Penny, Sonic, and the others stared in shock at Bokkun's messenger screen TV. Eggman stared back at them as he explained why they were captured by the Metarex in the first place.
"I've secretly been working to infiltrate the Metarex and find out what they're up to. But it looks like they finally figured out I've been deceiving them."
"Dr. Eggman, a huge Metarex battleship is closing in fast!" Bocoe appeared on the screen, looking panicked. Decoe had joined in as well. "Its laser cannons are pointed right at us!"
Eggman turned to them. "Your panicking is pointless. Defeat is inevitable. So let's face it with dignity." He turned to Sonic and the others. "The Metarex are on the move towards Galatcit Coordinates 000. One of their legends talks about a time where a thousand-year wait ends and night and day become one. I'm not sure what it means, but my data says that something extraordinary happens in that region of space once every thousand years. And it's about to happen again."
Behind Eggman, Decoe and Bocoe were running around each other in a panic as Eggman continued, "The Metarex are sending every ship in their fleet to rendezvous there. You'd have to be out of your mind to try and intercept them, so I assume that's what you're going to do." And at that, Eggman let out that nasty evil laugh of his.
Penny shuddered.
Bokkun looked at them. "I got away just as they began attacking!"
Cosmo glanced at Bokkun. "I hope you don't mind my asking, but why are those numbers on your TV counting down?"
Bokkun sweatdropped nervously. "I forgot these messages self destruct in the end!"
Everyone gasped.
"Cover your ears, it's gonna be a big bang!"
Bokkun didn't have to tell them twice, and a second later, an explosion filled the room so loud that Penny yelped and covered her ears. Bokkun chuckled nervously. "Betcha you didn't know watching TV could be so exciting!"
"That was NOT FUN!" Tangle grumbled, swishing her tail around to try to get the dust off. Blaze nodded. "I know for one thing... I'll never tune into that channel again!"
...
"The end is at hand!" Dark Oak growled. Behind him, the walls crumbled to reveal a strange looking tree. "The forestation of the galaxy is about to begin! Soon, the Metarex will be all-powerful!"
...
Tails smiled as he led everyone into an empty room. Knuckles frowned. "You can't control the ship from here, there are no controls!"
"Knuckles is right," Kat said. "Tails, what exactly is in this room?"
Tails smiled at everyone's curious faces. "There are controls here!" He said, opening his communicator watch. "They're just hidden away!"
After a press of a button, different types of controls and computers filled the control room. Penny and the others gasped. Tails smiled. "I built this secret branch just in case the original one ever got wrecked!"
"But can this beaten up barge fly?" Rouge asked. Chris ran over to one of the stations and logged in. "The ship's engines were damaged pretty bad, but we still have enough power" He pressed a button, and the Blue Typhoon powered up. Tails commanded his next order. "Put it to launch mode, Chris!"
The Blue Typhoon lifted off the ground.
...
Watching from below, Shadow frowned, and walked off. But just as he did, he was interrupted by someone. "Hold it, hedgehog!"
Shadow growled, turning around.
...
The Blue Typhoon was moving slowly but successfully through space. All was calm until the scanner showed a big fleet of Metarex ships up ahead.
"There's a big fleet of Metarex ships ahead!" Cream said, her eyes wide. "Their coordinates are 000!"
"That's just where Eggman said he'd be!" Sonic said with a smirk.
When they moved close to the Metarex fleet, Tails told Chris what to do. "Increase sentence speed to full power! Set the course for Dark Oak's command ship!"
"Roger!" Chris said with a nod. His eyes widened. "Two Metarex are heading right at us!"
"We have to stop them before they attack!" Sonic growled.
Tails turned to them. "Get to your ships and launch a counterstrike!"
"Roger!" Everyone yelled.
Sonic, Silver, and Bokkun sat on the wing of Penny's plane, while everyone else got into their own ships. Chris took off, followed by Cream, Cheese, Tangle, Whisper, Amy, Blaze, Hiro, Cloud, Knuckles, Rouge, and Amy.
"It's time to go wreck those Metarex!" Sonic said. Silver nodded. The two hopped off Penny's plane, and Penny pressed a button. "Sonic, Silver, catch!" She called, shooting out two rings.
"Thanks, Penny!" Sonic and Silver both said, and the two spun at them, easily slicing through the swords that were thrown at them. Then the Metarexes pushed both Silver and Sonic back, holding out new swords.
"Sonic and Silver's attacks didn't work!" Bokkun cried.
"Fire lasers!" Tails yelled. He pressed a button and began firing lasers at the Metarex, who pulled out a mirror. The laser bounced off the mirror and destroyed their lasers with a single shot.
Everyone gasped in shock.
"Now what?" Penny asked with worry.
Tails turned to Rouge and Knuckles. "Rouge, Knuckles, get to the flight deck to stop that Metarex!"
The Metarex landed on the deck and smiled at himself in the mirror. "My looks are even more striking than my attacks!" He smirked.
Knuckles and Rouge appeared at the edge of the deck. "Let's charge him together!"
Rouge nodded. "Ready when you are!"
Knuckles smirked as they walked up to the Metarex who was holding the mirror. "Aren't you gonna put up a fight?"
The Metarex turned to them. "If you insist. But you weaklings can't possibly harm me!"
Rouge growled a little in irritation. "You won't think so high after yourself after I knock you down!" Rouge took a leap into the air and smashed the mirror he held in his hands. "You broke my mirror!"
Rouge smirked. "Be grateful you don't have to look at yourself anymore!"
"This is no joke!" The Metarex growled, raising his broken mirror as a weapon. "Soon, you'll be howling in pain!" And with one swipe, he batted Rouge out of the way.
Knuckles growled. "Now you're making me angry!" He pulled out his shovel claws and tried fighting him, but the Metarex easily blocked Knuckles' blows.
Sonic and Silver let out a yell as they were pushed back by the Metarex, and Penny flew after them.
...
Cosmo looked worried. "I wish I knew what Dark Oak's next move was."
...
Vector turned to Shadow. "We're coming out of warp space now!"
Shadow said nothing.
Vector continued. "If you need a ride back, we've got a round trip special today!"
"It's a forty-five percent discount off our standard fare!" Charmy said, floating above them with a smirk on his young face.
Shadow smirked.
Charmy whispered to Vector, "He's a tough sell!"
"Luckily for you, there's no charge for first-time customers!" Vector said to Shadow. He leaned towards Espio. "That's the last time I'm giving a lift to a hitchhiking hedgehog!"
"I'm sick of taking jobs where we lose money!" Espio grumbled.
"Our business is going bust!..." Charmy began, but Vector interrupted him. "I'm not interested in your opinions, I'm the boss around here!" Vector turned to Shadow. "Where do you want to get dropped off, buddy?"
As if that last line had offended Shadow, Shadow grunted and pulled the wheel towards his destination. Shadow frowned. "You'd better buckle up, we could be in for a rough landing!" He ordered.
And he crashed the ship in the Metarex mothership.
When the Chaotix and Shadow climbed out of the ship, Vector sighed at the damaged ship. "At least we made it in one piece, but now we've gotta build ourselves a new detective office!"
Shadow walked off.
"Yo, pal, wait!" Vector called after Shadow. Shadow stopped. "I think it wouldn't cost you nothing!"
Espio pointed at Shadow. "You should at least tell us why you crashed landed us on this ship!"
Shadow turned to them. "I'm going to find Dark Oak and have a showdown!" He said, taking off. He burst through the wall, leaving the Chaotix stunned.
"Well," Vector said, finally breaking the silence. "As long as we're here, we might as well battle the Metarex too!"
"All right!" Charmy said, following Vector. "This'll be fun!"
Espio shrugged as he walked off. "That depends on how you define fun,"
...
Hearing and feeling the ship rattle, Eggman's robots panicked. "I wish there was some way we can abandon ship!" Decoe said.
"Yeah!" Bocoe nodded in agreement.
"You know, that isn't such a bad idea!" Eggman said, pressing a button on his jacket.
...
Bokkun's eyes widened. "Hey! Dr. Eggman is sending out a rescue signal!"
"Sonic, Silver, I'm going to fly into the command ship and set Dr. Eggman free!" Penny said.
"Okay!" Sonic nodded in approval. "Be careful, Penny!"
"Amy, continue the attack with Sonic!" Chris called as Penny flew off.
"Roger!" Amy said. "Sonic and I will conquer those Metarex using the invincible power of our love!"
Sonic sweatdropped nervously. He was thankful Penny didn't hear that...she'd have a fit.
...
"Chaos Sphere!" Shadow growled, sending Chaos Spheres at the Metarex soldiers. He growled in frustration when Dark Oak wasn't among them.
"Where's Dark Oak?!" Shadow demanded.
...
Penny waited for the signal. When the explosion was heard, Chris turned to Eggman. "It's all clear!"
"Great!" Eggman growled, clinging to the bars of his cage. "With those Metarex gone, we can break free!"
"You'd better stand back!" Penny said with a smile.
"We could blow up these bars!" He turned to his robots. "Decoe! Bocoe!"
"Yes, doctor!" Both robots said. They instantly transformed into a weapon of some type and fired at the bars. Chris and Kat both braced themselves through the whole explosion. Soon the bars were broken and Eggman and his bots stepped out.
"That was awesome!" Decoe said. "But I do have a bit of a headache now!"
"WE may be cute on the outside, but on the inside, we are mean machines!"
Eggman leaned towards Chris and Kat. "It was very brave of you to come here."
"T-thanks..." Penny muttered, surprised that Eggman was actually talking to her like a normal person.
Eggman continued. "You've got a lot of guts for a little girl." He turned to the hacker. "Now, let's hack into their system," Eggman said, pressing a few buttons.
A second later, the Metarex soldiers were destroyed and Penny, Eggman, Decoe, and Bocoe were on the run. "I altered the ship's energy output," Eggman said as they ran. "The ships' main power circuits are overloading now!"
"Brilliant idea, doctor!" Both robots gasped as they ran.
...
"Surprise!" Cream cried, shooting missiles at the Metarex with the mirror. The Metarex coughed angrily when the dust cleared. "A bullseye!" Cream cheered.
The Metarex growled at Cream. "How dare you try to damage my perfect face!" He growled. He took a flying leap towards Cream's ship.
Knuckles saw it and turned to Rouge. "Quick, give me your hand!"
"What an odd time to suddenly get romantic!" Rouge smirked. She yelped as Knuckles spun her through the air and launched her at the Metarex who was aiming towards Cream's ship. With a mighty kick, she sent the Metarex sailing into space.
...
"Tell me where Dark Oak is!" Shadow growled, threatening one Metarex with his fist.
Hearing crashing, Shadow turned around to see the Metarex close behind. Shadow sighed. "Never mind..." He muttered before walking to defeat the fleet of Metarex.
...
"Shadow is heading for the bridge!" The Metarex announced to his master. Dark Oak glared underneath his mask. "Dismantle the whole outer structure of the ship!"
"Yes, sir!" The Metarex said, pressing a button.
...
Penny let out a yelp as the floor underneath her rose up. Beside her, Eggman, Decoe, and Bocoe seemed to be having the same problem. "The ship is falling apart!" Bokkun said.
"They're wrecking their own ship!" Eggman growled. "Just to get rid of us!"
Penny let out a yell as the floor finally gave away below her, and grunted as she landed on Espio. Vector turned to her. "You okay?" He asked, and right then and there, Eggman and his robots both fell on Vector with a grunt.
...
Penny looked behind her shoulder as she drove back towards the Blue Typhoon, and the sight troubled her. The Metarex ship was completely destroyed, and all that was left was this weird, tall tree. And Dark Oak was standing on top of it. He was soon joined by two other Metarex leaders.
Sonic smirked. "You guys went through all this trouble just to build a treehouse?"
Dark Oak growled in response and raised his arms.
"Sonic, don't make him angry..." Penny sweatdropped nervously.
...
"Something's distorting the gravity in this part of space!" Tails announced to Cosmo.
Cosmo gasped.
"It's expanding rapidly!" Tails yelped. "What's going on?!"
...
"A thousand-year waiting ends! Night and day become one, and two worlds come together!" Dark Oak roared, raising his hands and causing a warp zone with them both. Penny wasn't sure, but it seemed like Dark Oak was creating some kind of...planet? To her, it was weird looking. Dark Oak rested on top of it, along with the two Metarex leaders. The planet was watery blue, and in the very center of it showed the Planet Egg.
...
Cosmo's eyes widened with fear. "That's a Planet Egg..." She whispered. "The thousand-year wait ends, night and day become one, and two worlds come together," She said, repeating the prophecy Dark Oak had recited two minutes ago.
...
"Of course!" Eggman growled. "Once every thousand years, a spacetime rapture must occur in this part of the galaxy! That light is breaking through an entirely different universe! We're all doomed!"
...
"There's a huge amount of energy that's coming from that thing!" Tails told Kat and Chris. "Our sensors overloaded when I tried to get a reading!"
"This must be what the Metarex were waiting for!" Chris sweatdropped.
"This doesn't look good..." Kat added.
"Sonic! Silver!" Penny yelled from her plane.
"We'd better end this before Dark Oak ruins the galaxy forever! Come on, Silver!" Sonic said, and the two leaped into the air.
Shadow frowned. "I've got to stop them before the forestation starts!" Shadow growled, hopping off the debris of the Metarex ship and following Sonic and Silver.
"You fool!" The Metarex growled."We are on the verge of a galactic transformation! No one can stop us!"
Penny yelped as a bright light coming from the Chaos Emeralds and the Planet Egg combined, and even Sonic, Shadow, and Silver were taken back by the force of the light. Penny quickly zoomed down and Sonic and Shadow jumped on her plane wings. Silver jumped on Amy's plane.
The Metarex started chanting some strange words. "Planet Egg is water!" The teal green Metarex said.
"Chaos Emerald is light!"
"They both give us power! This water and light that make all plants grow will now give birth to forestation!"
Penny's eyes widened as some strange roots grew rapidly around the planet, covering it completely.
"We have awaited this moment! We will now bring perfect order and peace to this galaxy and to the entire universe! The Forestation has finally begun!" Dark Oak growled, raising his arms.
The Metarex growled as their armor broke, revealing a tree with three-headed monsters with horns and terribly sharp-looking teeth. Their tree roots swarmed over to their ships and destroyed every one of them, shocking Eggman and the Blue Typhoon members. Dark Oak had seven Chaos Emeralds resting on his head like a crown.
"What are they?!" Tails gasped.
"They are in their last stage of the Metarex forestation project!" Eggman explained to Tails on the screen. "The galaxy will be taken over by plants and all animal life forms will be wiped out!"
"We have to attack!" Cosmo cried. Tails nodded. "All ships launch missiles now!" He ordered.
Penny nodded nervously and pressed the missile button on her ship. But no matter how hard they tried to attack the Metarex with missiles, the missiles didn't even leave a scratch!
Sonic, Shadow, and Silver hopped off Penny and Amy's planes and launched an attack at the Metarex. Sonic grabbed the nose of the teal green Metarex. Penny's eyes widened as the Metarex smashed its head into the Blue Typhoon, with Sonic clinging on to him.
"Sonic, you've gotta let go..." Penny gasped, eyes widening with fear.
Sonic let out a yell as the Metarex smashed him through the halls of the Blue TYphoon, and started to blast fire out of their mouths.
"They're after the Master Emerald!" Knuckles yelled.
Rouge gasped.
"We won't let you take it!" Silver growled, joining Sonic's side. Together they started to try to draw the Metarex out of the Blue Typhoon.
Penny watched from her plane as the Metarex launched a final attack on the Blue Typhoon. "Tails! Cosmo!" She yelped in fear.
She let out a yell as her ship nearly crashed, but Sonic quickly pulled the human girl out of her plane and landed on one of the roots.
Penny gasped. She looked at Sonic through her space helmet, panting. Sonic held her tight in his arms, his eyes closed. She whimpered, squeezing her eyes, and clinging to him as Dark Oak's voice filled her ears. "You pitiful animals and humans! Now that's where vanquished you see the true superiority of the Metarex! But you still have one last chance to save yourselves from certain destruction! Come to your senses, Sonic and Silver! Join us and we will bring order and peace to the galaxy!"
"Sonic..." Penny whispered. Sonic stood up, still keeping a hold on Penny. He glared at the Metarex. "Silver and I'll never join with you!"
"Just don't fight them, Sonic! They're so powerful...you'll be destroyed for sure..." Penny gasped. "I can't stand the thought of losing you too!"
Sonic put a hand on her shoulder, and she looked at him. "Penny, I can't let them take over the galaxy without a fight." He looked over Penny and gave the Metarex a smirk. "If you want to rule, you'll have to get rid of me first!"
"So be it, Sonic!" The Metarex growled. "If you wish to be eliminated, we will be happy to help you! Farewell, hedgehog!"
Sonic nodded. "Just don't hurt Penny!" He tossed the girl away. Penny's eyes widened as she watched Sonic get washed down the Metarex's throat.
"Sonic!" Penny shrieked. Tears filled her eyes as she watched Sonic fall into the watery planet.
"You have lost, Sonic!" Dark Oak growled. "Water is your weakness and our strength! We will now spread across the galaxy and there will be no one to stop us!"
TO BE CONTINUED...
