Here is yet another chapter in this Dark tale, and more of Scales' past is
revealed. Read on. Oh, and I don't like the thought of Snively being beaten
up by guys in Chao suits. That seems kind of disturbing. Instead, how about
having him beaten up by several powerful Chaos Chao? It would be cute, and
a lot more painful for Snively, considering the strength of these immortal
Chaos!
Disclaimer; I only own some things I've already talked about, so I won't
say it again.
Fifty-eight years ago, 7:45 PM
From Observation deck B on the ARK, two people watched the planet slowly rotate beneath them. Little did they know that eight years after, there would be a death in this room. The two people who would be there then were the same ones that were there now, a slightly younger Scales and her mother. "It's beautiful, isn't it Scales?" asked her mother. "Yeah.what's it like on Earth, Mom?" Scales asked. The mother hesitated, then answered. "The planet's surface and the people on it are not always as nice or beautiful as it seems from up here. That is, in part, why I came up to space, to get away from it all." "Away from what all?" "From the crowds, the pollution, the crime rate.the list goes on." Her mother said sadly. Scales was puzzled. "But if you want to stay away from that, then why do you make things to help the people down there?" The mother laughed a little. "That's precisely why, Scales To help the people. As have every member of my family before me, going all the way back to the founding of Eggman Industries in 2050, I have dedicated my life to helping the citizens of the world through the power of science. As did my predecessors, I strive to improve the lives of the poor and unfortunate. My father created achievements such as the antigravity generator and the solid hologram. His father made things like the first sentient robot and shapeable force fields. As for me," she said, with a hint of a smirk. "I have made many, many things. This colony, the Chaos drive, the Omochao servant droid, and my greatest accomplishment of all." "The Eclipse Cannon?" Scales asked. Her mother winced. "No, not the blasted Eclipse Cannon! I'm talking about you and your brother." Scales was taken aback. "We're your greatest creations?" Her mother nodded. "Yes. All of my inventions have benefited the people of the world in some small way, helping to make the world a bit of a better place. But you and your brother are going to change it more than a little, you will revolutionize the entire planet!" "How?" Scales asked, confused and uncertain. "By being yourselves. You can be anything you want once you are released onto the Earth, Scales. You can be a politician, an artist, a scientist like myself, and maybe even a crime fighter. No matter what you and your brother choose, you will take to it, doing your best to fulfill my dream of making the world a place where you don't run into gangs if you walk New York streets at night, or have to worry about things like drugs or stillbirth. It will take a lot of time, I don't deny that, but that's why I made sure you both absorbed lots and lots of Chaos energy when you were just growing in test tubes, to make sure you both really were the Ultimate Lifeforms." Her mother explained. "But what exactly is it that makes us any different than you or anyone else on the colony? Why are we the 'Ultimate Lifeforms'?" Scales asked. Her mother grinned. "Many things, really. Intelligence that might rival my own, great artistic skill, heightened learning abilities, to just name a few. Why, you were walking on your hind legs two minutes after you were born! Of course, you collapsed a second later due to unstable DNA that resulted in the biomachinery spread throughout you now, but that's not really the point. Anyway, above all of these traits is one other thing to prove that you are at the peak of the evolutionary chain." "What's that?" Scales asked, curious. "Immortality!" she said, looking a little wild. "Eternal life, the dream of my kind since the beginning. Your smallest quark is loaded with Chaos energy, enough to make you, your brother, and anything produced from your DNA (in case you're having kids) immortal. The Chaos energy will preserve your looks forever once you've reached the comfortable age of twenty, just becoming an adult. You will live forever and continue my work long after the last of my family passes on, making the humans and anthropomorphs happy." Her grin got broader. "And that, in the end, is what your ultimate goal is Scales. To make the people happy, without becoming a comedian."
Scales blinked back tears, shutting the long-ago memory away in her memory banks. She gazed out the window of Observation deck B, at the Earth far below, and thought once again how she would do what her mother had asked. She would make the people happy. But she would also have revenge for what had happened on that fateful day, a week after when she and her brother had both reached their twentieth birthdays and were ready to finally descend from the heavens and do their duty. For what GUN had done when they came to the colony. For what they had done to her. Her thoughts were interrupted when Rouge entered the room. "Scales, there you are! I've been looking all over for you. What are you doing here?" "Remembering what I'm fighting for." Scales said. "Ah," said Rouge, a little curious. "And what might that be?" Scales shook her head. "I cannot tell you that, Rouge. But speaking of secrets, where did you get the dark blue Super Emerald from anyway?" Rouge shrugged. "I stole it." "And you just happened to have it on hand when you followed Snively up here?" Scales asked skeptically. Rouge nodded. "Of course! I carry all my most precious jewels with me, the ones that I don't want to leave in my secret cave. See, I have the Hope Diamond right here!" said Rouge, pulling out the priceless jewel stolen from the Smithsonian Natural History Museum only last year from her dimension pocket. "Oh, okay then." Said Scales, still a little suspicious. Rouge hid the Emerald as Snively barged into the room. When Scales had brought back Rouge, she expected a harsh reprimand or worse, considering she had disobeyed his orders by rescuing her. Oddly, Snively hadn't seemed to mind at all. "Everything's all set. Some on you two, it's time to show the world the destructive power of the Eclipse Cannon!" "Are you sure we can fire that thing? We only have six Super Emeralds, after all. I thought we needed all seven." Said Rouge. "Actually, we could have fired the Cannon with only one Emerald, if we were willing to wait a month or so for it to charge. With each Emerald placed in the sockets, the charge-up time for the cannon gets shorter. All seven Emeralds will allow us to recharge almost immediately." Explained Scales. "So how long will it take for the Eclipse Cannon to recharge with six Emeralds?" asked Rouge. "Twenty-eight hours. Now come on! Let's get this demonstration started! I will show the people of the world the power of the Snively Empire!" Snively said, cackling. Rouge and Scales rolled their eyes and followed him from the room.
Day 2, 8:00 PM
All over the world, the same message was played as every television flickered to life, every station and communications satellite temporarily overridden. Dr. Snively stood proudly against a blue CGI background, his symbol, a cartoonish picture of his face, in the back. Words flew around behind him, such as "Snively Empire", and "I am great, I am wise, I am genius, I am not short, I am not ugly, I am not bald, I do not have a huge nose, I am Emperor." Snively grinned evilly. "Greetings, people of Earth, I am Dr. Snively, soon to be ruler of the greatest empire in the history of the planet! Namely, all of you little countries will belong to me! Muhahahahahaha!" He paused, then continued. "I am transmitting live from the space colony ARK, which will be my headquarters in the new era. I have attempted to conquer the world many times now, but this time I will succeed, for I have an incredible weapon at my disposal. Don't believe me? Well then, perhaps a little demonstration is in order." The shot of Snively changed to show a live broadcast from a commandeered satellite above the world, allowing all that were watching to see what was happening. Up in space, the south pole of the ARK started glowing green. Green cracks appeared all along the planetoid's bottom hemisphere, and then the whole thing exploded, revealing the planetoid's true form. Now visible through the large cloud of small asteroids that was all that remained of the southern hemisphere was a flat metal surface on the underside of the remaining hemisphere. Towers and structures shot up from the surface, a veritable city. In the center of it all was a great conical needle. The planetoid, or should I say colony, turned to face the moon. The needle split into four segments, opening wide like a great flower, but without lots and lots of petals. The splitting needle revealed a great hollow space, and a device in the very center that looked sharp and very dangerous. Bolts of blue lightning shot from the points of the four segments, meeting on the tip of the device in the center. The device glowed and fired a massive beam at the moon, visible to all looking up at the night sky. The beam struck the moon, cracking its surface. There was a massive explosion, as half the moon disintegrated. The screen changed back to Snively and the blue background. "Pretty impressive, huh? And I will do the same thing to one of the seven continents, probably America, if you do not surrender total global control to me by midnight tomorrow!" Snively vanished and was replaced by a timer as incessant maniacal laughter started playing over and over. The timer began at 28 hours and started counting down.
Day X, 9:05 AM
In the inner sanctum of the pyramid base, Snively just finished his latest failed communication with President Chao-lin. As usual, she would not surrender. As Scales stood by, Snively did not react very well to the President's refusal. Namely, he threw a tantrum, shrieking and pounding the floor, bawling like a baby. Scales groaned. Rouge entered the room, refreshed from a good night's sleep, the communicator to her supervisor open so her boss could hear the conversation she was about to initiate. "Well, that was impressive!" she said sarcastically. "You've caused havoc across the whole planet! Do we now control the planet, and are able to do with it whatever we please?" She blinked as she came down the walkway, suddenly noticing Snively's little tantrum. "Uh, what's with him?" she asked. "Our threats fell on deaf ears. He's contacted every world leader thirteen times now and they still refuse to give in. He's not dealing with it very well." Scales answered. Snively sniffed and got up, looking suddenly furious. "This moment never happened, understood? Good!" Rouge sighed and shook her head. "Look at you, throwing a tantrum like a little kid! What kind of evil future world ruler does that?" she asked. Snively growled. "The Cannon is taking too damn long to recharge! I need to blow up America as soon as possible! I see you still haven't fully held up your end of the deal, Miss Treasure Hunter. Where is the last Super Emerald?!" Rouge grinned and handed Snively a newspaper from last month. "I believe this will answer that question." Frowning, Snively read the headline out loud. "For his latest discovery, the invention of Super Coffee, Dr. Robotnik has been awarded the fiftieth Nobel Prize in his family's history, not to mention the third in his lifetime. As a special prize, the Nobel Committee has given this world- famous scientist a Super Emerald!" Snively crumpled up the paper, angry that his old mentor still was getting awards while he had none. "Find the old man! I don't care what it takes, but find him, and get me the Super Emerald!" He stormed out of the room, presumably to sulk. Scales hesitated, then trailed after him. When Rouge thought they were both out of hearing range, she whispered, "Did you get that?" to the person on the other end of her communicator. Little did she know Scales had heard her, and was growing more suspicious of the bat.
Day X, 7:15 PM
It had taken some doing, but they had finally managed to track down Robotnik. He was on a flight across the Atlantic, so they couldn't just hijack the plane, too dangerous. Instead they waited until he reached his destination, which just happened to be Egypt! Definitely not a coincidence. Snively was convinced they knew where his base was when Rouge reported that Amy, Shadow, Knuckles, and some Chao were with Robotnik as well. He had ordered Rouge to pursue them, but things got difficult when the heroes had taken to the air in Amy's plane. Rouge had tried to chase after them in the Rougemobile, but Route 280 soon turned away from them. So when the Storming Heart III flew through an area known as Pumpkin Hill, which was dangerously close to the base, Scales had been sent out to see if she could intercept the plane or at least see where it was heading. And so the lizard began on top of a pillar of stone at the highest point of the eerie canyon. Her misgivings about Rouge put aside for the moment, Scales had a mission to complete.
Stage 10: Sky Rail. Mission: Chase the Storming Heart.
Scales leaped off the top of the pillar, landing on one of a set of parallel rails, grinding down its length. It was very long and twisting, and it seemed like the rails were used by some sort of weird train to fly around. But that was silly, wasn't it? She grinded down the rail, moving from side to side to avoid some of the Beetles that flew close to the rail. After several seconds of grinding, the rails came to a stop on a wide ledge cut into a towering hill Scales hopped off of the rail and ran along the broad ledge, quickly converting to battle mode and killing a Hawk that swooped down at her. She had to stop, reaching a gap. There was another wide ledge, but it was across the gap and too high for her. There were a series of Beetles hovering over the gap, but the end of their trail was atop a curved steel beam she had walked over on her way to the gap. Scales walked back to the beam and looked for a way up there. She suddenly saw a spring on the wall facing the top of the beam. It was a little high up, so it wasn't surprising she hadn't seen it before. She shot at the spring with a Homing Kick, bouncing off it and landing on the top of the beam. She used a series of Homing Kicks to get across the chain of Beetles, eventually reaching the higher ledge. She was pleased, until she saw it ended only a few feet in front of her and there was another, even higher ledge across the gap. And there were no enemies. Since it would be a little dangerous to warp up there, not knowing what was waiting for her, Scales pondered what she should do. Then she saw what looked like a spring on a propeller, floating up and down in the gap. Getting an idea, she launched at the spring with a Homing Kick and started bouncing upwards, getting higher with each jump because the spring kept moving up. When the spring was at the top of its climb, Scales performed a Homing Kick at the peak of her bounce, getting on the ledge. This one was a bit bigger, and ended in a barricade up ahead. There was a Hunter guarding a rocket aimed for a nearby hill. Scales killed the laser-toting robot and grabbed the rocket, launching across the gap. She dropped from the rocket and landed on top of a hill that looked like a jack-o-lantern on a stick. There were a lot of those things around. How creepy. She saw a Beetle floating to her left. She performed a Homing Kick on it, and used another one to get to the platform across from the Beetle. She saw another Beetle hovering at the edge of the platform. She hit it with a Homing Kick, then used another one on the Beetle behind it, and another to reach a propeller spring. She bounced as the spring floated up, jumping at the peak of the flight path to the top of a hill. There were some steel beams sticking out of the top, and a pair of parallel rails running away from the edge. Scales jumped on a rail and started grinding down it, following the long track. She crouched down to pick up speed and avoid low-flying enemies, speeding down the rail and along its numerous turns and drops before finally reaching another ledge. She ran along it, killing the Hawk that shot at her, and jumped on a set of short rails at the edge, grinding down and across to a lower ledge. She saw a spring attached to the wall pointing up and behind her on the wall past the end of the ledge. She used a Homing Kick to get to the spring and bounced off it, ricocheting from another spring and landing on a ledge that wound a ways ahead. She ran down the ledge, killing the Rhinos that tried to knock her off, and reached the edge, seeing another ledge across a short gap. She Homing Kicked across the gap and jumped on the propeller spring hovering on the platform. She bounced off the spring as it flew upward, jumping to a high ledge as the spring reached the peak of its climb. She ran along the ledge, killing a Hornet, and found another propeller spring. She bounced on it as it flew higher and higher, jumping off when she reached another ledge. She walked to its end and saw a floating chain of Beetles. She Homing Kicked down the line of Beetles, landing on a platform with a propeller spring. She bounced up the propeller spring as it flew, jumping to another spring when the current one reached the top of its climb. As this spring ascended, she continued bouncing until she saw another spring waiting for her. She started bouncing on that one as well until it got to the top of the hill, where she jumped off. At the end of the hill was another set of rails. She killed the Hunter in front of the rails and started grinding down the track, once again crouching to pick up speed and avoid enemies. She was surprised when she saw big spiked balls lining her rail up ahead. She quickly jumped to the other rail, avoiding the spiked balls. After a little time, she reached the end of the rail, a big platform/ledge with scary-looking trees. She ran past the trees and was almost shot by a Hunter. She killed the robot and jumped to a ledge at the end of the current one. She jumped from there to another ledge and so on and so forth until she found a propeller spring. She bounced off the spring as it flew up, Homing Kicking into an alcove dug into the cliff wall. She looked out of the alcove and saw another propeller spring below her and a little to her left. She jumped out of the alcove, controlling her descent and landing on the spring. She bounced on it as it flew upwards, jumping off and on to a small ledge with a short set of rails that didn't go off the edge. She looked off the other end of the ledge and saw another one below. She dropped to the ledge and used the propeller spring on it, bouncing on it as it flew up and jumping off to a ledge behind her at the peak of the spring's ascent. She ran along the ledge and came to yet another propeller spring. She got on and started bouncing as the spring flew up, eventually reaching the top of the hill. She jumped off of the spring, landing on the hilltop. She looked around and saw several graves and a church. Weird. At the other end of the hill was a set of rails going down from the top, guarded by a pair of Hunters. She wiped out the Hunters with a Tail whip and started grinding down the next long rail. She crouched to pick up speed, moving her body around to avoid the shots fired by the numerous Hawks and Beetles around the canyon. She saw a whole row of spiked balls ahead, so quickly jumped to the other rail before she could get impaled. She continued down her current rail for a little while, until she saw another row of spiked balls ahead. She switched rails again and grinded down it to the end of the track, landing on a ledge with a big fan built into the wall, a steel beam, and a propeller spring. She jumped on the spring and bounced on it as it flew up, jumping off at a ledge with a fire- breathing metal skull. She waited for the skull to stop breathing fire, then ran past it and jumped to the large plateau behind it, which was filled with graves, scarecrows, Beetles, and evil trees. She killed the Beetles as she ran through the area, running up some steel beams to get to a higher part of the area. She had to go up several beams and kill a few Hunters before reaching the top, in front of another set of parallel rails. She jumped on the rails and started grinding, moaning when she saw that up ahead, both rails were filled with spiked balls! As she was heading for the big balls, Scales saw a section of clear track past the spiked balls. She quickly jumped up as she was about to hit the first spiked ball and yelled, "Chaos Control!" She warped to the end of the line of maces, on a clear rail, and sighed in relief as she continued her grind. The track wound around and around, veering past several cliffs, Hawks, and jack-o-lantern pillars. But soon, she saw another long double line of spiked balls. She saw another stretch of clean rail beyond them, and used the Chaos Control to warp over there. She continued down the rail uneventfully, only needing to switch rails now and then to avoid single spiked balls. Finally, she reached the end of the rail, a hilltop with several jutting steel beams, one of which had the Goal Ring at its end. She ran across the hill and onto the beam, jumping through the Goal Ring and ending the level.
(STAGE CLEAR. RANK A.)
Rouge looked around and could see no other place to go to. She was at the end of the region. She heard a whine from an engine and looked up and to her right, seeing a pink and red plane flying past. There were several people in the plane, a pink hedgehog piloting the plane, Shadow sitting behind her, an uncomfortable fat man and pair of Chao wedged in to the back seat, a Chao sitting on the tail fin, and an echidna hanging on to the wing for dear life. Scales looked along their intended direction as they flew by and saw they were heading for the canyon exit. She could see the pyramid base only a mile away from the end. She quickly contacted Snively. "Doctor, I can't keep up pursuit, but they're heading right for the base." "Yes, I thought they would." Said Snively. "Don't worry, I've got something planned for them. Return home and take a rest, I'll handle things from here on." "Yes Master." Scales cut off the line and warped away, leaving the canyon empty of living beings once again.
Day X, 8:50 PM
The heroes walked down the corridor within, coming to a hieroglyph door. It rose upwards as they approached, letting them through. They were in a huge round chamber. There were four doors at an equal level around the room, one for each point of the compass. The heroes had just come out of the south door. The north one was open, and the other two were closed. Connecting the four doors was a ring shaped stone platform with a bridge leading off to each door. Far below was the floor, a pit of quicksand with several stone blocks lying around and a few pulleys leading back up to the stone ring. The group stepped forward on the bridge. "Which way do we go?" asked Shadow. "Nowhere!" said Snively. As his theme song started to play on hidden speakers, the west door rumbled open, revealing Snively in the Snivel Walker. "This is your end, heroes! I'm not letting you get to my shuttlepad!" "What shuttlepad?" asked Amy innocently. "The shuttlepad through the north door, you pink bimbo!" he paused. "D'oh! Shouldn't have told you that. Guess I should have gotten around to fixing the locking mechanism on that door too. Oh well, anyway, you're not getting to the shuttlepad because of my powerful guardian, and you're not getting to the teleporter in the control room behind me because I'm blocking the way!" said Snively, fiercely. "Incidentally, what's to the east?" asked Knuckles. "To the east is an elevator leading to a different area of the pyramid much like the Death Chamber that leads directly outside, with a slightly less guarded series of ruins." Snively replied. They all looked at each other. "Why didn't we notice the east ruins?" Shadow asked. They all shrugged. "Whatever. Anyway, bring on your guardian Snively, I doubt he's any more difficult than any of your other creations." Snively scowled. "Just for that, I'll program him to kill you first! Now, let's do this!" Snively pressed a few buttons on his control panel then started shouting. "Arise my servant, destroy the black hedgehog and kill the others after you're done with him!" The quicksand pit bubbled. From the center, something huge erupted, towering through the center of the ring and looming over them all. It was a giant robot, covered in a stone shell to make it look like an extremely muscular Egyptian statue. Only two things gave away that the monster was indeed not just a living statue. First of all, it had a metal pod with black and yellow hazard stripes on the top of its head. Second, Snively had given it his own face, creating the image of an extremely big and strong version of Snively that everyone found hard to stomach. "By Chaos, that thing's even uglier than King Boom Boo!" said Knuckles, disgusted. "I can't stand to look at the thing's face without wanting to throw up!" complained Amy. The Chao moaned and started to cry, scared by the big ugly thing. "Oh come on, I'm not that ugly!" said Snively. "YES YOU ARE!" they all replied. Snively gnashed his teeth, furious that they had insulted his good looks. (HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!) "Kill Shadow!" he screamed at the giant. The giant machine opened his arms, anticipating combat. Shadow looked to the others. "Amy, get everyone to the shuttlepad. I'll teach Snively to make better guardians. Try not to leave without me, okay?" Amy grinned. "We'll be sure to keep a seat for you." Knuckles and Robotnik squeezed into the Passion. Amy jumped off the bridge, hovering to a platform below and jumping across them to reach a pulley near the north end of the room. Due to Snively's instructions, the giant didn't even notice them. Shadow walked onto the stone ring. "All right big guy, let's dance." He said.
The Golem swung a fist downwards, trying to squish the black hedgehog to a bloody pulp. Shadow ran out of the way and began speeding down the ring, trying to get behind the Golem. The giant turned to face him and smashed his left arm down, trying to cut Shadow off. Shadow stopped immediately with the use of his air brakes. As the Golem raised its fist again, Shadow ran underneath it, still going. The Golem tried to smash him again and failed, being far too slow. Shadow got behind the Golem's back. He was surprised when it stopped moving and several platforms shot out of its back, then started to slowly recede. Shadow quickly jumped onto the biggest one, which was in line with the ring. He jumped and did a Homing Attack to reach the next one up, and did the same for the next one. Now he was just underneath the giant's neck. Three immobile platforms stuck out of the Golem's head. Each had a glowing hieroglyph on it. Shadow performed four Homing Attacks in a row, striking the hieroglyphs on the platforms and smashing right into the pod on the Golem's head, destroying it. He tumbled through the air, his momentum carrying him towards the quicksand. He activated his jets, landing on a platform. He Homing Attacked onto a pulley and lifted himself back onto the ring and headed for the exit. The Golem flailed its arms wildly, its stone head spinning. Snively sputtered furiously. "Wha-but-hey! Come back here!"
Shadow sighed and turned to face Snively. "What is it?" "Why aren't you dead? How did you know the Golem's only weak spot was the restraining mechanism on its handsome head?" Snively asked, really angry. Shadow rolled his eyes. "Because it was the only thing not covered in stone, it was on top of its head; practically screaming it was a weak point, and it had yellow and black hazard stripes. You really make your weaknesses too obvious Snively." He smirked. "Hell, the GUN's F-6T Bigfoot put up more of a challenge than your Golem!" Before an enraged Snively could lock onto him with his laser blaster, Shadow ran through the north door. Snively cursed and glared up at the Snivel Golem, who was flailing around drunkenly, head still spinning. "Agh, stupid robot! I hate that hedgehog!" Hearing Snively's insult, the Golem stopped spinning and looked down on Snively. He reached out his right hand, trying to squish the doctor. "Shit!" Snively yelled as he hovered from the walkway and on to the stone ring before he could be squashed.
SNIVEL GOLEM
The Golem turned to face Snively. The madman quickly tried to think of a way to take down his creation. Then he remembered the three weak spots of the Golem's stone shell he had placed in case the thing went berserk. As the Snivel Golem swung its right hand towards him, Snively jumped and hovered, avoiding the hand and shooting several blasts from his cannon at a barely perceptible crack on the Golem's right breast. The shots blew the crack open, revealing three blinking lights on the curved metal housing of the robot's power core. As Snively was about to lock on to the lights, the Golem swatted him from the air, sending him crashing into a wall and down towards the quicksand below. Frantically regaining control of the walker, Snively activated the jet engine and hovered to one of the platforms below. He hovered to a pulley and was elevated back to the ring. As the Snivel Golem started to raise its arm, Snively locked on to all three lights on the power core and fired his laser blaster, causing three massive explosions that rocked the Golem. While it was stunned, Snively hovered back on the ring and started walking to the right, trying to get in range of the next crack. The Snivel Golem's head spun and the stone giant rose once again. He placed both hands away from each other, then brought them together in a great clap that would have squished Snively if he hadn't jumped and started hovering at exactly the right moment. He blasted the second crack, which was on the Golem's left breast, revealing another section of the power core's hull. Snively locked on to the three blinking lights and fired as the Golem was about to swat him from the air, triggering another three massive explosions. Snively dropped to the ground and walked a little further down the path, and was frightened when the Snivel Golem recovered and thrusted forward, bringing its entire upper body towards the doctor in an attempt to crush him! Snively jumped off the edge of the ring just before he could get killed, and hovered to a platform below and was raised back to the ring on another pulley. As the Golem started swatting at him, Snively quickly jumped from the pulley and started hovering, pelting the final crack, which was near the Snivel Golem's left shoulder, with shots from his cannon. The crack blew open, revealing three more lights on the surface of the power core. The Golem reeled back and thrusted forward again. Snively jumped off the edge of the ring and grabbed on the pulley he had used before as he hovered down, rising back to the top. As the Golem tried to swat him once more, Snively jumped to the right and hovered to the ring, moving as fast as he could. The Golem turned to face him and started thrusting forward. Snively jumped and hovered out of the Golem's path, barely avoiding a lethal blow. As the Snivel Golem started to pull itself up from the ring, Snively locked on to the three lights. "Say goodnight, Golem!" Snively yelled, firing some laser blasts. There were three more huge explosions. The Golem flailed and shook from side to side, finally toppling into the quicksand pit, its shell breaking and revealing the metal interior of the robot. Snively then held a moment of silence for the destruction of another fine effigy of himself.
The top of the pyramid unfolded, revealing a deep shaft. At the bottom of the shaft was a stolen American space shuttle, complete with giant fuel tank and booster rockets. A feminine computer voice switched on. "Liftoff sequence initiated. Shuttle liftoff in 5.4.3.2.1.0. Liftoff is engaged. Have a nice day." The shuttle engines and booster rockets ignited, launching the shuttle up the shaft and out of the pyramid, streaming up into the night sky. The heroes and Chao were heading into space, for the final confrontation on the ARK.
Another chapter complete! Sorry about the level's shortness, it just came out that way when I started writing. A lot of cutscenes, but not too bad otherwise, is it? Please review!
Fifty-eight years ago, 7:45 PM
From Observation deck B on the ARK, two people watched the planet slowly rotate beneath them. Little did they know that eight years after, there would be a death in this room. The two people who would be there then were the same ones that were there now, a slightly younger Scales and her mother. "It's beautiful, isn't it Scales?" asked her mother. "Yeah.what's it like on Earth, Mom?" Scales asked. The mother hesitated, then answered. "The planet's surface and the people on it are not always as nice or beautiful as it seems from up here. That is, in part, why I came up to space, to get away from it all." "Away from what all?" "From the crowds, the pollution, the crime rate.the list goes on." Her mother said sadly. Scales was puzzled. "But if you want to stay away from that, then why do you make things to help the people down there?" The mother laughed a little. "That's precisely why, Scales To help the people. As have every member of my family before me, going all the way back to the founding of Eggman Industries in 2050, I have dedicated my life to helping the citizens of the world through the power of science. As did my predecessors, I strive to improve the lives of the poor and unfortunate. My father created achievements such as the antigravity generator and the solid hologram. His father made things like the first sentient robot and shapeable force fields. As for me," she said, with a hint of a smirk. "I have made many, many things. This colony, the Chaos drive, the Omochao servant droid, and my greatest accomplishment of all." "The Eclipse Cannon?" Scales asked. Her mother winced. "No, not the blasted Eclipse Cannon! I'm talking about you and your brother." Scales was taken aback. "We're your greatest creations?" Her mother nodded. "Yes. All of my inventions have benefited the people of the world in some small way, helping to make the world a bit of a better place. But you and your brother are going to change it more than a little, you will revolutionize the entire planet!" "How?" Scales asked, confused and uncertain. "By being yourselves. You can be anything you want once you are released onto the Earth, Scales. You can be a politician, an artist, a scientist like myself, and maybe even a crime fighter. No matter what you and your brother choose, you will take to it, doing your best to fulfill my dream of making the world a place where you don't run into gangs if you walk New York streets at night, or have to worry about things like drugs or stillbirth. It will take a lot of time, I don't deny that, but that's why I made sure you both absorbed lots and lots of Chaos energy when you were just growing in test tubes, to make sure you both really were the Ultimate Lifeforms." Her mother explained. "But what exactly is it that makes us any different than you or anyone else on the colony? Why are we the 'Ultimate Lifeforms'?" Scales asked. Her mother grinned. "Many things, really. Intelligence that might rival my own, great artistic skill, heightened learning abilities, to just name a few. Why, you were walking on your hind legs two minutes after you were born! Of course, you collapsed a second later due to unstable DNA that resulted in the biomachinery spread throughout you now, but that's not really the point. Anyway, above all of these traits is one other thing to prove that you are at the peak of the evolutionary chain." "What's that?" Scales asked, curious. "Immortality!" she said, looking a little wild. "Eternal life, the dream of my kind since the beginning. Your smallest quark is loaded with Chaos energy, enough to make you, your brother, and anything produced from your DNA (in case you're having kids) immortal. The Chaos energy will preserve your looks forever once you've reached the comfortable age of twenty, just becoming an adult. You will live forever and continue my work long after the last of my family passes on, making the humans and anthropomorphs happy." Her grin got broader. "And that, in the end, is what your ultimate goal is Scales. To make the people happy, without becoming a comedian."
Scales blinked back tears, shutting the long-ago memory away in her memory banks. She gazed out the window of Observation deck B, at the Earth far below, and thought once again how she would do what her mother had asked. She would make the people happy. But she would also have revenge for what had happened on that fateful day, a week after when she and her brother had both reached their twentieth birthdays and were ready to finally descend from the heavens and do their duty. For what GUN had done when they came to the colony. For what they had done to her. Her thoughts were interrupted when Rouge entered the room. "Scales, there you are! I've been looking all over for you. What are you doing here?" "Remembering what I'm fighting for." Scales said. "Ah," said Rouge, a little curious. "And what might that be?" Scales shook her head. "I cannot tell you that, Rouge. But speaking of secrets, where did you get the dark blue Super Emerald from anyway?" Rouge shrugged. "I stole it." "And you just happened to have it on hand when you followed Snively up here?" Scales asked skeptically. Rouge nodded. "Of course! I carry all my most precious jewels with me, the ones that I don't want to leave in my secret cave. See, I have the Hope Diamond right here!" said Rouge, pulling out the priceless jewel stolen from the Smithsonian Natural History Museum only last year from her dimension pocket. "Oh, okay then." Said Scales, still a little suspicious. Rouge hid the Emerald as Snively barged into the room. When Scales had brought back Rouge, she expected a harsh reprimand or worse, considering she had disobeyed his orders by rescuing her. Oddly, Snively hadn't seemed to mind at all. "Everything's all set. Some on you two, it's time to show the world the destructive power of the Eclipse Cannon!" "Are you sure we can fire that thing? We only have six Super Emeralds, after all. I thought we needed all seven." Said Rouge. "Actually, we could have fired the Cannon with only one Emerald, if we were willing to wait a month or so for it to charge. With each Emerald placed in the sockets, the charge-up time for the cannon gets shorter. All seven Emeralds will allow us to recharge almost immediately." Explained Scales. "So how long will it take for the Eclipse Cannon to recharge with six Emeralds?" asked Rouge. "Twenty-eight hours. Now come on! Let's get this demonstration started! I will show the people of the world the power of the Snively Empire!" Snively said, cackling. Rouge and Scales rolled their eyes and followed him from the room.
Day 2, 8:00 PM
All over the world, the same message was played as every television flickered to life, every station and communications satellite temporarily overridden. Dr. Snively stood proudly against a blue CGI background, his symbol, a cartoonish picture of his face, in the back. Words flew around behind him, such as "Snively Empire", and "I am great, I am wise, I am genius, I am not short, I am not ugly, I am not bald, I do not have a huge nose, I am Emperor." Snively grinned evilly. "Greetings, people of Earth, I am Dr. Snively, soon to be ruler of the greatest empire in the history of the planet! Namely, all of you little countries will belong to me! Muhahahahahaha!" He paused, then continued. "I am transmitting live from the space colony ARK, which will be my headquarters in the new era. I have attempted to conquer the world many times now, but this time I will succeed, for I have an incredible weapon at my disposal. Don't believe me? Well then, perhaps a little demonstration is in order." The shot of Snively changed to show a live broadcast from a commandeered satellite above the world, allowing all that were watching to see what was happening. Up in space, the south pole of the ARK started glowing green. Green cracks appeared all along the planetoid's bottom hemisphere, and then the whole thing exploded, revealing the planetoid's true form. Now visible through the large cloud of small asteroids that was all that remained of the southern hemisphere was a flat metal surface on the underside of the remaining hemisphere. Towers and structures shot up from the surface, a veritable city. In the center of it all was a great conical needle. The planetoid, or should I say colony, turned to face the moon. The needle split into four segments, opening wide like a great flower, but without lots and lots of petals. The splitting needle revealed a great hollow space, and a device in the very center that looked sharp and very dangerous. Bolts of blue lightning shot from the points of the four segments, meeting on the tip of the device in the center. The device glowed and fired a massive beam at the moon, visible to all looking up at the night sky. The beam struck the moon, cracking its surface. There was a massive explosion, as half the moon disintegrated. The screen changed back to Snively and the blue background. "Pretty impressive, huh? And I will do the same thing to one of the seven continents, probably America, if you do not surrender total global control to me by midnight tomorrow!" Snively vanished and was replaced by a timer as incessant maniacal laughter started playing over and over. The timer began at 28 hours and started counting down.
Day X, 9:05 AM
In the inner sanctum of the pyramid base, Snively just finished his latest failed communication with President Chao-lin. As usual, she would not surrender. As Scales stood by, Snively did not react very well to the President's refusal. Namely, he threw a tantrum, shrieking and pounding the floor, bawling like a baby. Scales groaned. Rouge entered the room, refreshed from a good night's sleep, the communicator to her supervisor open so her boss could hear the conversation she was about to initiate. "Well, that was impressive!" she said sarcastically. "You've caused havoc across the whole planet! Do we now control the planet, and are able to do with it whatever we please?" She blinked as she came down the walkway, suddenly noticing Snively's little tantrum. "Uh, what's with him?" she asked. "Our threats fell on deaf ears. He's contacted every world leader thirteen times now and they still refuse to give in. He's not dealing with it very well." Scales answered. Snively sniffed and got up, looking suddenly furious. "This moment never happened, understood? Good!" Rouge sighed and shook her head. "Look at you, throwing a tantrum like a little kid! What kind of evil future world ruler does that?" she asked. Snively growled. "The Cannon is taking too damn long to recharge! I need to blow up America as soon as possible! I see you still haven't fully held up your end of the deal, Miss Treasure Hunter. Where is the last Super Emerald?!" Rouge grinned and handed Snively a newspaper from last month. "I believe this will answer that question." Frowning, Snively read the headline out loud. "For his latest discovery, the invention of Super Coffee, Dr. Robotnik has been awarded the fiftieth Nobel Prize in his family's history, not to mention the third in his lifetime. As a special prize, the Nobel Committee has given this world- famous scientist a Super Emerald!" Snively crumpled up the paper, angry that his old mentor still was getting awards while he had none. "Find the old man! I don't care what it takes, but find him, and get me the Super Emerald!" He stormed out of the room, presumably to sulk. Scales hesitated, then trailed after him. When Rouge thought they were both out of hearing range, she whispered, "Did you get that?" to the person on the other end of her communicator. Little did she know Scales had heard her, and was growing more suspicious of the bat.
Day X, 7:15 PM
It had taken some doing, but they had finally managed to track down Robotnik. He was on a flight across the Atlantic, so they couldn't just hijack the plane, too dangerous. Instead they waited until he reached his destination, which just happened to be Egypt! Definitely not a coincidence. Snively was convinced they knew where his base was when Rouge reported that Amy, Shadow, Knuckles, and some Chao were with Robotnik as well. He had ordered Rouge to pursue them, but things got difficult when the heroes had taken to the air in Amy's plane. Rouge had tried to chase after them in the Rougemobile, but Route 280 soon turned away from them. So when the Storming Heart III flew through an area known as Pumpkin Hill, which was dangerously close to the base, Scales had been sent out to see if she could intercept the plane or at least see where it was heading. And so the lizard began on top of a pillar of stone at the highest point of the eerie canyon. Her misgivings about Rouge put aside for the moment, Scales had a mission to complete.
Stage 10: Sky Rail. Mission: Chase the Storming Heart.
Scales leaped off the top of the pillar, landing on one of a set of parallel rails, grinding down its length. It was very long and twisting, and it seemed like the rails were used by some sort of weird train to fly around. But that was silly, wasn't it? She grinded down the rail, moving from side to side to avoid some of the Beetles that flew close to the rail. After several seconds of grinding, the rails came to a stop on a wide ledge cut into a towering hill Scales hopped off of the rail and ran along the broad ledge, quickly converting to battle mode and killing a Hawk that swooped down at her. She had to stop, reaching a gap. There was another wide ledge, but it was across the gap and too high for her. There were a series of Beetles hovering over the gap, but the end of their trail was atop a curved steel beam she had walked over on her way to the gap. Scales walked back to the beam and looked for a way up there. She suddenly saw a spring on the wall facing the top of the beam. It was a little high up, so it wasn't surprising she hadn't seen it before. She shot at the spring with a Homing Kick, bouncing off it and landing on the top of the beam. She used a series of Homing Kicks to get across the chain of Beetles, eventually reaching the higher ledge. She was pleased, until she saw it ended only a few feet in front of her and there was another, even higher ledge across the gap. And there were no enemies. Since it would be a little dangerous to warp up there, not knowing what was waiting for her, Scales pondered what she should do. Then she saw what looked like a spring on a propeller, floating up and down in the gap. Getting an idea, she launched at the spring with a Homing Kick and started bouncing upwards, getting higher with each jump because the spring kept moving up. When the spring was at the top of its climb, Scales performed a Homing Kick at the peak of her bounce, getting on the ledge. This one was a bit bigger, and ended in a barricade up ahead. There was a Hunter guarding a rocket aimed for a nearby hill. Scales killed the laser-toting robot and grabbed the rocket, launching across the gap. She dropped from the rocket and landed on top of a hill that looked like a jack-o-lantern on a stick. There were a lot of those things around. How creepy. She saw a Beetle floating to her left. She performed a Homing Kick on it, and used another one to get to the platform across from the Beetle. She saw another Beetle hovering at the edge of the platform. She hit it with a Homing Kick, then used another one on the Beetle behind it, and another to reach a propeller spring. She bounced as the spring floated up, jumping at the peak of the flight path to the top of a hill. There were some steel beams sticking out of the top, and a pair of parallel rails running away from the edge. Scales jumped on a rail and started grinding down it, following the long track. She crouched down to pick up speed and avoid low-flying enemies, speeding down the rail and along its numerous turns and drops before finally reaching another ledge. She ran along it, killing the Hawk that shot at her, and jumped on a set of short rails at the edge, grinding down and across to a lower ledge. She saw a spring attached to the wall pointing up and behind her on the wall past the end of the ledge. She used a Homing Kick to get to the spring and bounced off it, ricocheting from another spring and landing on a ledge that wound a ways ahead. She ran down the ledge, killing the Rhinos that tried to knock her off, and reached the edge, seeing another ledge across a short gap. She Homing Kicked across the gap and jumped on the propeller spring hovering on the platform. She bounced off the spring as it flew upward, jumping to a high ledge as the spring reached the peak of its climb. She ran along the ledge, killing a Hornet, and found another propeller spring. She bounced on it as it flew higher and higher, jumping off when she reached another ledge. She walked to its end and saw a floating chain of Beetles. She Homing Kicked down the line of Beetles, landing on a platform with a propeller spring. She bounced up the propeller spring as it flew, jumping to another spring when the current one reached the top of its climb. As this spring ascended, she continued bouncing until she saw another spring waiting for her. She started bouncing on that one as well until it got to the top of the hill, where she jumped off. At the end of the hill was another set of rails. She killed the Hunter in front of the rails and started grinding down the track, once again crouching to pick up speed and avoid enemies. She was surprised when she saw big spiked balls lining her rail up ahead. She quickly jumped to the other rail, avoiding the spiked balls. After a little time, she reached the end of the rail, a big platform/ledge with scary-looking trees. She ran past the trees and was almost shot by a Hunter. She killed the robot and jumped to a ledge at the end of the current one. She jumped from there to another ledge and so on and so forth until she found a propeller spring. She bounced off the spring as it flew up, Homing Kicking into an alcove dug into the cliff wall. She looked out of the alcove and saw another propeller spring below her and a little to her left. She jumped out of the alcove, controlling her descent and landing on the spring. She bounced on it as it flew upwards, jumping off and on to a small ledge with a short set of rails that didn't go off the edge. She looked off the other end of the ledge and saw another one below. She dropped to the ledge and used the propeller spring on it, bouncing on it as it flew up and jumping off to a ledge behind her at the peak of the spring's ascent. She ran along the ledge and came to yet another propeller spring. She got on and started bouncing as the spring flew up, eventually reaching the top of the hill. She jumped off of the spring, landing on the hilltop. She looked around and saw several graves and a church. Weird. At the other end of the hill was a set of rails going down from the top, guarded by a pair of Hunters. She wiped out the Hunters with a Tail whip and started grinding down the next long rail. She crouched to pick up speed, moving her body around to avoid the shots fired by the numerous Hawks and Beetles around the canyon. She saw a whole row of spiked balls ahead, so quickly jumped to the other rail before she could get impaled. She continued down her current rail for a little while, until she saw another row of spiked balls ahead. She switched rails again and grinded down it to the end of the track, landing on a ledge with a big fan built into the wall, a steel beam, and a propeller spring. She jumped on the spring and bounced on it as it flew up, jumping off at a ledge with a fire- breathing metal skull. She waited for the skull to stop breathing fire, then ran past it and jumped to the large plateau behind it, which was filled with graves, scarecrows, Beetles, and evil trees. She killed the Beetles as she ran through the area, running up some steel beams to get to a higher part of the area. She had to go up several beams and kill a few Hunters before reaching the top, in front of another set of parallel rails. She jumped on the rails and started grinding, moaning when she saw that up ahead, both rails were filled with spiked balls! As she was heading for the big balls, Scales saw a section of clear track past the spiked balls. She quickly jumped up as she was about to hit the first spiked ball and yelled, "Chaos Control!" She warped to the end of the line of maces, on a clear rail, and sighed in relief as she continued her grind. The track wound around and around, veering past several cliffs, Hawks, and jack-o-lantern pillars. But soon, she saw another long double line of spiked balls. She saw another stretch of clean rail beyond them, and used the Chaos Control to warp over there. She continued down the rail uneventfully, only needing to switch rails now and then to avoid single spiked balls. Finally, she reached the end of the rail, a hilltop with several jutting steel beams, one of which had the Goal Ring at its end. She ran across the hill and onto the beam, jumping through the Goal Ring and ending the level.
(STAGE CLEAR. RANK A.)
Rouge looked around and could see no other place to go to. She was at the end of the region. She heard a whine from an engine and looked up and to her right, seeing a pink and red plane flying past. There were several people in the plane, a pink hedgehog piloting the plane, Shadow sitting behind her, an uncomfortable fat man and pair of Chao wedged in to the back seat, a Chao sitting on the tail fin, and an echidna hanging on to the wing for dear life. Scales looked along their intended direction as they flew by and saw they were heading for the canyon exit. She could see the pyramid base only a mile away from the end. She quickly contacted Snively. "Doctor, I can't keep up pursuit, but they're heading right for the base." "Yes, I thought they would." Said Snively. "Don't worry, I've got something planned for them. Return home and take a rest, I'll handle things from here on." "Yes Master." Scales cut off the line and warped away, leaving the canyon empty of living beings once again.
Day X, 8:50 PM
The heroes walked down the corridor within, coming to a hieroglyph door. It rose upwards as they approached, letting them through. They were in a huge round chamber. There were four doors at an equal level around the room, one for each point of the compass. The heroes had just come out of the south door. The north one was open, and the other two were closed. Connecting the four doors was a ring shaped stone platform with a bridge leading off to each door. Far below was the floor, a pit of quicksand with several stone blocks lying around and a few pulleys leading back up to the stone ring. The group stepped forward on the bridge. "Which way do we go?" asked Shadow. "Nowhere!" said Snively. As his theme song started to play on hidden speakers, the west door rumbled open, revealing Snively in the Snivel Walker. "This is your end, heroes! I'm not letting you get to my shuttlepad!" "What shuttlepad?" asked Amy innocently. "The shuttlepad through the north door, you pink bimbo!" he paused. "D'oh! Shouldn't have told you that. Guess I should have gotten around to fixing the locking mechanism on that door too. Oh well, anyway, you're not getting to the shuttlepad because of my powerful guardian, and you're not getting to the teleporter in the control room behind me because I'm blocking the way!" said Snively, fiercely. "Incidentally, what's to the east?" asked Knuckles. "To the east is an elevator leading to a different area of the pyramid much like the Death Chamber that leads directly outside, with a slightly less guarded series of ruins." Snively replied. They all looked at each other. "Why didn't we notice the east ruins?" Shadow asked. They all shrugged. "Whatever. Anyway, bring on your guardian Snively, I doubt he's any more difficult than any of your other creations." Snively scowled. "Just for that, I'll program him to kill you first! Now, let's do this!" Snively pressed a few buttons on his control panel then started shouting. "Arise my servant, destroy the black hedgehog and kill the others after you're done with him!" The quicksand pit bubbled. From the center, something huge erupted, towering through the center of the ring and looming over them all. It was a giant robot, covered in a stone shell to make it look like an extremely muscular Egyptian statue. Only two things gave away that the monster was indeed not just a living statue. First of all, it had a metal pod with black and yellow hazard stripes on the top of its head. Second, Snively had given it his own face, creating the image of an extremely big and strong version of Snively that everyone found hard to stomach. "By Chaos, that thing's even uglier than King Boom Boo!" said Knuckles, disgusted. "I can't stand to look at the thing's face without wanting to throw up!" complained Amy. The Chao moaned and started to cry, scared by the big ugly thing. "Oh come on, I'm not that ugly!" said Snively. "YES YOU ARE!" they all replied. Snively gnashed his teeth, furious that they had insulted his good looks. (HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!) "Kill Shadow!" he screamed at the giant. The giant machine opened his arms, anticipating combat. Shadow looked to the others. "Amy, get everyone to the shuttlepad. I'll teach Snively to make better guardians. Try not to leave without me, okay?" Amy grinned. "We'll be sure to keep a seat for you." Knuckles and Robotnik squeezed into the Passion. Amy jumped off the bridge, hovering to a platform below and jumping across them to reach a pulley near the north end of the room. Due to Snively's instructions, the giant didn't even notice them. Shadow walked onto the stone ring. "All right big guy, let's dance." He said.
The Golem swung a fist downwards, trying to squish the black hedgehog to a bloody pulp. Shadow ran out of the way and began speeding down the ring, trying to get behind the Golem. The giant turned to face him and smashed his left arm down, trying to cut Shadow off. Shadow stopped immediately with the use of his air brakes. As the Golem raised its fist again, Shadow ran underneath it, still going. The Golem tried to smash him again and failed, being far too slow. Shadow got behind the Golem's back. He was surprised when it stopped moving and several platforms shot out of its back, then started to slowly recede. Shadow quickly jumped onto the biggest one, which was in line with the ring. He jumped and did a Homing Attack to reach the next one up, and did the same for the next one. Now he was just underneath the giant's neck. Three immobile platforms stuck out of the Golem's head. Each had a glowing hieroglyph on it. Shadow performed four Homing Attacks in a row, striking the hieroglyphs on the platforms and smashing right into the pod on the Golem's head, destroying it. He tumbled through the air, his momentum carrying him towards the quicksand. He activated his jets, landing on a platform. He Homing Attacked onto a pulley and lifted himself back onto the ring and headed for the exit. The Golem flailed its arms wildly, its stone head spinning. Snively sputtered furiously. "Wha-but-hey! Come back here!"
Shadow sighed and turned to face Snively. "What is it?" "Why aren't you dead? How did you know the Golem's only weak spot was the restraining mechanism on its handsome head?" Snively asked, really angry. Shadow rolled his eyes. "Because it was the only thing not covered in stone, it was on top of its head; practically screaming it was a weak point, and it had yellow and black hazard stripes. You really make your weaknesses too obvious Snively." He smirked. "Hell, the GUN's F-6T Bigfoot put up more of a challenge than your Golem!" Before an enraged Snively could lock onto him with his laser blaster, Shadow ran through the north door. Snively cursed and glared up at the Snivel Golem, who was flailing around drunkenly, head still spinning. "Agh, stupid robot! I hate that hedgehog!" Hearing Snively's insult, the Golem stopped spinning and looked down on Snively. He reached out his right hand, trying to squish the doctor. "Shit!" Snively yelled as he hovered from the walkway and on to the stone ring before he could be squashed.
SNIVEL GOLEM
The Golem turned to face Snively. The madman quickly tried to think of a way to take down his creation. Then he remembered the three weak spots of the Golem's stone shell he had placed in case the thing went berserk. As the Snivel Golem swung its right hand towards him, Snively jumped and hovered, avoiding the hand and shooting several blasts from his cannon at a barely perceptible crack on the Golem's right breast. The shots blew the crack open, revealing three blinking lights on the curved metal housing of the robot's power core. As Snively was about to lock on to the lights, the Golem swatted him from the air, sending him crashing into a wall and down towards the quicksand below. Frantically regaining control of the walker, Snively activated the jet engine and hovered to one of the platforms below. He hovered to a pulley and was elevated back to the ring. As the Snivel Golem started to raise its arm, Snively locked on to all three lights on the power core and fired his laser blaster, causing three massive explosions that rocked the Golem. While it was stunned, Snively hovered back on the ring and started walking to the right, trying to get in range of the next crack. The Snivel Golem's head spun and the stone giant rose once again. He placed both hands away from each other, then brought them together in a great clap that would have squished Snively if he hadn't jumped and started hovering at exactly the right moment. He blasted the second crack, which was on the Golem's left breast, revealing another section of the power core's hull. Snively locked on to the three blinking lights and fired as the Golem was about to swat him from the air, triggering another three massive explosions. Snively dropped to the ground and walked a little further down the path, and was frightened when the Snivel Golem recovered and thrusted forward, bringing its entire upper body towards the doctor in an attempt to crush him! Snively jumped off the edge of the ring just before he could get killed, and hovered to a platform below and was raised back to the ring on another pulley. As the Golem started swatting at him, Snively quickly jumped from the pulley and started hovering, pelting the final crack, which was near the Snivel Golem's left shoulder, with shots from his cannon. The crack blew open, revealing three more lights on the surface of the power core. The Golem reeled back and thrusted forward again. Snively jumped off the edge of the ring and grabbed on the pulley he had used before as he hovered down, rising back to the top. As the Golem tried to swat him once more, Snively jumped to the right and hovered to the ring, moving as fast as he could. The Golem turned to face him and started thrusting forward. Snively jumped and hovered out of the Golem's path, barely avoiding a lethal blow. As the Snivel Golem started to pull itself up from the ring, Snively locked on to the three lights. "Say goodnight, Golem!" Snively yelled, firing some laser blasts. There were three more huge explosions. The Golem flailed and shook from side to side, finally toppling into the quicksand pit, its shell breaking and revealing the metal interior of the robot. Snively then held a moment of silence for the destruction of another fine effigy of himself.
The top of the pyramid unfolded, revealing a deep shaft. At the bottom of the shaft was a stolen American space shuttle, complete with giant fuel tank and booster rockets. A feminine computer voice switched on. "Liftoff sequence initiated. Shuttle liftoff in 5.4.3.2.1.0. Liftoff is engaged. Have a nice day." The shuttle engines and booster rockets ignited, launching the shuttle up the shaft and out of the pyramid, streaming up into the night sky. The heroes and Chao were heading into space, for the final confrontation on the ARK.
Another chapter complete! Sorry about the level's shortness, it just came out that way when I started writing. A lot of cutscenes, but not too bad otherwise, is it? Please review!