Chapter Fifteen – Replicas
Sukko heaved. He was exhausted, but he had to press on. Just like Sonic could go for miles, and miles, for hours and hours with his Super-Speed without eating if necessary, his stamina enormous then Sukko now had to do the same. The drain hadn't completely taken him yet. However, he took the lull, in the safety of the field, as a opportunity to try and get his get his breath back, but it didn't last long. Suddenly, Sonic shouted straight down the Psychic Link.
{Sukko, get back here. Now!} He hollowed, to his brother's complete confusion. He immediately made preparations to leave, when he was caught by Tails, who insisted on going with him. He grabbed the Fox, and put him of his back. The Fox wrapping his arms around Sukko's shoulders, as Sukko took off to the sky. Riding with Sukko, was very different then riding with Sonic. The speed was pretty much the same, but Sonic had much more stability, and Tails closed his eyes and tried not to scream the entire way back. Sukko struggled to maintain balance. He was not as streamlined with a passenger, but pushed on and within thirty minutes had landed outside the Loading Bay of the Restoration.
Strangely, the place was empty. Usually the Loading Bay was a hive of activity, but today, nothing. Sukko heard commotion from within the Restoration, and immediately ran inside. Even though Sukko had no Super-Speed or any power at all in his legs, Tails struggled to keep up with him, as they ran through the Restoration. Sukko muscles were extremely fit. Suddenly, they burst out into the Great Hall of the Headquarters, to find a very disturbing sight. There was a full on fight in the Great Hall, everyone was attacking everyone else, it was all out war. Weapons were being wielded, and punches thrown, it was simply a matter of time before someone got seriously hurt or even killed.
Sonic was in the middle of it all, desperately trying to stop the fighting, with little success. Sonic ran towards them, with Amy and Rouge as they arrived. Knuckles and Shadow suddenly behind them. Sonic was panting.
"I have no idea what happened. The fighting just started out of nowhere. I can't make them stop." He heaved. Sukko watched the crowd, and his Telepathy immediately felt a huge about of mistrust in the crowd. He enhanced the Telepathy still further, his eyes glowing, and soon every organic mind in the fighting crowd had a bright blue halo around their heads, but only visible to him. Sukko then immediately spotted a dozen people there who didn't, and noticed they were most aggressive in the crowd. He saw Tangle, with a bump, right in the middle of it. He knew it wasn't her.
"The Replicas." He spat. "They are fuelling the fighting." He growled. Sonic gulped and looked at the crowd. But everybody looked the same, how could he tell which were Replicas and which weren't. He swore.
"I can't tell which is which." He fumed. That was when Sukko realised that he was the only one of two people there who could. Shadow was the other, seeing a person's life-force aura. But Shadow alone couldn't solve this mess, and his methods would have left someone dead. Sukko needed an alternative and quickly. The people without the blue halos were the Replicas as robots don't have conscious minds, even good ones. Sukko thought, then he remembered something that happened here when he first revealed himself, and immediately set to work.
He didn't care about forgiveness for what was about to do, as the fighting got more brutal, it was now or never. Sukko, checking first that everyone behind was organic, Shadow wincing, feeling him doing it, he expanded out his Telepathy out into the crowd. He grabbed hold of every single mind. Gritting his teeth, he pushed his power further and ground every organic person to a halt. The fighting immediately stopped and people froze exactly where they stood. The Replicas also stopped fighting, very confused as to what had just happened. But Sukko knew that this temporarily lull wouldn't last long, as they would started attacking again. Sukko had left everyone behind him untouched. Tails stared at the sheer power needed to achieve such a feat, and yet having no memory it happening to him.
"Whoa!" He gasped, but Sonic grinned.
"Nice one, Sukko." He praised and then called out to the others. "Everyone who is still moving is a Replica, get them." He growled, and then he, Amy, Rouge, Knuckles and Shadow dispersed themselves amongst the statues of the crowd and hunted down every single Replica. Well, almost all. Sukko had stayed where he was. He was struggling to hold the crowd. There was a lot of anger and mistrust, and they were pushing hard back against him. He groaned. Tails was still beside him.
Suddenly, the last Replica noticed that Sukko was one behind this unusual situation, and ran straight for him. Brandishing an axe, before the others could stop her. Sukko saw her, and knew immediately she wasn't who she looked like. Tails screamed, but Sukko got there first. He quickly threw out horizontally a blue vapour of luminescent hue straight at her neckline, his powerful Telekinesis, taking the head off the Replica. It sprayed oil and blood everywhere, the electronics at the neck sparking. It was brutal. Sukko looked down at it. It wasn't Tangle, even though it looked identical to her.
He growled. He found himself caring very little for them now, not after what Dr. Starline had done. He also found himself being stared it, but he no longer cared. He still had hold of the crowd, but if he let them go now, with the anger and mistrust in them, would restart the fighting all over again. He had to call a halt, and Sukko knew exactly how. Unfortunately, he was not liking one bit what he was going to need to do. He was going to have to frighten them all into submission. He growled, gritting his teeth, and pushed to the very deep bowels of his gut and showed them his extremely high-level sheer raw power, not just as a Telepath, but as a Sorcerer, in such a way that struck fear into the hearts of everyone. He made it very clear, the fighting stops. Now!
It worked, and as he let everyone go, he was met with complete and utter silence, the crowd shaking with terror. Sonic too was also scared, as he'd also felt it, straight down the Psychic Link. Sukko's heart fell seeing this, feeling extremely guilty. Sonic looked at him.
{Don't.} He spoke, inside Sukko's head. {I'm fine. You did what you needed to stop the fighting.} He added, as everyone was left heaving. There was no hiding his true power now. Then Jewel suddenly appeared behind them.
"Guys!" She cried. "There are fights breaking out all over the planet." She called. They all looked at each other. What was going on? Then front of them, a ball of yellow light suddenly appeared which slowly expanded. Sukko was just about to defend himself but Sonic told him to back down. He recognised the light as it expanded into a person and soon Silver the Hedgehog was standing before them, a yellow Time Stone is his hand. Sukko noticed that it looked very similar to a Chaos Emerald except it was flat on both sides. It quickly disappeared into his quills. He looked horrified. He was panting.
"Guys?" He asked. "What happened?" He heaved. Sonic frowned.
"What do you mean?" He asked. Silver was reeling.
"The future. It went from being perfectly happy and normal, to an apocalyptic wasteland, all the people gone, practically overnight." He heaved. He looked extremely sacred. There was murmurings amongst the crowd. Silver looked around at the still frightened crowd. "What's going on?" He added. Then it hit Sukko hard, extremely hard, as his mind finally put all of the pieces of the puzzle together and saw both the absolute ingeniousness of it, and its utter devastation. He looked up at Silver.
"Civil War!"
An emergency meeting was immediately called, as Sukko found himself being ushered into the Main Control Room of the Restoration. He was now front and centre of one of their famous meetings and was not liking it one bit. It had always wanted acceptance but this was to much. It overwhelmed him. They rounded on him.
"What do you mean Civil War?" Knuckles had spat, voicing what everyone was thinking. He was practically nose to nose with the Blue Hedgehog. Sukko growled. That was way too close, and defensively used his Telekinesis to push the Echidna away. Sonic quickly put himself between the two of them, and put his hands up to his brother.
"Easy. Sukko. Easy." He said, trying to calm his sibling. "Talk to us, please. We're all on the same side here." He said. He on purposely didn't use the Psychic Link, he wanted everyone to hear what was said. Sukko looked at him. His brain was spinning and he was on the verge of collapsing with the drain. He was panting heavily, finally nodded to back Sonic off. He sighed. Only he had the Intelligence. This was what made him so good.
"Across Mobius, people were being kidnaped, but nobody noticed because they were being replace by Replicas. An android, built as a synthetic organism composed of living tissue over a titanium skeleton. Dr. Starline had stolen DNA from various people and used it to create the living tissue around the androids. They looked identical. He'd copied Belle's simulated emotions over to them. But it's not just the four thousand or so Replicas he'd strategically placed across Mobius, but thousands of unique ones as well, looking like no one else. With the rebuild of the planet after Eggman's death in full swing, nobody would notice several thousand new people suddenly turning up out of nowhere.
With the Replicas placed in their positions, soon he'd have an hidden secret army in amongst the people of Mobius. The question was why? What did he hope to achieve with such a feat. Then it hit me with the fight in the Great Hall. The Replicas must have some kind of hidden kill switch which can be activated by Dr. Starline, where the Replicas start trying the kill everyone. Then they would persuade everyone else to do the same, thus spreading anger and mistrust everywhere. This triggering the worse kind of war where if left unchecked. One where everybody dies." He heaved, referencing Silver's future. Sonic growled.
"Civil War." He spat. "Then everyone kills everyone and he's gets his world domination without lifting a finger." He angered. "Oh man. That's good." He marvelled. For a plan, it was exceptional. Classic Dr. Starline, all brain and no brawn. The Platypus always avoided a fight wherever possible. But he was no coward, either. That's what made him so dangerous. There was silence. No one had idea of how to solve this. They could go out and start destroying the Replicas. Someone even suggested that Sukko use his explosion that he did at Sunset City. That destroyed only the robots. Sukko shook his head.
"That wouldn't work." He shrugged. "Doing Magic like that requires me 'feeling' for the metal. Replicas are 'organic' on the outside. The explosion wouldn't know the difference between a Replica and a normal person." He huffed. There was simply too many of them, too widely scattered around the planet, plus only Sukko, and Shadow, could the difference between them. But what about the others? Sukko could use his Magic on them. Cast delicate Telepathy on them so they saw exactly what he did. But he wasn't sure if their trust in him extended that far. Being accepted was one thing, being completely trusted was quite another. Some of them did in that room, such as Sonic, Silver and Tails, but not the others. Sukko decided it wasn't worth it. There had to be another way. But Tails had been working at the console computer, while this was happening. He turned around.
"Is there any way to reverse the kill switch?" He wondered. "An army isn't an army if it refuses to fight." He shrugged. Nobody had a clue but it was an ingenious idea, and the only one they had. Soon, one of the dead Replica's was being brought into the Main Control Room for full examination, blood and oil dripping everywhere. Sonic getting grossed out yet again. It was the blood that got to him. He had to keep convincing himself that it wasn't real, and the dead person on the table was a robot. But the likeness was uncanny. The mere thought of killing a real organic living being was far more that the Blue Blur could handle. Sukko sighed and gentle calmed him over the Psychic Link.
Tails took a knife to the dead Replica's chest and cut through the synthetic organism of living tissue to get the robot's transformer and programming hub underneath. There was yet more blood. It was very gruesome. Sonic gaged so badly, that Sukko grabbed him and pull him out of sight, holding him close. Tails stopped, looking worried, but Sukko encouraged him to continue. Now was not the time to stand on ceremony, a death toll would be happening soon, and who knows how fast it would rise. They didn't have much time. Tails plugged the main console directly into the Replica, and began immediately running around the robot's programming. It was very sophisticated, much more delicately written then anything Eggman made. Soon he found the kill switch. He suddenly looked excited.
"Looks like the kill switch was activated wirelessly." He explained. But then Knuckles piped up.
"Well, can you deactivate it the same way." He asked. He did have a point. Tails thought.
"It would mean writing a brand-new deactivation programming and sending it wirelessly to every Replica on the planet, so yes, it's possible." He said, but then looked sorrow. "But we don't have enough power to send a signal that strong around the world. Not even with the Resistance Intelligence Network." He heaved, somewhat upset. But then Amy rounded on him.
"Well, then find the power. Tails!" She spat. But Tails wasn't looking at Amy. He was looking past her, at a Blue Hedgehog who had both the means and the power to achieve such a feat. The creator of the Resistance Intelligence Network itself, if anyone could increase the capacity of said network to achieve this, he could. He looked back at Amy.
"I can't." He spat back at her. "But he can." He added, indicating Sukko, who still had Sonic at his shoulder. All eyes were back on him again. Finally Sukko reluctantly agreed, there was no other plan. But then Rouge piped up.
"What about Dr. Starline?" She asked. Knuckles smirked.
"I'll deal with him!" He leered but Sukko cut across him.
"No." He spat. "It's me he'll want. I'm the one who tricked him." He smiled. Tails giggled.
"Yeah." He agreed. "Your also the one who smacked him in the face!" He laughed, to raised eyebrows around the room, including Sonic, who looked up from Sukko's shoulder. Sukko smirked. That was very satisfying. But then Tails frowned.
"But you can't be in two places at once." He wondered, but then Sonic cut across him, extremely excited, looking at Silver.
"Actually, yes, he can." He giggled.
Sukko sighed and rolled his eyes. Oh, not again.
Sometime later, Sukko was stood the Main Control Room, of the Restoration, with Tails and Jewel either side of him, working franticly at the console computer. He was throughly unimpressed. He was stood there in Sonic's plain white gloves, and cherry red shoes, with their white stripes and socks. He growled. He despised those shoes. The shoes appeared to be nearly friction proof, meaning they wore out very slowly. But they didn't exactly fit him properly, were rather uncomfortable and he kept slipping over in them. Normally, when he pretend to be his brother, he'd use Illusions but Sunset City was the first time since early childhood they did a physical swap. He had trouble with the shoes back in the city but spent the entire time hovering, so it wasn't a problem.
Now he was just fed up. Very few things in the world truly irritated Sukko, but his brother's red and white shoes, had succeeded where so many others had epically failed. On the third time of slipping over, he's crossed his legs, and was now using his Magic to hover three feet of the ground, at perfect eye level with Tails and Jewel, his head on his hand. Shadow, Rouge, Knuckles and the others had gone out to tackle the Replica problem directly, to try and stop the fighting, using Shadow's guidance as to where to find them. Sonic and Silver had gone after Dr. Starline. Sukko sighed. This new program was taking longer then he expected to write and get ready. Jewel giggled at him. If it wasn't for the quiet temperament and Magic, he would been easily mistaken for the Blue Blur. With Sonic's attire, he looked exactly like him. They were identical twins, after all, but Jewel knew he couldn't be more different, and quite frankly, she didn't want him to change at all. She did however, spy a very small amount of Sonic's attitude in him. This was actually his sarcasm. Sukko was somewhat eager to get going. She smiled.
"Oi! Calm down!" She grinned. "Your as bad as your brother!" She pretend huffed, making Tails giggle and Sukko initially confused, but then he quickly caught on. He rolled his eyes again and smiled. She looked back at the computer. "Looks like we're done. Your up." She grinned. Sukko sighed in huge relief.
Finally.
Sukko put his feet to the ground, and promptly ended up the floor, slipping over for a fourth time. He swore. How Sonic physically ran at the speed of sound in these shoes, He had no idea. Both Tails and Jewel were both struggling not to laugh, and they knew what Sukko was about to do was not going to be easy. He stood up again, and used his Telekinesis to strongly fix his feet to the floor, so he didn't slip over again, and concentrated. He pressed his hands onto the computer, and dived into it using his Telekinesis. He then significantly increased the Magical power, and soon he had full control of the computer, it purring to his whim. It was super impressive, Tails' jaw dropped. He then felt for and found the newly-written program to be broadcast, he then pushed it the wireless Resistance Intelligence Network. It wasn't indeed strong enough the broadcast the signal worldwide, so Sukko gritted his teeth, and push his Telekinesis hard, harder then he'd ever done before for this particular cast.
Tails was monitoring his progress beside him, so Sukko decided to let him. Saved him the job, and allowed him to concentrate more on building the signal.
"Almost there. Signal is at seventy percent strength." He reported. Jewel egged him on.
"Come on, Sukko." She pleaded. Hearing her voice, gave him the strength to give even more. He was panting heavily. He had to be extremely careful, so that his own Magical bombardment here, didn't rip to pieces his own prized Resistance Intelligence Network he spent years creating. Delicately, he pushed the R.I.N. as far as he dared, but thankfully it was just enough. Tails squealed in delight.
"Signal at one hundred percent strength. Broadcasting now." He announced and he and Sukko quickly worked together to stabilising the system. Within minutes, they'd succeeded, and finally the signal was broadcasting globally around the world. Sukko slowed remove his Telekinesis from the computer and collapsed on the floor, panting heavily. Jewel turned to the computer. The results were instantaneous.
"It's working. Areas of conflict are dying down, right round the world." She squealed. "I recon that within a few days, the fighting will stop completely, once people sort out their differences." She reported. Tails smirked.
"I've put a fail-save in the program as it overwrites on one Dr. Starline wrote. He now can't reactivate the kill switch. It's over." He declared. As for the people of Mobius accepting the Replicas in society, that would be another issue for another time. Sukko growled as he got to his feet. How he was still awake with the drain, he didn't know. Maybe his tolerance was much higher then he thought.
"We've still got the Doctor himself to deal with." He spat, still breathing heavily. Both Jewel and Tails looked at each other.
"Go!" They said together, and Sukko left as fast as those awful shoes would let him. In the end, he gave up with them, and hovered through the Restoration and when he made it to the Loading Bay and outside, he then put is foot down on the accelerator, activating the Super-Flight. He was out of there extremely fast, flying high and soon tracking down his brother. Sonic's Telepathic signature was entirely unique to him. Shadow too had also mentioned this, saying he had the largest and brightest of all Chaos Aura. It also meant that he was incredibly easy to track down, despite his speed, and Sukko knew wherever Sonic was, Dr. Starline wasn't far behind.
Within the hour, Sukko had found him, and raced towards his location. However, the scene that greeted him on his arrival was not a pleasant one. Dr. Starline had an unconscious Silver by the throat, the Tricore on his left hand to his head. Sonic was battered and bruised but largely alright. He was wearing the wrong attire to go at full speed. It looked like Dr. Starline's Tricore had overwhelmed them both, especially Silver.
It was a device invented by him and is essentially a combination of all three existing Power Core. This include the blue ones for speed, the yellow ones for agility and flight, and the red ones for physical strength and durability. When harnessed by a being, the Tricore can amplify all of the aforementioned physical traits of said being at will. However, it can apparently only amplify one physical trait at a time. When using the Tricore to amplify a physical trait, he was surrounded by an appropriately-coloured aura: blue for speed, yellow for flight, and red for strength. Also, unlike the single-use Power Cores, the Tricore can be used rapidly hundreds of times. He used it multiple times on the Hedgehogs, Sonic was able to dodge it, but unfortunately Silver had been knocked unconscious.
Dr. Starline smirked when Sukko landed.
"Finally, the really trickster shows himself." He leered. "I saw straight through your swap scheme." He hissed, indicating Sonic, though there was serious frustration in his voice. They were surrounded by people, and as Sukko could see, all of them Replicas, and now none of them were doing as he demanded. They all watched them, now somewhat clueless. Sukko thought.
'Nicely done, Tails.' He marvelled. Not only had Tails removed the kill switch, but he'd also slightly reprogrammed them to do 'nothing' next. Absolutely nothing. Hence the cluelessness. Dr. Starline was getting even more frustrated. He was now very fed of being outsmarted by a Hedgehog. A Blue Hedgehog, none the less. He was now beginning to learn that Sukko was definitely not Sonic. But that wasn't going to stop him. He still had a scheme up his sleeve. With Silver by the throat, the twins kept their distance, desperately wondering how to resolve this. Dr. Starline stared at Sukko, still marvelling at him, this time for a different reason. He curled his lip at him.
"Your no Replica. I see that now. But your powers are unlike anything I've seen before. A rare breed." He leered. Sukko that saw the greed in his eyes. The Sorcerer, was arguably, the most power person on the planet, Dr. Starline's desperately wanted those powers for himself. Again he was frustrated as to why Sukko didn't simply just dominate the world with them. Sukko smirked, using his Telepathy on him.
"Because I'm a proud member of a family of Heroes. We don't do that." He spat, incredibly honoured to standing side-by-side with his noble brother. Dr. Starline's eyes widened.
"Mind-reading." He hissed. "Your more powerful then I thought." He growled. Sukko smirked. The Platypus had no idea exactly how powerful he was. His anger flared slightly.
"No matter." He leered. "I will have you...with this!" He said triumphantly, and pulled out a device from his pocket, one the twins recognised. Before either one of them could stop him, Dr. Starline turned Tails' Psychic Device up to its absolutely maximum causing both the twins to immediately collapse to their knees. Both hands over their ears. The noise and excruciating pain across the Psychic Link, was so dire that it had both of them screaming. Nether of them had felt pain this bad in their lives. Sukko looked to Sonic, who was curled into the foetal position on his hands and knees, screaming down the Psychic Link, shaking violently. He of all people didn't deserve this. Dr. Starline laughed.
"As I suspected." He grinned. "The device was left in the jail cell, close to where I was knocked out." He paused, growling, still very humiliated by it. "Looked like someone had dropped it. So I studied it and found it to be a device that tuned into a Psychic Connection, like, hmm, I don't know, like one between identical twins." He leered. "I also noticed that turned up to maximum, it could send excruciating pain down said Psychic Connection." He smirked. "I know you can withstand such huge mental torture, your brother..." He added, indicating Sonic. "Not so much." He hissed. "Surrender to me, and everyone lives, refuse and your bother and the peacock die." He growled, indicating Silver, the Tricore still at his head.
Sukko had been lying on his side, facing Dr. Starline, battling the pain with all his might. His eyes were open, and he'd watching the Platypus carefully. He noticed that Silver was slowly coming too, and Dr. Starline was correct, he did have a choice, just not the one he was demanding. Through the horrendous pain, Sukko noticed he could just about muster up enough Chaos Sorcery to activate his Telekinesis and destroy only one of the devices. But which one? The wrong choice could get someone killed. He noticed that Silver was now fully awake, and he had tried to fight off Dr. Starline, but had been silenced when he realised what was a stake. Looking at the grey Hedgehog, Sukko made his choice. He looked at Sonic and a single tear fell down his face.
{Forgive me, brother.} He pleaded and he then looked back at Dr. Starline, he smirked.
"You know your problem, Platypus!" He growled, his voice cracked though the pain. Dr. Starline laughed.
"What?" He said gleefully. Sukko's smirk broadening.
"You talk too much!" He leered, and with that, he immediately throw his hand out towards Dr. Starline. A powerful vapour line of bright blue luminescent hue, exploded out of Sukko's hand. Within seconds, it struck Dr. Starline's left hand, shattering the Tricore into thousands of pieces, before he even had a chance to react. Upon seeing this, Silver threw the Platypus off of him with his own Psychokinesis, grabbed Tails' Psychic Device and smashed it on the floor.
Finally, the pain stopped.
Sukko recovered relatively quickly, but Sonic was in a bad way. He was not used to that level of mental bombardment, like Sukko and Silver, and would take significantly longer to recover. He sighed. He'd had to make a split-second decision, the Tricore or the Psychic Device. Right or wrong, he feared that Silver's life was more in danger then his or his brother's so when for the Tricore. Sonic was mentally stronger then people gave him credit. He was a twin with a Sorcerer. Whatever happened, he'd always recover. Sukko doubted that Dr. Starline could actually kill them with Tails' invention, no matter how painful it was. Thankfully it got smashed on the floor, so all was well. Sukko then growled, his temper flared. He rounded on Silver, pointing to his brother.
"Stay with him!" He demanded. Silver didn't object as they both noticed that Dr. Starline had disappeared. Sukko immediately took to the skies, adrenaline the only thing now keeping him awake. His anger fuelling his intensive search for the Platypus, and as Sukko suspected, without his Tricore, he didn't get far. He had ran into Spiral Hill Village, and hid amongst the houses. Sukko didn't know the place, but only as Tangle's home town. Replicas had been swarming the place before the signal and Rough, Knuckles, and Shadow had been there just before the tide turned. Now they had stopped all the fighting and were now helping to clean up the mess.
Cream and Vanilla had been in town, visiting the Mineral Museum. An institution in Spiral Hill Village that cares for a collection of minerals, just before the havoc hit, and were now alright. They were in the main square, getting a drink, when Dr. Starline appeared out of nowhere and snatched Cream from her mother's side. He then proceeded to run off with her. He knew the Rabbit was a friend of at one of the twins, and believed her capture would give him some leverage against Sukko. He was now really getting desperate.
Shadow noticed and began to Super-Speed after her, but Sukko landing in the main square of the village, got there first. Filled with raw anger, he threw his hand skyward, touching his two middle fingers under his thumb but keeping the other two straightened, immediately an extremely fast, bright strike of bright blue lighting came out of nowhere and struck the ground, right next to Dr. Starline, missing by inches. An illusion. Sukko was well aware that even fake lightning could kill if enough power was behind it. But if he'd have hit the Platypus, he properly would have killed Cream too, so decided against it. The idea was to scare him. The noise was so loud that several people screamed and then everybody fell silent. There was complete confusion. It was a clear sky, a beautiful blue, warm and sunny. Where did the lightning come from?
It frightened Dr. Starline so badly that he dropped Cream, who promptly ran away, and caused him to land in a big heap on the floor. Sukko was now panting hard. Everyone was staring at him. He no longer cared. No more games. This had to end now with Dr. Starline. He didn't have the power of Foresight, but he guessed that Dr. Starline would stop at nothing until he had him. Even to go as far was corrupting him. Sukko couldn't let that happen. He had, right here, right now, a chance to end this. He had the upper hand against Dr. Starline before the Platypus learned the real truth of what was going on. Mobius would hate him if he did it, hell, his brother would properly hate him to, but it was better then the alternative.
Dr. Starline was on the floor, alone, staring at Sukko in fear. Sukko relished that look, the Magic temporarily getting the better of him. Then Dr. Starline scrambled to his feet and ran for it. Sukko walked forward, his anger now flaring into full temper.
"Oh no, you don't!" He spat, and immediately put his arms out straight ahead of him, one above, one below, about a foot apart. Then gritting his teeth, his push a huge amount of Chaos Sorcery into them, right from his gut, creating a bright blue ball of solid Chaos Energy, between his hands. It was the greatest concentrated show of pure Chaos Sorcery Sukko had ever demonstrated, and it made people extremely frightened. The ball grew larger and larger, until it touched Sukko outstretched hands and then, without warning, he let it go, with an enormous growl. It ripped through the air, at immense speed, straight towards Dr. Starline. It easily outpaced him, and struck him square in the back. The Platypus was thrown forwards with quite some force as all of the Chaos Energy in the bright blue ball of light was absorbed into his body. He landed flat on his face, and was out cold, not moving at all.
Screams echoed around the village as people didn't believe what they had just witnessed. Sukko was breathing extremely heavily, sinking lower and lower to the ground, now completely satisfied. The war was well and truly over. Knuckles ran up beside him, unable to believe what he'd just seen either. He'd heard of what Sukko had done to Eggman, but that had been long forgiven. That was killing for a very good reason. But this was cold-blooded murder.
"What did you do?" He gasped, horrified, still unable to quite comprehend it. Sukko rolled his eyes, looking at him.
"You need more faith, Echidna." He wheezed, then he smirked, looking back at the Platypus. "He's not dead!" He declared. But before Knuckles could do or say anything else, the Sorcerer collapsed to ground, completely out cold.