Kingdom Hearts II: Sonic Chronicles
OC's © original creators
Chapter Twenty-Five: Training Sessions, Part 4
Sonic and his team recovered from their short escapade with Majora without sustaining any major damage. In fact, the only one that got hurt was the Tainted Deity himself. Sonic would have wished to celebrate their remedial victory if it had not come at such a high cost – the cobalt hedgehog pushed the thought aside. Right now, they needed to focus on rescuing Pan. However, the Sonic Team ended up following the catacombs to a dead end and the aggressive fighter was nowhere to be seen. Instead, the group of five reached a small circular chamber with only a large, rugged rock layered in the center. The team would have normally ignored the boulder if it wasn't for the fact that it radiated with pure darkness and the multicolored indent shaped exactly like a keyhole.
"Think we'll find the Sheila if we open this, mate?" Marine asked, poking her eye into the Keyhole.
"I don't know." Storm said with uncertainty. "I know I'm not the smartest member of the group, but don't you think it's a little obvious. Broly should know that the Keyblade can open any Keyhole after working with Black Doom for so long. Why would he just leave this where we can find it?"
"You really think Broly is that smart?" Angel snorted mockingly. "That muscle-bound monkey couldn't tell left from right even if he had a compass. I think we should take what we can and get moving."
"I agree with Storm." Silver said suspiciously. "Broly isn't one to be underestimated. For all we know, this could be some kind of a trap."
"What do you think, mate?" Marine asked Sonic.
"I don't know..." Sonic thought difficultly. "Silver and Storm do have a point – this is just way too easy. But if we don't get moving, Broly could kill Pan at any moment. What do you think?"
"I definitely agree with the mage and the guard." Dark Sonic answered shortly. "But it's like you said, we don't have much time to waste. If there is any sign of danger, you will need to be on your guard."
The cobalt hedgehog seemed stunned – that was one of the few time they actually shared the same thought. All of a sudden, the Keyblade Master understood that the unification was slowly taking effect and that their hearts were becoming connected. Sonic's heart ached with sorrow and pity. Shaking his head swiftly, the cobalt hedgehog summoned the Paladin to his hand, informing the group of his decision. Though Silver and Storm seemed genuinely reluctant to do so, they stood close with the rest of the group as Sonic swung his Keyblade forward to the Keyhole. Very much like they time before this, a vibrant light formed around the teeth of the Paladin and released a steady beam into the depths of the Keyhole. A moment of silence passed – a loud rumble echoed throughout the catacombs. The Keyhole suddenly began to fracture the rock surface around it and faded away from the realm of existence, leaving column of eerie green light that reached towards the pinnacle of Hell.
"Come on, guys." Sonic said sternly. "We've got a cranky teenager to save."
By natural curiosity, Marine was the first to jump into the ghostly light, teleporting to another sector within the realm of the dead. Sonic quickly jumped in after her while Angel dragged the defiant Babylonians before entering herself.
The scene alternated to an unknown section within Hell's depths, making a surprising change in the surroundings. Instead of the usual dark catacombs and bloodstained walls, the chamber was filled with soft light and a cool mist that brushed against their feet. The only thing that truly revealed it was part of hell was the walls made from human bones and curved spikes overhead that looked to come from the ribcage of an extinct beast. The Sonic Team dropped into the mist-covered arena one-by-one, drawing their weapons in expectation for an enemy attack. It seems that their paranoia was correct. The group of five found Pan knocked unconscious and resting against the skeletal wall, but it was Broly himself that stood guard over the Saiyan female.
"Well, look who decided to join the party." Broly said tauntingly.
"It's over, Broly!" Sonic shouted bravely. "We're back to full strength and you're outnumber five-to-one!" He sudden regained his old swagger with an overconfident grin. "Then again, I don't really need help kicking your sorry tail across Hell and back. Remind me again which one of us ended up becoming the Dragon Cup Champion."
"Well, looks like your ego hasn't been damaged." Dark Sonic said sarcastically.
"You're just jealous because I'm the one that gets to have all the fun." Sonic retorted jokingly.
"That is.....so true." Dark Sonic whined.
Sonic tried to fight back the urge to laugh out loud – he was definitely going to miss their usual argument. But Broly, on the other hand, looked uninterested by Sonic's excessive proclamations and reached down to grab Pan by the scruff of her neck. The Sonic Team moved themselves to fight at a moment's nice, but Storm was thrown off his balance and fell on his back when Pan was thrown against his chest.
"You can have your little doll back." Broly said, speaking as if he had already won. "I've gotten everything I needed out of this little venture." He blinked slowly, stopping his gaze directly at the Keyblade Master. "You have been a very useful tool, but I no longer have any use for you."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Silver questioned curiously.
"I'll tell you what it means, pipsqueak." The heroes jumped and turn, facing Eggman with an army of Soldiers. "It means you have been conned, duped, bamboozled like little puppets on strings!"
"Eggman!" Angel growled menacingly. "Why am I not surprised?"
"Dr. Eggman has shared some delightful information about the Keyblade." Broly informed leisurely. "And now that the blue rodent has done all the dirty work for us, we'll take care of the rest."
"Say goodbye, pests!" Eggman laughed. "Heartless squad, attack!!"
At the command of their human leader, the flocks of soldier Heartless raced to approach the Keyblade Master and his companions – the chamber filled with irritable clacking. Sonic was always ready to take out Heartless and wasted no time spinning forward in a circle, using the momentum of his Keyblade to increase his power. He successfully performed an uppercut on the closest soldier, sending the armored beast flying, and grabbed the hilt of his weapon tight to trust it downwards, crushing a second Soldier. But beyond the mist of darkness from the deceased Heartless, Sonic saw Broly and Eggman with their individual smug expressions before escaping via Corridors of Darkness.
"Hey, they're getting away!" Sonic yelled.
"We have bigger problems, Sonic!" Silver shouted back.
To his right, Silver had summoned a barrier around to protect himself and Pan and started attacking from a distance. The Babylonian mage empowered his dragon staff – the flaming-red eyes glowed menacingly – and stabbed the teeth into the arena floor. Spears of stone formed a line in the direction he was facing, but surrender expanded to a five foot radius when coming into a closer range of seven Soldiers. Angel was always a hands-on type of fighter and jumped over ten feet into the air, crossing her arms with her twin daggers in hand as she dived into the swarm. The pink experiment crossed slashed across the neckline of the closest Soldier and performed a temporary handstand when landing, kicking away three Heartless surrounding her. Storm once again favored a defensive style ands used his shield as a means of drawing in enemies and repelling them with his weapon. Once the Heartless were close enough and caught off guard, the bulking albatross would show his strength once more by crushing them with his fists alone. Marine's tactic was a bit...unusual to say the least. Instead of the Soldier flocking to devour the raccoon's heart, the Soldiers ran scared at the sight of Marine summoning a giant glowing flyswatter from her power orb.
Don't ask...
"Ugh! I must be out of shape!" Sonic grunted. He back himself against Silver's barrier at the same time he decapitating another Soldier. "Fighting Heartless didn't use to be this hard before!"
"We've been in slumber for nearly a year." Silver reasoned, sweating heavily from the amount of energy he was distributing. "And in the short time we've been awake, the only time we've ever faced this many Heartless was when we went to hunt down Beelzemon."
"And we had Angewomon's help with that." Storm said, being forced by the pressure on his shield.
"Is it just me...?" Angel wheezed; she and Marine were tossed on their back by the twirling Heartless. "Or do these guys keep multiplying every time we take them down?"
"Actually, I thin she right!" Sonic said nervously, knocking back another pair of Soldiers. "There's way too many to take on! We've got to get Pan out of here!"
"Anyone know a detour?" Marine asked hopefully.
"Let me pave the way!"
The Sonic Team cluttered together – Storm threw Pan over his shoulder – and expected another enemy to create greater problems. So imagine their relief when two Soldiers were lifted into the air by the helmets and crushed together with Uub delivering the critical blow. He smiled cheerfully to the heroes, but his exhaustion was still shown through by the sweat on his brow. The Heartless temporarily forgot their original targets and trotted after Uub. The dark-skinned warrior sighed in a tired manner, but still found the energy to raise his joined palms and called forth a series of blue/white arrows and skewed a great majority of the Soldiers.
"Unless you want to be Heartless bait, I suggest you get moving!" Uub cried, delivering a few quick jabs to the enemies. "Get back to the coliseum entrance and I'll hold these guys off!"
"Nuh-uh, not happening!" Sonic glowered defiantly. "We're not going to leave you dealing with this by yourself!"
"You better come with us, mate." Marine said insistently, grappling Uub by his wrist. "Even you have your limits, mate. You can't keep winning forever."
"But..."
"Either you come with us or we're staying." Angel said in a final tone, drawing her daggers sharply. "And bear in mind that Pan is still with us. The longer we stay here, the better chance she has of being critically injured....or worse."
In Sonic's opinion, that was a little below the belt, but Dark Sonic had concluded that it was better motivation to get the dark-skinned warrior to follow orders. Indeed, Uub saw that they only way he could keep the rugged teenager safe was by following the Sonic Team's commands. And they were right about one thing – he wasn't going to win this fight. Especially now that the Soldiers were still multiplying and were shortly joined by several Trick Ghosts and a pair of Large Bodies. Uub nodded to the animalistic warriors and dashed backwards to the entrance of the chamber, waiting only for Storm and Pan to pass him. Sonic and Silver stayed behind longer than the others to conjure a unified wall of fire to repel the Heartless long enough to escape. The moment the Heartless had stopped their charge at the flame wall, both hedgehogs took this chance to make their escape, blissfully unaware that Broly was watching the entire scene play out.
"I didn't think this day could get any better." Broly chuckled darkly. "This time, the heroes are going to get an unexpected welcome."
The scene alternates to the cavernous entrance that connected Hell to the land of the living. It was a long a perilous journey backwards from the catacombs, avoiding and ambushing various Heartless along the way, but the group was still safe. Even though the Sonic Team were safe from this realm's curse, their feelings of exhausting were purely from their stressed muscles and throbbing tendons. While most of the team was doubled over, wheezing and coughing deeply, Angel and Marine were the only ones that still and the energy to keep going.
"That was a ripper of an adventure!" Marine cheered cluelessly. "Let's go the other way and see if we can take that bug-dragon thingy!"
"NO!!" The men snapped.
"You midgets are hilarious." Sonic suddenly gained a second wind as Eggman stepped from behind the gateway, laughing heartily. "And my dear boy, Uub. How it must feel to know that you will always be a failure."
"No one likes a sore loser, Eggman." Silver scowled.
"You're in no position to talk, Silver." Eggman said smugly. "It just so happens that everything that went about was according to Broly's plan with some satisfactory effort on my part. Oh, I would say that Baby has succeeded in possession all those poor simpletons at the World Martial Arts Tournament by now."
"Baby?!" Uub gapped horrified. "Baby was at the tournament?"
"He was the last opponent you finished off." Eggman informed pleasingly. "Oh, that's right. You failed to kill him off and now that metallic parasite is wondering around free in the real world." He summoned the Corridors of Darkness from behind, steadily walking backwards with an elated expression. "I would love to stay and watch your downfall, but I have another little diversion to attend to."
"Eggman, get back here!" Angel demanded, but the round doctor had already escaped. "Grr...aki patooka."
"He sounded confident." Storm noted interestingly. "Is this Baby guy really that strong?"
The five animal heroes turned to Uub for some answers, but the dark-skinned warrior was staring at the floor – his eyes were wide with absolute terror. When he senses finally returned to him, the dark-skinned warrior turned on his heels and made a mad dash for the portal to the living world, ignoring his overwhelming exhaustion. Sonic and his friends were worried and knew that Uub was in no condition to fight. After making sure that Storm still had a grip on Pan, the Keyblade Master and the rest of his team chased after their friend, not expecting the dangers that awaited them.
Carnage and mayhem was too soft of words to describe Budokai's present state. From the moment the Uub and the Sonic Team exited the portal to Hell, they were greeted by the destruction created by Baby's wrath. The World Martial Arts stadium had been torn down, brick-by-brick, a good percentage of the city was set aflame, and the statues of the previous champions were demolished – except for Hercule, who had been remodeled to wearing a diaper and bib. The only relief was that all of the tournament spectators were safe and standing in neat rows in front of the ruins of the tournament stadium. Though Marine did comment how creepy it was that everyone was grinning insanely.
"Well, at least no one was hurt." Silver commented soothingly.
"No, this isn't right." Uub said with a defeated tone, dropping to his knees. "Baby possessed their bodies. He slipped into their blood stream and harvested his DNA into everyone to give him power over them."
"Can he do that?" Marine asked Silver.
"You bet your little ponytail I can!" Master Roshi approached the heroes, speaking in Baby's voice. "Now that I have taken control of the human filth on this planet, I will spread my power beyond the reaches of the galaxy! Worthless insects like the Heartless will stand no match against the power of the Tuffle Empire!!"
"Dude, you're nuts." Sonic commented, drawing the Paladin to his chest. "If you want to take over the universe, you'll have to get past the Dragon Cup Champion!"
"We could have just snuck off peacefully." Dark Sonic complained. "But no, you had to let your overinflated ego get the best of you. Oh, why couldn't I have been Espio's other personality."
"What? You think I can't take him?" Sonic asked disappointed.
"In a word – NO!!" Dark Sonic responded.
"Come on, Uub." Angel said, shaking the dark-skinned warrior by his shoulder. "We're going to need you brain if we're going to figure out how to beat this guy."
"What's the point?" Uub said in a hollow voice. "I let them down – I left everyone unprotected." He pounded his fist against the ground. "Eggman was right. I'm just a...a failure."
"Now is not the time to be beating yourself up." Silver said strictly. "We need you now."
"Some warrior I turned out to be." Uub murmured dreadfully. "Goku...I failed you."
The Tuffle Parasite was overjoyed by Uub's emotional breakdown as expressed by the echoing cackles of the possessed humans. Realizing that the dark-skinned warrior was no longer in a position to help them, Storm gently passed Pan at his side and joined the others as they formed a wall against the possessed inhabitants.
Tuffle Parasite: Baby
Facing off against average humans, the Sonic Team felt that they had the advantage and did not see the need to overexert their energy on the controlled people. But if there was one thing that had forgot about Budokai, it's that this world attracts all kinds of customs – many not from this word. Before Sonic realized that the battle had started, he was lifted off his feet and thrown backwards into Uub, who did nothing to avoid the flying hedgehog. The Keyblade Master rebounded off the dark-skinned warrior and flopped on his stomach – the Keyblade skidded only a few inches from his hand. As he tried to reach out for the weapon, he found himself suddenly hanging in the air by his left leg and the sound of cringing metal reached his ears. Sonic didn't have the slightest clue what was going on, but his warrior instincts told him to summon the Keyblade to his hand. With the additional weight of the Paladin, the invisible predator was thrown off its balance, enabling Sonic to attempt a vertical slash across the air. The Keyblade Master could feel his weapon making contact and flipped to land on his feet, watching as his attacker was forced to reveal himself. A foreign alien wearing rugged survival gear with a steel-plated mask with hanging dreadlock and a lengthy blade attached to his right wrist. However, because of Sonic's attack, the mask has been split in two, revealing the scaled face and four appendages around its mouth.
"Yeesh, and I thought Hirudegarn was the ugliest baddy." Sonic groaned inwardly; the predator hissed.
"I think he heard you." Dark Sonic sniggered. "Sure glad I'm not you."
"I hate you." Sonic scowled.
The Predator extended its blade to an unbelievable length – Sonic really wished he wasn't the Keyblade Master. Meanwhile, Silver was having similar, if not worse, problems than his apprentice. The Babylonian mage levitated himself backwards in the air and stopped at the tope of a high wall, smacking his staff to repel the jumpers. Silver's enemies of choice were a group of sightless black beasts with long, smooth heads, reptilian bodies, and bladed tails The Xenomorphs, which the hedgehog recognized from Nyrox's books, formed a small pyramid with their bodies and allowed two of their own jump at the hedgehog. Silver flipped forward into the air, rebounding off the head of the first Xenomorph, and thrusted the head of his staff into the second alien's mouth. Despite the fanged tongue biting at his weapon, Silver mumbled a quick spell and random spears of pure light ripped through its reptilian body. Its acid-green blood rained over its comrades – strong hissing sounds followed when the acidic blood touched any solid surface.
"That was actually kinda quick." Silver commented surprisingly.
"Hey, Silver, those things are Xenomorphs, right?" Storm asked, shoving away his own adversary.
"Yeah, why?" Silver nodded.
"Aren't they immune to their own acid?" Storm questioned.
Silver's eyes went wide as he mechanically turned back to the site of his supposedly defeated enemies. Much to the hedgehog's horror, the Xenomorphs merely brushed the acidic acid off their smooth skin and snarled menacingly at the Babylonian mage.
"Oh crap." Silver muttered.
In the meantime, Storm pushed his shield in front to successfully repel the flying shards of emerald-green crystal. The alien creature that chose to combat the mighty albatross was from a race that Storm recognized to be a Petrosapien. The crystallized titan scowled at the disadvantage presented by the Babylonian's shield and refrained from firing any more shards. Instead, the Petrosapien and remolded its arms into sharpened blades and dashed ahead for a closer encounter. Storm yelped at the sudden assault and ducked out of the way of the crystal blade, allowing him the perfect chance to slam his shield into the alien's back. The Petrosapien staggered momentarily, but steadied its footing and turned on its heels – its hands were once again fragmented to fire. Being captain of the guard, Storm had seen this tactics many times and knew the best way to counter it. The moment the crystallized alien had turned, the large albatross pulled back his shield and sent it flying directly into the alien's face. Storm recovered his shield from the air as it came back around and watched the Petrosapien flail across the ground.
"I can't believe so many aliens came to watch people beat each other up." Storm said interestingly.
"I can't believe one of my own cousins is here in the first place!" Angel screamed.
The Babylonian guard was drawn by curiosity as he looked over to his pink partner, only to be run over by two blurs of pink and yellow. Angel was running for dear life as a yellow version of Jumba's experiments was zipping down the streets like a lightning bolt, shooting occasional volts of electricity. The siren experiment starting dashing up the face of a nearby wall, using only her feet to cling to the surface, and back flipped over her electrical brethren. Angel found it to be no surprise that the electrical experiment stopped before colliding with the wall, but still thought to toss her dagger while still in midair. Unfortunately, with an annoying cackle from the experiment, the electrical monstrosity grabbed the daggers wit his lengthy antennas, pumping them to the brim with electrical energy. The yellow experiment tossed Angel's weapons back, but they only stabbed into the ground in front of her. Just as he had planned. Without warning, all the electricity swelled up in the weapons rippled from the blades and surged to the closest object: Angel. The pink experiment cried out from the sudden shock and fell backwards – the smell of burned fur filled her nostrils.
"Ooh...akibaba." Angel mumbled dizzily. "Who put the clouds on the roof?"
"Not so easy now, is it?" Baby spoke through the experiment. "Surrender yourself to the mighty Tuffle race and you can share our glory."
"As if..." Angel groaned weakly. "As if I want some worm swimming though my veins. It was bad enough when Poxy did it."
"Defiant until the end." Baby scowled. "Very well, you shall..."
"Coming through!!"
Whatever Baby was prepared to say next was not known as the electrical experiment was punted into the sky and disappeared over the horizon. The cause of this miraculous rescue came from towering twenty foot colossus with sickly green fur, a pair of horns on its head, and wearing stone armor at random places on its body. How could anyone possibly miss that? Marine certainly didn't as she was already climbing the colossus's right leg, using the large amounts of fur as an advantage. The only disadvantage found was that the titan's skin was so thick that Marine's energy orb could call a weapon powerful enough to pierce it. But the colossus was vaguely annoyed by the tiny pest and swiped its hulking arm around the area where the rascally raccoon was located. Because of her small stature, Marine could have easily dodged the swinging muscle, but instead chose to jump and cling to the fur on the titan's arm. When the colossus reached the full height of its swing, Marine released her hold on the beast and plopped on the titan's forehead, where she discovered a glowing symbol.
"Ooh, glowy." Marine said curiously.
"Get down from there." Baby snarled through the colossus. "I am going to crush your bones to dust and scattered them to the four winds."
"You know, you're not very nice." Marine said uninterestingly.
The Tuffle Parasite was quickly growing annoyed with her and started swing the colossus's head madly. Marine struggled to maintain her balance, ultimately failing and fall on her stomach. But her grip was unintentionally tightened around the energy orb and accidentally summoned a walloping war hammer that smashed the glowing symbol. Turns out, the symbol was the colossus's great weakness and the towering titan fell to the ground, creating a seismic aftershock that vibrated within a fifty mile radius. Everyone was left in a daze by Marine's surprising counterattack with the raccoon slowly dragging herself back to the battleground.
"That...was...AWESOME!!!" Marine screamed excitedly. "Let's do it again!"
However, someone saw fit to whack her in the back of the head and send her flying across the tournament entrance. Sonic was just recovering from the unexpected quake when his surrogate sister hit against his shoulder, causing him to scrape his skin against a sharp stone on the ground. Sonic hissed disdainfully as the crimson liquid breached his wound, which only added to the fact that his team was slowly beat one-by-one.
"As you can clearly see, you are no match for the Tuffle race." Baby said through Master Roshi, throwing Storm to the ground. "Not even the legendary Keyblade Master can stand up to our might."
"I hate to say it, but he's right." Sonic thought angrily. "He's got us pinned twenty-to-one and we're running out of options."
"We can't afford to kill the hosts." Dark Sonic stated strongly. "They may be out enemies now, but they are still innocent creatures....for the most part."
"That's our problem." Sonic replied thoughtfully. "We can't do a thing as long as that damn parasite is..."
The cobalt hedgehog trailed from his thoughts, suddenly struck with inspiration. A wide grin crossed his expression as he relayed his plan to his darker persona – Dark Sonic was pleased with the idea.
"Some great race." Sonic taunted openly; the Sonic Team looked aghast. "If you're so great, why don't you have me, the legendary Keyblade Master?"
"Sonic, what are you doing?" Silver hissed.
"Hmm..." Baby hummed. "You present an excellent point. Once I have the Keyblade Master under my influence, I will truly be the most powerful force in the universe!"
The Sonic Team cried out to warn Sonic, but the cobalt hedgehog only continued to grin with the air of victory. Through his influence over Master Roshi, Baby released himself from the turtle hermit as a steady stream of silver liquid. And before Silver or the others could react to this, the Tuffle Parasite leeched himself around Sonic's open wound and slipped into the hedgehog's bloodstream.
Deep within the depth of Sonic's subconscious mind, Baby materialized himself at his full appearance, investigating the vast power of his new host.
"Amazing..." Baby said wickedly. "I have never dreamed such power existed. Not even Vegeta at his full strength could compare to the vast quantities of energy stored within the rodent. And with him at my command, the Tuffle race will rise once more!!"
"You talk too much."
The Tuffle Parasite sudden felt himself frozen in fear as he felt cold steel touch both sides of his neck. Due to his own lack of knowledge towards the Keyblade Master's heart, Baby found himself at the mercy of two shadowy figure wielding Keyblades close to his only lifeline. Dark Sonic retained his grip on the Oblivion Keyblade in his palm while sending curious glances to the other inhabitant within the cobalt hedgehog. His face was obscured by the Black Coat he wore, similar to the one worn by the Order, but kept his grip firm on the Oathkeeper Keyblade.
"So, we finally meet." Dark Sonic said deeply, ignoring the intruder's twitching. "Sonic and I have been wondering who else would be stored within this vessel. Tell me, why do you dress as one of the Order?"
"Answer this first?" The Order member questioned. "Why are either of use allowed to exist. We were never born to be part of this world, yet we still strive to become someone. Why?"
"I can understand what you mean." Dark Sonic nodded. "Being a Heartless, a creature made purely from the darkness of Sonic's heart, I should not be alive while Sonic continues to exist." He and the Order member lowered their Keyblades, much to Baby's relief. "But, maybe because Sonic wants us to exist."
"He wants us to exist?" The Order member repeated.
"Maybe because, somewhere deep in his heart, Sonic urges us to exist." Dark Sonic said thoughtfully. "We might not exist in the outside world, but to Sonic, we are still living creatures that hold close bonds to his heart. To that end, he is willing to go out of his way and risk everything to save us, even if destiny does not wish us to exist."
"Bonds..." The Order member hummed, staring at his hands. "Maybe...Nobodies can exist."
"Not for much longer!" Baby roared.
While the two shadows were distracted by their conversation, Baby had thrown out his hands and gathered the energy needed to blast the shadows to oblivion. But their reactions were much better than the parasite's. Both Keyblade wielders twirled their weapons to chop off Baby's hands before he could release the energy and crossed their blades along his neckline, decapitating the parasite before he realized it. And in the outside world, Baby's influence was destroyed and everyone was set free from the Tuffle's control. And as their conscious minds began to separate once more, Dark Sonic and the Order member shared one last stare before everything went blank.
"Thank you..." The Order member whispered.
Baby: Defeated
Though the Babylonian mage still scolded Sonic for his reckless behavior, the Sonic Team still congratulated him for his impossible victory over Baby. Such an unorthodox tactic could not have been pulled off by anyone but him. With the Tuffle Parasite's influence no longer controlling them, everyone that had been possessed woke up without any recollection that had transpired. But if there was one good thing that had come out of all this, the stadium was closed and allowed Uub time to rest and relax. Speaking of whom, the dark-skinned warrior was sitting on the broken remains of a stone bench with Pan, who had conveniently recovered, murmuring words of reassurance to him.
"Uub, it's not your fault." Pan said sadly.
"Yes it is." Uub sighed. "I let everyone down. I'm just...no use."
"Hey, everyone has a bad day once in a while, mate." Marine said in a supporting manner. "The best thing you can do is have the courage to stand up and face it."
"Amazingly enough, she's right." Silver said surprising; Marine shot a victory sign. "You just need to get your strength back and then you can take care of Broly."
"At least he won't be attacking any time soon." Storm said positively. "With the tournament out of commission, he doesn't have a reason to fight you."
"Aw, we shouldn't worry about that big bully." Pan huffed. "If he tries anything, I kick his butt all the way back to Hell."
"You should really learn your limits." Angel said superiorly. "Leave the big stuff to the real warriors."
"When did you guys become warriors?" Pan said smugly.
"Let's save that for another time." Sonic said sheepishly. "We've got to hit the road."
The young warriors tried to wave a cheery goodbye to the Sonic Team, but Uub failed and showed no expression but self doubt and pity. It was a sorry sight. But just before Sonic could dwell on this matter any further, he felt a strange sensation radiation within his pocket and reached into it. He soon recovered the stone that formerly belonged to Fortuneteller Baba, which was giving off a familiar radiance and drifted lightly in the air. Holding his Keyblade in front of him, Sonic's mind wandered into another dimension, where only the stone's light shined. The gifted stone emitted a beam of light into the sky and formed into the shape of a keyhole. Sonic thrusted his chosen weapon forward and unleashed the Keyblade power to strike at the Keyhole, unlocking the next gateway. The Keyblade Master's mind was sharply thrusted back into reality.
"What was that?" Uub asked weakly.
"That means a new path has been open." Sonic answered. "We better get going."
"Then take this with you." Pan said gratefully, surrendering a Keychain that looked exactly as Sonic remembered the Dragon Balls. "Don't be strange, you hear."
Meanwhile, another event was taking place in the chaotic world of Hollow Bastion, closer towards the Villains Vail. While the Restoration Committee worked to rid their world of the Heartless, Black Doom was using their powers and harvesting they to multiply his armies. It seemed like the committee was fighting a losing battle. At the pinnacle of the central tower, Black Doom hovered loftily close to the edge of the balcony, overlooking his growing army from above. But still, he needed more than just Eggman if he was going to conquer this world once more.
"Where are the others?" Black Doom questioned immediately after Eggman appeared through the Corridors of Darkness.
"How should I know." Eggman shrugged. "My guess is that they had better things to do."
"You mean they had more affairs to attend to than my return?!" Black Doom glowered spitefully.
"Well, there has been this nasty problem with a group called Order XIII." Eggman informed. "Rumor has it that..."
"You think I care for this wasted husks?" Black Doom interrupted. "Let those fools play their little game."
"But what about that runt with the Keyblade?" Eggman questioned seriously. "He's becoming a real pain in the derriere."
"Somehow, that doesn't surprise me." Black Doom said coldly. "Sonic always had a knack for becoming a nuisance. But..." He slowly drifted at turned to the round scientist. "Things have changed since I've been away. It would be better you tell me what's happened during my absence."
A hollow victory with a tragic defeat. Will Uub regain his confidence to face Broly? Will Sonic learn the secrets to his other half? And what plans does Black Doom have left up his sleeve? Find out on the next Sonic Chronicles!
Please, read and review.