Chapter Twenty-Five: How to Make a Monster
Amy was the only person who had remained behind to watch the others.
Even when the twitches and random firing of lasers had stopped, she still eyed Sonic like she was worried he would steal her purse. As for the others, although they did nothing except blink and breathe, she still hoped that whatever they were doing, they were succeeding.
Without warning, a thick stream of red, cloud-like material erupted from Sonic, utterly derailing her train of thought. While her bad leg made it much more difficult to fight than usual, she'd still brought her hammer to the scene, just in case she might need it. Thus, she wound up for a swing, even though she wasn't sure how a hammer could hurt something that was essentially liquid.
Said liquid didn't appear to bother with her. Instead, after it all appeared to have fled Sonic's body, it seemed to pause for a second before beginning to flow inside the still form of Metal Sonic. Amy took several staggering steps back, having unpleasant memories of Metal Sonic from the few times they'd encountered each other.
But as the last of the red mist trickled into Metal Sonic, regular Sonic suddenly jumped to his feet, shouting, "Amy!"
Amy didn't waste a second. "Sonic?"
"This isn't actually Sonic, but that doesn't matter," Sonic said. "Here's the deal: remember the mind analysis device that we talked about last night?"
"Yes," Amy said, nodding her head frantically. "You're holding it right now."
"Well, that makes things easier," Sonic said. Right after saying that, he figured out which hand he was holding it in, then moved the corresponding arm so that the beam was facing his head.
"Wait," Amy said. "What are you doing?"
"Just watch," Sonic said. While the end that fired a beam was still pointed at his head, he began to press a red button on the device over and over again, counting aloud as he did. "One, two, three…"
He stopped at fourteen presses, even as nothing seemed to happen with the group of bodies who used to be inhabited by her friends. That stayed true for a few more seconds, but then, Sonic began giving off more wisps of multicolored mist, which crescendoed into a full-on explosion of the stuff from his body as it changed from a rainbow mass into six individual streams.
Those same streams began to enter her friends in an order that seemed completely random to Amy- Shadow began the process first, while Tails came last. Before any of their processes could finish, however, Metal Sonic started blinking or at least doing the closest thing that a robot could manage. His eyes glowed red, as usual, but it just seemed more… ominous this time around.
His actions matched his looks not long after he came to. While he ignored Amy, he took the free time before the others recovered and slammed into all of them with a Spin Dash, sending them flying backward a solid twenty feet. The only exception was Sticks, who flew almost twice as far before crashing into a half-destroyed cottage, luckily not face-first.
Shadow suddenly sprang to his feet, his process having finished first. Without a word of explanation, he charged at Metal Sonic, and Metal Sonic did the same. They slammed into each other with a noise akin to an explosion, neither one willing to give an inch.
Rouge came next. Once she came to her senses and witnessed the scene, she shouted, "Amy! Metal Sonic's been possessed, he's the real threat now!"
"Wait," Amy said, "does that mean that Sonic-"
"Sonic's fine now," Rouge replied. "Well, 'fine' isn't exactly the right word for it, since he's been held captive by an evil entity for the past two days, but he's no longer evil. Once everyone else gets out of his head, he can help us take down this thing for good!"
"Well, that's good news," Amy yelled, but it was lost in the fighting. Shadow and Metal Sonic had stopped Spin Dashing into each other, having done it so hard and for so long they'd left a noticeable imprint in the ground. Without taking even a second to recover, Metal Sonic dashed away from the village, quickly fading to nothing more than a speck.
The others had come to their senses by now, and to no one's surprise, Knuckles had no idea what the hell was going on. "Wait, where'd Metal Sonic go?"
"Not sure," Rouge said, "but it can't mean anything good."
"Of course it's not good," Eggman shouted. "Remember the thrusters he used before? I'm not sure they'll last him to the mainland, but I don't think any of us want to find out the answer when he gets there!"
"Well, we can't just stand here! We have to catch him," Shadow said. "I'll take Rouge, Sonic, you take Tails. Everyone else, I think you can fit into Eggman's flying machine!"
"Got it," said Rouge, sprinting over to Shadow.
"On it," yelled Sonic, having already picked up Tails.
"I'll get to it in a second," Eggman added, darting toward his flying machine.
Sonic and Shadow were off in a hurry, taking Tails and Rouge with them. Sonic tried to keep his speed manageable for Tails' sake, but Shadow showed no such regard, leaving Sonic and the others in the dust in seconds. Luckily for him, Metal Sonic had moved in a relatively straight line, and there was enough foliage on the ground that his path had been made quite clear.
It didn't take long for the stuff to thin out, but by then, Shadow could see Metal Sonic. Fortunately, there were no signs of him learning how to re-activate his thrusters. But they recognized their location instantly. Toppled trees. Decimated plants. A cluster of ruined mud-and-straw huts not far away.
And the corpses of several Gogobas less than ten feet away from where Metal Sonic was standing.
He hadn't moved or even acknowledged that Shadow had arrived, instead remaining still, as a faint reddish glow began to surround him. Shadow dropped Rouge and slammed into him, but he might as well have hit a stone wall for all the reaction he got. Sonic did likewise, but it resulted in a similar lack of effect.
Yet still, Metal Sonic did nothing but stand there. The others, even Tails, had no clue as to what was going on.
But once the first computer part came flying out of seemingly nowhere, things started to become clearer. Rouge narrowly avoided getting a keyboard to the face, while Tails had to duck a flying monitor with its exposed electrical cords still sparking. It seemed like a fluke until several dozen more airborne computer parts came from what appeared to be everywhere and nowhere all at once. Sonic and Shadow did their best to dodge them, but even with their efforts, Shadow still took a nasty whack to the head with a mouse, while Sonic almost got his legs knocked out from under him by a thick cable.
Tails, still on the ground, turned to face Metal Sonic. "What the-"
That was all he got out before a full computer- not a detached part like the others before it- slammed into Tails' head. He yelped in agony and tried to move further away, but every movement looked painful for him.
"I got you, Tails!" Sonic rushed over to grab Tails, then moved him so that Shadow and he stood between them. Metal Sonic still wasn't moving, but the deconstructed computers had stopped just floating aimlessly, instead beginning to gather in clusters. And those clusters were moving closer and closer to Metal Sonic by the second.
"I don't think we want to find out what he's doing with those," Rouge said.
Unfortunately, it looked like they were about to. Sonic and Shadow kept smashing into Metal Sonic again and again, but nothing they did had any impact whatsoever- he didn't even take a step back. Even worse, the clusters of electronics had begun to get in the way- no matter what side the two of them approached from, they found themselves blocked by a wall of wires and metal.
Sonic turned to Tails for an explanation of how Metal Sonic could possibly be doing this, but failed to see him. "Probably tried to move to somewhere safer," he mused, and he couldn't blame him, either.
The hissing of a straining engine becoming audible in the distance hinted that reinforcements were coming, but it appeared they were going to be far too late. The parts weren't just floating around anymore- now they were starting to attach to Metal Sonic's frame- tightly at first, but soon beginning to expand outward, linking everything together in a chain of electronics.
Shadow gasped, trying to hide his pounding chest the best he could- he didn't tolerate any weaknesses in others and he damn well didn't want to show any himself. "How the hell are we supposed to deal with that?"
"Keep hitting it," Sonic hissed, before returning to the barrage. The two of them aimed for anything exposed, anything with fragile connections, anything that looked like it could break. But even as they made contact and beat themselves against the monstrous machine again and again and again, nothing happened. No pieces fell off. Nothing broke. Metal Sonic didn't even speak, like their efforts were so insignificant that they didn't even warrant his attention.
Suddenly, a loud thud turned everyone's attention, even Metal Sonic's, towards Eggman's flying machine. Eggman himself was gaping so widely that his jaw hung open like he was some kind of zombie (and he'd had so much of his wits scared out of him that he'd let go of the controls), Knuckles had an expression on his face that screamed "Does not compute," and Sticks looked like she was about to pass out from pure fear.
"Metal Sonic?" Eggman's voice was quivering even more than usual here. "What, what…"
"I'm making some self-improvements," he replied. It was the first time he'd talked since being possessed, and the only thing it made clear was that this was not Metal Sonic in any way, shape, or form. Metal Sonic's speech (on the rare occasions that he chose to talk to begin with) was always formal, calm, and emotionless. This thing was making no attempt at formality, and his voice was so overtly malicious it was a wonder he didn't scream his words at top volume, just to hurt the ears of anyone listening. "Now that I have control of a robot, with that little program of yours that uses one computer to control others-" Tails blanched upon hearing that- "I can summon even more computers to this host and make him unstoppable."
Sticks screamed, "We're gonna need a lot of water to make this thing stop working!"
"No need," it chuckled. "Once I get to the mainland, that won't be a concern anymore."
"Don't just stand there, attack!" Even though Shadow had been ramming into this creature for the past five minutes, his ego had been bruised far worse than his body. Sonic joined in an instant. Sticks knocked Eggman out of the way and started firing at the creature from her perch, missing with every shot but not giving up.
"Nice try," it laughed. "It's far too late for that. But you'll figure that out soon, once the world falls to me."
Then, and only then, the thrusters on Metal Sonic's back- or at least, the abominations that used to be the thrusters- started firing up. Sonic didn't stop hitting it. Neither did Shadow. Sticks ran up to it and began attacking it with all the force the crazy badger could muster. Knuckles ran at it as well, his left arm hanging limp at his side for some reason. Even Rouge tried to take off and strike at its head, but somehow her flight path turned into a corkscrew that caused her to slam into the ground face-first again.
A wave of hot, dusty air exploded from Metal Sonic, knocking everyone back as he began to lift off, slowly at first but gaining speed by the instant. They kept attacking it with everything they had, but in seconds, Sonic and Shadow could no longer reach it, and Sticks was forced to abandon ship to make sure her legs didn't shatter when she fell off.
The thing, sarcasm dripping from every word, called out, "Well, you guys lost. I'd say, 'better luck next time,' but there won't be a next time, now, will there?" Then, it oriented itself horizontally and began its journey to the mainland, soon fading to nothing more than a speck on the horizon.
Once the others couldn't reach it, Shadow ran off. He yelled over his shoulder, "Got to call our employers, maybe they have something that can stop this monster before it does too much damage…" Then, he was gone.
Everyone else bowed their heads. The absolute worst had come to pass: the virus had gotten off the island.
They had failed.
It wasn't their first failure ever, but it would probably be their last.
Rouge collapsed in misery. Eggman outright started crying again. Sonic just stared out into the distance, like that would somehow get Metal Sonic back where they were.
Eggman, ever the pessimist, said the three words that they all were thinking at that precise moment. "Well, we're screwed."
"You can say that again," Knuckles said. "And my arm isn't working for some reason." He was speaking the truth- his right arm was in a fighting stance, but the left one still hung at his side.
"Maybe," Eggman said, so quietly the others had to strain to hear him, "the damage you took inside Sonic's brain, where you lost your arm, translated into a part of your body your brain either can't control anymore or doesn't know about." He looked around for a second. "Tails, doesn't that make sense?"
"Tails isn't here, guys," Sonic said. "He went to find a safer spot, he's been incapacitated the whole time."
Eggman gave him a strange look. "You sure about that? I don't think we passed him on our way here, none of us saw him."
Sonic wasn't convinced. "What do you mean, you didn't see him? Where else could he have…"
Then, he made the connection. "No. No no no no no no no no no…"
Rouge didn't take much longer to figure it out. "Wait. I think you're suggesting…"
Eggman finished her sentence. "...that Tails left with the virus somehow."
Sonic kept up his babbling, having lost anything resembling common sense at the thought his best friend might have just gotten himself killed. "No no no no no no no…"
At that moment, everyone appeared to share one thought, horrible but true.
Tails, what the hell were you thinking?
Review Zone, Act XXIV:
-Linz2: Thanks, once more, for taking the time to leave a review! At this point, I can officially say we've hit the desperation event horizon. I'm honestly not quite sure how things could be going much worse!
-Darkness-InA-Ninja: Thanks, once more, for taking the time to leave a review! I'm not sure where it'll all end up, but so far, Metal's sacrifice has done more harm than good.