HEBM - PART VI

FATE OF THE SOLAR SYTEM

                The darkness swept across Knothole and began to decrease because of RSupremor moving away from Mobius. Rotor had started reconstruction of the refurbished SOS pod and was expected to finish in a few days. Sonic and crew were relying on Rotor being ready when they were. Unfortunately, it was difficult to find means of communication and they had to play it by ear. Also Lighthead knew Sonic, Tails and Knuckles were onboard the RSupremor and that didn't bother him one bit. He had set the course back to Lighgretron and it wouldn't be very long until they got back which would be less than 24 hours. They would simply succumb to the intense heat and die was Lighthead's plan.

            Meanwhile Sonic, Knuckles and Tails were making haste still preparing for the worse. They had gone a long way since they had gotten onboard, making their way through winding passages. The passages consisted of an irregular but symmetrical hexagonal shape with a bright green light on the ceiling. The floor contained lights where most of light came from to the left and right sides that ran along with the passages. The sides angled up out and then towards the ceiling, forming the walls. However, their definition of a long way was still very minimal in proportion to the RSupremor. All the corridors seemed like they went on forever. There were very little challenges since the chasing beams involving few SMDCs.

"Which way, Knux? Are we getting closer?" Sonic asked while juicing along with Knuckles gliding and Tails flying.

"I think so but we still have a long ways to go. My instincts tell me to go that way." Knuckles pointed to a path in front of them.

"Man, everything looks the same! How do we know we're not going in circles?" Sonic queried.

"We're not. I can feel that we're making progress, though its not a lot I'm afraid." Sonic and Tails both got shocked expressions in response to Knux's reply.

"At least we haven't encountered a whole lot. It's seemed pretty easy other than all the long, winding corridors." Tails said.

After another couple long hours of trudging along, Knuckles told everyone to stop.

"Did you hear that?"

Sonic and Tails nodded. Something was on to them again. It was a light, soft, low toned humming noise but grew with every passing second. They didn't have the convenience of looking back to see what it was because the path was more winding than before. They had no clue this time what they were up against. They agreed to continue on and not wait for it to get to where they were. Once they started running/flying/gliding again, it was impossible to tell if was still coming or not. After five minutes, they decided to check again and to their delight, they couldn't hear anything.

"You know what I don't understand is how they get around in this thing. They can't possibly walk through this to get from one place to another."

"I don't know, big guy. That's a good question."

"Yeah. How could they get through this? Something must be up."

"Well, its not like they're normal people either. Maybe they can teleport."

"Then why all the winding corridors? There'd be no purpose for them."

Sonic and Tails both shrugged and continued on. The RSupremor continued to plummet to the sun at great speed.

*      *      *

Two figures from the sky approached the atomic wasteland known as Robotropolis, the previous home to Warlord Julian, also known as Dr Ivo Robotnik who had had been vanquished. Now it was Snively and Otrebor's reignful land. They landed on the ground near the command center and noticed that they were not the first ones there in a long while. A gaping hole could be seen near the top. Snively was last at Robotropolis when he was taken captive by Dr Lighthead in hopes to gain certain information about the Master Chaos Emerald. He couldn't believe to finally set foot in Robotropolis again and be mechanized but instead of being overjoyed and was enraged. He began to charge his mounted cannon on his arm.

"What are we doing here, Snively?"

"Paying back one last favor to my uncle." Snively aimed his cannon towards the center of the command center, standing about half a mile from it. Once he thought it was enough, he released that energy and was able to topple it with devastating results. Otrebor gaped in horror as to why Snively would do such a thing. It collapsed under its weight and shot forth an audacious shock wave and dust into the air that could well be heard miles afar.

"That's for making me your lackey, Robotnik."

Meanwhile still onboard the RSupremor, Sonic, Knuckles and Tails continue to make haste advancement towards where Knux thinks the Master Emerald lies. The paths continued to branch off more and more giving the impression of an endless maze. They also still remained on the same floor of supposedly 1000s simply because they thought this appeared to be the most simplest. The branched passage then lead to a fork where they could go either left or right. It was also running perpendicular to them and was very straight and long like the first path they took and running from CHAOS except it still contained the same characteristics of the hexagonal like shape of the passage. Instinctively, Knuckles decided to go right. He could tell he was getting closer, just not very quickly. Eventually they would have to try some new levels either below or above them.

After following the path for what seemed to be 5 miles, they came across a locked door reading "Loading Bay" with a panel of 12 rectangular blue buttons that a needed a code to get through.

"Enter the correct sound code cognition test." Sonic then experimented with few of the 12 buttons on the panel. After hitting four with his left hand, each having their own synthesized tone Knuckles hulted Sonic and hit the fifth  "That is the incorrect code. The next time you insert an incorrect code, the X-Field will commence."

"X-Field?"

"Doesn't sound good."

"How are we going to get through?"

"Should we try again?"

"And encounter this X-Field whatchamacallit? No way!"

"Guess we'll have to bypass it with a Sonic Spin." Knux and Tails backed up to give Sonic enough room to hopefully break through the door.

Sonic revved up and curled into his infamous sonic spin. Once he came in contact with the door that read, "Loading Bay" sparks could be seen. The same angular momentum that kept him on the ceiling earlier and on the walls kept him in mid air on the door. It appeared as if he was making could progress until the same voice that asked for the sound code spoke up again, "Unauthorized forced actions … result in X-Field activation."

Knux and Tails could barely here what the monotoned female voice said but they knew it wasn't good. They looked around them to see if anything would come out of the walls like before but saw nothing. Sonic was now half way through. Tails then turned around to see if anything was coming at them and just on the horizon of the long path could be seen a blinking green object growing in size. It was coming at them and by the sound of the name X-Field, they then knew it could be anything but good.

"HURRY UP SONIC! THERE'S A GREEN WALL OF DOOM COMING THIS WAY!!!" and indeed there was. It was moving at around 50 meters a second or about 120 mph but since the passage was so long, it appeared to be growing slowly but as seconds passed on, from a dot, it became apparent it was moving fast.

"ALMOST THROUGH!…" Knuckles could tell Sonic was tiring from the strenuous door but still relied on him making it through in time. The luminous green wall was now only one mile from their location and at its speed it would take half a minute. The same low toned humming noise from before could be heard again but much louder. It now dawned on them this thing before could have caught them but that didn't matter now.

Finally Sonic drilled his way through the heavy armored door and took with Tails and Knux with the X-Field in closer pursuit. Sonic helped Tails and Knux through the hole in the door and cleared out of the way in case it wasn't stopping there yet they were hoping it would and fortunately it did.

"Whew… That was a close one…"

"It's starting to get REALLY hot in here too…" Knuckles said, panting.

"Boss! Door D-3i22 has been breached! They were able to evade it. There must be some flaws."

"Relax, Gore. CHAOS is flawless and as a matter of fact, it doesn't matter now. I have a new stratagem. Once we get close enough to Lighgretron, they will no longer be able to bare the heat. They may already be suffering now. Therefore, they will mercifully give up and help us with the Star X Conquerors coming because I'm sure they won't want their friends toasted if they succeed in blowing up the sun."

"Wait… then we'd win either way!"

"Exactly Gore, but if the Star X Conquerors succeed, we won't win. I know it sounds crazy, Gore but we just may need their help."

Meanwhile in Robotropolis, ruins of the command center lay where the great Dr Ivo Robotnik used to scheme against the cunning Freedom Fighters day after day. Now that the command center was toppled, the name Robotnik was becoming a mere memory but there was something still going on amongst the destruction. Deep underground, thousands of class one and two terrebots sprung to life, created for an invasion that wasn't able to get underway in time of Robotnik's death, however, the destruction of the command center has seemingly activated a sequence springing Master Mold to life and sending terrebots to takeover the Great Forest and destroy Knothole.

"Where are we now?" Tails asked, crouching behind a row of barrels 4 feet high. As they looked around, they noticed a great amount of light coming from one singular source on the ceiling and SMDCs and AMDCs being manufactured and flying off into source of light and disappearing.

"Where are they going?"

"You and your questions, Tails. I have no idea." As they tried to look at the where the crafts ascended to and departed through, they quickly noticed something very unusual in almost every aspect. The gravity was getting a lot more tougher to fight against but still bearable. The heat wasn't though. It was also impossible to look at because of the blinding light.

"What IS that?!"

"I… have no clue!"

"Actually… I know what that is… it makes sense now!" Knuckles said in an unfortable tone.

"What is it, Knux?"

"That's not an object or a portal… it's a HOLE LEADING OUT OF HERE!"

"What?"

"Lighthead is going to his home planet… Well not planet… lets just say home star!" Everyone's face expressions turned very dour.

"You mean… THAT'S THE SUN OUT THERE?!"

"Exactly."

"What are we going to do?!"

"We have to somehow find the Master Emerald and sword before we enter the corona."

"Then lets hurry!"

Back off the outskirts of Robotropolis, terrebots continued their advance towards Knothole. It wasn't until now Sally was informed of the incoming threat. All they had was a matter of a few hours before a massive onslaught would be fought amongst the advancing terrebots. Ordinarily, it would take days to walk across the Mobian Desert into the Great Forest but each of the terrebots had the ability to leap great distances thus cutting their journey to just a few mere hours. Of Knothole wished they had Sonic and Knuckles to help them but there was no way they could make it back in time.

"Where are we going now, Snively?"

"Away from here. I don't want those dinobots or whatever they are getting a fix on our location."

"I thought Robotnik was dead. How could he send out these things?"

"He is dead. I must've triggered something when I toppled the command center. He must have been preparing this invasion in such a case. As to why he never initiated before is beyond me.

"We must now head away from Robotropolis and away from the bots because they may know I was the one who blew it up."

"But where to?"

"The Floating Island, Otrebor. I want to see if the Master Emerald is still there. After all, it is still afloat."

"I like the way you think, Snively."

Back in Knothole, Sally was giving instructions on how the war should be fought. They were told to get whatever they could and secure it in an even more concealed location than Knothole itself in case the terrebots completely wrecked Knothole and then prepare themselves for the worst. Antoine was preparing battle by sparring with himself with his sword while Sally and Rotor configured traps for the terrebots. They knew they would have to deal with hundreds of them but that didn't lower their self-esteem. Bunnie was reconfigured with more power with her arm cannon to aid her in her attack. Everyone else that wasn't a part of the core group did what they could be ready. It was estimated that only 1 hour remained until they arrived.

"I hope y'all not worried bout the incoming threat, Ant." Bunnie said as she walked by Antoine.

"OUI! I mean… no! I am not beineenz vorried about zee terrebots! I know vat zey are like! I am ready!"

"That's what I thought!" Sally, Antoine, Rotor and Sally all knew what to expect from terrebots because of their previous encounter when assessing Robotropolis when suddenly one of them came out of nowhere and had them surprised. They had much difficulty then but now, they were very hopeful that that wouldn't be the case this time. If only the Freedom Force could help them was their main thought.

"Ok we're getting closer to the Master Emerald. I can feel its source much clearer than before!" Knuckles said, leading Sonic and Tails down more corridors. Once at the end they came across another door blocking their way with the same kind of control panel like the last one with 12 buttons each with a different symbol on it and a different sound tone of you were to push one.

"Ah great. Now what?"

"I'm too tired to do that again…"

"And we know that the sound code thing won't help."

"Say, maybe the sound passcode will help! Some of these symbols seems to resemble what we've been through like those beams, SMDCs and the Xfield."

"But it asks for six."

"Hmmm…" Knuckles hit the button on the door to initiate the code test.

"Enter the correct sound code cognition test." Knuckles thought back to last time when after they hit four buttons it activated the Xfield. Could they have been right? Of course this was a different door yet maybe the same code was kept throughout. Being reluctant, Knuckles hit the same four buttons Sonic hit last time which similarly had their own synthesized tones. No error. Two more flawlessly would let them pass prompted up. Knux looked at Sonic and then at Tails and waited… to hope that the answer would somehow come out of nowhere. After 30 seconds of hesitating, another prompt came up, "You have 10 seconds to enter in the last two sound codes." Knuckles randomly pressed a button.

"Incorrect code. Next time an incorrect code is inserted, the Xfield will commence." Knuckles cringed but then it occurred to him. How did Sonic manage to get four of them correct without error? Maybe if he let Sonic finish, they wouldn't of gad that fiasco.

Then it clicked. Sonic used his left hand while entering the code. The same had that lighgrecized from before. (which is normal now)

"Sonic, try entering the code again."

"But what if-*"

"It won't. Trust me." Sonic entered the four sound codes that were right from before and hesitated to enter the next one.

"Are you ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN?"

"Positive. I think I know whats going on." Sonic covered his eyes with his right hand and hit the fifth button. Nothing. It was right.

After 30 seconds of hesitating to hit the sixth sound code,  the prompt came up again saying they had 10 seconds left. Sonic did the same, but unfortunately, not realizing Knux's plan he covered his eyes this time with his left hand and entered the code with his right.

"SONIC! WAIT! DON'T!" It was too late.

"XField initiated." Knuckles, frustrated with fear, ran up to the door and punched it as hard as he could, creating indentations.

"Stand back, Knux!" Knuckles turned around to see Sonic revving up for another Sonic Spin.

"Are you sure?"

"Well.. We don't have any choice." With that said, Sonic sped forth to the metallic door and began cutting through with whatever strength he had.

After 1 minute, he got through and landed face to the ground exhausted, unable to move but conscious. The green wall of doom didn't seem visible yet as they looked behind them.

Once on the other side of the door, they found themselves in a huge, cubical room with another door directly in line with the one they just got through. Within the room, white laser beams connected the floor and ceiling in a vertical lined pattern with one row after the other equally spaced apart. The spaces between each beam were also the same. The door past the room was just 50 feet away.

"Any ideas?" Tails asked. Knuckles took out a small pebble from his shoe to test how it worked. Once he threw it, a wall of white plasma zorched the pebble after passing 5 rows, sending it along a path too fast for anyone to pick up on. There were about 24 before the door. It was now apparent that sort of path was necessary to get through.

Tails then picked up a large bolt lying on the floor next to the door they just got through and threw it. Sonic was able to observe which way the bolt went after it hit each energy wall sending it along a path they needed to take. After just over 10 seconds, it reached the door with the great metal clank. Sonic, still exhausted, led the way through the laser filled room along the correct path flawlessly.

Once they reached the door, it wasn't secured like the others and they were able to get through with a simple push of a button. Tails noticed the bolt lying near the door and was shocked to see only a little piece remaining. "Come on, Tails!" Tails shrugged and hurried to catch up.

Final preparations were made. Everyone was now ready. All there was left to do was to wait. Some Freedom Fighters were stationed at high look out trees to give everyone a few minutes notice. So far, nothing. But then… a horde of green blips emerged from the hillside, leaping their way towards their location. Alarms were sound and everyone ready more so than ever. Once the terrebots reached the Great Forest, they began jumping tree to tree, gaining more speed. At the site of the bots' abilities, the person on lookout began to doubt his own abilities and lost all hope. One of the terrebots got to him and it was too late.

"We lost contact with Fievis on lookout!" Rotor announced.

"Launch the catapults!" Sally commanded. Catapults with heavy boulders were sent to the oncoming new breed of bots. Unfortunately, most missed their desired targets because of their agility.

Using weaponry from Robotropolis, many of the Freedom Fighters not part of the core group formed a line and fired at will at the terrebots yet their effect was noticeable, it wasn't enough to stop them from fully attacking. Many sustained fatal wounds from the terrebots claws and tail whips as they were simply able to pounce the oblivious victum or knock them off their feet with their monstrous tail. Antoine, after seeing many kills and what the terrebots were capable of, fell back and joined with Sally and Rotor.

The core group, Sally, Rotor, Bunnie and Antoine still in the heart of knothole, pondered their next move.

"That it! Ah'm goin' out there to kick some robot hind!" Bunnie decided to join in and take action by using robot side to her advantage.

"Good luck, Bunnie."

Once after Bunnie departed, "I've got an idea, Sally."

"What is it, Rotor?"

"In my work shop, I have a crashed craft that Lighthead used against us during his first invasion."

"Does it work?"

"Sorta… I can get it to fly and fire with this joystick. Only thing is, its difficult to control. Jerk it one way too fast and it'll spin out."

"Ok Rotor. See if you can use that. I'm going out to assist Bunnie."

"Will do, princess!"

"The feeling is very strong! I know its in here!"

"I hope that feeling isn't being canceled out by the heat."

"Its in this very room?!"

"Yes!"

Sonic, Tails and Knuckles found themselves in a vast semispherical room with a loud humming tone coming from the center that appeared to be a couple miles away. The hum may have been loud but the heat was worse. Much worse. It had now climbed to a staggering 175ºF.

"Just… down… there…"  Sonic was too tired to run just as Tails and Knuckles were too hot to fly or glide and temperature was still increasing dramatically. Every minute it went up 10 degrees.

"Once we get there, how are we supposed to bring it back?"

"That's the incredibly easy part, Sonic. Once the three of us lay a hand on it, it will revert it and us back to the Floating Island instantly. Believe me, its more than just a hunch."

"Boy, I hope you're right."

"Wait… what about the Sword of Acorns? How do we get that?"

"Gore has it."

"Then I'm going after him."

"No, Sonic. Getting the Master Chaos Emerald is hard enough. We won't make it if we try to go after the sword."

"But… I must! It's the only thing that holds dear to Sally! I can't let this opportunity goto waste!"

"We don't even know where he is! This thing is on a collision course with the sun soon. We'll be fried if we go after the sword. Accept it.

"Alright everyone. I think we've stored enough energy. If we wait any longer we'll be fried. On the count to three, we go at it at full speed."

"Right, Knuckles." Sonic and Tails said panting.

"One…."

"Two……"

Rotor brought the crashed SMDC to life, controlling it manually with the joystick and viewing what it could see through a built in camera that was sent back to his lab on a computer screen. Sally had went out and joined the battle but Antoine stayed behind.

"There! Look at it go!"

"Zat ees taireeffeec, Rotair!"

"Thanks! Now observe as I kick some terrebot tail." Rotor maneuvered the SMDC towards a terrebot and fired. The blasts did significant damage, blasting its tail off. Rotor then made the SMDC swoop around and fire again, this time at the head, clearing it off. The body collapsed and blew up while the head skidded away.

"OUI! Zat was great, Rotair!" Rotor was able to even the odds a little bit with the SMDC until a terrebots revealed a new ability. One of the terrebots appeared to lock on the SMDC and shot forth a projectile that homed in and blew up the SMDC on impact. Each could only do this once but there were abour 1500 of them. Only 100 had been destroyed so far and Knothole sustained significant losses.

Rotor, now overly frustrated, decided to go out and warn everyone that they wouldn't make it. Once he got out of his chair and turned to the door, a familiar figure stood in front of him. The same one warning him of Lighthead's return earlier. He never got a good look before but now he did. He was a middle aged overlander with white armor and a red cross on his torso.

"I'm here to help you. I understand you're in a bit of a predicament."

"Indeed! Who are you?"

"I'm afraid I'll have to leave that for another time because as I understand, there is much work to be done."

            "THREE!" Sonic, Knux and Tails ran like no tomorrow towards the center of the giant room. Half way there. But then, "I've been watching you. You didn't think it would be that easy did you? Another attempt by those who gives themselves the power to take away what we rightfully need. Do not underestimate the power I have achieved."

        A huge force field then appeared around the Master Emerald in the center, a half mile in diameter. Sonic, Knux and Tails all struck it, already going as fast as they could and were thrown back a great distance.

            "Argh.. Stupid CHAOS." Knuckles said, breathing heavily. The three of them could hardly stand given the circumstances they were going through. Suddenly, without any notice, Lighthead and Gore appeared before them.

"Greetings, fellow Freedom Fighters. We knew you were coming. Gore was a bit careless in his attempts to get the Sword of Acorns that he incidentally allowed you to follow."

"Incidentally?! He killed King Acorn! Sally's father!"

"I haven't figured out how to use its power but I will eventually." Gore said while examining it.

"That sword… belongs to us!"

"And the Master Emerald!"

Tails was too exhausted to say anything.

"I'm afraid we need that emerald."

"No one needs it more than the inhabitants of the Floating Island!"

"Well, you're wrong, anteater! WE need it and I'll tell you why. The Star X Conquerors are a race of beings that travel from sun to sun, draining its nuclear power with unexplicable powers thus making it go nova and traveling to the next. They have the ability to merge with the exterdimensions allowing them magnificent abilities.

"We built the Supremor to serve as a battleship against these savages. At first, when they arrived and we were ready. We were able to fight them off with the Supremor and SMDCs with ease. However, when they left they vowed to return with much a greater fleet and be sure to do away with draining Lighgretron's power supply. At first, we thought they were bluffing but until a couple months ago, we were able to determine that they are indeed enroute here and are bringing their ENTIRE race along with them. Their race consists of about 2.2 trillion. If we do not have the RSupremor at full optimacy, we and your sun are doomed. If they manage to get though us and weaken the sun, it will go nova. Once it goes nova, all life in the solar system is through. Wherever."

"All life?!"

"ALL life."

"That doesn't sound good and all but we'll be killed if we don't get to the Master Emerald and tranport it back from the heat."

"Yeah. Its not like we can stay along and cope with 32,000 degree weather outside."

"Hmm.. I have a way of changing that…"

"What do you mean?"

"You will not be subject to the heat if you are lighgrecized. The choice is simple. Either be lighgrecized and help us fight off the threat and save the solar system or die in matter of minutes because of the heat of your sun."

Trevor fought courageously with his huge bastard sword, able to take on the terrebots. His combat ability served him well. He'd occasionally utilize white magic when there were more than two terrebots after him at the same time. Much of Knothole showed pleased looks with this new help to assist.

The rest of the core group managed pretty well. Sally's agility kept her alive and kicking while Bunnie made great use of aerial attacks. With the combined forces with Trevor, they were now upto 500 terrebots defeated. However more and more just kept on coming and really began to wear out everyone battling. Even Trevor began showing signs of fatigue after now fighting hundreds of terrebots.

Rotor noticed on his main screen that there were still LOTS left and informed Sally on the com unit.

"There's still too many of these things coming. We're losing too many good people to these things. I think the best course of action is to lure them away from Knothole before they demolish it and regroup."

"Good idea, Rotor. I'll inform everyone else."

"Alright. We'll do it. We'll get lighgrecized." Sonic unwilling agreed. They thought about it for a minute before finally giving in mainly because they seemed so close to getting the Master Emerald back but this new threat overwhelmed them to stay and get lighgrecized.

"Very well. Gore, is the lighgrecizer online?"

"Yes, Dr Lighthead."

"Good. Escort them… QUICKLY! They do not have much time." Gore pushed a few buttons on a fancy watch and vanished along with Sonic, Tails and Knuckles. They reappeared on a large, transparent, yellow plate. Lighthead then appeared in the same room as well.

"Will I end up looking like that yellow version of me I had to fight not too long ago?"

"Briefly. You will have that appearance briefly. The three of you will but after a few hours you will revert to your normal like selves just now with the ability to withstand Lighgretron's heat and gravity." They nodded and waited.

Lighthead then activated the lighgrecizer. The plate lit up and shot forth, engulfing the three with intense yellow light.

Once the process was over, Sonic, Tails and Knux stood up, now bathed in a yellow glow and immune to the sun's heat and gravity field.

The news spreaded to divert the terrebots from Knothole which seemed to be working. Instead of Knothole, they were heading to the crashed site of the Supremor to do battle. Once there, they noticed that there were still 100s and 100s left. That's when an idea sparked for Rotor, who was enroute to the crashed site. Perhaps he could somehow trigger the thunderlaser to destroy the remaining terrebots. Problem being, it would need power to do so and if it were possible, it could blow up a big chink of the Great Forest. He'd just have to hope.