Alright, guys, it's time for chapter 8. The things have heated rapidly, and there seems to be no way of unraveling them. Let's go!
Enjoy!
Tails looked angrily at Knuckles, still floating with his tails.
It wasn't just Longclaw who was suddenly trapped, having been caught in a net cleverly set by the echidna.
In a way, the fox was trapped as well!
He had accounted for many things that might potentially happen to the trio's disadvantage while searching for the Chaos Emeralds.
This, genuinely, wasn't one of them!
He had no plan whatsoever, nor the time to come up with one, for how to get both himself and his guardian out of this unnerving situation, whilst maintaining all the five emeralds they had so far obtained.
But he had to rescue Longclaw, somehow. Just somehow.
He looked at his bag, that had the emeralds in it...
He looked back at Knuckles - who was thinking of a good way to call Tails a coward for not approaching him...
Tails was still looking angrily at Knuckles...
And then - as fast as he could - he flew straight towards him!
And - as much as he didn't want to do this, not being a fan of violence in general - he smacked the echidna!
"Oh no!" Knuckles exclaimed, falling to a much lower altitude.
Quickly, Tails looked at the way Longclaw got trapped inside this net, trying to find a way to get her out of it.
But he couldn't find one.
She was trapped just so tightly, the fox didn't know what to do!
He tried ripping the net off with his bare hands (no, sorry, gloved hands), but even that didn't work.
So, justifiably, he panicked!
He resorted to looking around for something sharp enough to rip off at least one string of the net - something, anything, before Knuckles regained balance...
And he found a piece!
A sharp piece of metal.
He could use this to cut off part of the net and release his guardian.
But he had to do it quickly, for obvious reasons!
So he did!
"Thank you," Longclaw said after being set free.
"No problem," Tails replied, starting to panic, "but we gotta hurry!"
And just as the two got ready to fly upwards - BAM!
Knuckles knocked Tails back to the ground.
"Miles!" Longclaw shouted.
Looking at the echidna, she instantly made a decision that seemed uncaring.
Instead of going to help the fox - she attacked Knuckles!
And faster than anyone would think - the echidna was losing air!
"Don't move!" she warned him.
Sonic could do nothing other than stare at what seemed to be a metal copy - a very impressive, creepily accurate metal copy - of himself.
He was gonna utter some cool catchphrase to ease this horrifying tension, but he figured out that wouldn't help much.
Instead, he tried something else.
He ran, effortlessly, just by this Metal Sonic.
And in the moment of passing by him, he slapped him in the head!
"He, he," he said, stopping on the other side of this dark room, turning around to see how that would make the robot feel-
But he wasn't there.
He literally wasn't at the location where he had been when Sonic had slapped him!
"Ummm..." the hedgehog muttered, with clear worry in his voice.
"How gullible of you," Metal Sonic suddenly appeared behind him, causing the blue blur to squeak and jump up in complete fright.
But he now understood something a lot better.
This Metal Sonic was only built for one purpose!
To outstrip Sonic in everything he's good at!
Upon realizing this, Sonic once more took severe frustration in how far Eggman would go to...
To do what, exactly?
Make the hedgehog's life a living hell?
But why?
As Sonic stared at his metal counterpart, he couldn't figure out the answer.
"What are you trying to do to me?" he decided to directly ask the robot.
"Just make you realize you're not as special and brilliant as you genuinely think you are," Metal Sonic answered him, in a tone in which this might as well have been a death threat. "That's all."
The blue blur instantaneously understood what he had meant by that.
He was gonna question his speed!
"Oh, really?" he replied to that, with sudden confidence. "Well, if you thi-"
"YES," a loud, threatening voice was suddenly heard from somewhere, sounding like it was coming from a video or something, "REALLY!"
It was.
With no other lights turning on, a giant video-projection appeared high on the wall - and guees whom it showed!
The very man whom, not that long ago, Sonic had to defeat on a whole different place in the universe!
The very man who, at least temporarily, brought visible disorder into the hedgehog's recent life!
"Eggman!" Sonic uttered, angrily.
What the blue blur somehow felt now - even though he wasn't fully sure why - was that this time, the disorder wouldn't be so temporary!
But of all things he could do now - he saw the drastic change in the insane human's appearance, so he chose to lower the tension.
"You got a haircut?" he asked him.
"No," Eggman replied, in a menacing tone of voice, "I got them all cut!"
Sonic was fully unamused by this pun.
But the human continued.
"I see you've already come to know of my latest creation," he spoke. It could be heard in his intimidating voice that he was so proud of the hedgehog's metal counterpart. "He's just like you... but better."
Of all the reactions that these words would yield inside the blue blur - Sonic couldn't help but laugh.
"Yeah... we'll see about that," he replied, with sheer confidence.
But of all the ways that Eggman could react to this...
"Exactly!"
To which Sonic startled, not having anything witty to reply with.
Then...
A door opened!
A giant, metallic door, placed on one far end of this room that had only been lit by eerie, weird-angled lights!
From this door being opened, a really decent amount of light finally shone on this place where the blue blur and the mechanic version of him had been.
What could be seen through this door was the other end of Chemical Plant - much more dangerous!
But what first caught his eye upon this door's opening - and what intrigued him to unbelievable amounts - was what was just outside from where he was!
A long, lengthy road, that stretched all the way all over this industrial area!
And the beginning of the road was exactly where the door had opened.
When Sonic looked at Metal Sonic, he knew what it meant.
He would have to race him!
And there would be nothing wrong with that in itself, considering that the blue blur always wanted to show off with using the incredible speed he has whenever he got the chance.
But to say that he wasn't really, truly, prepared for this - wouldn't be all untrue.
It was a little unexpected.
And the way Sonic fe-
RUN!
He just ran!
Not letting Eggman or Metal Sonic say a word or anything!
He just ran straight on that road!
He wasn't gonna waste one more second with those two freaks while his fox friend and his guardian are probably in great danger!
So he ran, way beyond the speed of sound - even though he had no clue where this road led.
Oh, and there was one more small thing.
Metal Sonic caught up with him.
Like, without a stretch or anything.
"Now do you understand what I've been speaking of?" he asked the blue blur, as he ran just next to him at the exact same speed, making what Sonic would usually see as a morning run look more like, hm - run for his life.
There wasn't any visual proof to imply that the life of this hedgehog, who dedicated his whole life to running, might just end if he kept doing so - but he felt that!
Then, as he kept running at this supersonic speed, with his robotic copy next to him, in the distance he saw something that really vaguely resembled a finish line.
It only took him one quarter of a second from when he saw it - to cross it!
"Woo-hoo," he proudly exclaimed, turning around to see that not only did Metal Sonic not outrun him - he didn't even cross the "finish line".
"Wait," Sonic asked, a little confused, but still confident, "did you just let me win?"
But then, something CAUGHT HIM!
Causing excruciating pain in all of his body, just out of nowhere, Sonic suddenly felt like he suffered eternal pain!
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH..."
And then, whatever it was that caught him - released him.
Without thinking, the blue blur got up, to try to run towards the robot, or just somewhere - but he couldn't.
Because he was now in a cage.
"I did," Metal Sonic answered.
And Sonic immediately panicked.
"No... no, no, no, no... No, wait-"
And then, he finally showed up!
In a masterful way, too!
Piloting a small flying vehicle!
Just like he had last seen him!
"Well, hello, you little bastard," Eggman greeted Sonic calmly, with a grin on his face.
Knuckles was struggling to breathe, as the owl did a very successful job restraining his airflow, having tackled him to the ground.
"Please..." he pleaded for more breath, "...I can't..."
"What is wrong with your mind?" Longclaw asked him, in an extremely serious tone, the likes of which Tails himself saw for the very first time. "This crazy man wants to destroy the world, and you're helping him?!"
To this, Knuckles looked at the owl in visible confusion.
"He told me that you wanted to destroy it," was how he responded.
Longclaw was unpleasantly shocked by this.
"Of course he did," Tails said, sighing.
"Why would we ever do that?" the owl asked next.
The echidna then opened his mouth to answer it, but quickly realized he did not have a good answer to that.
Dr. Robotnik persuaded him to do all these things, for no real reason.
"Besides," Tails added, feeling like he desperately had to, "what's in it for you?"
That question, to Knuckles, was even more unanswerable!
He agreed to do everything that that crazy man told him - but why?
It would save his own life?
It would save anybody's life?
Obviously not!
He only now realized that - and he felt kinda ashamed!
"Great," he sighed. "Now what?"
Tails and Longclaw looked at each other, trying to find an answer to that question themselves.
Tails then asked Knuckles:
"Do you know where the other two Chaos Emeralds are?"
The echidna looked at him in total disbelief.
"I know exactly where they are," he responded.
Mere weeks prior to this, Eggman was stuck on a planet that consisted exclusively of mushrooms.
And he had no way out of this planet.
Well... almost no way out.
"Hello, my newest friend," he spoke to the very newest robot he had just built, already having conceived a great-detailed plan on just what to do with that robot.
"Hello..." the robot spoke back, "...my master."
The human was so proud that this wonderful robot already obeyed him.
But he didn't spend too much time admiring his obedience.
It would distract him!
So he immediately told him:
"I want you to do something for me."
The robot's red eyes shone brightly.
"Yes, sir?" he replied to Eggman's words.
Then, Eggman instructed him.
"What you have inside you is a quill. A quill of a not-so-ordinary hedgehog. What I want you to do with it, and what I know you can do because I built you this way, is tell me everything about that hedgehog whom it came from!"
Without even the slightest sense of reluctancy, the robot said:
"Yes, sir."
To an average person, it would seem nothing was happening for the next few moments.
But neither Eggman nor this creature he made were anywhere near average!
Because a whole bunch of electrical processes and equations started running through this robot!
He gained a lot of information at once, and meanwhile, it even looked like he was powering up!
And it couldn't be seen on his robotic face - the way Eggman had built him prevented him from physically showing any emotions...
But he smiled!
The insane human knew exactly what this meant!
The robot had obtained all and exactly the information that he wanted!
"His name is Sonic," he began. "He was born on the planet named Mobius, and spent the first few years of his life on that very planet. However, because he was being chased after on that planet, he was forced to move to planet Earth at a very young age. He possesses incredible speed, and hi-"
"Yes, I know that!" Eggman interrupted him, referring to the last part.
After hearing all that his robot had to say, the human started thinking, his head now being the one that numerous calculations were going through.
He was just desperate to come up with a plan on how to defeat that pathetic little creature, in a way as painful (for the hedgehog, of course) as possible.
But then, the robot asked him:
"Do you wish to go back to Earth?"
And Eggman did contemplate that decision for a good minute.
But instead:
"No."
In a once again menacing voice, he spoke:
"I have a better idea."
Then, he turned back to the robot and told him:
"Take me to Mobius."
And the robot did as he was told.
"Not a slice of a problem, sir."
He did not even need to be instructed on how to do this seemingly impossible task!
The human was smart enough - being in fact a lot smarter - to imbed those kinds of abilities into him!
The robot, knowing what to do to complete this task, stretched out his left arm!
Something began to happen on it!
Part of his metal hand started to change shape!
It would've been painful for him - except he was a robot!
When this small process finished - the robot was holding something in his hand.
A ring!
And an enormous grin appeared on the human's crazed face!
Because all that the robot had to do was throw the ring in the air!
And the ring turned into a portal!
The other side of which showed one enormous, beautiful world!
"Thank you so much," Eggman told the robot.
"One question," the robot wanted to ask his creator last before they crossed the portal. "What is my name?"
Eggman found this easy to answer.
"Well, if the vile hedgehog whose quill you have is named Sonic," he answered his creation's question, "then your name will be... Metal Sonic."
"You..." Sonic exclaimed angrily, trying his very best and very angriest to get the hell out of this cage.
But he couldn't.
"How does it feel to be on the unlucky side of a fight?" was the first question the deluded human asked the now angered hedgehog.
And once again, Sonic did not have a witty response.
But he had to say at least something.
He couldn't just let Eggman keep babbling idiotic nonsense.
"Well?" the human said, expecting an answer to his question. "I'm waiti-"
"SHUT UP!" Sonic just cut him!
Eggman was surprised by this unexpected reaction. He even felt a little insulted.
"What did I do to you?!" the hedgehog asked loudly and clearly, attempting to force Eggman to answer directly.
"What did you do to me?!" Eggman counter-asked, enraged by this trivial a question. "You mean, other than humiliated me in front of hundreds of people and sent me away to the middle of nowhere?!"
"Which happened after you chased me for no reason!" Sonic added snarkily.
The response to that came, not from the human, but from Metal Sonic - who appeared standing - no, sorry, floating - just beside him, just outside the cage.
"If endangering and threatening somebody's very existence is something you consider to be no reason," the robot spoke, which left the blue blur stunned at the fact that this robot actually believed his own words, "then yes, that is what happened."
Sonic just didn't say anything.
"Really?" he then said, in disbelief.
"I BARELY SURVIVED A YEAR ON A PLACE FULL OF NOTHING BUT MUSHROOMS BECAUSE OF YOU!" Eggman yelled from the bottom of his lungs.
After retaining his hearing, Sonic simply replied with:
"Nobody is perfect."
"No," Eggman replied even more simply, to which he pressed a button that caused the cage that Sonic was in to go upwards, which frightened him for more than just a second. "You're not prefect," the human added.
Sonic was now genuinely scared!
He genuinely could not see how to get out of this!
He could not even come up with a defense mechanism!
All he could do was stand inside this cage, as it was being lifted up in the air.
"I am so close..." Eggman murmured peevishly, "...and you're not going to take this away from me."
It wasn't a mystery what he meant by so close.
But it wasn't until the cage was lifted more than high enough that Sonic realized just how close Eggman was to accomplishing what he wanted to accomplish.
It was because of what he saw inside the machine that the human was piloting, now that he had a better view of it!
There were two Chaos Emeralds on it!
(Once again, Sonic had to resort to peripheral vision to notice it, since looking directly at them would make the human realize it, enabling him to swiftly stop the hedgehog at whatever he had been attempting.)
That was it!
That was all seven!
If he could just take those two gems away from him, he would finally have all seven Chaos Emeralds! And with the power contained in those emeralds, he could finally stop Eggman in his intent!
But there was one big problem!
The blue blur did not know how exactly he should use the power from those Chaos Emeralds...
On the other hand, if they were to fall into Eggman's hands... That would be fatal.
But the insane human apparently had something to say.
"If you still haven't got the sense of how it fe-"
But then someone ambushed him!
It was Longclaw!
She furiously landed on Eggman's bald head, trying to do at least something close to distracting him.
"Get off of me..."
It worked all too well.
Without the human noticing, Tails managed to get himself on the machine that he had been piloting, and soon enough, noticed those two remaining Chaos Emeralds.
He immediately grabbed them and put them in the bag!
It was very lucky that Eggman was too preoccupied with trying to restore his vision to notice that.
What wasn't so lucky...
"Oh, no, you will not!"
...was that Sonic's mechanic lookalike was not.
He went to attack the fox directly!
He just flew towards him, full of determination.
Tails froze for a moment.
But then he got serious, and held the bags tightly!
He jumped at the robot!
When Metal Sonic got hit by a medium-sized ball of fur from which only two tails popped out - he backed up. A lot!
Two things then happened simultaneously.
As Metal Sonic was being distraught by this unexpected hit, Tails yelled:
"Sonic!"
The caged hedgehog looked at him, not knowing what he was gonna do next. Then:
"Catch!" Tails yelled, throwing the emerald-filled bag towards Sonic.
But at the exact same time, Metal Sonic felt humiliated - even insulted - by what happened to him just a moment ago!
So as Sonic caught the bag that contained the Chaos Emeralds - Metal Sonic activated himself fully!
"O-oh..." the hedgehog and the fox murmured, almost simultaneously.
In an act of near-revenge, Metal Sonic stared at Tails, ready to rush on him in full-on anger!
And all Tails could do was turn around and duck in self-defense, as-
"Over my dead body," Longclaw shouted, blocking the robot's way to hurt the fox in any way.
And the moment later, the owl regretted saying it.
"Very well," Metal Sonic answered.
Sonic's eye pupils got way smaller.
And the robot put just one kick towards Sonic's guardian.
And that was more than enough.
Because the kick was so unbelievably strong that, in an instant, all of Longclaw's brain and body ceased to function.
"NO!" shouted Sonic from the bottom of his lungs, as the one who made him who he is fell down to the ground, way below any one of them could see...
And there was nothing he could do about it.
On the verge of releasing insurmountable amounts of tears, Sonic looked at his mechanic copy.
And stared at him...
"You..." was the word he let out of his mouth, in a very dark, very menacing voice, not even slightly well-meaning, as he pointed his index finger towards this pathetic robot who just took away what was probably the most precious part of his life.
"So what I spoke of came tru-"
"ONE MORE WORD AND I WILL DEMOLISH YOU!" the hedgehog screamed in pure fury.
Then, after a second, still just as angrily:
"Actually, no... I'll do it anyway!"
And the next thing he did - he kept standing.
Metal Sonic floated in front of him, confused for a moment...
Then, something started circling around Sonic!
It was the Chaos Emeralds!
He had all seven of them now!
He could use their power as he pleased!
And as these gems still rolled around him, he began floating in the air!
His metal counterpart, and even the now-frightened Tails, were entirely baffled to see what was happening.
And then he turned yellow!
Tails was amazed to see this.
"It's the Super form..." he whispered to himself, just quietly enough for Metal Sonic not to hear him.
But what this allowed Sonic - who was now Super Sonic - to do was use his sheer power to break out of this cage and just smash his robot copy!
Exactly the same way the robot had done to his guardian!
All that remained for Metal Sonic to do after this hit - was to shatter, and decompose into the smallest pieces.
"No!" Eggman yelled in despair from having to see his newest creation being destroyed just like that.
And then Sonic looked angrily at him as well.
"You just don't give up, do y-" Eggman tried to ask, before Sonic attacked him as well!
But not in the same manner as with that metal piece of junk.
No, he just punched him in the face!
And again!
And again!
And again, while he had the strength - and frankly, he could do this all day!
During this distraction, Tails got the idea of opening numerous ports on this flying machine - and rip all the cables off, in order to disable it!
This was a new low for Robotnik!
Being beaten the way he was, tumbling all over the machine he was piloting, Eggman barely managed to get his finger on a button he needed to push now for this to stop!
And he did!
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh," Sonic shouted - getting electrocuted!
What he did, not being able to take this for long, was got thrown out of this flying vehicle!
Tails jumped right after him, trying only to escape the Eggman now!
Both of them were floating in the air, in a good distance away from him - Sonic was held up high by the power of the emeralds, while the kitsune again made the effect of helicopter blades.
"You pathetic little creatures!" yelled the deluded human to the two heroes who, each in his own way, helped bring this crazy man down on his knees. "You think you're so smart and so heroic trying to save your own lives! And look at how you do it! Oh, no, no, no... I promise you, this is not gonna go without a retort! I may be down on my knees now, but I will come back, and assure you I will make you feel what you made me feel today!"
And in such a furious attitude, he flew away, barely being able to do so with what was left of this machine...
As he disappeared from Sonic and Tails' eyesight, the two looked at each other, knowing they wouldn't be seeing the crazy human for a longer while.
Then, in an unpleasant realization, they looked down!
"Longclaw!" the blue blur exclaimed, sounding like he was not feeling well, as they both calmly made their way to the ground.
And the way Sonic saw his guardian was the way he, deep down, with all of his heart, hoped he would never, ever have to see...
And that was chapter 8. So, everything has now been unraveled, and the final battle between our heroes and the bad guys got its, not so fortunate, outcome. The only thing that's left is to wrap this up. So until the next, last chapter, leave reviews. See you!