, by the decree of a power far greater than even myself these events will play out again. Over and over until I am victorious." (37)
"I guess you didn't get the memo," the voice of Super Silver taunted. "It doesn't matter how often these events repeat, you will always lose!"
"You speak of things you know nothing of..." Solaris scoffed, and then paused. "Or... do you? Yes, I can sense that some of you are caught in these repeating events. That you... remember previous trials. But... why? Why permit me to regain my full strength if you know what I am? Have you given up?"
"Nah," Super Sonic grinned as he revved up for another Super Sonic Shot. "We just know we can beat your sorry carcass from here to Eiken!"
Solaris responded by firing a multitude of lasers in practically every direction in four dimensions. In response three sets of voices rang out from three different temporal locations in the time-space rift. "SUPER SONIC/SILVER/SHADOW SHOT!"
The immense blasts tore through Solaris's offenses and obliterated its pulsing red core from three different temporal directions simultaneously.
Below, everyone cheered as the energy form of Solaris burst in a brilliant display of light. As the rays of energy shot forth, the six super form heroes landed back among the crowd long enough for their victorious expressions to register before everything was consumed by the blinding brilliance. The light then faded to a stark black void, where a single white flame the size of what would be found on a candle lit.
Elise found herself floating in an endless void, but not quite alone. Turning around, she saw her heroes, Sonic and Rock.
"Did you destroy it?" she asked them.
Sonic shook his head while Rock pointed off towards the only source of light in the void.
"Not quite," the robot stated evenly.
As the three approached, the void around the single point of light resolved into a scene from Elise's past. The light was a brilliant white candle flame in a clear glass case inlayed in an ornately decorated stone wall. In front of that wall was a much younger Elise and her late father, the Duke of Soleanna.
"Look, Elise," the phantom of her father stated to the phantom of her past self. "This is Solaris, the flame of hope."
"It's so beautiful..." the younger Elise marveled at the light.
"When the flame has grown large enough," the duke continued, "our world will change. Solaris will allow us to control time and move through history. People will be able to rectify past mistakes and avoid bitter fate."
"Will we be able to see momma?" the child Elise chimed hopefully.
"Yes, Elise," her father smiled with a sad, yet hopeful, expression. "We'll both be able to see your mother once again."
With just a single backwards glance, the spectres of father and daughter exited the chamber, walking right past the three observers as if they weren't even there. Flanked by the two blue heroes, the adult Elise strode up to the true form of Solaris.
"This is where everything began. Who knew such a tiny flame could bring such devastation?" Elise reached her arm out to brush the glass containing Solaris, which shimmered and vanished like mist. Reaching in, she took the tiny pedestal over which the spectral white flame rested and removed it. "If we put out this flame, Solaris will never exist. And then we'll never have to worry about the Flames of Disaster, right? But our encounter..." Elise began to look troubled as she considered that fact. "We will never meet. It will never have happened. I..." the princess's voice choked back a sob as she fought against the thought of losing the first real friends she'd had in so long and a tear fell from her eye to run down her cheek. "To tell the truth, I don't care what happens to the world!"
With that, the princess broke down sobbing over the fact that to save the world and her people, she would have to give up the friends she'd come to love and cherish so much.
"Elise," Sonic said kindly, "smile."
The princess did her best to choke back her sadness and gave the two the best smile she could muster at the moment.
"Besides," Rock returned the smile, "we can't know what the future holds. But even if we never see each other again, I want you to know that we will always be your friends. From now until the end of the world, and all over again if necessary."
Sonic gave the robot a considering look for a moment before turning back to Elise and nodding his agreement.
Feeling more comforted by the sentiment than she'd have expected, Elise took a deep breath and blew out the flame of Solaris.
"Dr. Wily?" a voice intruded on the man's unconsciousness. "Dr. Wily, can you hear me?"
"Yes, yes, you fool," the mad scientist waved off the soldier shaking him awake irritably. "What is so blasted important that you had to wake me this ea–"
The doctor blinked as he took in his surroundings. This wasn't his bedroom. This was the hangar where the Time Skimmer had been kept, before...
"Quick," he ordered the soldier, "what happened with the Time Skimmer experiment?"
"Everything seemed to have gone well, sir," the soldier replied readily, "except that after you vanished you didn't reappear. You've been gone for several months. Base security picked up your reappearance, without the Time Skimmer, mere minutes ago."
Wily frowned as he turned that over in his head. It looked like the Time Skimmer was going into the failed projects file. Not only that, but he was having trouble remembering anything from after he'd activated the craft. If only he could remember what had happened to him between then and now! 'Ah, well. It's not like I don't have other plans I can turn to...'
Silver blinked at the site of the city of Soleanna around him. Another Loop essentially trapped outside of his own time. He was used to it by now, but the concept still rankled him on some level. Off to his side was Quint, Sakugarne strapped to his back, looking confused. "What's wrong?"
"Hmm?" the robot from the future looked up at the question. "Not sure... I'm getting a bunch of memory errors. Something about a lava monster called Iblis, a shadowy manipulator named Mephiles, a trans-dimensional being known as Solaris, and a feline pyrokinetic ally who called herself–"
"Blaze," Silver finished. "I remember those events as well. I believe that with the destruction of Solaris that all of the events surrounding him have been wiped from the timeline, and new events have filled in the gap where necessary. Actually..." here Silver rubbed his head sheepishly, "I'm having more trouble recalling our current history."
"Huh," Quint filed that away. "Well, I was created in this time period's future by Dr. Albert W. Wily after he traveled to our time in the Time Skimmer and beheld the evil that ran rampant in our era. My primary purpose is to rid the world of all traces of Eggman Nega and we have come to this point in history in pursuit of him." (38)
"Well hasn't this been one doozy of an adventure!" Bunnie grinned as she watched the Festival of the Sun wind down with the rest of the Freedom Fighters from their seats on the rooftop.
"Indeed it has," Sally agreed as she watched Antoine pull his wife closer. After all that, it was nice to see the festival get a do-over without any untimely interruptions like an Eggman invasion.
"Anyone seen Sonic?" Tails asked suddenly.
"I think he and Rock said they had something to do," Rotor offered.
Elise jumped as she saw the two figures that had landed on the castle balcony. She recognized them, after all who didn't?, but she'd never seen them in person. At least, she didn't think so... She was having what felt like flashbacks of events that had never happened. "Are you... Mega Man? And... Sonic the Hedgehog?"
The two looked at each other before turning back and smiling. "We are," Mega Man, no... Rock, bowed courteously. "And I'm not sure exactly what's going on, I think time travel may be involved somewhere, but I clearly remember making a promise to you."
With that, Sonic brought out a high tech board and held it out to her. "Yeah, I think we promised to teach you how to ride one of these."
"I want you to know that we will always be your friends. From now until the end of the world, and all over again if necessary."
Elise wasn't sure where the laughter or the tears came from. She was only certain that she'd never been happier.
The Soleanna Incident as it was later called was the year that, on the day of the Festival of the Sun, a large number of residents of the city claimed to have had prophetic visions of an attack on the city by Dr. Eggman that would result in the end of the world. While prophecy was hardly new to the inhabitants of Mobius, it did have a reputation for being rather unreliable. However, a large portion of an entire city's population having the same prophetic vision was no laughing matter.
The famous Freedom Fighters along with the robotic saviors Mega Man and Mega Woman arrived to offer aid almost before word had gone out. Agents of G.U.N. were also dispatched to help defend the city, and there were reports of a strange hedgehog and robot pair that some said claimed to be from the future sent back to prevent catastrophe.
But the foreseen attack... never happened. It was later discovered that Dr. Eggman had indeed set up a base in the area and made plans to attack the city, but had woken up that same day without any recollection of what he was after in the first place. Official reports were that, with no idea of why he'd gathered his forces to attack Soleanna, the doctor had packed up and left to pursue other plans.
"Yo, Rock?" Sonic piped up as the two strolled in the general direction of Mobotropolis. Sure, the two had much faster means of making the journey, but they felt like a stroll. "That thing back with Eggman... you seemed pretty ticked. Honestly, for a moment I thought you really were gonna kill him. You wanna talk about it?"
"...Okay," Rock agreed after a moment. "I... I guess that when he flew into the city prepared to kill everyone if they didn't roll over and give him what he wanted, I'd just had enough. I don't like violence or killing, and I try to avoid it as much as possible, but..."
"But you'd had enough of people like Eggman using that to walk all over you and everything you care for."
"Yeah... It's not the first time I've lost my temper like that either. Back... I remember back in my baseline I'd finally put Dr. Wily in prison after stopping his plans time and time again, except he had some robot masters in reserve to break him out if they didn't hear from him for a few months... But there was also this new guy who came to help me that time. We did good together until he got a bit ambitious and one of the new robot masters hurt him badly, so I sent him back to my dad's lab for repairs. And... well, that new guy was Bass..."
Sonic winced at the implications.
"He trashed the lab, stole the super adaptor upgrades dad had made for me, and hightailed it back to help Dr. Wily. By the time I'd fought my way through Wily's new fortress, I'd had plenty of time to let that fester. The fact that not only had he escaped justice again, but he'd sent his latest creation to pretend to be my friend with the full intention of betraying me. And when I saw him apologizing again and asking for mercy, the only thing I could think of was him laughing as he tore everyone's lives apart."
"So you decided that enough was enough and you were going to end it..."
"Once and for all," Rock nodded. "I pointed my Mega Buster at him and began charging up. Wily panics and starts protesting that robots can't hurt humans and all that 'first law' stuff. I'm not sure what I said in reply, but I remember being about to take the shot and hesitating... just long enough for Bass to teleport in, give me a line about 'he who hesitates is lost' and teleport out with Wily."
"And with Eggman?" Sonic asked. "I wasn't exactly pulling you off of him."
"I realized as I was chewing him out that... it's just not me. The only time I've even killed other robots in cold blood was when I was under the influence of a virus. Free Will or not, even facing a complete monster, I'm no murderer."
"I could have told you that. Still, you didn't seem too broken up when Bass and Omega executed Waltz," Sonic observed.
"Actually, I was intending to try and forestall Waltz's execution," Rock admitted. "I had a speech prepared and everything and, well, when she said what she did..."
"You hesitated again," Sonic finished the thought.
"Yeah," Rock nodded. "And Bass didn't."
The two walked in silence for several moments.
"It's not that I didn't want to kill Eggman," Rock leaned back. "Right then, I really did. It's just that I wanted him to live long enough to understand all the wrong he's done more."
"I respect that," Sonic nodded. "It's gonna come back to bite us later, but I respect it."
Eggman chuckled darkly to himself. Solaris had been a wash, what with it being wiped from time and all, but he didn't consider it a total loss. After all, thanks to his precautions and despite rumors to the contrary, he remembered what had happened during his scheme in Soleanna even when the rest of the world didn't. In particular, he remembered just how much one of his perpetual foes had been holding back all this time. And he now knew how serious he had to get if he ever wanted to win.
So, no, he didn't consider this a total loss at all...
1) *cough*PinkiePie*cough*
2) This line by DrTempo.
3) Let's just say there's a reason that particular battle wasn't shown.
4) He's the Man. The Mega Man.
5) Jet can be forgiven the mistake. He'd hardly be the first.
6) Let's just say the Light siblings have official deputy status in... a lot of places.
7) Meet Mayor Leonardo Dorado, L. Dorado (badum-tish) for short, native of the Megaverse. If the man's personality isn't registered as a force of nature, I can only assume there's been some oversight.
8) In case anyone ever wondered why Omega is never out on the track.
9) Big's not exactly into competitive sports either. I'm not even sure he'd fish competitively.
10) Partnered with Light Industries to provide clean technology solutions towards a brighter Mobius.
11) Jet may be out to settle a multi-lifetime score, but he's out to do so fairly. Honest, if still ruthless, competition is something he's come to appreciate.
12) Not to mention the penalties for tearing up the race tracks.
13) After all, he was doing more than his fair share.
14) Did Not Finish.
15) Um... crap?
16) Had Mega Man been conscious, he would have recognized them, respectively, as Volt Man, Dyna Man, and Sonic Man. Robot Masters that typically served under the supercomputer CRORQ when they appeared.
17) The crowd of fans itself was a few seconds away from forming a lynch mob.
18) No, Bass isn't looping yet. He asked Roll during some unspecified earlier point.
19) Blues had decided to stand at the back of the crowd and give the doctor his seat.
20) Blaze is visiting from her dimension, but ended up in Silver's time instead of Sonic's. Plothole filled.
21) Depending on the branch, 'wait and see' can be a fairly common reaction among loopers when new elements appear in familiar chains of events.
22) For good reason, but Quint's naturally biased in the man's favor.
23) As far as Quint could tell, Silver had some disorientation induced by the time travel portal, went 'wha? Where am I? Who is that?" followed shortly by "oh! Now I remember!". And... that's pretty much what happens to loopers when they Awaken. They go back in time (at least from their perspective), have a moment where they aren't entirely sure where they are or what they're doing, and then the Loop memories integrate.
24) The pile-driver boxing gloves would be Quint's power adaptor. Similar in ability and concept to Mega Man's own power adaptor from Mega Man 6.
25) Blaze is the one in the game who tells Silver that she's not sure if killing to save the world is right or wrong, but if they don't take advantage of this opportunity to change things then the future will remain the same bleak hopeless place.
26) We all know this drill. Creepy guy with creepy voice and creepy powers, yet he seems to be the only one who actually knows what's going on. Do you listen to him or not?
27) If you are now imagining Mephiles in a school uniform, then my work here has been accomplished.
28) How did he know, you ask? Why, he's the gosh-darn That Man. :P
29) A badass? Yes, yes he is.
30) You know, the red emerald is the only one of the seven that is absent until the final chapter in the game. I recall seeing the purple, white, blue, cyan, green, and yellow ones, but not the red. So I can just throw it in here without it feeling out of place!
31) You may have noticed that Bass has something of a potty mouth on him.
32) Beware the nice ones indeed... Yeek.
33) Yeah, Silver gets a bit lonely. Being a time traveler in the Loops can suck sometimes.
34) Some will tell you the devil always lies, but that just isn't true. The devil speaks with truth or lie as it suits him. So do not idly dismiss the words of the devil, for he might be speaking the truth. And that's what makes him so dangerous.
35) What the...? Damnit Wily, you got lost piloting a time machine?! Look, next time heed the mistakes of Bugs Bunny and take the damn left turn at Albuquerque!
36) Yeah, I don't know what to say about this part except that I found the idea of Shadow being clueless for that long to be amusing.
37) Yes, Solaris is Loop Aware. At least in his completed form. This iteration.
38) Hmm… How do I relate going from Iblis as the major threat to the future to Eggman Nega? Ah, I know: "Out of the frying pan and into the asylum."