Sorry for the complete and utter lack of updates, people. In all honesty, I got busted because I messed up at school and thus had C's in two classes, so I lost the Internet for a good, long while. The good news is, because it's break, and because I've been doing better (I now only have B's and A's), I got the "privilege" of the Internet back for the week. Bad news-after that, I won't be allowed on until the folks see fit, so I'll try to get as many updates in as possible in that time. Say what you will about the punishment, but here's two nice, long chapters for your trouble.
And I've got plenty of plans for a couple stories, including a couple original fictions and a possible sequel to this one. Stay tuned for details.
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Chapter 39
Defective
"He's in," hissed the voice in her huge metallic body. "Damn it. But the echidna's probably dead anyway…maybe this will be more fun. More interesting. Hm…
"Unload all forces onto the outside battlefield. Don't let anyone else inside. Lock down all doors. All I want is the hedgehog."
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"Ugh! UNH!"
Blade swung the sword around with all his might, taking out robot after robot. He was like a fine-tuned machine. He took out two enemies at once at the front, then whirled around and kicked away another approaching from behind. Although technically, the "team" Beta should have been mowing down the enemies together, Big had run off somewhere else completely, leaving Blade to most of the work on the outer left flank. He could use some help, but obviously, he'd never admit that. To everyone else, and to himself, he was an invincible warrior. He could never admit he needed assistance. But he had gotten it from that massive explosion from behind. Possibly that bomb 'Giff had Sonic set up on the carrier? It had taken a lot longer than a half hour, but whatever worked…
Meanwhile, Team Charlie…er…Delta…was having its fair share of problems. Mighty wasn't quite as acrobatic as the others, so when Charmy threw him to one of the cannons, it took a while for Mighty to get back in the air-either by jumping, or by Charmy swooping down to get him. They were deactivating some of the sentry towers and cannons, but not with enough speed to be effective enough. They needed Tails…or that batgirl, Rouge, that Blade had mentioned. Where the hell was she, anyway?
Team Alpha was doing great. Espio, Amy, and Vector were slicing down the middle of the forces and taking out the heart of the enemy. Teams Beta and Delta were attracting a lot of attention, allowing them to cut through with lower resistance. Their speed kept foes from picking up on their location. Soon, though, Vector noticed trouble with Delta.
"They could use some help," he shouted. "I'll swing over there for a while."
Amy was about to object when Espio called back, "Get outta here, man." Vector saluted and veered through the crowd of enemies, swinging his arms wildly to get to Charmy and Mighty.
"Now what?" Amy screamed to the chameleon.
"Simply proceed with caution and concentrate on what you're doing." Espio proceeded to flip into the air and spin a tornado around him. Dozens of orange robots were flung into each other, destroying a mass number of the force. Amy didn't see Espio anymore.
"Espio!" she shrieked. One enemy blew up with no apparent cause. Espio? He must be invisible again. This left Amy on her own again. She took her hammer and smacked a few enemies around herself.
Over to Team Delta.
"Vector!" Charmy cried almost happily.
It was now a cycle. Once Charmy flung Mighty at a cannon, Vector jumped up and was fired instantly, giving Mighty time to get back up, and it simply continued. Faster, but lack of numbers were still hurting them. Sure, they were attracting the attention of many of the cannons and watch towers, but it was still god only knew how many of them against the group of three-and they were essentially one body, with two of the three acting as cannonballs. Deterring fire from the speed unit wasn't going to help if they were shot out of the sky, and it looked like the power team Beta was in too deep as it was. This all-out assault was falling apart quickly. Tails had better hurry up with that robot, because it'd take that and a miracle to get out of this safely, Charmy thought.
Blade felt like Aragorn in "Lord of the Rings," taking out the brunt of the foes. But even the great warrior knew he was beginning to slow down. It didn't show, but he was getting a bit tired-even he, who had such great stamina. His sword was a faint orange, but he no longer felt the "spirit of the flame," as he had called it. He groaned as he stabbed another robot to its demise. He swore his sword was becoming electrified with all the mechanical stuff he'd ripped through recently-the military ships, these robots…he should get a medal for all this. Or some kind of sheet where he can mark all the robots he's destroyed. Though he wouldn't be able to count it by…
PSZOOOWWWW!
A loud, piercing noise like the sound of a firing laser emanated from somewhere behind Blade. His first instinct was to whirl around, but that wouldn't be the warrior's instinct-or the smart thing to do. So he fought his curiosity-and cautiousness-and continued to fight.
He didn't have to wait long because Charmy, easily distracted, screamed, "It's DONE!"
About bloody time.
Blade wanted to look, dearly. He wanted to see the finished product. His hunter's instinct kept him from it, but he heard the sound of flowing energy getting closer and closer. Finally, a rush of air, and a streak of gold cut through the orange ocean of machinery. Lightning crackled in the sky and thunder shook the earth as Metal wiped out a whole line of metal soldiers in seconds flat. After its initial charge, it did a back flip and spun like crazy, a black and blue shield rotating around it and blowing up all the robots even remotely close to it.
Tails flew over to Charmy, Vector, and Mighty, his dual tails whirring faster and faster. He swooped down and grabbed Vector by the wrists, lifting him back into the black night air. Charmy and Tails then continued their assault on the cannons and sentry towers.
Espio continued to take out enemies quickly and unseen, but ran into trouble when he found six other golden robots, each with a shield. A hard, rock one. Shiny, too. What was he gonna do about this?
He decided to ignore them instead. But now what?
"Eargh!" Amy grunted behind him. Espio turned to see the young pink hedgehog swinging her hammer desperately, trying to take out the enemies. The poor girl could use a little help, he thought. He jumped over the enemies and prepared to dive down for an attack when…
ZZT!
"ACK!"
One of the gold robots from before picked Espio off in mid air with a laser. He turned visible again. The chameleon grasped his burning chest as he plummeted to the ground.
Right into the spear of one of the robots.
Metal Sonic turned his head just in time to see this episode. The robot disappeared, then reappeared just near Espio as he snatched the chameleon up and landed just beyond the orange security bots. He slowly let Espio out of his arms just in time for both of them to dodge out of the way of a shot barrage by the crowd of orange robots and the gold shield robots. Although the hard rock shields took most of the laser and rocket damage from the orange machines, half of the weaker robot grunts were taken out from the accidental fire of the gold ones. The other orange robots stood around for a few seconds wondering what had happened. This gave Amy enough time to destroy six more robots. Espio locked onto the other troops and shoved his feet downward, taking out the few of the group that remained. He bounced back into the air from the recoil, then spun in mid-air to avoid the laser fire of the frustrated gold robots. The distraction opened a hole for Metal Sonic. He had been flying around, dodging beams and attracting the attention of other guns, and finally swung around and burst through the debris of the orange robots and began shimmering gold again. The golden robots finally saw Metal and held their shields out to block his attack.
It didn't help.
Metal shattered the diamond shields and cut right through the first two robots of the group. He quickly planted down to the ground, turned and blasted forward again. Before the gold robots could turn around, Metal performed an incredible feat. He moved so fast, it actually appeared to the others that there were two copies of Metal Sonic. The "two" Metals blasted through the gold robots from behind, blowing them to smithereens.
The gold ones caused an explosion high enough to even catch Blade's attention. The warrior had taken out almost the entire left flank single-handedly, but the crowd was growing in number rather than falling. They must still be pumping out troops.
He regained control and just ducked under one more of Eggman's troops, following up with a cross-diagonal slash. And this whole time, he thought he was taking out someone different. But, according to RaGiff, the hedgehog said Eggman and Dr. Robotnik were the same person. So, now it was personal.
Time for some much-needed revenge, "Eggman," Blade thought. You ruined my life, now I'm gonna end yours.
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This tunnel was long. Way too long. Sonic was trying to conserve energy, but even if he walked this whole way, he'd still be too tired by then end. So he just kept running. His stamina hadn't let him down yet. Then again, he'd never been tested quite like this, or this much, before.
As he ran, the ceiling eventually became glass. Soon, the same happened with the walls, and before Sonic knew it, the entire tunnel he was running in was made of clear glass. At first, on the outside, he saw pitch black, as if he was underground or something. Then, for some odd reason, it quickly turned blue, like the sky. Was he in the air? Or underwater? What the heck was going on here?
It's nothing, he told him, Eggman's just messing with your head. Keep going.
The blue outside eventually got darker and darker until Sonic couldn't see anything. Something was really screwed up here. Definetly freaked out, Sonic stopped for a second for fear of running into something. Then, he heard a sound like thunder and felt the glass floor tremble beneath him. Something outside, maybe? That battle must be getting pretty intense.
Then, the tunnel shook again.
Sonic began to jog slowly, trying to "sense" an incoming obstacle.
Another shake.
Sonic thought he saw a faint flash on his right, outside of the tunnel, but it went away faster than it appeared. Probably nothing, but then again…
Shaking once more.
Sonic gasped.
He jumped and landed on the side wall just as the floor beneath him shattered into millions of tiny shards. They were snowflakes falling to the black abyss below him. No doubt, if that Egghead was still runnin' the show, he was pulling out all the stops.
He began to lose his balance. So he curled into a ball and tried to roll to pick up speed.
Bad idea. Very bad idea. Because the glass couldn't take the rapid spinning of Sonic's Spin Dash.
The glass shattered. Sonic plummeted into the dark.
At the last second, he turned into a ball and pushed himself. Pushed, pushed, pushed, until he somehow blasted through the air, still spinning, and shattered his way through the other wall at an upper diagonal angle. As he spun higher and higher, he saw the top of the glass tunnel. If he could just get over there…
He stopped spinning, stretched out his arms and legs, and tried swimming through the air to the roof of the tunnel. Not much more time before he fell past it, he had to hurry.
Could he make it?
No!
He was falling short.
He lunged forward, arms grasping for the top.
Got it!
He was holding onto the edge of the glass tunnel top. Legs dangling, he flipped upward and, trying as hard as he could to land softly, touched the surface.
Not a crack.
Luck.
He sighed deeply, shook his head, and ran on. No big deal.
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Her vision blurred as she looked up. First, green and blue. Then, it separated into tree and sky. A face…slowly made out. Rouge knew it from somewhere. Where, though?
It was cold out. Very cold. It felt like she was out there naked. Not completely, though, but some of her uniform must have torn off or burned off or something.
Uniform.
Oh yes…it was from…the squad. One of the men…
"Ms. Rouge, can you hear me?" asked the voice loudly.
Rouge wanted to talk, but the pain made her squirm.
"Ungh…"
"Private, what's the deal?" called another voice. It sounded like…the general?
"She's not dead yet, General Ramsey sir," answered the soldier. "She needs professional care."
"The doctor's coming, but try to keep her alive until then, soldier."
Footsteps. Ramsey was gone.
After all this, they continued to care for her. Complete and utter defiance of their authority, and yet here they were, keeping her last strand of life away from the scissors of death.
She barely smiled.
The private smiled back.
"It's gonna be okay…Captain."
A slight groan. Then, she closed her eyes. She was too tired.
"Knu…"
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"How'd you get that thing running anyway?" Charmy shouted over to Tails as they continued to throw Vector and Mighty at the cannons. With Metal Sonic leading the charge, the assault was moving much quicker.
"Pretty easy," Tails yelled back. "He has an internal computer and monitor I used to hack through Eggman's old files and get rid of all the stuff that made Metal do his bidding. I created a program that has Metal Sonic obey the first person he encounters, and of course, that was me. As far as I know, all of Eggman's programs and files are gone, at least the ones we don't…"
"I don't mean that!" Charmy retorted. "I mean, how'd you put it back together?"
"That was the weirdest part. I didn't have any major tools, but even though there was a lot of damage done to it, the parts fit right back in! It didn't look like the connectors took any damage at all! The hard part was just getting his computer working the way I wanted."
"What stuff did you keep in?"
"Only…" Tails started, then swooped down to catch Vector and threw him again. "Only his combat ones. I also got rid of his data for the Metal Overlord, his monster program that thrashed us last time. And his free will is essentially gone, he only does what I command him to. When he's in combat, though, he's allowed to use his own judgment to make decisions."
"Nice," said Charmy, who got the gist of what Tails was saying.
"Anytime you're ready?" Vector growled from below.
"Sorry!" Tails apologized, and he chucked the crocodile at another tower.
"Hey," Mighty shouted to the others, "what's that?"
"Huh?" asked Charmy. The armadillo pointed down at a small crimson dot right near the sentry tower Vector was careening towards.
"Take a look, Mighty!" yelled Charmy.
"Don't bother," Tails objected. "It's probably just a destroyed robot."
Mighty shook his head. "Too dark. I'll be right back." Charmy then tossed Mighty down to the red object. Charmy continued to observe while Tails went down to get Vector.
"What's he doin'?" Vector asked Tails, gesturing towards Mighty now falling to the ground not near any cannons.
"He's checking out that red thing," the fox responded. "Did you noticed what it was?"
"Not paying attention. Too busy slamming into a giant metal cannon."
"Do you have to be sarcastic about everything?"
"I do it just to…"
"Y'know what? I'm not gonna listen to this crap anymore." Tails then threw the yelling crocodile away towards nothing in particular. He laughed a bit, then turned his attention to a motioning Charmy.
"Mighty's tellin' us to come down!" He pointed to the ground, where a small red and black dot was waving them down.
"Okay," Tails agreed. The two flew down through the clouds dodging cannon fire and finally landing on the pavement.
Tails knew it before they got there.
"It's Knuckles!"
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Chapter 40
Casualty of War
Sonic continued on the roof of glass, trying to avoid running too fast and shattering the only thing keeping him from an endless drop. Or, probably, one that would end in a bunch of whirring gears. He wondered what curveball Eggman would throw at him now.
The answer came at the end of the glass tunnel roof.
He finally made it to the end, but there was a problem. He was above the entrance to the next part of the cave, since he was actually on the top of the passageway. So basically, the only place to go was right below him, but if he tried to get to it, he'd fall before he would get a chance to get through. Time for another Houdini moment.
He slowly lowered his feet over the side of the glass and gripped it with his hands. Worried the glass would shatter under his weight, he started swinging back and forth, back and forth, until he felt he would be able to launch far enough. Sonic then let go with one hand, angled his body as close to the cave entrance…
Cave?
In a giant, metallic base, city?
Whatever.
He angled his body as close to the cave entrance as possible, and once he had swung back far enough, he flung himself forward and released his grip. In midair, he shoved his legs forward, planted down on the wall, placed his hands on the wall for slight balance, and flipped off the wall onto the rock path.
Why? Why did it always have to be a cave? He was getting sick and tired of this. And what the heck was it doing in the middle of a mechanical base? Time for a little investigating.
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What was that thing out there? Was it…the hedgehog? But he was inside! And that thing was…flying! What in God's name…
Wait. That wasn't the hedgehog. It was that stupid scout robot that looked like him. She had sent it out a while ago. She should've guessed something was up, it hadn't even sent a transmission the whole time. But why was it destroying her own forces? She guessed she could call them hers now that the fat loser that called himself a doctor was dead. Something was obviously screwed up out there. Eh, no matter, still. Even with Metal Sonic, Sonic, and every other little rodent out there, they couldn't stop her.
She returned her attention to the computer. A readout came from the northeast sector of the nearby city, Capital City. She couldn't zoom in much further, though. She wasn't as good at the computers as the doctor was, especially in this large, chunky robot. She couldn't wait to test its dormant strength.
"Send out our fastest scout robot," she muttered to Omega. "Make sure to drain about eighty percent of its shield energy. Send it to Capital City, near the northeast area. Find whatever Chaos Emeralds are there. Once it returns with enough of them, the abolition of man will begin."
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"Knuckles!" Mighty shouted, "wake up, man!"
BOOM
Mighty barely dodged an explosion from one of the cannons.
"Get him outta here," Charmy said. "Get him up, I'll cover you. Tails, get Vector and keep going at those cannons."
"You sure you're gonna be-" Tails began.
"I'm positive, just go! Hurry up before you're blown to pieces!"
Tails nodded, began whirring his tails, and hovered back into the air, flying towards Vector.
Charmy shoved his gray pilot's helmet over his face, narrowed his eyes, and clenched his fists, facing an onslaught of ginger-colored security robots, as well as the cannons on the sides.
Although Mighty was supposed to be waking Knuckles up-again-he couldn't help but watch this and laugh. There was nothing like an angry Charmy going postal on a whole bunch of "bad guys," as the bee put it.
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Where the heck was that cat???
Blade continued to swing away at the numerous robotic enemies in front of him, but his arms were getting tired and his senses were dulling. This was the time where the old trainers of the past always said that you had to step it up, or when high school sports coaches always said you had to play as hard in the fourth quarter as you did in the first. But, in this case, Blade was battling into four overtimes. Where was that stupid cat? For once, he needed him.
The answer to this question came with a loud groan just a few meters to his left. He took a split second to watch the purple cat fall to the ground, gripping his chest. A spurt of red blood stained blasted from his chest and stained a nearby robot shield.
A shock in his heart.
He had lost another.
The first casualty of this war.
Flashbacks.
Watching tens, hundreds fall in front of him.
Back on Mobius, fighting the same robotic army.
Two fall out of a crashing plane.
Three around him collapsing like rag dolls from gunfire.
A bomb exploding nearby, undoubtedly killing hundreds more.
All those people.
And it had happened again.
And again, at the hands of Doctor Ivo Robotnik.
The Eggman.
Although he was clearly staring at the horde of robots, his image had changed back to the dreaded war scene, then to black.
He couldn't.
He couldn't do it again.
No more.
No more loss.
The other robots, although under strict orders from their new master to eradicate all threats outside the base, were bemused by Blade's actions. After hours of hacking and slashing, he had just stopped, staring at something over to the left. Then…the weirdest thing of all.
After all that, he was no longer the master of battle, Blade Kasille.
He was now human again, he was once more Leo O'Connell.
And Leo O'Connell, the fight sucked out of him, turned away from the army of machines, slowly slipped his sword back into the sheath on his back, and walked back to the mountain.
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Knuckles was in a familiar place, but he didn't know where he knew it from. It was dark, for a while, but then color flooded his eyes in a rainbow wave. He squinted and held his arms up to block the massive light. Finally, his eyes adjusted to the light and he stared into it to see a beautiful young woman with blue hair levitating.
"Crystal…" he whispered.
"The universe has seen no wrath like mine," she bellowed. "No force is strong enough to even slow me."
"What the…what's wrong with you?" Knuckles shouted. "What are you talking about?"
"Look at your friends…" She floated to the right, allowing Knuckles to see an image of…a battlefield. It looked just like…the place by the mountain he had been chasing Sonic at. Now, though, the mountainous floor with numerous asphalt roads was swamped with dark orange robots with various weapons. In the fight were Tails, Charmy, Espio, Mighty, Vector, Big lying on the ground covered in blood, and…some guy with a red sword. Except the swordsman was walking away, slowly, from the horde of robots.
"Those are Eggman's," he concluded.
"No," growled Crystal. "Now they are mine. The Eggman is no more."
Knuckles was silent for a while.
"Sonic…?"
"No."
"You."
"Yes. You think the hedgehog is the cause of all your problems, but you are wrong. Dead wrong. I normally don't do this, but you have no chance of stopping me anyway, so I'll tell you.
"I am the leader of the army of Dimension 8.75. We are the second army of hell, and our goal is simple-to destroy the universe and send them all to the eternal torture of hell and our master, Satan. We are his loyal spirits, but as spirits, we cannot enter the world as human figures, not without the mysterious gems called Chaos Emeralds. We must find solid hosts.
"However, because the air is our home, we cannot stay in a solid figure for long. Only an hour. So initially, we took control of humans and other living beings. Including your hedgehog."
"That's it!" Knuckles cried.
Crystal nodded. "I took his body and took you, as well. And if you had lost in that labyrinth, I would've had you for my part of hell's army. I underestimated you."
"Why not just take me and kill me yourself?" Knuckles asked, still coming to copes with the fact he almost killed Sonic for something he could not control."
"But that posed a problem as well. For some of our soldiers discovered, the hard way, that if a living being is killed, the spirit that controls him is destroyed as well, never to return.
"But then, I thought. Robots. They are not living things, but they are hosts that we can control. They cannot die because they do not live."
"So that's the reason you killed Eggman!"
"I will explain no more. I will return you back to your body. You do not have much longer left, and neither does your planet. Once I am in control of even one Emerald, I can obliterate an entire country. If I have all seven…the universe…"
Knuckles caught one last glimpse of the image near Crystal. Mighty was shaking what appeared to be Knuckles' own body.
"Knuckles, wake up man!" shouted the armadillo.
All went black before Knuckles' mind could even process the thought.
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Charmy stabbed his stinger into another enemy, but Mighty could tell the bee was getting tired. C'mon, Knuckles, get up!
"Ugh…" The echidna slowly moved his hand to his head and rubbed it.
"Red, it's Mighty! Wake up, man!"
"I'm…up…I'm up."
"Now get up, Charmy's been defending us for a while, but he needs your help."
"What…?"
"We're near Eggman's base, we need-"
But instantly, Knuckles flipped himself up. "I know. I know everything, more than you! Charmy!" he called to the bee.
"What?" gasped Charmy.
"Go to the Floating Island and get the Master Emerald. Bring it back here. I'll hold these guys off." The last time Knuckles went Chaotix, he had tried to do it without the Emerald. His punishment was being knocked out until now.
"Tails is faster, he should go."
"Hold on!" Mighty shouted. "Look, up there!"
"No time!" Knuckles yelled. The robots were charging, and they were sitting ducks if they kept talking. He ran forward and slammed his fist into one robot, then kicked away another.
"Charmy," explained Mighty, "there's some robot up there flying away from the base. Chase it down, but first get Tails to go for the Master Emerald."
"Got it. Help Knuckles out. I'll get Vec, too."
Mighty nodded. Charmy zoomed through the flurry of cannon fire to find Tails. Mighty got focused just in time to sprint away from an exploding bomb from a grenade-throwing robot soldier. Knuckles had the left side of the horde, so he'd have to take the right.
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Espio and Amy continued to slam down on the robots, but they needed some help. Something was going on near the left flank with Blade and Big, and it wasn't good, because all the enemies from that side were collapsing in on them. Simply put, this small crew wasn't enough. Even Metal Sonic, who had been swooping around and using every bit of his abilities to help, couldn't do it all. Amy saw the robot being battered by gunfire as it began to slow down, bit by bit. She crushed one robot with her hammer, but took another punch from behind. She didn't know where Espio was because he had turned invisible again, but he didn't appear to be helping. She ducked a laser beam from one large red robot, then jumped over a swing from one of the orange one's spears, but then took a whack to the head by another one. She fell to the ground, wincing, bleeding at the head, and dropped her hammer. Pain tore her body to shreds.
Was it over?
But the dream came back, the dream from her apartment. "It's your turn, Amy, it's your turn," Sonic's voice echoed in her head. He was right. It was her turn to step it up.
She rolled from a spear that stabbed the ground. Then, she snatched her hammer and slammed it down to propel herself upwards. After spending a good few seconds in the air, she landed feet first on a robot and crushed it.
Amy stared down the robots, blood trickling past her eyes and near her mouth. Her shirt was torn at the sleeves, and the bottom of her skirt was frayed and missing a chunk on the front. She wiped her nose and gripped her hammer.
"It is my turn, Sonic, it's my turn," she said to herself. "This one's for you. Even if you're not even alive anymore, or if you don't even think I exist…this' for you."
And I've got plenty of plans for a couple stories, including a couple original fictions and a possible sequel to this one. Stay tuned for details.
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Chapter 39
Defective
"He's in," hissed the voice in her huge metallic body. "Damn it. But the echidna's probably dead anyway…maybe this will be more fun. More interesting. Hm…
"Unload all forces onto the outside battlefield. Don't let anyone else inside. Lock down all doors. All I want is the hedgehog."
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"Ugh! UNH!"
Blade swung the sword around with all his might, taking out robot after robot. He was like a fine-tuned machine. He took out two enemies at once at the front, then whirled around and kicked away another approaching from behind. Although technically, the "team" Beta should have been mowing down the enemies together, Big had run off somewhere else completely, leaving Blade to most of the work on the outer left flank. He could use some help, but obviously, he'd never admit that. To everyone else, and to himself, he was an invincible warrior. He could never admit he needed assistance. But he had gotten it from that massive explosion from behind. Possibly that bomb 'Giff had Sonic set up on the carrier? It had taken a lot longer than a half hour, but whatever worked…
Meanwhile, Team Charlie…er…Delta…was having its fair share of problems. Mighty wasn't quite as acrobatic as the others, so when Charmy threw him to one of the cannons, it took a while for Mighty to get back in the air-either by jumping, or by Charmy swooping down to get him. They were deactivating some of the sentry towers and cannons, but not with enough speed to be effective enough. They needed Tails…or that batgirl, Rouge, that Blade had mentioned. Where the hell was she, anyway?
Team Alpha was doing great. Espio, Amy, and Vector were slicing down the middle of the forces and taking out the heart of the enemy. Teams Beta and Delta were attracting a lot of attention, allowing them to cut through with lower resistance. Their speed kept foes from picking up on their location. Soon, though, Vector noticed trouble with Delta.
"They could use some help," he shouted. "I'll swing over there for a while."
Amy was about to object when Espio called back, "Get outta here, man." Vector saluted and veered through the crowd of enemies, swinging his arms wildly to get to Charmy and Mighty.
"Now what?" Amy screamed to the chameleon.
"Simply proceed with caution and concentrate on what you're doing." Espio proceeded to flip into the air and spin a tornado around him. Dozens of orange robots were flung into each other, destroying a mass number of the force. Amy didn't see Espio anymore.
"Espio!" she shrieked. One enemy blew up with no apparent cause. Espio? He must be invisible again. This left Amy on her own again. She took her hammer and smacked a few enemies around herself.
Over to Team Delta.
"Vector!" Charmy cried almost happily.
It was now a cycle. Once Charmy flung Mighty at a cannon, Vector jumped up and was fired instantly, giving Mighty time to get back up, and it simply continued. Faster, but lack of numbers were still hurting them. Sure, they were attracting the attention of many of the cannons and watch towers, but it was still god only knew how many of them against the group of three-and they were essentially one body, with two of the three acting as cannonballs. Deterring fire from the speed unit wasn't going to help if they were shot out of the sky, and it looked like the power team Beta was in too deep as it was. This all-out assault was falling apart quickly. Tails had better hurry up with that robot, because it'd take that and a miracle to get out of this safely, Charmy thought.
Blade felt like Aragorn in "Lord of the Rings," taking out the brunt of the foes. But even the great warrior knew he was beginning to slow down. It didn't show, but he was getting a bit tired-even he, who had such great stamina. His sword was a faint orange, but he no longer felt the "spirit of the flame," as he had called it. He groaned as he stabbed another robot to its demise. He swore his sword was becoming electrified with all the mechanical stuff he'd ripped through recently-the military ships, these robots…he should get a medal for all this. Or some kind of sheet where he can mark all the robots he's destroyed. Though he wouldn't be able to count it by…
PSZOOOWWWW!
A loud, piercing noise like the sound of a firing laser emanated from somewhere behind Blade. His first instinct was to whirl around, but that wouldn't be the warrior's instinct-or the smart thing to do. So he fought his curiosity-and cautiousness-and continued to fight.
He didn't have to wait long because Charmy, easily distracted, screamed, "It's DONE!"
About bloody time.
Blade wanted to look, dearly. He wanted to see the finished product. His hunter's instinct kept him from it, but he heard the sound of flowing energy getting closer and closer. Finally, a rush of air, and a streak of gold cut through the orange ocean of machinery. Lightning crackled in the sky and thunder shook the earth as Metal wiped out a whole line of metal soldiers in seconds flat. After its initial charge, it did a back flip and spun like crazy, a black and blue shield rotating around it and blowing up all the robots even remotely close to it.
Tails flew over to Charmy, Vector, and Mighty, his dual tails whirring faster and faster. He swooped down and grabbed Vector by the wrists, lifting him back into the black night air. Charmy and Tails then continued their assault on the cannons and sentry towers.
Espio continued to take out enemies quickly and unseen, but ran into trouble when he found six other golden robots, each with a shield. A hard, rock one. Shiny, too. What was he gonna do about this?
He decided to ignore them instead. But now what?
"Eargh!" Amy grunted behind him. Espio turned to see the young pink hedgehog swinging her hammer desperately, trying to take out the enemies. The poor girl could use a little help, he thought. He jumped over the enemies and prepared to dive down for an attack when…
ZZT!
"ACK!"
One of the gold robots from before picked Espio off in mid air with a laser. He turned visible again. The chameleon grasped his burning chest as he plummeted to the ground.
Right into the spear of one of the robots.
Metal Sonic turned his head just in time to see this episode. The robot disappeared, then reappeared just near Espio as he snatched the chameleon up and landed just beyond the orange security bots. He slowly let Espio out of his arms just in time for both of them to dodge out of the way of a shot barrage by the crowd of orange robots and the gold shield robots. Although the hard rock shields took most of the laser and rocket damage from the orange machines, half of the weaker robot grunts were taken out from the accidental fire of the gold ones. The other orange robots stood around for a few seconds wondering what had happened. This gave Amy enough time to destroy six more robots. Espio locked onto the other troops and shoved his feet downward, taking out the few of the group that remained. He bounced back into the air from the recoil, then spun in mid-air to avoid the laser fire of the frustrated gold robots. The distraction opened a hole for Metal Sonic. He had been flying around, dodging beams and attracting the attention of other guns, and finally swung around and burst through the debris of the orange robots and began shimmering gold again. The golden robots finally saw Metal and held their shields out to block his attack.
It didn't help.
Metal shattered the diamond shields and cut right through the first two robots of the group. He quickly planted down to the ground, turned and blasted forward again. Before the gold robots could turn around, Metal performed an incredible feat. He moved so fast, it actually appeared to the others that there were two copies of Metal Sonic. The "two" Metals blasted through the gold robots from behind, blowing them to smithereens.
The gold ones caused an explosion high enough to even catch Blade's attention. The warrior had taken out almost the entire left flank single-handedly, but the crowd was growing in number rather than falling. They must still be pumping out troops.
He regained control and just ducked under one more of Eggman's troops, following up with a cross-diagonal slash. And this whole time, he thought he was taking out someone different. But, according to RaGiff, the hedgehog said Eggman and Dr. Robotnik were the same person. So, now it was personal.
Time for some much-needed revenge, "Eggman," Blade thought. You ruined my life, now I'm gonna end yours.
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This tunnel was long. Way too long. Sonic was trying to conserve energy, but even if he walked this whole way, he'd still be too tired by then end. So he just kept running. His stamina hadn't let him down yet. Then again, he'd never been tested quite like this, or this much, before.
As he ran, the ceiling eventually became glass. Soon, the same happened with the walls, and before Sonic knew it, the entire tunnel he was running in was made of clear glass. At first, on the outside, he saw pitch black, as if he was underground or something. Then, for some odd reason, it quickly turned blue, like the sky. Was he in the air? Or underwater? What the heck was going on here?
It's nothing, he told him, Eggman's just messing with your head. Keep going.
The blue outside eventually got darker and darker until Sonic couldn't see anything. Something was really screwed up here. Definetly freaked out, Sonic stopped for a second for fear of running into something. Then, he heard a sound like thunder and felt the glass floor tremble beneath him. Something outside, maybe? That battle must be getting pretty intense.
Then, the tunnel shook again.
Sonic began to jog slowly, trying to "sense" an incoming obstacle.
Another shake.
Sonic thought he saw a faint flash on his right, outside of the tunnel, but it went away faster than it appeared. Probably nothing, but then again…
Shaking once more.
Sonic gasped.
He jumped and landed on the side wall just as the floor beneath him shattered into millions of tiny shards. They were snowflakes falling to the black abyss below him. No doubt, if that Egghead was still runnin' the show, he was pulling out all the stops.
He began to lose his balance. So he curled into a ball and tried to roll to pick up speed.
Bad idea. Very bad idea. Because the glass couldn't take the rapid spinning of Sonic's Spin Dash.
The glass shattered. Sonic plummeted into the dark.
At the last second, he turned into a ball and pushed himself. Pushed, pushed, pushed, until he somehow blasted through the air, still spinning, and shattered his way through the other wall at an upper diagonal angle. As he spun higher and higher, he saw the top of the glass tunnel. If he could just get over there…
He stopped spinning, stretched out his arms and legs, and tried swimming through the air to the roof of the tunnel. Not much more time before he fell past it, he had to hurry.
Could he make it?
No!
He was falling short.
He lunged forward, arms grasping for the top.
Got it!
He was holding onto the edge of the glass tunnel top. Legs dangling, he flipped upward and, trying as hard as he could to land softly, touched the surface.
Not a crack.
Luck.
He sighed deeply, shook his head, and ran on. No big deal.
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Her vision blurred as she looked up. First, green and blue. Then, it separated into tree and sky. A face…slowly made out. Rouge knew it from somewhere. Where, though?
It was cold out. Very cold. It felt like she was out there naked. Not completely, though, but some of her uniform must have torn off or burned off or something.
Uniform.
Oh yes…it was from…the squad. One of the men…
"Ms. Rouge, can you hear me?" asked the voice loudly.
Rouge wanted to talk, but the pain made her squirm.
"Ungh…"
"Private, what's the deal?" called another voice. It sounded like…the general?
"She's not dead yet, General Ramsey sir," answered the soldier. "She needs professional care."
"The doctor's coming, but try to keep her alive until then, soldier."
Footsteps. Ramsey was gone.
After all this, they continued to care for her. Complete and utter defiance of their authority, and yet here they were, keeping her last strand of life away from the scissors of death.
She barely smiled.
The private smiled back.
"It's gonna be okay…Captain."
A slight groan. Then, she closed her eyes. She was too tired.
"Knu…"
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"How'd you get that thing running anyway?" Charmy shouted over to Tails as they continued to throw Vector and Mighty at the cannons. With Metal Sonic leading the charge, the assault was moving much quicker.
"Pretty easy," Tails yelled back. "He has an internal computer and monitor I used to hack through Eggman's old files and get rid of all the stuff that made Metal do his bidding. I created a program that has Metal Sonic obey the first person he encounters, and of course, that was me. As far as I know, all of Eggman's programs and files are gone, at least the ones we don't…"
"I don't mean that!" Charmy retorted. "I mean, how'd you put it back together?"
"That was the weirdest part. I didn't have any major tools, but even though there was a lot of damage done to it, the parts fit right back in! It didn't look like the connectors took any damage at all! The hard part was just getting his computer working the way I wanted."
"What stuff did you keep in?"
"Only…" Tails started, then swooped down to catch Vector and threw him again. "Only his combat ones. I also got rid of his data for the Metal Overlord, his monster program that thrashed us last time. And his free will is essentially gone, he only does what I command him to. When he's in combat, though, he's allowed to use his own judgment to make decisions."
"Nice," said Charmy, who got the gist of what Tails was saying.
"Anytime you're ready?" Vector growled from below.
"Sorry!" Tails apologized, and he chucked the crocodile at another tower.
"Hey," Mighty shouted to the others, "what's that?"
"Huh?" asked Charmy. The armadillo pointed down at a small crimson dot right near the sentry tower Vector was careening towards.
"Take a look, Mighty!" yelled Charmy.
"Don't bother," Tails objected. "It's probably just a destroyed robot."
Mighty shook his head. "Too dark. I'll be right back." Charmy then tossed Mighty down to the red object. Charmy continued to observe while Tails went down to get Vector.
"What's he doin'?" Vector asked Tails, gesturing towards Mighty now falling to the ground not near any cannons.
"He's checking out that red thing," the fox responded. "Did you noticed what it was?"
"Not paying attention. Too busy slamming into a giant metal cannon."
"Do you have to be sarcastic about everything?"
"I do it just to…"
"Y'know what? I'm not gonna listen to this crap anymore." Tails then threw the yelling crocodile away towards nothing in particular. He laughed a bit, then turned his attention to a motioning Charmy.
"Mighty's tellin' us to come down!" He pointed to the ground, where a small red and black dot was waving them down.
"Okay," Tails agreed. The two flew down through the clouds dodging cannon fire and finally landing on the pavement.
Tails knew it before they got there.
"It's Knuckles!"
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Chapter 40
Casualty of War
Sonic continued on the roof of glass, trying to avoid running too fast and shattering the only thing keeping him from an endless drop. Or, probably, one that would end in a bunch of whirring gears. He wondered what curveball Eggman would throw at him now.
The answer came at the end of the glass tunnel roof.
He finally made it to the end, but there was a problem. He was above the entrance to the next part of the cave, since he was actually on the top of the passageway. So basically, the only place to go was right below him, but if he tried to get to it, he'd fall before he would get a chance to get through. Time for another Houdini moment.
He slowly lowered his feet over the side of the glass and gripped it with his hands. Worried the glass would shatter under his weight, he started swinging back and forth, back and forth, until he felt he would be able to launch far enough. Sonic then let go with one hand, angled his body as close to the cave entrance…
Cave?
In a giant, metallic base, city?
Whatever.
He angled his body as close to the cave entrance as possible, and once he had swung back far enough, he flung himself forward and released his grip. In midair, he shoved his legs forward, planted down on the wall, placed his hands on the wall for slight balance, and flipped off the wall onto the rock path.
Why? Why did it always have to be a cave? He was getting sick and tired of this. And what the heck was it doing in the middle of a mechanical base? Time for a little investigating.
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What was that thing out there? Was it…the hedgehog? But he was inside! And that thing was…flying! What in God's name…
Wait. That wasn't the hedgehog. It was that stupid scout robot that looked like him. She had sent it out a while ago. She should've guessed something was up, it hadn't even sent a transmission the whole time. But why was it destroying her own forces? She guessed she could call them hers now that the fat loser that called himself a doctor was dead. Something was obviously screwed up out there. Eh, no matter, still. Even with Metal Sonic, Sonic, and every other little rodent out there, they couldn't stop her.
She returned her attention to the computer. A readout came from the northeast sector of the nearby city, Capital City. She couldn't zoom in much further, though. She wasn't as good at the computers as the doctor was, especially in this large, chunky robot. She couldn't wait to test its dormant strength.
"Send out our fastest scout robot," she muttered to Omega. "Make sure to drain about eighty percent of its shield energy. Send it to Capital City, near the northeast area. Find whatever Chaos Emeralds are there. Once it returns with enough of them, the abolition of man will begin."
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"Knuckles!" Mighty shouted, "wake up, man!"
BOOM
Mighty barely dodged an explosion from one of the cannons.
"Get him outta here," Charmy said. "Get him up, I'll cover you. Tails, get Vector and keep going at those cannons."
"You sure you're gonna be-" Tails began.
"I'm positive, just go! Hurry up before you're blown to pieces!"
Tails nodded, began whirring his tails, and hovered back into the air, flying towards Vector.
Charmy shoved his gray pilot's helmet over his face, narrowed his eyes, and clenched his fists, facing an onslaught of ginger-colored security robots, as well as the cannons on the sides.
Although Mighty was supposed to be waking Knuckles up-again-he couldn't help but watch this and laugh. There was nothing like an angry Charmy going postal on a whole bunch of "bad guys," as the bee put it.
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Where the heck was that cat???
Blade continued to swing away at the numerous robotic enemies in front of him, but his arms were getting tired and his senses were dulling. This was the time where the old trainers of the past always said that you had to step it up, or when high school sports coaches always said you had to play as hard in the fourth quarter as you did in the first. But, in this case, Blade was battling into four overtimes. Where was that stupid cat? For once, he needed him.
The answer to this question came with a loud groan just a few meters to his left. He took a split second to watch the purple cat fall to the ground, gripping his chest. A spurt of red blood stained blasted from his chest and stained a nearby robot shield.
A shock in his heart.
He had lost another.
The first casualty of this war.
Flashbacks.
Watching tens, hundreds fall in front of him.
Back on Mobius, fighting the same robotic army.
Two fall out of a crashing plane.
Three around him collapsing like rag dolls from gunfire.
A bomb exploding nearby, undoubtedly killing hundreds more.
All those people.
And it had happened again.
And again, at the hands of Doctor Ivo Robotnik.
The Eggman.
Although he was clearly staring at the horde of robots, his image had changed back to the dreaded war scene, then to black.
He couldn't.
He couldn't do it again.
No more.
No more loss.
The other robots, although under strict orders from their new master to eradicate all threats outside the base, were bemused by Blade's actions. After hours of hacking and slashing, he had just stopped, staring at something over to the left. Then…the weirdest thing of all.
After all that, he was no longer the master of battle, Blade Kasille.
He was now human again, he was once more Leo O'Connell.
And Leo O'Connell, the fight sucked out of him, turned away from the army of machines, slowly slipped his sword back into the sheath on his back, and walked back to the mountain.
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Knuckles was in a familiar place, but he didn't know where he knew it from. It was dark, for a while, but then color flooded his eyes in a rainbow wave. He squinted and held his arms up to block the massive light. Finally, his eyes adjusted to the light and he stared into it to see a beautiful young woman with blue hair levitating.
"Crystal…" he whispered.
"The universe has seen no wrath like mine," she bellowed. "No force is strong enough to even slow me."
"What the…what's wrong with you?" Knuckles shouted. "What are you talking about?"
"Look at your friends…" She floated to the right, allowing Knuckles to see an image of…a battlefield. It looked just like…the place by the mountain he had been chasing Sonic at. Now, though, the mountainous floor with numerous asphalt roads was swamped with dark orange robots with various weapons. In the fight were Tails, Charmy, Espio, Mighty, Vector, Big lying on the ground covered in blood, and…some guy with a red sword. Except the swordsman was walking away, slowly, from the horde of robots.
"Those are Eggman's," he concluded.
"No," growled Crystal. "Now they are mine. The Eggman is no more."
Knuckles was silent for a while.
"Sonic…?"
"No."
"You."
"Yes. You think the hedgehog is the cause of all your problems, but you are wrong. Dead wrong. I normally don't do this, but you have no chance of stopping me anyway, so I'll tell you.
"I am the leader of the army of Dimension 8.75. We are the second army of hell, and our goal is simple-to destroy the universe and send them all to the eternal torture of hell and our master, Satan. We are his loyal spirits, but as spirits, we cannot enter the world as human figures, not without the mysterious gems called Chaos Emeralds. We must find solid hosts.
"However, because the air is our home, we cannot stay in a solid figure for long. Only an hour. So initially, we took control of humans and other living beings. Including your hedgehog."
"That's it!" Knuckles cried.
Crystal nodded. "I took his body and took you, as well. And if you had lost in that labyrinth, I would've had you for my part of hell's army. I underestimated you."
"Why not just take me and kill me yourself?" Knuckles asked, still coming to copes with the fact he almost killed Sonic for something he could not control."
"But that posed a problem as well. For some of our soldiers discovered, the hard way, that if a living being is killed, the spirit that controls him is destroyed as well, never to return.
"But then, I thought. Robots. They are not living things, but they are hosts that we can control. They cannot die because they do not live."
"So that's the reason you killed Eggman!"
"I will explain no more. I will return you back to your body. You do not have much longer left, and neither does your planet. Once I am in control of even one Emerald, I can obliterate an entire country. If I have all seven…the universe…"
Knuckles caught one last glimpse of the image near Crystal. Mighty was shaking what appeared to be Knuckles' own body.
"Knuckles, wake up man!" shouted the armadillo.
All went black before Knuckles' mind could even process the thought.
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Charmy stabbed his stinger into another enemy, but Mighty could tell the bee was getting tired. C'mon, Knuckles, get up!
"Ugh…" The echidna slowly moved his hand to his head and rubbed it.
"Red, it's Mighty! Wake up, man!"
"I'm…up…I'm up."
"Now get up, Charmy's been defending us for a while, but he needs your help."
"What…?"
"We're near Eggman's base, we need-"
But instantly, Knuckles flipped himself up. "I know. I know everything, more than you! Charmy!" he called to the bee.
"What?" gasped Charmy.
"Go to the Floating Island and get the Master Emerald. Bring it back here. I'll hold these guys off." The last time Knuckles went Chaotix, he had tried to do it without the Emerald. His punishment was being knocked out until now.
"Tails is faster, he should go."
"Hold on!" Mighty shouted. "Look, up there!"
"No time!" Knuckles yelled. The robots were charging, and they were sitting ducks if they kept talking. He ran forward and slammed his fist into one robot, then kicked away another.
"Charmy," explained Mighty, "there's some robot up there flying away from the base. Chase it down, but first get Tails to go for the Master Emerald."
"Got it. Help Knuckles out. I'll get Vec, too."
Mighty nodded. Charmy zoomed through the flurry of cannon fire to find Tails. Mighty got focused just in time to sprint away from an exploding bomb from a grenade-throwing robot soldier. Knuckles had the left side of the horde, so he'd have to take the right.
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Espio and Amy continued to slam down on the robots, but they needed some help. Something was going on near the left flank with Blade and Big, and it wasn't good, because all the enemies from that side were collapsing in on them. Simply put, this small crew wasn't enough. Even Metal Sonic, who had been swooping around and using every bit of his abilities to help, couldn't do it all. Amy saw the robot being battered by gunfire as it began to slow down, bit by bit. She crushed one robot with her hammer, but took another punch from behind. She didn't know where Espio was because he had turned invisible again, but he didn't appear to be helping. She ducked a laser beam from one large red robot, then jumped over a swing from one of the orange one's spears, but then took a whack to the head by another one. She fell to the ground, wincing, bleeding at the head, and dropped her hammer. Pain tore her body to shreds.
Was it over?
But the dream came back, the dream from her apartment. "It's your turn, Amy, it's your turn," Sonic's voice echoed in her head. He was right. It was her turn to step it up.
She rolled from a spear that stabbed the ground. Then, she snatched her hammer and slammed it down to propel herself upwards. After spending a good few seconds in the air, she landed feet first on a robot and crushed it.
Amy stared down the robots, blood trickling past her eyes and near her mouth. Her shirt was torn at the sleeves, and the bottom of her skirt was frayed and missing a chunk on the front. She wiped her nose and gripped her hammer.
"It is my turn, Sonic, it's my turn," she said to herself. "This one's for you. Even if you're not even alive anymore, or if you don't even think I exist…this' for you."