Thanks to those who have sent me examples of Sonic artwork. As for everyone else, please e-mail me at SUPASONEC@aol.com with examples that pertain to this story
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Chapter 43
Red and…Gold
Panting, Espio jumped again and dashed towards another robot, cutting right through it. He was invisible, but not invincible. If he got hit, he'd be visible again, and then he was screwed. His legs felt like two ton weights and his arms felt like magnets trying to pull him to the ground.
That wasn't the most demoralizing thing, though. The biggest killer was that it didn't seem like he was making any impact. Sure, robots were falling, but it just seemed like for every one he took down, three more came in its place.
Here came three more. They didn't see him, at least he didn't think, so he did the same thing-jumped, darted towards them, bounced up, hit the next one, bounced up, and hit the final one to K.O. them all. He landed and hung his head in exhaustion. Staring at the rocky area he stood on, Espio felt the first drop of rain on his face. Slowly, his head rose to examine his surroundings and to see how the others were doing. The pure black sky occasionally lit up with lightning. Gradually, the rain began to pick up.
"Oof!"
Something collided with Espio's left side, and just as the chameleon tried to move, an orange robot fell on top of him and dropped him to the ground. He bucked the robot off him, then gasped, realizing his mistake.
Now the robots knew for sure his little secret to success, and his relative position. Espio's fatigue showed in the next sequence. Normally, he'd be able to sprint away before he was attacked. However, more tired than usual, he wasn't quick enough to get good enough footing to run. And when he finally raced away, he ran right into his undoing. Not even Sonic or Blade could've evaded the swinging staff held by a nearby robot. Lying on the ground as crimson blood trickled across his face, Espio could do nothing. He was barely staying conscious. Another orange robot stood over him, aimed its gun for his heart, and pulled the trigger.
There was no Metal Sonic to save him this time.
SMASH!
The mech blasted away another machine with missiles in another failed attempt to blow Sonic away.
"Hope you're planning on paying for that!" Sonic shouted back to Crystal as he tore away from the blast.
"Is that all you do?" the mech responded. "Run?"
"Is that all you do?" the hedgehog shot back. "Shoot like crazy?"
Sonic turned just in time to see a red laser head right for him. At the last second, he screeched to a halt and watched the laser fly over him and pierce a plasma monitor. When it finally thinned out, the metal monitor was slowly oozing down onto the computer panel. Sonic whirled around to size up the silver mech quickly before another pair of guns popped out of its shoulders.
"I feel it…" Crystal hummed. "My strength slowly comes to me…"
"Give up on that!" Sonic yelled. "You won't live long enough to get it!"
"Grrr!"
Sonic sped away as he felt the heat of two high-powered flamethrowers behind him. But what was this…the heat was increasing? Was it actually catching up to him? Amazed, he bolted to the rightmost wall and observed the right cannon bursting a capsule containing an odd blue liquid and spilling the stuff everywhere. The left one melted the capsule formally containing Shadow. Sonic was paying more attention to the mech itself as its head turned to watch him. He looked quickly for a weak spot, and although he didn't find one, he saw something interesting-a shaking bolt on the right arm. Bingo.
Sonic pushed off of the wall, his eyes locked in on the large bolt. He started spinning as fast as possible and braced himself for impact.
Crystal had no time to react.
Sonic pounded the loose bolt, bounced off, and forced himself on top of the right arm, staring right into the mech.
"What're you gonna do now?" Sonic taunted. "Can't reach me, eh?"
A growling sound came from the mech as it slowly moved its left arm in an awkward position to try and aim for Sonic with a laser gun. But just as the gun fired, the long nail holding the right arm up snapped and fell to the ground, with Sonic on it. The blast sent one of the metal walls falling to the ground. Laughing, Sonic saw a gaping hole in the mech where the arm used to be. He soared through the air into the obviously confused mech's arm hole.
It was red and black inside with a lot of whirring gears. There had to be something in here, some big core of energy that blew up the whole thing. He tried to walk forward, but he was worried he'd be burned by one of the gears. Finally, he resorted to spinning-again. He barely cut through the gears and finally landed to see two pipes pumping up and down. Timing his hands, he grabbed them to stop them, trying as hard as he could to take the pain in his wrists. Would this do anything?
Eventually, steam began to hiss out of the pipes. Finally, harnessing all of his arm strength, he yanked the tubes out. White steam blasted as hard as possible. This was getting him nowhere. He began spinning in place and pushed downward. He slowly began to cut through the bottom. Eventually, he reached that compressed diamond bottom. He was getting, very, very hot, near the point of passing out due to the heat. Finally, exhausted, he stopped. He had gotten maybe a quarter of the way through the diamond. Now to get out of here. He jumped as high as possible, grasped the edge of the metal he had cut through, lifted himself up, and ran back out the armhole. He finally landed back in Eggman's lab and turned to look at the mech. What he saw astounded him.
The mech was slowly collapsing in on itself. And a light blue mist rose above it. Eventually, the mist transformed into a beautiful woman with blue hair.
"Crystal…" Sonic growled. "So you're not some stupid robot after all."
"I need not this piece of junk," she hissed. "My scout has returned with my strength."
As if on cue, an explosion rocked the wall behind her. The dust settled, and a familiar cobalt robot appeared with a sack.
"Metal!"
But instead of going to Crystal, Metal Sonic raced over to Sonic. The real hedgehog got ready to fight him off, but slowly relaxed as he saw Metal was not going to attack him.
"What's in the bag, man?" Sonic growled.
"This…is…for you," the robot stuttered in a metallic voice. "With regards…from Master Tails."
"What??"
Sonic snatched the bag out of Metal's hands. He pulled it open and…
"God…"
Inside the sack were seven shimmering gems…Those special gems he had stripped from him at the police station.
"Fool!" Crystal cried. "You seal your fate!"
Quick as a flash, the Emeralds flew out of the bag and levitated around her. She shimmered brighter and brighter as the Emeralds spun faster and faster.
"Damn!" Sonic shouted. He turned to Metal Sonic. "You said these were from Tails?"
"Yes…For you. To save…us all."
Sonic clenched his fists. She was right. She was the cause to all his problems. Not Tails, not Knuckles, not Blade, not Mighty and his friends…her.
"EEEAAARRRRGGGGHHH!!!"
Sonic flexed and screamed loud enough for the whole world to hear. Crystal was slowly getting bigger and bigger, and she appeared to be growing a dragon-like tail. It didn't matter to Sonic.
He felt strength reaching his body, strength not his own. He began shaking and clasped his arms to his chest.
Now Crystal was a giant, blue dragon. Her wings were as wide as houses and her body the size of the world's largest building. Her claws extended to the length of half a football field.
Sonic too was changing. He began levitating and glowing a bright yellow. His green eyes slowly turned ruby red.
Simultaneously, Crystal completed her transformation as a massive dragon as Sonic finished morphing into his super form. An explosion of epic proportions commenced.
Outside the base, the entire battlefield erupted into a swirl of gold and blue. Charmy, who had begun to fly off to get the Master Emerald, stopped dead in his tracks. The rest of the fighters simply stared. Two figures emerged from the explosion. One, a colossal blue dragon. The other, a small golden spot.
Blade knew exactly what had happened. He had studied the outer world myths and the legend of the Chaos Emeralds back on Morphos during college. It was the Armageddon. Or, possibly, an evil plot stopped in its tracks. If Sonic was strong enough.
"It's on," he whispered. Then, he saw something very, very interesting. Those seven Chaos Emeralds floated between them. His brother had told him that whoever gained these seven gems was given unlimited energy.
"Just think, Leo, man," he had said just a year before war broke out. "Me and you, if we got those Emeralds, we'd be like the invincible brothers! No one could stop us!"
Now was the time to put that to the test.
Blade ran up to the dragon's enormous foot and jumped on it as it and Sonic started each other down. He bounced off the foot and soared higher and higher into the air. Now, to aim just right! He floated right through the ring of Chaos Emeralds, focusing all his thoughts.
"What???" boomed the dragon. Odd…this wasn't the devil, it sounded too feminine.
But it didn't matter. He could feel his fall down to the earth slow down, slow down, slow down…until he stopped falling.
He looked down. He was levitating. He looked at his right arm. It glowed a crimson red. His sword shook with energy. Now, how to fly? He soon realized it was as easy as walking. Simply thinking about it, he floated up to Sonic, facing the dragon.
Sonic stared on at Blade, whose brown hair had begun waving with energy like one of those Japanese cartoons. His already large muscles now bulged from his arms and chest.
"What the hell's wrong with you?" Sonic growled. He might have been joking, but even he wasn't sure at this point, he was so angry.
Blade smiled. "Well, I heard a long time ago that red and blue made violet and victories. I'm sure we could make an exception in this case."
Sonic slowly cracked a smile of his own. The two lifted their hands and grasped the other's hand. They nodded and turned to the large dragon that was Crystal.
"You cheat, hedgehog," it hissed. "This should have been a historic battle of two greats. But no matter, I will destroy you both, then make mincemeat out of your pathetic mudball of a home!"
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Chapter 43
Red and…Gold
Panting, Espio jumped again and dashed towards another robot, cutting right through it. He was invisible, but not invincible. If he got hit, he'd be visible again, and then he was screwed. His legs felt like two ton weights and his arms felt like magnets trying to pull him to the ground.
That wasn't the most demoralizing thing, though. The biggest killer was that it didn't seem like he was making any impact. Sure, robots were falling, but it just seemed like for every one he took down, three more came in its place.
Here came three more. They didn't see him, at least he didn't think, so he did the same thing-jumped, darted towards them, bounced up, hit the next one, bounced up, and hit the final one to K.O. them all. He landed and hung his head in exhaustion. Staring at the rocky area he stood on, Espio felt the first drop of rain on his face. Slowly, his head rose to examine his surroundings and to see how the others were doing. The pure black sky occasionally lit up with lightning. Gradually, the rain began to pick up.
"Oof!"
Something collided with Espio's left side, and just as the chameleon tried to move, an orange robot fell on top of him and dropped him to the ground. He bucked the robot off him, then gasped, realizing his mistake.
Now the robots knew for sure his little secret to success, and his relative position. Espio's fatigue showed in the next sequence. Normally, he'd be able to sprint away before he was attacked. However, more tired than usual, he wasn't quick enough to get good enough footing to run. And when he finally raced away, he ran right into his undoing. Not even Sonic or Blade could've evaded the swinging staff held by a nearby robot. Lying on the ground as crimson blood trickled across his face, Espio could do nothing. He was barely staying conscious. Another orange robot stood over him, aimed its gun for his heart, and pulled the trigger.
There was no Metal Sonic to save him this time.
SMASH!
The mech blasted away another machine with missiles in another failed attempt to blow Sonic away.
"Hope you're planning on paying for that!" Sonic shouted back to Crystal as he tore away from the blast.
"Is that all you do?" the mech responded. "Run?"
"Is that all you do?" the hedgehog shot back. "Shoot like crazy?"
Sonic turned just in time to see a red laser head right for him. At the last second, he screeched to a halt and watched the laser fly over him and pierce a plasma monitor. When it finally thinned out, the metal monitor was slowly oozing down onto the computer panel. Sonic whirled around to size up the silver mech quickly before another pair of guns popped out of its shoulders.
"I feel it…" Crystal hummed. "My strength slowly comes to me…"
"Give up on that!" Sonic yelled. "You won't live long enough to get it!"
"Grrr!"
Sonic sped away as he felt the heat of two high-powered flamethrowers behind him. But what was this…the heat was increasing? Was it actually catching up to him? Amazed, he bolted to the rightmost wall and observed the right cannon bursting a capsule containing an odd blue liquid and spilling the stuff everywhere. The left one melted the capsule formally containing Shadow. Sonic was paying more attention to the mech itself as its head turned to watch him. He looked quickly for a weak spot, and although he didn't find one, he saw something interesting-a shaking bolt on the right arm. Bingo.
Sonic pushed off of the wall, his eyes locked in on the large bolt. He started spinning as fast as possible and braced himself for impact.
Crystal had no time to react.
Sonic pounded the loose bolt, bounced off, and forced himself on top of the right arm, staring right into the mech.
"What're you gonna do now?" Sonic taunted. "Can't reach me, eh?"
A growling sound came from the mech as it slowly moved its left arm in an awkward position to try and aim for Sonic with a laser gun. But just as the gun fired, the long nail holding the right arm up snapped and fell to the ground, with Sonic on it. The blast sent one of the metal walls falling to the ground. Laughing, Sonic saw a gaping hole in the mech where the arm used to be. He soared through the air into the obviously confused mech's arm hole.
It was red and black inside with a lot of whirring gears. There had to be something in here, some big core of energy that blew up the whole thing. He tried to walk forward, but he was worried he'd be burned by one of the gears. Finally, he resorted to spinning-again. He barely cut through the gears and finally landed to see two pipes pumping up and down. Timing his hands, he grabbed them to stop them, trying as hard as he could to take the pain in his wrists. Would this do anything?
Eventually, steam began to hiss out of the pipes. Finally, harnessing all of his arm strength, he yanked the tubes out. White steam blasted as hard as possible. This was getting him nowhere. He began spinning in place and pushed downward. He slowly began to cut through the bottom. Eventually, he reached that compressed diamond bottom. He was getting, very, very hot, near the point of passing out due to the heat. Finally, exhausted, he stopped. He had gotten maybe a quarter of the way through the diamond. Now to get out of here. He jumped as high as possible, grasped the edge of the metal he had cut through, lifted himself up, and ran back out the armhole. He finally landed back in Eggman's lab and turned to look at the mech. What he saw astounded him.
The mech was slowly collapsing in on itself. And a light blue mist rose above it. Eventually, the mist transformed into a beautiful woman with blue hair.
"Crystal…" Sonic growled. "So you're not some stupid robot after all."
"I need not this piece of junk," she hissed. "My scout has returned with my strength."
As if on cue, an explosion rocked the wall behind her. The dust settled, and a familiar cobalt robot appeared with a sack.
"Metal!"
But instead of going to Crystal, Metal Sonic raced over to Sonic. The real hedgehog got ready to fight him off, but slowly relaxed as he saw Metal was not going to attack him.
"What's in the bag, man?" Sonic growled.
"This…is…for you," the robot stuttered in a metallic voice. "With regards…from Master Tails."
"What??"
Sonic snatched the bag out of Metal's hands. He pulled it open and…
"God…"
Inside the sack were seven shimmering gems…Those special gems he had stripped from him at the police station.
"Fool!" Crystal cried. "You seal your fate!"
Quick as a flash, the Emeralds flew out of the bag and levitated around her. She shimmered brighter and brighter as the Emeralds spun faster and faster.
"Damn!" Sonic shouted. He turned to Metal Sonic. "You said these were from Tails?"
"Yes…For you. To save…us all."
Sonic clenched his fists. She was right. She was the cause to all his problems. Not Tails, not Knuckles, not Blade, not Mighty and his friends…her.
"EEEAAARRRRGGGGHHH!!!"
Sonic flexed and screamed loud enough for the whole world to hear. Crystal was slowly getting bigger and bigger, and she appeared to be growing a dragon-like tail. It didn't matter to Sonic.
He felt strength reaching his body, strength not his own. He began shaking and clasped his arms to his chest.
Now Crystal was a giant, blue dragon. Her wings were as wide as houses and her body the size of the world's largest building. Her claws extended to the length of half a football field.
Sonic too was changing. He began levitating and glowing a bright yellow. His green eyes slowly turned ruby red.
Simultaneously, Crystal completed her transformation as a massive dragon as Sonic finished morphing into his super form. An explosion of epic proportions commenced.
Outside the base, the entire battlefield erupted into a swirl of gold and blue. Charmy, who had begun to fly off to get the Master Emerald, stopped dead in his tracks. The rest of the fighters simply stared. Two figures emerged from the explosion. One, a colossal blue dragon. The other, a small golden spot.
Blade knew exactly what had happened. He had studied the outer world myths and the legend of the Chaos Emeralds back on Morphos during college. It was the Armageddon. Or, possibly, an evil plot stopped in its tracks. If Sonic was strong enough.
"It's on," he whispered. Then, he saw something very, very interesting. Those seven Chaos Emeralds floated between them. His brother had told him that whoever gained these seven gems was given unlimited energy.
"Just think, Leo, man," he had said just a year before war broke out. "Me and you, if we got those Emeralds, we'd be like the invincible brothers! No one could stop us!"
Now was the time to put that to the test.
Blade ran up to the dragon's enormous foot and jumped on it as it and Sonic started each other down. He bounced off the foot and soared higher and higher into the air. Now, to aim just right! He floated right through the ring of Chaos Emeralds, focusing all his thoughts.
"What???" boomed the dragon. Odd…this wasn't the devil, it sounded too feminine.
But it didn't matter. He could feel his fall down to the earth slow down, slow down, slow down…until he stopped falling.
He looked down. He was levitating. He looked at his right arm. It glowed a crimson red. His sword shook with energy. Now, how to fly? He soon realized it was as easy as walking. Simply thinking about it, he floated up to Sonic, facing the dragon.
Sonic stared on at Blade, whose brown hair had begun waving with energy like one of those Japanese cartoons. His already large muscles now bulged from his arms and chest.
"What the hell's wrong with you?" Sonic growled. He might have been joking, but even he wasn't sure at this point, he was so angry.
Blade smiled. "Well, I heard a long time ago that red and blue made violet and victories. I'm sure we could make an exception in this case."
Sonic slowly cracked a smile of his own. The two lifted their hands and grasped the other's hand. They nodded and turned to the large dragon that was Crystal.
"You cheat, hedgehog," it hissed. "This should have been a historic battle of two greats. But no matter, I will destroy you both, then make mincemeat out of your pathetic mudball of a home!"