Chapter Nine – Interchange
Sonic was absolutely devastated to have left his brother behind, but to return to the battlefield now was suicide, and he didn't have the Telepathic ability to tell how his brother was doing. All he knew was he was still alive. The Resistance retreat was successful, and everyone had gotten out, but it was a devastating blow. Back at the Restoration base camp, they tried their best to regroup but without the Intelligence they were lost. Sonic really missed Sukko at this point and vowed to get him back.
Tangle wasn't best pleased either and seriously took it out of Sonic, who somewhat acted rather strangely. Without knowing what they were up against in terms of Eggman's true arsenal, they was no way of winning this fight. Sonic didn't believe that for a second, there had to be something they could do but when Tails wasn't able to provide any answers, he suddenly vanished, leaving the Restoration fearing the worse.
Upon seeing the Resistance flee, Eggman cackled one of the most evil laughs Sukko had ever heard. He was still bound in the Octopus' tentacle, which had some kind of close-quarter Magical Shielding stopping Sukko was immediately breaking free. Eggman bought Sukko up to his eyeline, and actually showed respect for the him.
"Do you have any idea how long I've planned this. Hedgehog." He hissed. He leaned forward and took a good look at Sukko, causing him to wince in response. "I'd worked out that Sonic had a sibling helping him some years ago, but I hadn't realised you were identical." He said impressed. "However. My hunch on your Magical skill proved to be correct." He smirked triumphantly. "But I had to bring every machine in my entire arsenal out here, to take you out." He added. Sukko looks up and raises an eyebrow. All of Eggman, all in one place. Interesting. But he tried again to break free. Failing, he growled at Eggman.
"You won't get away with this." He spat, heaving with the pain. Eggman laughed.
"On my own, Hedgehog, properly not. But with you by my side." He hissed. Indicating the large metallic capsule inside the glass body of the Octopus. "You and I both know that Magic corrupts." He leered. Sukko went pale and began to panic but quickly realised something. He knew exactly what Eggman meant.
"Where did you get the knowledge to build that machine?" Sukko spat. "The intricacies of Chaos Sorcery are not that well known." He growled. The machine was designed to flood a powerful Chaos Sorcerer with enough negative Chaos Energy, to trigger the downward spiral that corruption brings. It was another reason why they were so mistrusted. It was easy for one Sorcerer to turn another. However, Eggman was no Sorcerer, however, he now had enough knowledge on Chaos Energy to get the exact correct balance to trigger corruption in Sukko. Eggman smirked.
"I managed to track down Mobius' last group of Magic Slayers. They had been on your tail for years. But when we both realised that we were chasing one half of a set of twins, me with one brother, and them with the other, we came up with a plan. To corrupt one twin to catch the other. Unfortunately, several accidents along the way got all of them killed." He sneered, completely uncaring. "But need's must." He hissed as a means to an end.
Sukko gulped. That sounded like Eggman had murdered them, which really frightened him. Suddenly, the machine began to move. He screamed, cried, and fought with everything he had, but all the robots had the Magical Shielding (which Eggman must have learned from the Magic Slayers) with meant that positioned right next to the machine, Sukko had got nothing. Suddenly, he was thrown inside of the metallic capsule, to tears rolling down his face, fearing the absolute end. The door was slammed closed, as the Hedgehog banged against it. Suddenly, excruciating pain filled Sukko's entire body and a blinding amount of thick black light filled the entire area. He screamed. More cackling of evil laughter could be heard, as the negative Chaos Energy did its business. Soon the Hedgehog stopped struggling. After what seemed like an age, the process was finally completed. The metallic capsule opened to an extremely excited Eggman, desperate to see his creation. A creation that would mean the end of the Resistance, the end of Mobius. A Sorcerer finally under his control.
The Hedgehog put his hands either side of the door, and pulled himself out, strong and powerful, his eyes still closed. Eggman waited with baited breath for the bright blood-scarlet eyes of pure corruption to acknowledge him as Master. The Hedgehog took in a deep breath, and opened his eyes. Eggman stared.
They were...green!
The Blue Hedgehog giggled.
"Sorry, Egg-Head! In order to corrupt a Sorcerer, you first need to be a Sorcerer." He laughed, pointing upwards. High above their heads, a second Blue Hedgehog flew surrounded with the now familiar luminescent vapour of bright blue hue, wearing the plain white gloves and cherry red shoes with their famous white stripes. The Blue Hedgehog in front of him was wearing the brown and beige boots, and the silver bracelets on his gloves of a Sorcerer he was not. Even though he may have had some Chaos Sorcery in him, in the form of his singular cast of Teleportation, it wasn't anywhere near enough to corrupt him. Not even with Eggman's machine, his mind and heart were too strong and too pure for it. Eggman swore. He'd caught the wrong Hedgehog.
Sonic!
{NOW!} He screamed, giving the signal.
Sukko flying high above him, immediately begins charging as much Chaos Sorcery as he could. Similar to Shadow The Hedgehog charging before a Chaos Blast, he built the energy extremely high and when the moment was right, landed right in front of Sonic, shielding him, and let it loose. The expanding dome of pure Chaos Sorcery wiped out everything within the given radius. In the form of Magical Disintegration targeting specificity at metal, he destroyed everything metallic within the blast radius, including every robot in the entire city and the entire Armada hovering above. The Octopus robot turned completely to dust beneath their feet. Even with its Magical Shielding, as it couldn't withstand that amount of sheer power. It reduced Sunset City to a wasteland. Nothing left, no people, no robots, just empty shells of buildings, or so it seemed.
When the dust finally settled, only the three of them were left in a city that looked abandoned. But that actually wasn't the case. Eggman looked around absolutely stunned. Where were the hostages? Sonic seemed to read his mind, stood behind Sukko.
"I think you'll find they're still here." He spat. As he saw face after face slowing appearing from behind their hiding place. "They fought your Badniks with us. They don't want you here. The explosion was metal only, leaving all organics intact, so there was no reason for them to leave. This is their city." He growled. Eggman was astonished. He'd be beaten. Not by Magic or Chaos Sorcery, or even by Super-Speed, but by the old school trick of a pair of identical twins swapping places. It was so simple. All of Eggman, all in one place, now completely gone. Sukko was in his element. That blast had heavily drained him, he could barely stand, struggling to stay awake, the luminescent vapour of bright blue hue still surrounding him. He was growling beneath his breath, staring down at Eggman on the ground. Before his body gave up on him, he had just one last thing to do, one he knew this brother would downright object too. So for the first time in his life, he just didn't tell him, and hoped for his forgiveness later.
It happened extremely fast. Sukko walked forwards towards Eggman, and before Sonic could stop him, he pressed his hand against the Human's chest, and with extremely powerful Magic pulled Eggman's life-force right out of him. The ball of pure white light immediately vanished inside Sukko, as Eggman collapsed on the ground, dead. The Sorcerer now unable to keep the drain at bay, and too collapsed on the ground, leaving Sonic absolutely stunned, as he stood there in the city.