Four 'Til Doomsday
Part 4:
Sonic swore to himself, a huge vacuum opening up inside him. How could they hope to defeat an enemy like that? Numbers made them practically indestructible. They would be around until the end of the Universe. How could he stop them? A hundred SuperSonics couldn't do the job.
"Why would your great empire send people all the way over here then? Mobius is way out of the way on the edge of the galaxy. It wouldn't be worth it just to help you lot."
The chief smiled unpleasantly. "You wish. Once we tell them of the power of the Chaos Emeralds they will not hesitate to send over reinforcements."
Sonic shook his head. "Nice try. I know that you Drakons originally created the Emeralds and brought them to Mobius. You masters'll have no interest in something they've already got."
"You have an impressive knowledge of history, for one with such a miniscule lifespan. But the Emeralds were created on Mobius; we just experimented with them until we unlocked their power. When we have this planet we will create many more."
"Well. uh." Sonic ran out of ideas. The fish laughed and electrocuted him some more.
Tails swooped down and rested on the apex of the pyramid. The outside defences no longer worked, and the main doors had been pre-shattered. He hopped off his perch and glided down and into the base.
A blinding flash of light and a crackle of bottle green energy stopped him dead and sent him sprawling to the ground. Tails rubbed his sightless eyes, blinking madly. The light must have burnt a millimetre or more out of the back of them. As he got to his feet, the bare outline began to fight its way into his eyes behind an army of white dots. He blinked again and caught sight of the body-sized metal claw a spit second before it grabbed him.
Protesting loudly, he was dragged across the floor by both tails. He looked behind him and saw he was being pulled towards some machine that was mounted on the wall. Sitting uncomfortably, he turned around and pried off the claw. It broke easily and Tails stood up, rubbing the sore tail he'd been sitting on.
The claw retracted into the machine and as it did so four steel tentacles whipped out and would have caught his arms and legs if he'd stayed still. As he watched, they pinned thin air to the wall, and hundreds of smaller coils reared up and would have buried themselves in his skin. "Monitoring vitality signs," croaked a synthesised voice. Several tubes began leaking fluid. "Error."
Tails looked in horror at what would have befallen him. Then he did a double take as he looked across to an identical device next to his and saw someone else who hadn't been so lucky.
Sonic had been forgotten and left to rot. He kept his head down and his eyes dull, looking totally hopeless. But he was far from beaten.
As much as he hated appearing like this, he was trading his pride for something far more useful. A loudmouth scientist who gave no thought to eavesdroppers was lecturing the chief Drakon and his advisors.
"The time of least astral interference, as far as we can predict, will be in about a week's time. That's when we start the transmission."
"And how's progress on the transmission?"
"Well, sir, we think we can do it,"
"Keep talking," murmured the hedgehog, but no one heard him.
"Eight thousand years ago, we landed on Mobius. We had a couple of short-range transmitters, so we could report back to the mothership. Now, obviously, its not there anymore and the transmitters can't reach out any further than the edge of the solar system, which is not nearly far enough."
The chief slammed his paddle/staff down impatiently. "So we can't do it?"
"We can do it, sir. It just calls for something much more drastic. This is what we propose to build." The Drakon produced a green cube, which displayed a hologram some machine. To Sonic, it looked like a mechanised rosebush with a glorified satellite dish on top. "We have cannibalised the original transmitters to get this," he showed them all a large computer chip, "which will give us the data to tune in to the right frequency. With this and a big enough power surge, we can broadcast our message to anywhere in the galaxy."
"Power surge?" the fish grinned. "From the Chaos Emeralds, yes?"
"Unnecessary and risky, sir. The machine is so efficient, nothing of that sort will be required. Taking the Emeralds would only bring attention to us before we're ready. I'm concerned already that they'll come looking for the hedgehog."
The chief sent a beam of lightning across the volcano, making Sonic yell out. "They are of no consequence. When their leader is a charred pin cushion they won't have the spirit to fight us." Sonic gritted his teeth but kept silent.
"As I was saying," continued the scientist, "we intend to power this thing with the volcano itself." He stopped for dramatic effect then carried on. "We need to totally seal this volcano. When we trigger an eruption, the lava will be forced at high pressure through a series of generators." Sonic smiled to himself as the Drakon prattled on. They thought he was helpless. The arrogant idiots would pay for that. He had a new trick up his sleeve now.
With supersonic vibrations, he shattered the manacles holding him from certain death. Gravity took a firm hold and he plunged towards the waiting lava below.
Part 4:
Sonic swore to himself, a huge vacuum opening up inside him. How could they hope to defeat an enemy like that? Numbers made them practically indestructible. They would be around until the end of the Universe. How could he stop them? A hundred SuperSonics couldn't do the job.
"Why would your great empire send people all the way over here then? Mobius is way out of the way on the edge of the galaxy. It wouldn't be worth it just to help you lot."
The chief smiled unpleasantly. "You wish. Once we tell them of the power of the Chaos Emeralds they will not hesitate to send over reinforcements."
Sonic shook his head. "Nice try. I know that you Drakons originally created the Emeralds and brought them to Mobius. You masters'll have no interest in something they've already got."
"You have an impressive knowledge of history, for one with such a miniscule lifespan. But the Emeralds were created on Mobius; we just experimented with them until we unlocked their power. When we have this planet we will create many more."
"Well. uh." Sonic ran out of ideas. The fish laughed and electrocuted him some more.
Tails swooped down and rested on the apex of the pyramid. The outside defences no longer worked, and the main doors had been pre-shattered. He hopped off his perch and glided down and into the base.
A blinding flash of light and a crackle of bottle green energy stopped him dead and sent him sprawling to the ground. Tails rubbed his sightless eyes, blinking madly. The light must have burnt a millimetre or more out of the back of them. As he got to his feet, the bare outline began to fight its way into his eyes behind an army of white dots. He blinked again and caught sight of the body-sized metal claw a spit second before it grabbed him.
Protesting loudly, he was dragged across the floor by both tails. He looked behind him and saw he was being pulled towards some machine that was mounted on the wall. Sitting uncomfortably, he turned around and pried off the claw. It broke easily and Tails stood up, rubbing the sore tail he'd been sitting on.
The claw retracted into the machine and as it did so four steel tentacles whipped out and would have caught his arms and legs if he'd stayed still. As he watched, they pinned thin air to the wall, and hundreds of smaller coils reared up and would have buried themselves in his skin. "Monitoring vitality signs," croaked a synthesised voice. Several tubes began leaking fluid. "Error."
Tails looked in horror at what would have befallen him. Then he did a double take as he looked across to an identical device next to his and saw someone else who hadn't been so lucky.
Sonic had been forgotten and left to rot. He kept his head down and his eyes dull, looking totally hopeless. But he was far from beaten.
As much as he hated appearing like this, he was trading his pride for something far more useful. A loudmouth scientist who gave no thought to eavesdroppers was lecturing the chief Drakon and his advisors.
"The time of least astral interference, as far as we can predict, will be in about a week's time. That's when we start the transmission."
"And how's progress on the transmission?"
"Well, sir, we think we can do it,"
"Keep talking," murmured the hedgehog, but no one heard him.
"Eight thousand years ago, we landed on Mobius. We had a couple of short-range transmitters, so we could report back to the mothership. Now, obviously, its not there anymore and the transmitters can't reach out any further than the edge of the solar system, which is not nearly far enough."
The chief slammed his paddle/staff down impatiently. "So we can't do it?"
"We can do it, sir. It just calls for something much more drastic. This is what we propose to build." The Drakon produced a green cube, which displayed a hologram some machine. To Sonic, it looked like a mechanised rosebush with a glorified satellite dish on top. "We have cannibalised the original transmitters to get this," he showed them all a large computer chip, "which will give us the data to tune in to the right frequency. With this and a big enough power surge, we can broadcast our message to anywhere in the galaxy."
"Power surge?" the fish grinned. "From the Chaos Emeralds, yes?"
"Unnecessary and risky, sir. The machine is so efficient, nothing of that sort will be required. Taking the Emeralds would only bring attention to us before we're ready. I'm concerned already that they'll come looking for the hedgehog."
The chief sent a beam of lightning across the volcano, making Sonic yell out. "They are of no consequence. When their leader is a charred pin cushion they won't have the spirit to fight us." Sonic gritted his teeth but kept silent.
"As I was saying," continued the scientist, "we intend to power this thing with the volcano itself." He stopped for dramatic effect then carried on. "We need to totally seal this volcano. When we trigger an eruption, the lava will be forced at high pressure through a series of generators." Sonic smiled to himself as the Drakon prattled on. They thought he was helpless. The arrogant idiots would pay for that. He had a new trick up his sleeve now.
With supersonic vibrations, he shattered the manacles holding him from certain death. Gravity took a firm hold and he plunged towards the waiting lava below.