I'm sorry this is taking so long. Blame school, I had to do around three
hours of homework the day I started this chapter. I also realized I made a
mistake last chapter, it's 9:00 AM, not PM. I am sorry if I sounded angry
last time, and did not realize the dinosaurs were for decorative purposes
only. Beebo, I've already said I'm sorry for the Chao. No more Chao will
die, I promise. Anyway, here we are at the beginning of the end. In this
chapter and regrettably short level, the identity of the mystery villain is
finally revealed, and the final battle is set in motion. Read on...
Disclaimer: I already told you this last chapter!
Day 3, 12:00 PM
The elevator doors opened on what appeared to be a small station. A single-seater monorail sat in the middle of the room. Scales looked around. "The coast is clear. Shall we?" Stripes nodded. Scales walked across the room and got in the monorail. A seatbelt automatically fastened over her chest, and the train took off. After speeding through a few minutes of blank tunnels, the monorail came to a stop. Scales got out of the seat and saw a door on the wall. A series of five lit buttons were on the floor. As Scales approached the buttons, all but one suddenly switched off. The door closed. Frowning, Scales stepped on the lit button. All the other buttons suddenly went back on, but the one she had stepped on went off. She stepped on another button, and it went off, while all the others went on. Starting to get frustrated, she pushed another button, and the same thing happened. Scales suddenly had an idea right before she tried to smash the buttons to pieces. She stepped on two buttons, pressed two more with her hands, and touched the last one with her tail. They all lit up, and the door opened again. Pleased with herself, Scales walked through the door.
Stage 10: Final Challenge. Mission: Reach the center of the base.
The duo were now in a large, factory-looking place. There was grating in place of a floor and lots of cool machinery all around. Ahead of them were a couple of moving robots with active laser emitters and a spinning double-headed mace that raised and lowered some way ahead. Scales started running forward. She jumped over a laser beam and killed the robot with a Homing Kick. She did the same to the next robot and then ran under the mace when it was raised. She ran forward and was almost bludgeoned by another spinning double mace. She froze and waited for it to rise, then ran underneath it. She came to the end of the current room, in front of a wall with several tiers of curved pipes. Scales started jumping up the pipes, using them as platforms. After nearly getting her feet burned by a pipe with steam flowing through it, Scales discovered the golden pipes were not safe to touch. After getting up the tiers of pipes, Scales climbed up to the next level and was almost crushed by a pair of giant robotic hands. She ducked and somersaulted under the hands. They turned and tried to squash her with a smack. Scales jumped back as a hand hit the ground, then delivered a Homing Kick to the hand's wrist joint, severing it. She did the same to the other hand, then went forward. She crossed a plank over some boiling machines and got to a platform where she was assaulted by several modified egg-shaped servant robots. They were called Snivel Keepers, due to the fact that Snively had used them to tend to his every whim. Some Keepers were outfitted with paralyzing prods in their hands and had lasers. These were obviously the latter. Scales smashed the robots away with a few tail whips, keeping away from their hands. She saw a spring pointing up at an angle at the edge of the platform and bounced off it, landing on a higher platform. She saw a bridge plank ahead and walked across it, going through a door. She was now in a room filled with Bladed Spinners, which all charged at her. She performed Homing Kick after Homing Kick to avoid being sliced by the blades and eventually killed the dangerous robots. The exit was on the right side of the room, guarded by a barrier of laser robots. Scales smashed the robots, eliminating the threat of the laser gate. She passed through the corridor beyond and was now in a huge room with several catwalks over boiling machinery, as well as a number of conveyor belts feeding straight into spiked rollers. Scales walked forward and turned right, then left, following the catwalk. To her right was a conveyor belt. Scales looked around but could see no other way to reach the next platform. Sighing, she jumped on the conveyor belt, knowing she had to time this right. When she started to pass a platform on her left, she jumped off quickly, avoiding a spiky death. She walked down the platform and faced another conveyor belt. She jumped on and jumped to the next conveyor belt, on her left, when she was halfway to the spiked crusher. There was one problem, though. This conveyor was going in the wrong direction from the next platform! Scales started running, trying to get ahead of the belt, slowly making progress and jumping to the catwalk at the end of the conveyor. She turned right and faced another belt. She jumped on and looked for the next catwalk. It was only inches from the crusher. When she was getting very close to getting crushed, she used a Homing Kick to reach the platform and followed it to the door in the room's wall. She was now in a large shaft with a few floating platforms. She started jumping across the platforms, trying to reach the exit door at the other end. She used Homing Kicks on some Bladed Spinners to get across the larger gaps and quickly reached the door. She went through and saw a huge hole in the floor. She jumped down, using her anklets to reduce her falling speed. After dropping for maybe a quarter mile, she reached the bottom. She hit solid ground and saw she was now at the top of a ramp. She started running down the ramp, hitting dash panels to increase her speed. She launched off a jump plate at the end and soared through the air, landing on a floating platform in another, bigger shaft. This platform moved, going towards another platform. It stopped near the beginning of a chain of Bladed Spinners and started back. Scales quickly jumped off the platform and Homing Kicked across the robots, reaching the platform. It rose up, going towards the next chain of Spinners. Before the platform could start moving down, Scales jumped up and started Kicking across the robots, reaching another platform. She proceeded from platform to platform in this fashion, reaching the door at the top of the shaft. She was suddenly falling down a much narrower shaft, hurtling past the exit door and by lots of hovering fans. Scales quickly gained control with her anklets and maneuvered herself over one of the fans. It blew her up, allowing her to get to another fan. She used a boost from her anklets to jump to the fan and floated up on its current, getting close to the next fan. Scales did this several times to climb up the "stairway" of fans and reach the door. A burst from her anklets shot her through the door and to the next room. The room was a huge chamber with a few ledges along the walls and a closed door. At one end of the room was a slot in the wall. The slot opened and suddenly, several magenta robots called Beat started swarming out! Scales ran to a ledge and jumped to its safety as the Beat kept pouring out of the slot, filling up the room. Stripes' halo turned into a question mark. Scales thought a moment, trying to figure out what to do. "I've got it! The good old Light Attack will do the trick!" She curled into a ball and started spinning. Stripes mimicked her. Lights started to race along Scales' body, and then she got up and began to glow. "This is for you, Mother!" she yelled, blasting out and smashing the robots to pieces at the speed of light. Once all the Beat were gone, the door opened. "Come on, let's go!" The lizard and Chao ran through the door and fell into a shaft identical to the last one. They hurtled past the exit and lots of fans before Scales managed to activate her jets and hover over one of the fans. From there, she repeated the process she had used to move up the last shaft and soon reached the exit. She was in a room exactly identical to the last one, right down tot eh Beat that started swarming from a slot. Scales quickly jumped to a ledge and started the Light Attack charge-up. When she was done, she wiped out the Beat in a single swoop and went through the door, falling down another shaft. Using her anklets to immediately maneuver right over the first fan, Scales blew right up to the door and went through, finding herself in-guess what? ANOTHER ROOM FULL OF BEATS! She jumped to a ledge and started charging up AGAIN, then unleashed the Light Attack and killed all the stupid robots AGAIN, then went through the door AGAIN and found herself in...a hallway. That's right, a hallway! Bet you were expecting another fan shaft, right? RIGHT?! Sorry, sorry, I'm feeling a little strange. Let's move on, okay? Anyway, Scales followed the hallway to her right and entered a huge chamber, most of which was a giant chasm. Scales was on a large ledge. She took a step forward, and an army of Bladed Spinners and Snivel Keepers rushed her. She annihilated the robots and saw a very long chain of Bladed Spinners leading across the void. Scales sighed and started her jump, Homing Kicking along the very long string of Spinners and reaching the end of the line after a full minute in the air. She dropped to a large catwalk running sideways towards a large half-column jutting from the wall. Pipes ran from the column into the abyss, and the part the catwalk reached had a huge chrome face of some unidentifiable monster with very sharp teeth. Scales panted for a moment. "Well, that was tough! Not as tough as the run to the Eclipse Cannon, but close!" Stripes made some noises. "Yeah, I'm kind of surprised we made it this far too." She noticed the ominous monster face. "There's nowhere else to go. Do you think this is it?" Stripes moaned a little. "Yeah, I think it's scary too, but we have to see it. Come on." She walked to the face. As she approached, the jaws opened, revealing a tunnel. Scales swallowed, knowing there was no turning back. She entered the tunnel, the mouth closing up behind her.
(STAGE CLEAR.)
Scales came out of the tunnel. They were now in a huge shaft. A double bridge of large decks led across the shaft, leading to a closed door. The upper and lower reaches of the shaft could not be seen. On the opposite side of the bridge were three familiar figures. Scales snarled as she walked onto the bridge. "Well, if it isn't the Demonic Four. Or should I say, the Demonic Three?" Mephistopheles bared his fangs at her. "We're here to take vengeance on you for the death of our brother!" Lucifer nodded. "You may have been able to take out the strongest of us, but I bet that all together we can beat you!" Baal flexed his creepy fingers. "Three on one should do the trick! You'll meet your doom at our hands!" Scales tensed up for battle. "You want a fight? You got it! But I should warn you, I took out your brother, you three metal-heads are pansies compared to him!" Stripes got into a bit of a karate stance, wanting to fight as well. The three demonic robots snickered. Mephistopheles spoke up. "Let's see if you can beat us as a team, girl! Ready brothers? Let's get-" "I don't think that will be necessary." Boomed the voice of the mysterious villain from higher up the shaft. "I've changed my mind. You three failures are worthless to me as minions. It's time for you to join your brother in the scrap heap!" As the three robots protested, a huge green laser beam shot down, incinerating them all in a single blast. Their screams echoed all around the shaft, eventually fading. Scales gaped, then looked up. "Now that was uncalled for! I was going to kill them myself! There's no honor in you killing your own minions!" "See if I care, I just wanted you in top condition for our own fight." Said the villain. "But before I introduce myself, how about a little warm-up?" With that, a huge machine suddenly hovered out of the darkness above. The main body was large and ovular, with a black faceted dome underside. Two long wings grew downward from the sides of the dome, gray with green lights at the end and red jets connecting them to the main ship. The main body was pretty bulky, with red as the primary color scheme. Extending from the front was a big cylindrical device with a green lens, a powerful laser. Two smaller lenses were on the side of the big cannon. At the top of the main body was a large angular fin with a green light at the front tip. Two big red and gray jets were on the sides of the big fin. From the back of the fin, which went over most of the main body, was a huge red thruster. Some smaller thrusters were on the sides of the big one. Below the thruster, attached to the back of the main body, was a long segmented tail with a spike at the top of each segment and one more growing from the end of the last part of the tail. Attached by posts to the sides of the main body were two huge red wheels, each of which had several very big and sharp spikes growing from the sides. A glass cockpit was wedged in between the big laser cannon and the fin. Scales was surprised to see that the figure sitting the cockpit was a robotic version of Snively! "What? You're a mechanical Snively?" She asked. The villain laughed from somewhere up the shaft, indicating that the robot in the deadly machine was not the enemy. "No, that is merely Robo- Snively, a jester I made to mock my old master." "Old master?" Scales asked, shocked. "Just who are you?" The villain laughed again. "I'm not going to tell you that unless you can defeat this reproduction of one of my old master's deadliest creations, the Snivel Viper. I should warn you Scales, it's extremely powerful and hard to damage. And if you fall down the shaft and are for any reason unable to use the Chaos Control to warp out, you'll be killed by the numerous electrified spikes lining the bottom." "What's this all about? What are you doing?" she demanded, trying to avoid the fight with the vicious automaton. "Why should I waste my breath when my jester here is going to kill you? We'll see about educating you if you can defeat the Viper. Good luck!" Robo-Snively started speaking in a boring monotone voice. "Subject- acquired. Initiating-termination-sequence." The Viper started moving towards Scales. "This doesn't look good." She muttered to Stripes.
Snivel Viper
The machine started to fly over Scales, turning towards her. The green lasers lenses on the side of the cannon started to light up. Scales began to run away. "Take-thisssss." Robo-Snively droned, firing lasers at the running lizard, floating down the walkway after her. Scales moved faster, outrunning the Viper. She reached the end of the first bridge and jumped over to the second, running down it as the machine kept chasing her and firing lasers. After Scales made it successfully to the end of the second bridge and jumped back to the first, the Viper stopped. The huge vehicle floated into the gap between the two bridges and lowered, turning so the cockpit was at the same level as Scales was. The cockpit opened and Robo-Snively stood up, shaking his fist weakly at Scales. "Hahahahaha. You- will-never-beat-me. Hahahahaha." Scales eyed him for a minute, then shrugged and delivered Homing Kick straight to Robo-Snively's body. As she flipped back and landed on the bridge, the robot said. "No-way. I-can't- believe-thisssss." He sat down and closed the cockpit. The Snivel Viper flew back up and started powering up the lasers again. Scales started running again. The Viper chased after her, firing lasers. "Take-thisssss." She easily outran the beams. She was almost hit, though, when the Viper suddenly turned a little and shot a beam right ahead of her. It seemed Robo- Snively was getting a little smarter. She jumped over the lasers and started running back towards the machine, jumping over the lasers as he fired them. When she finally got close enough to the machine, the Viper lowered and opened its cockpit. Robo-Snively stood up and started shaking his fist again. "Hahahahaha. You-will-never-beat-me. Hahahahaha." Scales instantly hit him with a Homing Kick. The robot wobbled, said, "No-way. I- can't-believe-thisssss." And closed up the cockpit, taking off again. This time, all three laser lenses started charging up. As Scales began running, Robo-Snively started firing his normal lasers. "Take-thisssss." When she reached the end of the bridge and was about to jump to the next one, he fired the really big laser, almost hitting her. She landed on the bridge and started running even faster as Robo-Snively kept firing his really big laser, trying to vaporize her. Fortunately, his aim stunk, so Scales was able to reach the end of the second bridge and jump back to the first with only a little difficulty. The Viper turned to face her, still charging up the really big laser. Scales quickly jumped to the next platform of the bridge as the Snivel Viper fired the laser, nearly killing her. The machine then hovered towards her and lowered, the cockpit opening up again. As Robo- Snively got up and started shaking his fist, Scales hit him with a Homing Kick before he could even say anything. "No-way. I-can't-believe-thisssss." He sat back down and closed the cockpit, taking the ship back up. He flew out into the shaft, then turned to face Scales. He charged up his big laser cannon and fired. Scales jumped out of the way, but found she wasn't the target. The deck she had been standing on exploded, falling into the abyss. Robo-Snively started to fire again. Scales jumped to the other bridge and saw the deck ahead of the one she had been standing on explode. The Viper turned to face the second panel after that one. Scales blinked, wondering if the robot was really that stupid. She started running down her current bridge, in the opposite direction of the Viper's fire. When she reached the end of the bridge, Robo-Snively stopped shooting out every other deck portion on the other bridge and flew over to the end of the current bridge. "Get-a-load-of-thisssss." He droned, starting to blast out every other deck on this bridge as well. Scales jumped to the other side and ran down the bridge, jumping over every gap and reaching the end right as Robo-Snively reached the end of the other one. The robot turned and started flying closer, firing his big laser and sweeping it over both bridges. When he got close, she jumped over the sweeping beam and ran and jumped back along the bridge. Robo-Snively flew after her, lowered, and started to open his cockpit. Scales ran over and hit the dumb machine with a Homing Kick before he could even shake his fist. "No-way. I-can't-believe-thisssss." He flew back out into the outer reaches of the shaft and turned to face Scales. "Get-a-load-of-thisssss." The giant spiked wheels detached from the flying machine, turned horizontal, and started spinning towards Scales, one behind the other. As the first one was about to impale her on its spikes, she jumped and landed on the top of the wheel, staying on it as it spun back to the Viper. Instead of simply reattaching themselves to the posts, the wheels flew by the Viper, curved behind it, and spun back in their original path. When Scales' wheel flew by the cockpit, she jumped off and delivered a Homing Kick, using another one to get on the other wheel before it could get too far past her. Robo-Snively flailed in his seat. "No-way. I-can't- believe-thisssss." Scales stayed on the wheel and waited patiently as it spun over the bridge, across the shaft, and back towards the Viper. When she passed by, she jumped off and delivered another Homing Kick to the cockpit, rebounding and using another Homing Kick to get on the other wheel as it was passing the cockpit. "No-way. I-can't-believe-thisssss." Scales' stayed on the wheel as it spun past the back of the Viper and returned to the front, providing her with yet another opportunity to attack! She jumped from the wheel and performed yet another Homing Kick to the cockpit, shattering it as she bounced off and kicked to another wheel as it spun by and started heading back for the bridge. "No-way. I-can't-believe- thisssss." Scales rolled her eyes as she stayed on the wheel, looking to Stripes. "Jesus, this guy's annoying! And way too repetitive. Hey, I bet you've been itching to help me fight for a while now, right?" The Chao nodded. "How about on our next pass, you fly into his cockpit and deliver the final blow, okay?" Stripes chirped and nodded more vigorously. The wheels spun over the bridge and across the shaft, turning around and heading back for the Snivel Viper. As they passed the cockpit, Stripes flew away from his mistress, going into the cockpit. Robo-Snively looked at the Chao for a minute, then feebly swatted at him. "Take-thisssss." He droned. Stripes responded with a powerful Chao karate-style kick to the irritating robot's head. Sparks started to fly from the machine's bald dome. "N-n-n-n- n-no-wayyyyyyyyyy. I-I-I-I-I-I-d-d-d-don't-be-be-be-be-be-believe- thissssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss." Stripes flew back to Scales as she passed by. They jumped off the wheel as they passed over the bridge, landing on one of the decks. Scales grinned. "Nice job! I think you've done it!" She appeared to be right. The Snivel Viper was trembling and smoking. Robo-Snively's head was spinning. Suddenly, the vessel started to thrust forward at incredible speed, right for Scales and Stripes' deck! "Uh oh." Scales quickly jumped to the closest deck as the Viper smashed into the one they had been standing in, hurtling into the abyss. A moment later, a loud explosion could be heard from below. The two looked up as they heard a clapping noise from above. Something hovered down from the top of the shaft, landing on the ledge with the exit door. It was clearly a robot. He was about three feet tall. He had a chassis that was mostly black, including the legs. His feet looked like cool white and black shoes with a red edge and some yellow-orange thruster jets at the bottom. Yellow, black and red metal rings encircled the robot's ankles. His chest was sort of spherical, with a large circular indent in the middle of its chest, looking like some kind of intake fan. He had chrome shoulder ridges and arms, with a red stripe going down each arm. Metal rings similar to the one on the ankles were around the robot's wrists, followed by a ball joint for a hand with five sharp flexible claws for fingers. A curved black spike came from the robot's rear, like a mockery of a tail. A nozzle that looked like the end of a rocket came from the middle of the robot's back, right in line with the intake on the front. Some more black spikes grew out of the back. The robot's head was a little large, formed to have six long, jagged spines, like quills. Five grew from the sides and top of the head, one from the back, in the middle of the other five. Each black jagged spike had a stripe of red on it. It had two pointy metal ears on the top of its head, separated by space. For a face, it had a chrome mouth and short, sharp needle for a nose. Its eyes were a large, curved piece of Plexiglass with red glowing visual receptors in their depths. The robot cracked a grin, showing sharp teeth. "I am impressed, Scales. You defeated my jester, stupid as he may be. I guess I did expect you to win, but I was surprised you let your own Chao fight for you. How callous." Scales frowned. "Okay, I'm sick of all this. Who are you?" The grin remained. "Who am I? I'm the one you've been fighting all this time. The one who claimed the Snivel Carrier III, rebuilt this base over Snively's old Final Snivel, manufactured the Demonic Four, created the new bioroboticizer and nanite plague that is even now reducing you're friends chances at life. And I am also," he said with a hint of humor, "The one who murdered all those poor, sweet, innocent Chao and laughed it up afterwards." "Stop playing word games! Who are you?!" Scales growled. Stripes was growling as well, wanting a piece of the being that had murdered his family. The robot shrugged and continued. "I am the harbinger of this planet's doom. My name...is Metal Shadow."
Whoa! Bet you weren't expecting THIS plot twist, were you now? In any case, sorry to leave you with this cliffhanger, but that's because the next chapter is the epic double apocalyptic boss battle! I bet you can't wait for it, can you? Anyway, here's Scales! Scales: Pi2, what the hell is going on here? Me: Why, whatever do you mean? Scales: You know what I mean! Who is this Metal Shadow? I'm sure I've heard of him from one of the others before. Me: Why, I'm glad you asked that question! For the benefit of you, Stripes, and the readers, I'll tell you all about Metal Shadow! Scales: Goodie. Me: Metal Shadow was a robotic clone of our favorite hedgehog created by Snively in an attempt to destroy his nemesis. Using a brain scan from a previous encounter, Snively was able to program Metal Shadow with all of the real Shadow's memories and experiences. However, he threw in a few other things to make Metal Shadow a pure evil killing machine. Metal hates everything and everyone organic. He especially hated Snively and of course Shadow. He hated Snively because he was pretty much a fool and a maniac, not to mention organic. The only thing that kept Metal from killing Snively was his obedience programming. He hates Shadow more than anything else because he is the real thing while Metal is just the faker. He hates Shadow so much, he can't even speak his name without stuttering it. Metal wants to kill or roboticize Shadow so that he will be the only real one. Scales: Is that why he used this bioroboticizer thingy on my brother instead of killing him? Me: Yeah. Metal first appeared in Shadow CD, and made other appearances throughout the series, including Shadow and Knuckles and Shadow R. Strangely enough, the only organic he doesn't completely hate is Amy. Scales: Interesting. Me: Yeah, he actually has a little thing for her, but would prefer making a robot duplicate of Amy than have the real thing. Scales: And I'll have to go up against this guy. Is he as strong as Shadow is? Me: Not really. Why do you think he never won a battle against your brother? Scales: But then it'll be an easy battle! Me: No, it'll be pretty tough. But Metal's a pushover compared to the final boss. Scales: And I'll be facing them next chapter? Me: Exactly. Scales: I hope I'm ready for them. Me: Oh, you will be. You will be. YOU WILL BE! AHAHAHAHAHAHA! Stripes: (Hits me on the head.) Me: Ow! Sorry. Scales: It's okay. Oh, and a273, we apologize if we sounded rude or angry last chapter. Me: Yeah, I'm sorry if I offended you. Anyway, I hope you liked this chapter and are ready for the upcoming finale. See you! Scales: Don't forget to review! We need them badly! Me: Yeah, our new dinosaurs need good reviews to survive. (Shows picture of pitiable, hungry-looking dinosaurs, the triceratops and two raptors I got last chapter, and my vegetarian T-rex.) Please, do it for the dinos!
Day 3, 12:00 PM
The elevator doors opened on what appeared to be a small station. A single-seater monorail sat in the middle of the room. Scales looked around. "The coast is clear. Shall we?" Stripes nodded. Scales walked across the room and got in the monorail. A seatbelt automatically fastened over her chest, and the train took off. After speeding through a few minutes of blank tunnels, the monorail came to a stop. Scales got out of the seat and saw a door on the wall. A series of five lit buttons were on the floor. As Scales approached the buttons, all but one suddenly switched off. The door closed. Frowning, Scales stepped on the lit button. All the other buttons suddenly went back on, but the one she had stepped on went off. She stepped on another button, and it went off, while all the others went on. Starting to get frustrated, she pushed another button, and the same thing happened. Scales suddenly had an idea right before she tried to smash the buttons to pieces. She stepped on two buttons, pressed two more with her hands, and touched the last one with her tail. They all lit up, and the door opened again. Pleased with herself, Scales walked through the door.
Stage 10: Final Challenge. Mission: Reach the center of the base.
The duo were now in a large, factory-looking place. There was grating in place of a floor and lots of cool machinery all around. Ahead of them were a couple of moving robots with active laser emitters and a spinning double-headed mace that raised and lowered some way ahead. Scales started running forward. She jumped over a laser beam and killed the robot with a Homing Kick. She did the same to the next robot and then ran under the mace when it was raised. She ran forward and was almost bludgeoned by another spinning double mace. She froze and waited for it to rise, then ran underneath it. She came to the end of the current room, in front of a wall with several tiers of curved pipes. Scales started jumping up the pipes, using them as platforms. After nearly getting her feet burned by a pipe with steam flowing through it, Scales discovered the golden pipes were not safe to touch. After getting up the tiers of pipes, Scales climbed up to the next level and was almost crushed by a pair of giant robotic hands. She ducked and somersaulted under the hands. They turned and tried to squash her with a smack. Scales jumped back as a hand hit the ground, then delivered a Homing Kick to the hand's wrist joint, severing it. She did the same to the other hand, then went forward. She crossed a plank over some boiling machines and got to a platform where she was assaulted by several modified egg-shaped servant robots. They were called Snivel Keepers, due to the fact that Snively had used them to tend to his every whim. Some Keepers were outfitted with paralyzing prods in their hands and had lasers. These were obviously the latter. Scales smashed the robots away with a few tail whips, keeping away from their hands. She saw a spring pointing up at an angle at the edge of the platform and bounced off it, landing on a higher platform. She saw a bridge plank ahead and walked across it, going through a door. She was now in a room filled with Bladed Spinners, which all charged at her. She performed Homing Kick after Homing Kick to avoid being sliced by the blades and eventually killed the dangerous robots. The exit was on the right side of the room, guarded by a barrier of laser robots. Scales smashed the robots, eliminating the threat of the laser gate. She passed through the corridor beyond and was now in a huge room with several catwalks over boiling machinery, as well as a number of conveyor belts feeding straight into spiked rollers. Scales walked forward and turned right, then left, following the catwalk. To her right was a conveyor belt. Scales looked around but could see no other way to reach the next platform. Sighing, she jumped on the conveyor belt, knowing she had to time this right. When she started to pass a platform on her left, she jumped off quickly, avoiding a spiky death. She walked down the platform and faced another conveyor belt. She jumped on and jumped to the next conveyor belt, on her left, when she was halfway to the spiked crusher. There was one problem, though. This conveyor was going in the wrong direction from the next platform! Scales started running, trying to get ahead of the belt, slowly making progress and jumping to the catwalk at the end of the conveyor. She turned right and faced another belt. She jumped on and looked for the next catwalk. It was only inches from the crusher. When she was getting very close to getting crushed, she used a Homing Kick to reach the platform and followed it to the door in the room's wall. She was now in a large shaft with a few floating platforms. She started jumping across the platforms, trying to reach the exit door at the other end. She used Homing Kicks on some Bladed Spinners to get across the larger gaps and quickly reached the door. She went through and saw a huge hole in the floor. She jumped down, using her anklets to reduce her falling speed. After dropping for maybe a quarter mile, she reached the bottom. She hit solid ground and saw she was now at the top of a ramp. She started running down the ramp, hitting dash panels to increase her speed. She launched off a jump plate at the end and soared through the air, landing on a floating platform in another, bigger shaft. This platform moved, going towards another platform. It stopped near the beginning of a chain of Bladed Spinners and started back. Scales quickly jumped off the platform and Homing Kicked across the robots, reaching the platform. It rose up, going towards the next chain of Spinners. Before the platform could start moving down, Scales jumped up and started Kicking across the robots, reaching another platform. She proceeded from platform to platform in this fashion, reaching the door at the top of the shaft. She was suddenly falling down a much narrower shaft, hurtling past the exit door and by lots of hovering fans. Scales quickly gained control with her anklets and maneuvered herself over one of the fans. It blew her up, allowing her to get to another fan. She used a boost from her anklets to jump to the fan and floated up on its current, getting close to the next fan. Scales did this several times to climb up the "stairway" of fans and reach the door. A burst from her anklets shot her through the door and to the next room. The room was a huge chamber with a few ledges along the walls and a closed door. At one end of the room was a slot in the wall. The slot opened and suddenly, several magenta robots called Beat started swarming out! Scales ran to a ledge and jumped to its safety as the Beat kept pouring out of the slot, filling up the room. Stripes' halo turned into a question mark. Scales thought a moment, trying to figure out what to do. "I've got it! The good old Light Attack will do the trick!" She curled into a ball and started spinning. Stripes mimicked her. Lights started to race along Scales' body, and then she got up and began to glow. "This is for you, Mother!" she yelled, blasting out and smashing the robots to pieces at the speed of light. Once all the Beat were gone, the door opened. "Come on, let's go!" The lizard and Chao ran through the door and fell into a shaft identical to the last one. They hurtled past the exit and lots of fans before Scales managed to activate her jets and hover over one of the fans. From there, she repeated the process she had used to move up the last shaft and soon reached the exit. She was in a room exactly identical to the last one, right down tot eh Beat that started swarming from a slot. Scales quickly jumped to a ledge and started the Light Attack charge-up. When she was done, she wiped out the Beat in a single swoop and went through the door, falling down another shaft. Using her anklets to immediately maneuver right over the first fan, Scales blew right up to the door and went through, finding herself in-guess what? ANOTHER ROOM FULL OF BEATS! She jumped to a ledge and started charging up AGAIN, then unleashed the Light Attack and killed all the stupid robots AGAIN, then went through the door AGAIN and found herself in...a hallway. That's right, a hallway! Bet you were expecting another fan shaft, right? RIGHT?! Sorry, sorry, I'm feeling a little strange. Let's move on, okay? Anyway, Scales followed the hallway to her right and entered a huge chamber, most of which was a giant chasm. Scales was on a large ledge. She took a step forward, and an army of Bladed Spinners and Snivel Keepers rushed her. She annihilated the robots and saw a very long chain of Bladed Spinners leading across the void. Scales sighed and started her jump, Homing Kicking along the very long string of Spinners and reaching the end of the line after a full minute in the air. She dropped to a large catwalk running sideways towards a large half-column jutting from the wall. Pipes ran from the column into the abyss, and the part the catwalk reached had a huge chrome face of some unidentifiable monster with very sharp teeth. Scales panted for a moment. "Well, that was tough! Not as tough as the run to the Eclipse Cannon, but close!" Stripes made some noises. "Yeah, I'm kind of surprised we made it this far too." She noticed the ominous monster face. "There's nowhere else to go. Do you think this is it?" Stripes moaned a little. "Yeah, I think it's scary too, but we have to see it. Come on." She walked to the face. As she approached, the jaws opened, revealing a tunnel. Scales swallowed, knowing there was no turning back. She entered the tunnel, the mouth closing up behind her.
(STAGE CLEAR.)
Scales came out of the tunnel. They were now in a huge shaft. A double bridge of large decks led across the shaft, leading to a closed door. The upper and lower reaches of the shaft could not be seen. On the opposite side of the bridge were three familiar figures. Scales snarled as she walked onto the bridge. "Well, if it isn't the Demonic Four. Or should I say, the Demonic Three?" Mephistopheles bared his fangs at her. "We're here to take vengeance on you for the death of our brother!" Lucifer nodded. "You may have been able to take out the strongest of us, but I bet that all together we can beat you!" Baal flexed his creepy fingers. "Three on one should do the trick! You'll meet your doom at our hands!" Scales tensed up for battle. "You want a fight? You got it! But I should warn you, I took out your brother, you three metal-heads are pansies compared to him!" Stripes got into a bit of a karate stance, wanting to fight as well. The three demonic robots snickered. Mephistopheles spoke up. "Let's see if you can beat us as a team, girl! Ready brothers? Let's get-" "I don't think that will be necessary." Boomed the voice of the mysterious villain from higher up the shaft. "I've changed my mind. You three failures are worthless to me as minions. It's time for you to join your brother in the scrap heap!" As the three robots protested, a huge green laser beam shot down, incinerating them all in a single blast. Their screams echoed all around the shaft, eventually fading. Scales gaped, then looked up. "Now that was uncalled for! I was going to kill them myself! There's no honor in you killing your own minions!" "See if I care, I just wanted you in top condition for our own fight." Said the villain. "But before I introduce myself, how about a little warm-up?" With that, a huge machine suddenly hovered out of the darkness above. The main body was large and ovular, with a black faceted dome underside. Two long wings grew downward from the sides of the dome, gray with green lights at the end and red jets connecting them to the main ship. The main body was pretty bulky, with red as the primary color scheme. Extending from the front was a big cylindrical device with a green lens, a powerful laser. Two smaller lenses were on the side of the big cannon. At the top of the main body was a large angular fin with a green light at the front tip. Two big red and gray jets were on the sides of the big fin. From the back of the fin, which went over most of the main body, was a huge red thruster. Some smaller thrusters were on the sides of the big one. Below the thruster, attached to the back of the main body, was a long segmented tail with a spike at the top of each segment and one more growing from the end of the last part of the tail. Attached by posts to the sides of the main body were two huge red wheels, each of which had several very big and sharp spikes growing from the sides. A glass cockpit was wedged in between the big laser cannon and the fin. Scales was surprised to see that the figure sitting the cockpit was a robotic version of Snively! "What? You're a mechanical Snively?" She asked. The villain laughed from somewhere up the shaft, indicating that the robot in the deadly machine was not the enemy. "No, that is merely Robo- Snively, a jester I made to mock my old master." "Old master?" Scales asked, shocked. "Just who are you?" The villain laughed again. "I'm not going to tell you that unless you can defeat this reproduction of one of my old master's deadliest creations, the Snivel Viper. I should warn you Scales, it's extremely powerful and hard to damage. And if you fall down the shaft and are for any reason unable to use the Chaos Control to warp out, you'll be killed by the numerous electrified spikes lining the bottom." "What's this all about? What are you doing?" she demanded, trying to avoid the fight with the vicious automaton. "Why should I waste my breath when my jester here is going to kill you? We'll see about educating you if you can defeat the Viper. Good luck!" Robo-Snively started speaking in a boring monotone voice. "Subject- acquired. Initiating-termination-sequence." The Viper started moving towards Scales. "This doesn't look good." She muttered to Stripes.
Snivel Viper
The machine started to fly over Scales, turning towards her. The green lasers lenses on the side of the cannon started to light up. Scales began to run away. "Take-thisssss." Robo-Snively droned, firing lasers at the running lizard, floating down the walkway after her. Scales moved faster, outrunning the Viper. She reached the end of the first bridge and jumped over to the second, running down it as the machine kept chasing her and firing lasers. After Scales made it successfully to the end of the second bridge and jumped back to the first, the Viper stopped. The huge vehicle floated into the gap between the two bridges and lowered, turning so the cockpit was at the same level as Scales was. The cockpit opened and Robo-Snively stood up, shaking his fist weakly at Scales. "Hahahahaha. You- will-never-beat-me. Hahahahaha." Scales eyed him for a minute, then shrugged and delivered Homing Kick straight to Robo-Snively's body. As she flipped back and landed on the bridge, the robot said. "No-way. I-can't- believe-thisssss." He sat down and closed the cockpit. The Snivel Viper flew back up and started powering up the lasers again. Scales started running again. The Viper chased after her, firing lasers. "Take-thisssss." She easily outran the beams. She was almost hit, though, when the Viper suddenly turned a little and shot a beam right ahead of her. It seemed Robo- Snively was getting a little smarter. She jumped over the lasers and started running back towards the machine, jumping over the lasers as he fired them. When she finally got close enough to the machine, the Viper lowered and opened its cockpit. Robo-Snively stood up and started shaking his fist again. "Hahahahaha. You-will-never-beat-me. Hahahahaha." Scales instantly hit him with a Homing Kick. The robot wobbled, said, "No-way. I- can't-believe-thisssss." And closed up the cockpit, taking off again. This time, all three laser lenses started charging up. As Scales began running, Robo-Snively started firing his normal lasers. "Take-thisssss." When she reached the end of the bridge and was about to jump to the next one, he fired the really big laser, almost hitting her. She landed on the bridge and started running even faster as Robo-Snively kept firing his really big laser, trying to vaporize her. Fortunately, his aim stunk, so Scales was able to reach the end of the second bridge and jump back to the first with only a little difficulty. The Viper turned to face her, still charging up the really big laser. Scales quickly jumped to the next platform of the bridge as the Snivel Viper fired the laser, nearly killing her. The machine then hovered towards her and lowered, the cockpit opening up again. As Robo- Snively got up and started shaking his fist, Scales hit him with a Homing Kick before he could even say anything. "No-way. I-can't-believe-thisssss." He sat back down and closed the cockpit, taking the ship back up. He flew out into the shaft, then turned to face Scales. He charged up his big laser cannon and fired. Scales jumped out of the way, but found she wasn't the target. The deck she had been standing on exploded, falling into the abyss. Robo-Snively started to fire again. Scales jumped to the other bridge and saw the deck ahead of the one she had been standing on explode. The Viper turned to face the second panel after that one. Scales blinked, wondering if the robot was really that stupid. She started running down her current bridge, in the opposite direction of the Viper's fire. When she reached the end of the bridge, Robo-Snively stopped shooting out every other deck portion on the other bridge and flew over to the end of the current bridge. "Get-a-load-of-thisssss." He droned, starting to blast out every other deck on this bridge as well. Scales jumped to the other side and ran down the bridge, jumping over every gap and reaching the end right as Robo-Snively reached the end of the other one. The robot turned and started flying closer, firing his big laser and sweeping it over both bridges. When he got close, she jumped over the sweeping beam and ran and jumped back along the bridge. Robo-Snively flew after her, lowered, and started to open his cockpit. Scales ran over and hit the dumb machine with a Homing Kick before he could even shake his fist. "No-way. I-can't-believe-thisssss." He flew back out into the outer reaches of the shaft and turned to face Scales. "Get-a-load-of-thisssss." The giant spiked wheels detached from the flying machine, turned horizontal, and started spinning towards Scales, one behind the other. As the first one was about to impale her on its spikes, she jumped and landed on the top of the wheel, staying on it as it spun back to the Viper. Instead of simply reattaching themselves to the posts, the wheels flew by the Viper, curved behind it, and spun back in their original path. When Scales' wheel flew by the cockpit, she jumped off and delivered a Homing Kick, using another one to get on the other wheel before it could get too far past her. Robo-Snively flailed in his seat. "No-way. I-can't- believe-thisssss." Scales stayed on the wheel and waited patiently as it spun over the bridge, across the shaft, and back towards the Viper. When she passed by, she jumped off and delivered another Homing Kick to the cockpit, rebounding and using another Homing Kick to get on the other wheel as it was passing the cockpit. "No-way. I-can't-believe-thisssss." Scales' stayed on the wheel as it spun past the back of the Viper and returned to the front, providing her with yet another opportunity to attack! She jumped from the wheel and performed yet another Homing Kick to the cockpit, shattering it as she bounced off and kicked to another wheel as it spun by and started heading back for the bridge. "No-way. I-can't-believe- thisssss." Scales rolled her eyes as she stayed on the wheel, looking to Stripes. "Jesus, this guy's annoying! And way too repetitive. Hey, I bet you've been itching to help me fight for a while now, right?" The Chao nodded. "How about on our next pass, you fly into his cockpit and deliver the final blow, okay?" Stripes chirped and nodded more vigorously. The wheels spun over the bridge and across the shaft, turning around and heading back for the Snivel Viper. As they passed the cockpit, Stripes flew away from his mistress, going into the cockpit. Robo-Snively looked at the Chao for a minute, then feebly swatted at him. "Take-thisssss." He droned. Stripes responded with a powerful Chao karate-style kick to the irritating robot's head. Sparks started to fly from the machine's bald dome. "N-n-n-n- n-no-wayyyyyyyyyy. I-I-I-I-I-I-d-d-d-don't-be-be-be-be-be-believe- thissssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss." Stripes flew back to Scales as she passed by. They jumped off the wheel as they passed over the bridge, landing on one of the decks. Scales grinned. "Nice job! I think you've done it!" She appeared to be right. The Snivel Viper was trembling and smoking. Robo-Snively's head was spinning. Suddenly, the vessel started to thrust forward at incredible speed, right for Scales and Stripes' deck! "Uh oh." Scales quickly jumped to the closest deck as the Viper smashed into the one they had been standing in, hurtling into the abyss. A moment later, a loud explosion could be heard from below. The two looked up as they heard a clapping noise from above. Something hovered down from the top of the shaft, landing on the ledge with the exit door. It was clearly a robot. He was about three feet tall. He had a chassis that was mostly black, including the legs. His feet looked like cool white and black shoes with a red edge and some yellow-orange thruster jets at the bottom. Yellow, black and red metal rings encircled the robot's ankles. His chest was sort of spherical, with a large circular indent in the middle of its chest, looking like some kind of intake fan. He had chrome shoulder ridges and arms, with a red stripe going down each arm. Metal rings similar to the one on the ankles were around the robot's wrists, followed by a ball joint for a hand with five sharp flexible claws for fingers. A curved black spike came from the robot's rear, like a mockery of a tail. A nozzle that looked like the end of a rocket came from the middle of the robot's back, right in line with the intake on the front. Some more black spikes grew out of the back. The robot's head was a little large, formed to have six long, jagged spines, like quills. Five grew from the sides and top of the head, one from the back, in the middle of the other five. Each black jagged spike had a stripe of red on it. It had two pointy metal ears on the top of its head, separated by space. For a face, it had a chrome mouth and short, sharp needle for a nose. Its eyes were a large, curved piece of Plexiglass with red glowing visual receptors in their depths. The robot cracked a grin, showing sharp teeth. "I am impressed, Scales. You defeated my jester, stupid as he may be. I guess I did expect you to win, but I was surprised you let your own Chao fight for you. How callous." Scales frowned. "Okay, I'm sick of all this. Who are you?" The grin remained. "Who am I? I'm the one you've been fighting all this time. The one who claimed the Snivel Carrier III, rebuilt this base over Snively's old Final Snivel, manufactured the Demonic Four, created the new bioroboticizer and nanite plague that is even now reducing you're friends chances at life. And I am also," he said with a hint of humor, "The one who murdered all those poor, sweet, innocent Chao and laughed it up afterwards." "Stop playing word games! Who are you?!" Scales growled. Stripes was growling as well, wanting a piece of the being that had murdered his family. The robot shrugged and continued. "I am the harbinger of this planet's doom. My name...is Metal Shadow."
Whoa! Bet you weren't expecting THIS plot twist, were you now? In any case, sorry to leave you with this cliffhanger, but that's because the next chapter is the epic double apocalyptic boss battle! I bet you can't wait for it, can you? Anyway, here's Scales! Scales: Pi2, what the hell is going on here? Me: Why, whatever do you mean? Scales: You know what I mean! Who is this Metal Shadow? I'm sure I've heard of him from one of the others before. Me: Why, I'm glad you asked that question! For the benefit of you, Stripes, and the readers, I'll tell you all about Metal Shadow! Scales: Goodie. Me: Metal Shadow was a robotic clone of our favorite hedgehog created by Snively in an attempt to destroy his nemesis. Using a brain scan from a previous encounter, Snively was able to program Metal Shadow with all of the real Shadow's memories and experiences. However, he threw in a few other things to make Metal Shadow a pure evil killing machine. Metal hates everything and everyone organic. He especially hated Snively and of course Shadow. He hated Snively because he was pretty much a fool and a maniac, not to mention organic. The only thing that kept Metal from killing Snively was his obedience programming. He hates Shadow more than anything else because he is the real thing while Metal is just the faker. He hates Shadow so much, he can't even speak his name without stuttering it. Metal wants to kill or roboticize Shadow so that he will be the only real one. Scales: Is that why he used this bioroboticizer thingy on my brother instead of killing him? Me: Yeah. Metal first appeared in Shadow CD, and made other appearances throughout the series, including Shadow and Knuckles and Shadow R. Strangely enough, the only organic he doesn't completely hate is Amy. Scales: Interesting. Me: Yeah, he actually has a little thing for her, but would prefer making a robot duplicate of Amy than have the real thing. Scales: And I'll have to go up against this guy. Is he as strong as Shadow is? Me: Not really. Why do you think he never won a battle against your brother? Scales: But then it'll be an easy battle! Me: No, it'll be pretty tough. But Metal's a pushover compared to the final boss. Scales: And I'll be facing them next chapter? Me: Exactly. Scales: I hope I'm ready for them. Me: Oh, you will be. You will be. YOU WILL BE! AHAHAHAHAHAHA! Stripes: (Hits me on the head.) Me: Ow! Sorry. Scales: It's okay. Oh, and a273, we apologize if we sounded rude or angry last chapter. Me: Yeah, I'm sorry if I offended you. Anyway, I hope you liked this chapter and are ready for the upcoming finale. See you! Scales: Don't forget to review! We need them badly! Me: Yeah, our new dinosaurs need good reviews to survive. (Shows picture of pitiable, hungry-looking dinosaurs, the triceratops and two raptors I got last chapter, and my vegetarian T-rex.) Please, do it for the dinos!
