Shadow blasted towards Mecha Sonic faster than the robot could react. He tackled him into the ground and as they slid through the sand, Shadow struck him with a barrage of point-blank Chaos Spears. He hurled him into the sky and Shadow attacked with a series of kicks and punches, hurtling him through the air before repeatedly snapping his fingers and attacking him with Chaos Magic. Shadow then teleported right above the robot.
"Chaos Lance!"
The Chaos Lance threw Mecha Sonic into the ground, where it exploded upon impact. Shadow landed on him and began to pummel him further in. Once they were about ten feet deep, Shadow poured everything he had into this next attack.
"Chaos Blast!"
The explosion created a crater more than 30 feet deep. Mecha Sonic had been all but destroyed. Parts of him were bent in the wrong directions. There were deep dents all over his body. Wires were poking out of him and he twitched as he tried to move. Shadow grabbed the twisted machine and threw him out of the crater and back on to land. Shadow jumped after him and intentionally landed on his arm, severing it from the rest of him.
Shadow glared down. He didn't say anything. He just lifted his hand and charged another Chaos Spear to finish him off. But before he could fire it, his vision started to blur and he could feel his attack weakening.
"No! Not now!" Using all of his power at once was too much for Shadow's stamina. The attack disappeared and Shadow fell on his knees, propping himself up with his arms and trying not to pass out.
Metal Sonic saw this and took the opportunity to gloat.
"Hmhmhm. HAHAHAHA! What sort of Ultimate Life Form can't even handle his own power?!"
Mecha Sonic started to get up. It was a slow and difficult process but he was succeeding. Shadow tried to stop him, to finish him off, but he was too drained. He landed face first as Mecha Sonic stood tall and stared down at him.
"I admit, you almost had me going there. But in the end, you're still just another puny flesh sack. You never stood a chance against me."
Mecha Sonic turned his one arm into a flamethrower and pointed it at Shadow. And as Shadow's consciousness began to fade, the last thing he heard was Mecha Sonic's cold mocking voice before everything went dark.
"Say goodbye, Shadow the Hedgehog."
Our heroes dodged out of the way of the Koopa Clown Crusher's giant boot and tried everything to bring it down. Luigi and Mario tried hitting its knees with their hammers, Yoshi kept kicking its back and Sonic tried to knock off its head with a Homing Attack. The Koopalings just made their robot shrug and it send them flying back. The robot's pilots laughed as their attacks did absolutely nothing to their machine.
Yoshi landed on his feet and tried to trip the Crusher. He shot out his tongue and wrapped it around its ankles. He then pulled with all his might, bringing its two legs together. Roy and Morton both laughed evilly as they both just lifted their leg, not only getting them out of Yoshi's tongue but also pulling him closer to them. As Yoshi headed in their direction, the machine spun its leg around so that he'd collide with the spiked sole of its boot. Sonic jumped up and grabbed Yoshi just in time.
After putting him back on the ground, Sonic ran for the machine and spun around it in circles creating a tornado. As Sonic ran faster, the machine started to lift up in the air. Larry and Iggy stopped Sonic by shooting fire at the ground under them. The floor became covered in fire and Sonic was forced to run away.
As the Crusher landed, they looked behind them and saw Luigi flying towards them headfirst wearing a Koopatroopa helmet. Luigi's screams were cut short when he collided with Larry's boxing glove instead. Larry tossed him into the air and Iggy punched him back into the direction he came from. Luigi landed right next to Mario, dazed and wounded.
"Hahaha!" The Koopalings laughed in unison.
"Face it Mario! With our new Clown Crusher, we're invincible!" Bowser Jr bragged.
"You might as well just throw in the towel," Wendy said.
"Because otherwise, we're gonna mop the floor with ya!" Roy boasted.
"I love a good gloating as much as the next Koopa, but haven't any of you noticed that MARIO IS MISSING!?" Ludwig exclaimed.
The rest of the Koopalings looked back at the spot Mario was standing at and noticed that Ludwig was right.
"Hey! Where'd he go?" Morton asked.
"You buffoons lost him!" Bowser Jr said.
"Us?" Larry said. "You're supposed to be the head, aren't you? If any one of us should've been watching, it's you!"
Mario poked his head out from behind a large crate. He went back into hiding and breathed a sigh of relief as the Koopalings were to distracted to notice. He turned to his brother, who he'd brought with him. Sonic and Yoshi were also there with them.
"Bro! Are you all right?" Mario whispered, concerned.
"Oooohhh... Maybe throwing each other at it wasn't the best idea." Luigi groaned.
"Anyone got any other ideas?" Sonic asked.
"You wouldn't happen to have another dimension hopping pod we can drop on them, would you?" Yoshi asked Sonic.
"I'm afraid not. What about power-ups? There has to be some left, right?"
"We used them all up against Basilisx." Luigi explained.
"We'll have to find some other way to beat them and fast! Otherwise, our goose is a-cooked!" Mario explained.
"Excuse me, Masters."
Everyone turned around and saw Stuffwell hiding behind another crate next to them.
"But perhaps I may be of some assistance."
"Whatcha ya got, little guy?" Sonic asked.
"They're over here, your Spoiledednesses!"
Everyone looked up and saw Kammy floating right above them. Then the crate our heroes were hiding behind exploded as the Koopalings shot a fireball at them. They were sent hurtling through the air before landing on their feet. Except for Luigi who landed on his face. Mario helped his brother get back on his feet.
"We'll keep those three busy." Mario told him. "You get to Stuffwell and ask him what his plan is."
"I'm on it, bro!" Luigi said.
The three of them went after their foes without a drop of hesitation. Meanwhile, Luigi managed to make it back to Stuffwell without being noticed. He checked to see that everyone was distracted before going back to the little robot.
"Are you okay, Stuffwell?" Luigi asked him.
"I am quite alright. Thank you for your concern, Master Luigi." Stuffwell answered.
The two of them flinched as an explosion rocked the floor they were standing on.
"No problem. So, what do we do?"
"Well, it is my understanding that the reason why the Koopa Clown Crusher is so indestuctivisible is because of the power ups brought upon by Kammy and Kamek. And that the reason they were able to do so was because of their magic wands, correct?"
Luigi nodded.
"The Professor has had the foresight to have installed me with vast knowledge concerning magic spells. If we could get one of those wands, we could give those iniquitous Koopalings a taste of their own medicine. We just need a way to grab them away from those two Magikoopas."
"Got it. And I think I know just how to do it."
Swallowing his fear, Luigi ran straight towards the battlefield. He ducked under stray fireballs from Sonic's fight with Kammy, he barely avoided being squashed by the Koopa Clown Crusher as it was battling Mario and he found a way to hop onto Yoshi while the dinosaur was in the middle of dodging Kamek's lightning.
"Luigi?" Yoshi asked, surprised and panting from avoiding being hit. "What are you-"
Yoshi was cut off after Luigi whispered his plan into his ear. Yoshi looked at him with concern but Luigi just nodded his head, assuring him that he'll be fine. From that, Yoshi tightened his resolve and ran straight towards Kamek, dodging his lightning along the way. Yoshi ran closer. Closer. Closer. Until the two of them were almost right in front of him. Luigi jumped off of Yoshi's back and leapt straight towards the Magikoopa. His battle cry pierced the air and everyone stopped to see him flying straight towards Kamek.
Who disposed of Luigi with a point blank bolt of lightning. Luigi twitched and jerked as he was being electrocuted before falling on the ground face first. The bad guys laughed at Luigi's humiliation. Kamek himself was so busy laughing, that he didn't notice Yoshi's tongue wrap around him until it was too late. Yoshi pulled him off of his broom and spun him around faster and faster before letting go and having Kamek fly straight into a wall.
As Kamek fell back on the floor unconscious, his wand slipped out of his hand. Yoshi pulled it with his tongue and ran towards Luigi to check up on Luigi. He smelt burnt, but he was fine. Yoshi sighed out his relief before having to duck a massive fireball. He turned around and saw that it came from Kammy. She was pointing her wand and a harsh stare at him.
"Let me tell you something you little green puke!" She yelled. "Nobody but the King picks on my boy!"
More fireballs burst from her wand. Yoshi panicked before pulling Luigi into his mouth. He ran for his life, checking behind him just to make sure he wouldn't be blown to bits. Kammy laughed as she tried to kill the poor dinosaur up until Sonic smacked into her with a Spin Dash.
"Sorry," he said unconvincingly. "Normally, I'd feel bad about hitting an old lady trying to protect her kids. But I'm pretty confident you had this coming."
Kamek got up and rubbed his head just in time to his mother crash right into him and back into the wall. Both Magikoopas lay unconscious now.
"Get to safety!" Sonic shouted at them. "I'll give you some cover."
Sonic ran right towards the last two combatants, Mario and the Koopalings. Mario struck with kicks and punches but they didn't even left a dent. In fact, he just ended up hurting himself more often than not. To his credit, the Koopalings were having just as hard a time fighting Mario. They tried to crush him under their boot or set them on fire with their fire powers, but Mario just dodged and ducked all of their attacks.
Either way, neither of them were making any progress.
"Stay still already!" Lemmy whined.
"You're only making this harder on yourself." Wendy said.
"You can only keep this up so long, but we can go all day!" Roy exclaimed.
Mario knew they were right. Already he was getting tired. But he had to keep going, he had to save Peach.
After delivering a failed one-two kick to Bowser Jr's section, the plumber landed on the ground and was immediately swept up by a blue streak. The streak began to run around the Crusher, trapping it in a tornado.
"Again?" Larry asked. "These guys just never learn!"
"HAHAHAHA! THEY'RE EVEN DUMBER THAN MORTON!" Iggy shouted.
"HEY!" Morton shouted.
"All right boys! And Wendy." Bowser Jr said. "Let's teach them a lesson they won't forget!"
Larry and Iggy raised their arms into the air and fire shot forth from it. The two beams coalesced into a large orb of flame that got bigger until it exploded, releasing dozens of tiny fireballs to rain all over the room. The blue streak dashed out of the way and hid, taking Mario with him. As the fire fell from above, it exploded on contact with the ground.
Kammy and Kamek got up again only to be blown up by a stray fireball. After the explosion, they were both covered in soot and fell back on the ground unconscious once more.
Mario and Sonic managed to find the crate where Yoshi, Luigi and Stuffwell were hiding out.
"You alright, Luigi?" Sonic asked.
"Better than alright!" Luigi answered. "We got Kamek's magic wand!"
"Stuffwell said we can use it to stop the Koopalings." Yoshi explained.
"Correct," Stuffwell said. "And I believe I have just the plan to do it!"
"Finally!" Bowser exclaimed. "This elevator is WAY too slow! I guess that'll teach me the next time I decide whether or not we should have a food court."
Bowser stepped out of the elevator and into a large room at the bottom of the ship. This was where the power source for the Doom Cannon was stored, as well as some crates of various sizes. High above it, where Bowser got off, was a single long catwalk, connecting the elevator the Doctor's secret lab at the other side of the room.
"For now, its time to give that knucklehead of a scientist a piece of my mind! Huh?"
As Bowser walked closer to the lab, he noticed a strange figure with its head down standing right in front of the door.
"Basilisx?" Bowser exclaimed. "What are you doing here?"
Basilisx didn't answer.
"Well, if you can stand then you can fight! Now get back up there and finish Mario! And this time, don't screw up! Or your new position will be Chain Chomp Chow!"
Basilisx still didn't move.
"Hey! Are you listening!?"
This time, Basilisx extended his claws. And rushed towards Bowser. Bowser was so shocked he barely had time to defend himself before Basilisx claws cut him. Claw marks streaked his arms; not too deep, but enough to draw blood. Basilisx clawed at him again, but Bowser was ready this time. He stepped back away from Basilisx' strikes and when he lunged for him, Bowser jumped up and landed right behind him.
Bowser grabbed Basilisx by his arms and stretched them out. Then he leapt high in the sky, still holding on to the traitorous Super Koopa, and belly flopped back onto the catwalk with him underneath. Bowser panted and no longer felt Basilisx trying to squirm free.
"Let that be a reminder." Bowser said. "This is what happens to anyone who tries to betray me."
Bowser got up and looked down at his defeated ex-general.
"Huh?"
Basilisx was crushed into pieces. Wires and robot parts were scattered around him. And Some of his skin and armor were removed to reveal that the Super Koopa was actually a machine.
Then he heard clanging sounds behind him. He turned around and saw a bunch of Basilisx' staring right at him. He heard more clanging behind him and turned around to see even more. And as he took in the room, he saw dozens of clones, glaring at him all over the room. Some were standing on the power cell, some were hanging on the wall with their claws, all of them looked ready to kill
"What the heck is going on here?!" He shouted.
"It's my fault really."
Bowser looked up one last time to see his chief scientist piloting some kind of hovercraft.
"I'm afraid one can't mass produce an army without cutting costs here and there. So I'm afraid these Basi-droids are less durable than the original. Normally this wouldn't be a problem, but the very limited resources you've provided me meant I had to take some shortcuts."
"You?! What do you think you're doing?! In case you forgotten, you belong to me!"
"Yes, yes, the Two-Shell Treaty. You provide me a lab as well as promote me to second-in-command so long as I always recognize you as my superior."
"Exactly! And this little coup attempt just revoked our deal!"
"Does it? No one else is here but as. And as far as anyone would be able to tell,m Basilisx betrayed you and cut you into tiny little chunks before running away from the Kingdom. And besides, it's not like I'm really breaking it. Your still the King and I still recognize that. But it won't be for long."
"Heh heh heh. For a smart guy, you're pretty dumb you know that? Thinking you can take me down, with a bunch of cheap knock-offs!?"
Bowser crawled into his shell and blitzed through dozens of Basi-droids before jumping up to meet the scientist face-to-face. Bowser swung down his claws, ready to smash the traitor's head in.
"Should've come up with a better plan, egghead!"
The scientist reached a hand up and grabbed Bowser's claws. Bowser's hung in the air in shock as his former chief scientist, stopped his attack with hardly any effort.
"My name is Dr. Eggman!" Eggman tossed Bowser back on to the platform as if he weighed nothing. "And I always have a master plan!"
"Where are you already!" Bowser Jr shouted.
"Yeah! This game doesn't end until someone loses!" Iggy said.
"And believe you me, it ain't gonna be us!" Roy finished.
The Koopalings' rampage was put to a halt when they saw Sonic standing right in front of them.
"Hey there!" He said with confidence.
"Hi!" Lemmy shouted.
"Shut up, Lemmy!" Wendy said. "Well, look who decided to quit wasting time."
"Are you finally ready to kneel before us and beg for mercy?" Ludwig asked.
"Spoilers! You're not gonna get it!" Morton said.
"Nah," Sonic answered. "I'm just checking to see if he can keep up."
"What are you talking about?" Larry asked.
As soon as he did, a red blur appeared and took Sonic away.
All of them uttered in confusion before the red blur came back and appeared and blocked Bowser Jr's field of vision.
"Woah!"
Then a blue blur came by and shocked Morton.
"What the-?"
These blurs rushed and ran around them until finally they started running up the Koopa Clown Crusher, going up its legs and stopping right on top of its boxing glove fists. On the right fist, the blue blur was revealed to be Sonic. But on the left fist, the red blur stopped and it turned out to be a red Yoshi. Not a normal red Yoshi, but the Yoshi we knew and loved empowered by a Dash Pepper created using the "Spyro" spell, giving him incredible speed.
"Not bad." Sonic complimented. "And I have to say, red's a good look for you."
"Thanks!" Yoshi said. "Though it's kinda hard to stop when you're going this fast."
"Don't worry, it just takes practice."
Iggy and Larry had enough of being ignored so they tried to crush them. Sonic and Yoshi just dashed out of the way and went back to running around them. They were both too fast for the Crusher to keep up. They avoided every attempt to stomp them or burn them.
"Grrr!" Bowser Jr growled. "Stand still!"
The others were still in hiding, watching the fight.
"It worked perfectly!" Mario said. "It's been years since I've seen Yoshi run that fast!"
"Yes, but I am certain it drained a fair bit of the wand's magic to do so," Stuffwell explained. "Remember, the more powerful the spell, the more magic is required to use it. And once the wand runs out of magic, we'll be unable to cast spells until it recharges."
"We remember Stuffwell," Luigi said while rolling his eyes. "You don't need to tell us every little detail all over again. Now let's keep using it while we can." Luigi grabbed the wand then drew a blank on what to do with it. "Um, what's step two again?"
"Step two will be to use the wand to create a Volt Moushroom by casting the "Raiden" spell. Then Master Luigi will use it to paralyze the Koopa Clown Crusher!"
"Got it! Raiden." Luigi held the wand up high and a black mushroom with lightning bolts on its head appeared. Luigi absorbed it and static electricity started surging around his body.
"How do you feel?" Mario asked him.
"I'm A-OK!" Luigi said with a thumbs-up.
"Master Mario, you remember your oart of the plan, correct?" Stuffwell asked.
"Mm-hmm!" Mario nodded.
"Excellent! Then let us proceed post haste! Master Luigi, if you don't mind."
"Not at all" Luigi said. He handed the wand to Mario and jumped on top of the crate. He watched the Koopalings as they still tried to destroy Sonic and Yoshi.
"Quit moving!" Roy shouted.
"This isn't fun anymore!" Lemmy said.
"Is anyone else getting motion sick?" Larry asked.
"Yoohoo!"
The Koopalings turned around and saw Luigi. He blew a raspberry at them and then laughed and pointed at their failure. The Koopalings growled in frustration and threw a fireball at him. Luigi panicked and lifted his hands to shield himself only for lightning to shoot out of them, through the fireball, destroying it in the process, and hitting the Crusher dead on.
The Koopalings jerked erratically inside their cars as the Crusher stopped dead in its tracks, paralyzed.
Luigi opened his eyes and saw that it worked.
"Ha ha!" He cheered. "I'm doing it! I'm really doing it! Mario, you're up bro!"
Mario nodded his head and raced towards the Koopa Clown Crusher, wand in hand.
As he got close, he jumped high above their heads and lifted the wand straight into the air.
"Crash Bandicoot!" Right after Mario said this, a Mega Mushroom appeared. It was about twice Mario's height and when he absorbed it, Mario grew up to about fifty feet. He repositioned himself to belly flop the Koopa Clown Crusher.
"Uh-oh," the Koopalings said. Mario landed right on top of them. When he got up he looked down to see the Koopa Clown Crusher crushed flat and more importantly, no longer powered-up.
Mario shrunk down back to his original size and everybody raced towards him.
"We did it!" Yoshi cheered!
"Stuffwell did it," Mario said. "If it wasn't for his plan, we never would've beat it."
"True dat! Way to go Stuffwell!" Sonic said.
"Awww. It was nothing, Masters. But I'm afraid we'll have to exchangifize pleasantries later. Right now, we have a princess to save. BACK TO ADVE- AAHH!"
Stuffwell was interrupted by the ground suddenly shaking. Everyone looked up to see the Koopa Clown Crusher getting back on its feet. Every single one of its pilots stared angrily at our heroes.
"This is the last time you make a fool out of us Mario!" Ludwig shouted. He pushed a button in his car and its mouth opened up to reveal a large cannon. The cannon began charging up with deadly purple energy.
"DIE!" All the Koopalings shouted. Right before the cannon ran out of power and the insides of their cars started flashing red.
"What the?" Wendy exclaimed. "What's going on here?"
"Iggy!" Bowser Jr said. "What did you do to our cars?"
"WHAT?!" Iggy shouted. "I TOLD YOU I DIDN'T TEST THIS THING YET!"
"IGGGGGYYYYYYYYY!" Everyone shouted as the Koopa Clown Crusher exploded and sent them flying through the air.
Kammy and Kamek got up just as soon as the explosion happened.
"Oh, my head." Kammy moaned. "Now what is that horrible racket?"
Both of them looked up to see the Koopalings heading right towards them.
"Not again..." Kamek bemoaned before all eight of Bowser's children landed right on top of them, knocking them all out.
Our heroes just stared as everyone moaned in a giant pile of Koopas.
"Yes, er, quite right," Stuffwell said. "Now then, where was I? Ah, yes. BACK TO ADVENTURE!"
Everyone ran for the exit and straight towards the elevator, leaving all the Koopas behind to lick their wounds.
"Yeesh, can this thing go any slower?" Sonic complained.
The five of them have made it to the elevator and were on their way to Bowser's throne room. Unfortunately, the ride up happened to be more tedious than they would've liked. Mario kept pressing the button to the top floor, hoping it would go faster.
"Come one, come on! Peach is waiting for us!"
"Master Mario, forgive my impertinence, but I must insist that you calm down," Stuffwell stated. "I must admit, I'm quite grateful that we have a moment to simply catch our breath."
"Yeah," Luigi said. "I can't even count the number of times our goose was almost cooked just getting here!"
"But we made it through, because we're the best team ever!" Yoshi exclaimed.
"Yeah, maybe," Sonic said. "But I just feel like we'd be an even better team if we had Shadow with us."
"That jerk? Forget him! He doesn't need us and we don't need him."
"I have to side on Yoshi with this one, Sonic." Luigi said. "Despite what I said earlier, this was probably the best mission we had since you guys arrived. For once, we didn't have to worry about Mecha Sonic."
"That's because we weren't Emerald hunting this time," Sonic explained. "Which means..."
Mario saw where Sonic's train of thought was going and decided to comfort him.
"Easy there, Sonic. There's still another Chaos Emerald out there, right? Maybe Mecha Sonic went after that one and Shadow tracked down the other one."
"Is that better or worse?"
Mario seriously thought about it for a moment. "...I don't know."
Sonic closed his eyes and slumped his head against the cold elevator wall.
"Listen Sonic," Mario continued. "I've seen a lot of things in my life. But your friend, Shadow, is probably the toughest guy I've ever met. If the end of the world couldn't do him in, nothing will. And the same goes for you too."
"Thanks Mario," Sonic said. "I just hope none of us have to find out if we can survive it twice."
"You mean, if you can survive it twice!" Luigi said.
"Luigi!" Mario scolded.
"I'm just saying what we all already know! If Mecha Sonic wins, we die!"
"That won't happen! We just need to-"
"He's right." Sonic said.
"Eh?" Everyone looked at Sonic.
"He's right. Not just Luigi, but Shadow too. He might've been a jerk about it, but someone needed to stay behind to get the Chaos Emeralds before Mecha Sonic did. Mecha Sonic destroyed my world, he killed my friends, and he's caused more death and destruction than Bowser or Eggman ever could! And instead of helping Shadow stop Mecha Sonic from hurting anyone else, I decided to help you guys. No offense."
Everyone assured Sonic that none was taken.
"But no more! As soon as Princess Peach is safe, I'm going right back to finding those Emeralds and stopping Mecha Sonic's rampage once and for all! Everyone who suffered because of him will be avenged! I swear it!"
Sonic felt a gloved hand on his shoulder and turned to see Mario smiling. "And we'll be right behind you!"
He looked behind Mario and saw everyone else with a confident grin on their face, confirming what Mario said. Sonic smiled and fist bumped Mario.
"Thanks guys."
The elevator stopped.
"What now?" Luigi said worried.
"The doors slowly began to slide away from each other.
"I believe this is our stop," Stuffwell said.
"Finally!" Sonic exclaimed.
"Peach! I'm coming!" Mario shouted.
Mario was surprised to hear Peach's next words. "Mario! Watch out!"
Mario stopped in confusion. Which made way for fear as soon as he saw a robot version of himself with a missile launcher pointed straight at them.
Mecha Mario fired and the missile collided right into its target. None of them had enough time to process before the warhead exploded, destroying the elevator.
Peach she screamed in terror at this grisly sight before her.
"MMMMMMAAAAAAARRRRIIIIIOOOOOO!"
Oh no! After coming so far, our heroes have been ambushed by Doctor Eggman's latest creation, the ultra-powerful Mecha Mario!
Can anyone save Peach now?
How did Dr. Eggman survive?
And where did he acquire the strength to be able to stand up to Bowser?
And most importantly, can anyone stand in the way of Mecha Sonic and the sixth Chaos Emerald?
All these questions, and more, answered in the next installment of SUPER MARIO BROS. Z!
In case anyone hasn't figured it out, all the spells are names of characters that'll never be in Smash Bros.
Writing this has been a serious exercise of my creativity, and I loved doing all of it. I can't wait to write the next chapters, to see where my imagination will take me next, and to learn more about the two biggest stars in video game history.
I have far more planned for this series and if by any chance Mark Haynes is reading this, I hope that whatever ails you will be gone soon and that I am doing your terrific series justice.
But for now, everyone please wait until I release the next episode of SMBZ! Sayonara!
Mecha Sonic was almost torn apart. He was barely managing to keep himself in one piece. He was on his knees, waiting for his self-repair system to kick in. Shadow was standing above him, eyes filled with hate, body glowing with Chaos Energy. The effects of removing his limiters were starting to kick in, but he still had more than enough power to finish this.
But before he could move, Mecha Sonic stuck his arms out by his side and transformed them into copies Rouge's old weapons and opened fire on the walls around them. Shadow had no idea how to react to Mecha Sonic's seemingly random move. But he did know he needed to keep Rouge safe. He warped over to her and carried her in his arms. Then he warped again high above Mecha Sonic and floated in the air.
"Thanks for the save," Rouge said. She looked down at Mecha Sonic in confusion. "Just what does he think he's doing?"
"I've no idea," Shadow replied. "And I don't care. As soon as it's safe to put you down, I'm ending this, once and for all!"
"Aw. That's sweet of you. But even a psycho like Mecha Sonic wouldn't act this way for no reason. We need to-"
Her voice was cut off as a large boulder smashed through the ceiling and nearly fell on top of them. Shadow teleported out of the way just in time. Only for another boulder to nearly fall on them.
And another.
And another.
"He's bringing down the fortress!" Rouge realized. "He's trying to bury us!"
"Chaos-whoa!"
Shadow nearly got hit by another boulder. So many were coming down that he didn't have time to fire an attack to stop Mecha Sonic's assault.
Eventually, there were just too many rocks to dodge all at once and one of them hit Shadow head on. In his fully powered form, it didn't hurt him. But the impact was enough to make Shadow let go of Rouge and the Chaos Emerald. Right into Mecha Sonic's line of fire.
"Rouge! No!" Shadow shouted. He floated down and checked to see if she was alright. He was so concerned he didn't even notice that Mecha Sonic had stopped his assault.
The psychotic metal menace wasted no time running for the Chaos Emerald. He scooped it up with one hand and disappeared almost instantaneously.
"Chaos Control!"
Mecha Sonic vanished.
And there was just Rouge, Shadow and Omega trapped in a room about to be buried. Shadow had never tried this without an Emerald before, but he knew that there was no other way to save his friends. He tapped into all the Chaos Power he had for this next act.
"Chaos Control!"
With that shout, Shadow, Rouge and the remains of Omega all disappeared just as the rest of the fortress had completely collapsed on itself.
They all teleported on what was left of the base.
All of GUN Fortress was gone. All of GUN was gone. The men and women who gave their lives hoping that they could save the world doing so were all wrong.
But Shadow wasn't thinking about any of that. He ran for Rouge but fell down, his stamina drained. He got back up and hobbled towards her still form. Shadow fell on his knees next to her and shook her shoulders.
"Come on! Come on! Wake up already!"
Rouge opened her eyes and turned to see Shadow nearly in tears.
"Heh," she coughed. "That's a new look for you. Can't say that I like it."
"You're going to be okay! You and Omega will be okay! I'm going to find someone to-"
"Shadow. Stop. There's no one else left. And even if there were you don't have the power to get to them." Rouge clutched her side as a stab of pain ran up her body. "You need to get to Sonic. You two are the only ones who stand a chance against that thing." Rouge groaned as she lifted her head up.
"I want you to take my necklace with you. Remember, even if you believe everyone in the world will be against you. Know that I'll always remain by your side. Remember that. Remember me."
Rouge closed her eyes and her head fell to the side.
"Rouge?" Shadow asked. "Rouge, stop playing get up! Rouge!? Rouge! RRRRROOOOOUUUUGGGGEEE!"
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
Shadow woke up and began violently thrashing without really looking. He could feel stuff breaking on his fists, he just didn't know or care what. He just wanted to destroy something.
That came to a halt when felt something hard and hairy smack into his forehead at high speed. Shadow landed on his back and rubbed where he was hit.
As he laid there, he heard "ooo"s and "aaa"s being shouted very fast. And at the same time he heard a conversation happening on his chest.
"What? He was freaking me out!"
"You could've, like, totally killed him. That thing's not a toy, dude! It's dangerous."
Shadow looked down and saw some sort of screen wrapped around is neck. He lifted the screen to his face and saw a line on rise and dip as the conversation was going. As the "ooo"s and "aaa"s continued.
"Oh gee! Thanks Einstein! I never would've figured out that a handsized coconut cannon could be dangerous! Brilliant observation skills!
"You two be quiet! The little whippersnapper seems to have come to his senses."
Shadow put down the screen and looked around him. He was in some kind of grass hut filled with medical equipment. In the room with him were a small rhino, some kind of bird and a large spider wearing sneakers. Stranger than that were the three apes standing over him. One had blond hair, dressed all in pink and was wielding some kind of wooden cannon. Another one had a tank-top, cut-off jean shorts, sunglasses and a polka-dotted bandana. The last one seemed old, as he was hunched over with a long white beard and gripping a cane.
"Who the hell are you guys?"