Author's notes: This one won because, quite literally, only one person voted...But, despite this being the way the story goes, I will add the alternate victor choice as a alternate chapter. I was expecting a last minute vote influx but oh well. Anyway, enjoy the victory of Antoine and the Marionette chapter.
Chapter 35: Death of a Tyrant
Tails continued to cut into the maintenance panel, ignoring everything else as the others dealt the SWATBot security detail deployed to stop them after Mecha-Sally had been rendered the robotic equivalent to unconsciousness. The Freedom Fighter and Egg Pawn army was having a easy time, despite the enemy having more numbers, since Infinite was tied up as well.
The panel suddenly gave way as it fell inward, revealing lots of internal mechanisms and wires.
"Where do we start?" asked Sonic as he caused the gravity around a SWATBot's head to increase so much the head imploded.
"Uh..." stammered Tails as he looked all over the different systems and wires inside, unsure of where to start.
"CUT EVERYTHING!" yelled Razor as he jumped into the maintenance hatch and begin ripping out wires and slashing electronics with his chainaxe and chainsaw arm scales, "Yes I know I'm colorblind but if anything cutting ALL of them will prevent anything bad from happening. HEY, WHOSE THE ONE WITH TWO DEVIL'S EYES? ME! NOW SHUT UP AND CUT!"
Tails looked back inside and saw that a lot of damage had been done to the internals in the current area but it didn't look like it had effected the Spire's energy readings in the slightest and it seemed like they were running out of time to prevent the Spire from being used as well. Razor and Tails were suddenly thrown from the machine as a bright white beam of energy hit the spire from the sky and Mayhem had been the one to throw them away from it while he used his own energy to keep the energy beam from expanding outward from the spire.
"Dammit Razor! Couldn't you have cut the insides faster?!" snapped Mayhem as he glared at the Kangaroo/Dragon Hybrid with a side-glance.
"Well excuuuuuuuuuuuuuse for following the timeline! Why didn't you do anything with your fancy claws then?" snapped Razor back.
"Oh don't you bring up timelines with this you insane idiot!" snapped Mayhem again before he concentrated on holding back the energies of the Spire.
As the two were bickering, Shard avoided a energy blade from Mecha-Sally who had recovered from the previous fight and elbowed her in the face, staggering her.
"Don't let any enemy near Mayhem!" yelled Razor as he lept at Mecha-Sally before doing a drop-kick, sending her flying back and into a nearby tool shack and then after getting up doing the "field goal" symbol, "GOAL! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
Meanwhile, with Infinite vs. Antoine and the Marionette...
Infinite cut off the head off one of the the armored berzerkers for the hundredth time before spinning and deflecting Antoine's sword and kicking the coyote away and then avoiding the frenzied slash attacks from the black dragon with blue lightning arcing off it. He then jumped away from the group to get some distance, panting heavily.
"So, you are still organic." said Antoine as he recovered from the kick.
"And you're a lot tougher than what your file gives you credit for." growled the cybernetic Jackal.
"Well, I am a bit of a coward but right now, I have more important things to do than hide in a corner."
"Like die."
"No. Zhat will be you, [in French](1) you cybernetic freak."
"Ow, my feelings."
"You will have to do better sarcasm than zhat."
Infinite growled and charged the coyote in front of him, claws extended to their fullest and swung both, only to watch as the coyote expertly deflected both and cut him across the stomach with blade. Not deep but enough to draw some blood. The Jackal jumped back and looked at the injury before he had a laser pop out of his wrist and he aimed at Antoine before he avoided an axe swing from another one the berzerkers but while it missed him, it took off the laser and in response, Infinite took off the berzerker's head, by going through the weaker neck region of the armor. He then avoided a overhead smash by the lightning coated dragon before delivering a harsh kick to the dragon's face, sending it flying back and causing it to yelp in pain from the hit.
"You shouldn't have done that." said the purple-black dragon in a taunting voice.
"Why? Because he was a loyal servant or something" snarled Infinite as he got up before he felt pain in his stomach and looked down to see a massive red-black serrated claw jutting out from his stomach as blood pooled out around it.
"No, that's HIS best friend." said the purple-black dragon pointing to the Marionette.
The claw is then violently ripped out and Infinite staggers forward, holding his stomach yet the lethal wound is suddenly gone. He looks up and find that the two dragons, the armored berzerkers from another world, and the coyote are gone except for the Marionette and only one of its eyes is visible as it glows a dark red.
"I'm gonna to kill you, over and over and over again for what you just did Infinite. Screw the timeline, you're going to die here and now." came the Marionette's voice that actually choked the air out of the cyborg's lungs due to the killing intent in the air.
"Anger leads to mistakes." choked out the cyborg before claws wrapped around his throat, the claws cutting flesh lightly as they did so resulting in what could effectively be considered "paper cuts" around the throat.
"Not with me."
Infinite yelled in pain as the Marionette impaled him and then pulled upwards on the claws, cutting Infinite into four pieces vertically before the wounds fade and Infinite is on the ground, breathing heavily. Several Earth Spears suddenly impaled him from the front before those injuries too disappeared and he was on his back. He then felt chains holding him in place and forcing his arms and legs apart as he heard a chainsaw roar to life, well more like a triple-blade chainsaw before it was slammed into his stomach and then slowly twisted 360 degrees within and then ripped out. The chains and chainsaw related injury disappear and Infinite is trying to stand up before the Marionette is in front of him and rips off the Jackal's mask, taking the Jackal's face with it and revealing the muscle, and parts of the skull, underneath it and causing Infinite to yell in agony.
"How long before you break Infinite? How many times can you handle these injuries over and over before your mind finally shatters?" said the Marionette as it held the blood mask and looked it over like a newly acquired trophy before he tossed it aside and grabbed the Jackal by the head and lifted him off the ground and tapped the Phantom Ruby, "Hmmm, maybe this should come off next?"
Despite the pain, Infinite gathered the strength that he had and unleashed a point-blank Distortion Square into the clearly not an animatronic puppet's face, staggering from the power of the hit and causing the reality distortion from its powers to fade away. Infinite quickly grabbed his mask and teleported away.
"So, he does know fear..." mused the Marionette as he straightened his mask back into place before he remembered something and quickly turned around, throwing several black tendrils at Antoine as the cybernetic Jackal, now wearing a makeshift bandage mask, reappeared and with his claws ready for a killing blow. Antoine himself moving to try to deflect the attack but, in the end, it's no use. Blood flies and a yell of pain is heard across the entire battlefield, causing Bunny to look in the direction of the yell.
Antoine holds his bloodied shoulder as he severed sword arm lies on the ground where he had been before, the pain unbearable as he tries to stay conscious. The Marionette's tendrils still wrapped around Antoine to keep him alive as he himself worked on the wound. Infinite flicked the blood off his claws as he began backing up through one of his own portals.
"You will never get another chance at me you eldritch freak. I'll make sure of that. Enjoy the consequences of your own actions." snarled Infinite before he disappeared from the battlefield.
"D-Dammit! He got away!" cursed Antoine through the pain.
"And he got manage to actually get by my own defenses to wound you. Hmmmm, time is fickle." said the Marionette with an eerie calm as he worked on the wounded coyote's heavily bleeding shoulder.
Back with Sonic, Tails, TD, Mayhem and Razor...
As the group fought to keep Mecha-Sally away from Mayhem, they noticed that the area was also getting swarmed by SWAT-Bots, Egg Pawns and Freedom Fighters and the orbital Roboticizer beam was still firing strong.
"We need to take that out Death Egg!" yelled Sonic as he threw a SWAT-Bot at Mecha-Sally who simply cut the robot in half with an energy blade.
"How? We don't have anything to go up there at the moment!" said Tails as he fired his Plasma Cannon at a SWAT-Bot's head, obliterating it in a shower of super heated metal.
"Sonic! Catch!" yelled Eggman as he drove by in a modified Egg-Mobile on spiked wheels and with a front mounted battering ram, throwing something to Sonic which the hedgehog caught. He looked at it in confusion as it was a gold ring but it looked artifical.
"What is this?" asked Sonic before avoiding a few laser shots from a SWAT-Bot before he crushed its arm with gravity which then blew up on the bot.
"An experiment of mine. One hundred power rings melted down into one."
"Are you insane?!"
"Yes, as a matter of fact, I am indeed insane! We don't have a choice Sonic! We're going to be losing ground if we don't win this and Mr. Sulfuric Acid for blood can't hold back the energies of the Spire forever!"
"I'm right here you know!" said Mayhem before he put his attention back on the trying to keep the Spire's energy wave from expanding outward, his clawed feet digging deeply into the ground as he fought it.
"And we don't have time to figure out if a single power ring is enough nor do have enough time to figure out what a normal Power Ring will do to you! So use it Sonic!" yelled Eggman before he pulled out a laser pistol and fired a point-blank shot into a SWAT-Bot's head as it got too close to his Egg-Crusher-Mobile.
Sonic looks at the artifical power ring and sighs before he begins to draw in its power and his fur turns gold as his eyes go from a black-red to solid white and his quills stand straight up. The ground cracks beneath him before he blasts up into the sky towards the Death Egg.
Meanwhile, aboard the Death Egg, Dr. Robotnik's communication equipment beeped and he answered it.
"Julian-" came Snively's worried voice.
"SNIVELY!" yelled the mad (mentally) doctor in rage at his nephew's continued failure of proper names.
"There's no time for that uncle! Sonic's power readings just went off the charts! It's like he suddenly has 100 power rings!"
"And you expect me to be worried why Snively?"
"You're defenseless up there! You made that Death Egg specifically designed for one purpose and it has no weapons, defensive or otherwise. All it has is shielding and Sonic's current state allows him to manipulate gravity! And if he's power ring boosted, that station is nothing more than a metal tomb Julian!"
"Concentrate on the Spire's defense Snively, I'll handle the hedgehog. We'll speak more on proper names identification later." said Robotnik as he turned off the communication equipment and in the Spire's control tower Snively let out a "hmmph!" in indignation.
"You don't give me enough credit, JULIAN." muttered Snively to himself as he began walking towards the evacuation chute on the Spire while he activated his wrist-comm, "Infinite, Mecha-Sally, retreat. Julian's failed to take the threat of a Power Ring boosted Sonic, especially with his new gravity manipulation powers seriously so I'm calling a retreat. Ignore all hostiles and get to Fallback Zone Bean (I wish uncle had made better names than that), is that clear?"
"Yes commander Snively." came Mecha-Sally's response over the comm-link.
"Yes sir." came Infinite's reponse.
Snively then shut off the comm-link and stood within the escape chute's pod and the doors closed on the pod and it quickly disappeared down the chute and into the many hidden escape tunnels beneath Mobius' surface.
Meanwhile, a swarm of Mean Bean bots egage Sonic in space, trying to stop him but are quickly destroyed by the supercharged hedgehog. Sonic also begins flying in and out of the massive Death Egg, smashing through important equipment as he does so which quickly results in a chain reaction as several explosions begin to shake the massive space station.
"WARNING! Core breached in multiple locations! Roboticization Cannon unstable! Suggested course of action: shut down immediately!" said the onboard computer system as the station shook violently.
"NO! KEEP FIRING! I WILL NOT BE DENIED MY VICTORY!" yelled Robotnik, smashing his robotic fist down onto the main control panel.
"WARNING! Core failure imminent! Shut down advised!"
"MANUAL OVERRIDE! MANUAL OVERRIDE!"
"WARNING! Explosions in central core detected! System fail-vbbngthakqptoyunmzxsa980c852amnertrrore.404"
Robotnik looked around as the station around him began to both explode and implode and as the cameras aboard the station slowly failed, all he saw were images of the power boosted hedgehog and his anger began to rapidly boil over as every single plan he had ever come up with, was foiled by this meddling hedgehog.
"I really hate that hedgehog. I hate him. I hate him. I HATE THAT HEDGEHOG. I HATE HIM. I HATE HIM. I HATE THAT HEDGEHOG! I HATE HIM! I HATE HIM! I HATE! HATE! HATE! HATE! I HATE THAT HEDGEH-!"
The station suddenly violently exploded, leaving not even a piece of debris to rain down on the planet. With the roboticization beam no longer being directed into the Spire, no longer has any energy pushing against Mayhem's and the fox-dragon forces the energy that had been fighting against his back into the Spire, which causes the Spire to overload. The Freedom Fighters begin to beat a retreat as the Egg Pawns cover them while the SWAT-Bots begin to shut down. Within moments, the Spire begins to have explosions erupt along its central spine before it collapses under its own weight.
Sonic, meanwhile, is holding the artifical Power Ring and is looking at it intently before he growls and begins trying to pull it apart.
"I'm not some pawn!" snarled the hedgehog before he broke the ring apart and the energy backlash engulfed the hedgehog and he disappeared in a bright flash of golden light that could be seen from the surface.
Later that night...
All of the Freedom Fighter cells were celebrating within Knothole at having finally defeated Dr. Robotnik except for Tails, TD, Shade, Shard, Eggman, Bunny and Antoine, and Mayhem. The small group was near the lake.
"Alright doctor. What the hell happened with that ring? We all saw the explosion!" snapped Shade at Eggman.
"I don't know! The only reason for the explosion I can think of, is that Sonic broke the ring but I don't have a clue as to WHY he would break it." said Eggman.
"I don't like it. Something doesn't sit right about it all." said Tails as he looked up at the sky.
"I don't either. And 100 rings doc? Really? 50 would have been enough but 100?" said TD, in doll form as he sat near Tails.
"It was an experiment that got pulled with me when I originally came to this timeline and I had forgotten about it until that moment because there was so much more going on!"
"Is this the end of the war at least?" asked Antoine, his armless shoulder having been bandaged heavily, as well as the wound having been slightly cauterized to stop the bleeding.
"I'm afraid that Snively still escaped. So, no."
"What could that beak-nosed weasel possibly do?" said Bunny as she worked on changing the bandages on Antoine's shoulder.
Meanwhile, in the former Bean-Folk Territories of Mobius...
The escape pod that Snively had escaped in suddenly erupts from the ground within an old an abandoned fortress with a golden yet dust covered statue outside. Snively steps out of it and looks up at the sky, a sly smirk on his face.
"Oh what a tradegy. Dear uncle's plan didn't work. I told him to plan for any kind of event with this plan but did he listen? No, he only went with what he knew and relied solely on that. Hmmph. Lot of good it did him. But now, it's time for Snively to play mastermind and this time, no other dimensional freaks, or timeline misplaced uncles with a change in morality will stop my plans! Watch out Mobius, here comes Snively Robotnik!" said Snively as he walked over to the old generator room as Mecha-Sally landed in the room through a hole in the ceiling and Infnite teleported into the room, his face still covered with, now bloodied, bandages. Meanwhile, eerie black fog oozes out of the pod as two red eyes with yellow demonic pupils appear within it along with odd blue glowing crystals.
END CHAPTER
Hope you enjoyed and don't forget to read, review, follow and/or favorite. And for those of you wondering how exactly Antoine and the Marionette won over this story's version of Infnite, Antoine lived, didn't he? A victory doesn't mean the person is defeated, a victory can be as simple as living to fight another day, or at least, to live for another day.
(1) Done for easiness of writing.
Next chapter will be the "bad ending" version of this chapter.