let us not forget that Sonic lacks the experience of a seasoned vigilante
and he's only eight, that counts for something
The doors to the colony core opened, allowing Sonic and Tails to run in. The core was and Sonic both stopped to just look at the room before them in awe. Although waterfalls of fluid still flowed into the room, it was relatively safe to be inside. A long pathway, surrounded by amniotic fluid and a useless circle in the direct center, stretched across the length of the room. At the far end of the path, the core resided, twitching and pulsating as it supplied energy to the colony thrusters. What caught the duo's eye most was the shrine.
"What is a replica of the Emerald Shrine doing here?" Sonic gasped, trying to keep his footing on the slimy pavement.
"I don't know, but it must be important!" Tails answered, lifting himself off the walkway and into the air. Before Sonic could take a step, something red flashed across the corner of his eye.
Knuckles slid out of one of the many pipes and fell with a splash into the draining fluid. Sonic watched with wide eyes as his friend floated to the surface and just… remained. Not moving, just frozen - limbs outstretched in a deadman's float.
"Knuckles!" Tails cried, flying over to the echidna. Carefully the fox lifted his limp friend out of the liquid and carried his soaked body over to the walkway. Sonic wasted no time in checking out the Guardian. Pressing his ear against the guardian's chest, the worried hedgehog listened for signs of life. A few gut-wrenching seconds, that felt more like a lifetime than a short period, passed as the hedgehog held his breath in anticipation.
"..."
"He's just unconscious." Sonic sighed with relief. "Just gimme a second."
The clean white glove smacked the echidna with enough force to wake an elephant. Shouting as he sat upright, Knuckles let loose every word in his vocabulary that described his current feelings towards the duo. Tails covered his ears at the stream of insults that barraged through colony air.
"Thanks for nothin' Knux." Sonic growled, shutting Knuckles up with a light slap.
"...sorry." The Guardian growled. Purple eyes turned to look at the huge room around and fell to the same shock as the other two.
"What's a copy of the Emerald Shrine doing here?" Knuckles asked, standing up to look at the structure before running towards it.
"Beats me." Sonic answered, a few paces behind with Tails at his heels.
The second Sonic's red sneaker crossed over the circle, an even angrier rumbling emerged from the pulsing, beating core above the shrine. Sonic lost his footing, falling flat on his tail as the colony shook more and more. A screen turned on, shooting light from the center of the core. Distorted shouts and angry screeches emerged from everywhere in the room, echoing about and surrounding the children in angry words and venomous tones.
"All of you ungrateful humans will feel my loss and despair! All of you ungrateful humans will feel my loss and despair! All of you ungrateful humans will feel my loss and despair!"
A picture with a disheveled, angry, crazy looking man blinked on the screen. The longer it stayed, the more the children realized it was a video. From the madman himself, Professor Gerald Robtnik.
"All of you ungrateful humans will feel my loss and despair! All of you ungrateful humans will feel my loss and despair! All of you ungrateful humans will feel my loss and despair!" He screeched, shouting at the camera with enraged eyes and slurred speech. He tore at his mustache, screaming and crying while unintelligible words were shouted at the camera.
"I HATE YOU I HATE YOU I HATE YOU I HATE HATE HATE HATE HA-"
Beams of light shot from the cannon core, shining down upon the three children as something emerged. A scaly foot broke through the thick metal, followed by another and finally, a head.
With a mighty roar, the beast sealed within the cannon core burst free from its prison, sending metal debris raining down upon the entire room with loud pops and clangs. Its heavy claws slammed against the pavement as it landed, shaking the walkway and knocking the children off their feet once again. Tails fluffed, poofing to twice his size with a wild hiss of fear. The giant lizard stomped, pulling itself towards the children as it screamed in blind, unintelligent rage.
"Get to the core!" Sonic shouted. "I'll hold it off!"
As his friends ran off towards the shrine, Sonic stood alone to face the giant lizard. There was no doubt that this was what the files were referring to. But now it became ever more clear that this was only a prototype. The large, cyborg reptile screeched and cried as it blocked the shrine from view. It clearly knew that Sonic was it's foe. Sonic prepared for a fight.
The lizard was faster than it looked, and Sonic found out that its hide was extremely tough. No matter how many times he spun and attacked the huge reptile, his small, juvenile spines could not cut through the armour-like skin. With an angry hiss, the massive tail of the beast swung around and hit Sonic, smacking him back and nearly throwing him off the walkway. Had Sonic's angle been any higher, he would have tumbled into the amniotic fluid and drowned. The stubborn blue hedgehog picked himself up, refusing to give up just now. He had to defeat this thing. The entire world depended on him.
As Tails and Knuckles bolted up the shrine stairs, the two took notice of the seven pillars arranged in a circle around the copied structure. Small shoes reached the top, tapping against the drying stones as they approached a strange sight.
"What is that?" Knuckles asked in horrified curiosity. The mechanical disk that rested where the Master Emerald would have been, alarmed the echidna in ways he could not describe or comprehend.
"It's a power grid!" Tails shouted over the loud roarings of the battle behind them. "It must be designed to react with the Chaos Emeralds!"
"What should we do-"
"AAAAAAH!"
The huge claws of the raging reptile slammed down on top of the speedster, knocking the air out of him and definitely breaking something. Sonic cried out in pain as the giant paw retracted, taking the opportunity to race around and attack the head. Everything in his body burned, his bones, his muscles, and his organs, bringing furious amounts of pain that only worsened as he attacked the horribly ugly head. Roaring loudly, the maw of the beast opened wide, swallowing the hedgehog whole as he spun yet again. Sonic clawed his way up and out as burning spheres of dark energy built in the horrible beast's throat. With a screech of pain, Sonic burst out of the lizard's jaw and tumbled onto the pavement.
Before Sonic could recover, the great tail swatted the hedgehog, flinging him back. Sonic's skin burned as he collided with the pavement yet again, scrapes and bruises forming on his skin and under his fur. Coughing, Sonic stood back up. He had to keep trying. He had to win. He needed to succeed. If he didn't, everyone would die.
"Sonic!" Tails screeched. He lifted himself into the air, bracing and preparing himself to jump into the fray.
"Tails no!" Knuckles cried, leaping forwards and catching the fox as he bolted. "We need you here! I need you here!"
"But Soni-"
"I can't let you run off now, It's too risky!" Knuckles pleaded. Tails lowered himself to the ground, tears forming in his eyes as he reluctantly obliged.
"Sonic…"
"Let's stop this colony."
Spinning with all his might, Sonic drove himself against the side of the lizard, trying to force his way through the skin and into it's vital organs. The longer he spun, the worse it got, quills breaking and splintering against the armored hide. With a mighty screech, the beast swatted the hedgehog again, knocking him to the ground and sending him sliding away. The hardened jaw slammed down towards the blue blur, barely missing as the hedgehog rolled out of the way. Sonic, heart accelerating and lungs racing, tried again.
The blur blur bounced off the metallic tubes running from the creature's head. Red shoes slammed against the pavement as he hit the ground, bones aching and legs burning from landing incorrectly. Another enraged roar echoed through the room as the lizard lowered its head, opening its jaws wide in a gaping shriek. With spits of rage, the beast coughed up huge energy balls, surrounding Sonic with deadly spheres of erratic matter. The horrible claws slammed down on top of him yet again, this time Sonic jumping through toxic energy in his escape.
Screams and cries of agony echoed throughout the chamber as Sonic reacted in misery. The black energy surrounded him, draining him of his life. Claws reared in the air, preparing to strike yet again while the small mobian was frozen. As the appendage swung down, Sonic dragged himself away, managing to get most of his body out from underneath the huge paw. The sickening crack that softly emerged from his left arm left Sonic writhing in inexpressible agony. As soon as his arm was freed, the blue blur backed away.
No. No. He had to keep going. There was no room for failure, not when so many would perish.
Tails scanned the disk, trying his best to ignore the awful commotion. After a short time, Knuckles began to brainstorm. If the colony core was designed like the Emerald Shrine, did the professor decide to use it to harness the power of the Chaos Emeralds? Perhaps he could use the gem's power to stop the colony.
"Tails! What do those pillars do?" He asked, trying not to look at the horrible fight.
"They are designed to gather energy from the Emeralds!" The inventor replied.
The gears in the Guardian's head began to turn. How could he stop the ARK without providing more power to the engines? He did have all seven Chaos Emeralds… but what could he do to help?
A loud cry of utmost animosity echoed through the room as the horrible lizard tried to catch the speeding mobian. Sonic, having no choice but to distract the beast, ran circles around it, trying to juke it out before he would be injured again. Unfortunately, this only made the reptile even more angry than before. Having broken his arm, and perhaps one of his ribs, Sonic was running low on energy. He simply wasn't skilled enough to take on the challenge of a genetically modified bionic lizard.
The ARK jolted yet again, throwing everyone off their feet yet again as if the colony had stopped. The lizard, seeing the opening, swatted the hedgehog with it's massive tail. Sonic flew through the air and landed on the cold pavement, whimpering in pain as even more injuries appeared on his battered body. Why couldn't he beat this thing? There had to be some weakness, right? Perhaps the giant mechanical pack on it's back?
Sonic wound himself up and charged again, only for the long neck of the miserable foe to block his blows. The gaping jaws of the screeching prototype snapped at the hedgehog again, catching the child in its mouth and spitting it onto the pavement with an audible thud. The head swept down, ramming Sonic against the walkway and making the emerald eyes see double through a splitting pain in his head. With a satisfied hiss, the beast raised its deadly claws, preparing to grind the hedgehog into dust. Sonic found himself unable to move quickly at all. His head spun and his body ached. The lizard seemed to smile as its paw swung down, making Sonic curl in horrified fear before he was squished into oblivion.
"SONIC!"