I do not own Sonic X is any way shape or form
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The chase was on; although Big really didn't feel like it was a chase, more like he was coming along for the ride. Although he intended to get off the ride as soon as his buddy and Cream's chao friend were safe again. If any more tension was put on the line, it would probably snap, so he stopped trying to reel the Egg Hawk toward him and simply starting climbing it
Down below, racing along the desert just beyond the borders of Station Square was a blue blur, desperately trying to keep up with them all high above. Sonic might not be able to fly, but if he could just keep the Egg Hawk in his sights, then he couldn't loose them. Closely behind Sonic, the X tornado was keeping it's own pace in a high gear.
"Metal Sonic?" Knuckles repeated. Chris nodded.
"That's right, according to Sonic, Eggman created him using the data Emerl managed to siphon from you." The Red Echidna clenched a fist, an angry scowl crossing his face
"Right, that does it. Once I take back the Master Emerald, I'm going to tear that robots head off!" His life's work had been to guard the Master Emerald, keep the mystic jewel from harm, keep it in it's rightful place, onboard the Angel Island. He'd been disrupted from his duty too many times in the last year. It was time to take out the source of the disruption once and for all, so he could get on with his life.
Big finally managed to pull himself up onto the Egg Hawk itself, but it was then metallic bird dropped toward the ground and Sonic decided to strike, his super spin reflecting off the top, shaking the craft and dislodging the hold the fishing rod had. Big blinked in surprise, below he was sent plummeting down toward the ground. Luckily for him however, the X tornado passed underneath and he simply ended up sitting behind the first pod, holding onto the X wings for dear life. Chris and Knuckles yelled out loudly when the cat's backside was suddenly thrown in their faces.
"Um, I suddenly lost a lot of weight." Eggman said to himself, noticing how light the Egg hawk handled all of a sudden. He pulled the bird back up into the air, and directed it over toward a ridge of mountains in the distance. This was a range called the Red Mountain, called that for the dusty red rock that made them up. Sonic noticed and went soured after him. His instincts told him that was walking directly into a trap, which was the usual run for him, he would be surprised if it wasn't.
The Red mountains were giant columns or rock lancing out of the ground, spiking toward the sky. These were natural formations, created by years of harsh dust storms. A harsh wind, throwing particles of sand into their eyes tried to blind them, but they kept going.
Sonic was faintly aware that he was passing watch tower after watch tower. Long pillars of segmented metal with a large search light on to, some half buried in the rocks.
A base was located here, somewhere, and Eggman was trying to lead them toward it. A trap obviously. Of course, Sonic knew Eggman better than that, whatever underhanded trick he might pull, he'd be ready for it. In fact, Eggman had saved them the trouble of tracking him down.
The Egg hawk soured under a natural stone arch, before flying up into a hidden canyon, quickly followed by the blue hedgehog. As expected, a base opened out before them. Sonic came to a dead stop on, what he believed to be the entrance, a high suspended platform of rock as what seemed to be the only way in order out of the steep valley, the cliff face far too steep to climb. Two Egg pawns stood guarding a large metal door, all of which he destroyed in mere moments.
The base was hidden from view by a giant ridge making it nearly impossible for it to be located. Most of it was towering metallic structures, jointed together by bands of metal that wrapped around like elastic. But a good part of it was simple cement flat floor, upon which stood a small army of the large grey clunker robots Eggman used to guard important facilities. Row after row of large gun turrets stood between him and the base itself. A multitude of rails, harbouring mono rail type trains that swung backwards and forward throughout the entire base, riddled the mountains. A large building marked the centre with not surprisingly, Eggman's face crafted onto the front.. Sonic realized that this must be the main base Eggman was operating out of, the trains taking robots to other smaller bases around the world.
Shut down this place, and the Empire's operations on Earth would be crippled.
Sonic watched the Egg hawk hovered a large hanger just inside the base perimeter and decend inside, a large pair of shutter doors sliding shut over it. First things first, get Cheese and the Frog back from his clutches, then he could have some fun.
It was about then that he noticed that the canyons walls were also riddled with gun turrets, all of which were pointed directly toward him. In seconds, chaos broke loose!
The X tornado, despite Big's sudden and unexpected drop in, managed to make it not soon after. Tails switched it to walker mode as it descended gently to the ground. The base below was in chaos. Blue streaks flying past as the large robots tried vainly to try and it it with their club like arms. Everywhere the sound of cannon fire echoed, resonating off the sides of the canyon. Big lowered himself to the ground, the backs of his legs sour from having to hold on with them so tightly.
Knuckles pushed his way out, shaking off his apparent fatigue. The Eggman Empire had pissed him off for the last time. Without waiting for the others, he darted down the steep slope toward the bases perimeter, hoping Sonic had left him a little action.
Amy leapt down, her hammer in her hands. In truth, she was slightly scared. She'd been in battle before, but never anything quite like this. She reminded herself exactly why she was doing this. To prove to Sonic that she wasn't sure some stupid girl that needed rescuing all the time. With that in mind, he carried on after Knuckles.
Big dusted himself off and stood up. Then he remembered why he was here.
"FROGGY!"
"Chris…" Tails asked, looking back as the human climbed into the now vacant seat behind the fox. "This is probably going to be an intense fight, sure you don't want to get out here?" Chris looked at him like he'd just told him to go eat a live rat.
"No way. I've been with you guys through worse, I'm not backing out now." Tails smiled, before the X tornado came to life again, striding over the shredded remains of the base defences to join the fight.
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The squadron of choppers, each with the G.U.N enforcers logo on the side soured toward the Red Mountain region. A short while ago, weapons discharge had been detected from a remote canyon just a few miles away. Someone it seemed was engaging with the Eggman Empire. Hopefully, they could keep them distracted long enough for military to sneak up on now revealed base.
Instead of using conventional troops, each chopper carried the new military robots that were in production. Two Big foots to each chopper, hanging from the underside by long metal cables. Inside they were crammed with laser hunters and Rhino tanks androids, waiting for the activation order to commence the attack.
Shadow, not finding it comfortable sitting inside the leading aircraft, sat on the left hand side wing, underneath an armed missile,
His mind was strangely clear. It was like all the anger and rage he'd been suppressing had just suddenly melted away into oblivion. Eggman was his target, Eggman had the answers he sought, Eggman would not escape him.
Despite his iron clad resolve, there was something else. A pull that drew him toward those mountains, something distant but potent none the less. Some, indescribable link, with something.
As Rouge flew past, they exchanged glances briefly before Shadow looked away, grunting audibly.
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Sonic, despite having blasted his way the doors protecting the hanger, had lost sight of the Egg hawk and it's would be dictator. Still, he knew Eggman would just leave without dealing one last hand to play against them. He wasn't like that. Besides, he could hear Amy's hammer from here so his friends were taking care of the rest of the base. That girl had impressed him…this time. The distant sound He sat down on a suspended metal platform outside the base's main building, right in front of the Eggman face's left eye and waited.
Knuckles slammed a first into the back of a Egg pawn, smashing a wide open straight through it's chest, before pivoting around and tossing the body now impaling on his spurs directly into a platoon that was trying to rush him.
They struggled to get up, pushing their near destroyed comrade of themselves. One lifted a large laser cannon, pointing it toward the Echidna, who was preoccupied fighting a large robot. Suddenly, he found his weapon whisked away by a fishing line. Before he could turn to see what had happened, he was flattened into the ground by a large belly flop.
"GIVE BACK FROGGY!" Big yelled, smashing robot after robot with nothing but his fishing line.
"Ah, 'bout time." Sonic said with a grin, standing up clenching a fist as a large metallic shape erupted out from another, concealed hanger hidden under some rubble. Eggman hadn't retreated here to escape, only to repair his machine. Underneath the Egg hawk now was a large orange blimp with a large propeller at the front. Several large cannons on each side. Underneath was a long metallic ship, armed with more Eggpawn turrets. A pair of large silver wings, armed with laser turrets on each side. This was the updated version, the Egg Albatross. As Sonic suspected, it had been a trap all along. He grin widened. Time for some fun!
"Ready all cannons!" Eggman yelled to the crew, who saluted upwards and manned their stations. "OPEN FIRE!"
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The military had arrived on the scene. But found whatever resistance the base could have offered had nearly been completely exterminated. Tall pillars of smoke reaching for the sky above. Fragments of robots lay everywhere. Some of the rails had been damaged during the coarse of the battle and the trains had simply slid off the broken ones, crashing into tangled heaps. Still, they towered the large robots anyway, if nothing else than to earn their pay check.
"Ok let's move" Topaz called to the small army of robots. Their job, as always was to enter the base, plant explosives, escape and then detonate the whole thin. "Just where are Omega and Shadow?" She suddenly demanded. Rouge looked around, sure enough to find that the red robot and the black hedgehog had disappeared.
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Sonic darted to the side. He had made, as much as he hated to admit it, a grievous miscalculation. The Egg Albatross' was far more than capable of defending itself from attacks and then retaliating with force. He tried to get in close, but found it impossible. There were too many gun platforms keeping track of him.
Instead, he pulled back, slightly out of breath. Eggman saw the moment of weakness and went in for the kill. Just as he was about to give the order to fire, a very familiar attack made up of yellow bolts ripped through the air, destroying one of the Egg Pawns and it's gun station. Sonic blinked and whipped around. He knew that attack. But…the only one who could use it was…
"I don't believe what I'm seeing!" Sonic said as a dark figure, with long quills so much like his own. A pair of red eye stood out, staring directly toward the ship. "Shadow? But.. That can't be!" The black hedgehog turned to look at him, puzzled expression on his face.
"Do I know you?" He asked. Sonic was slightly taken aback by the question.
"Of course I know you. don't you remember?" Shadow gained a frown.
"My memory of late has flaws." He replied, walking toward Eggman, who stared directly back at him. "Hello Doctor, I do hope you remember me." Eggman laughed, putting his hands on his hips.
"One can hardly forget someone as unique as you Shadow." The black hedgehog frowned, noting the strange accent of the word Unique.
"I have questions for you." The Egg albatross swung around so that the multitude of it's cannons was aimed directly toward them.
"What makes you think I'm going to answer any of your questions?" Suddenly a barrage of bullets and missiles rocketed out of the smoke, striking the side of the ship with tremendous force, knocking it sideways. Sonic turned about to meet the sudden disturbance with an open mouth. Shadow simply looked back over his shoulder, muttering to himself.
"Eggman Target located...destroy…obliterate…eliminate!" Omega declared, bursting forth, his red visor locked onto his creator, both arms raised to fire another round.
"Omega, you outdated scrap heap!" Eggman yelled angrily. "I made you! I fitted every sheet of metal, every gear, ever wire, ever circuit in place. How dare you fire on me!" Omega, thankfully, was not swayed by the petty words, striking the Egg Albatross again with a second barrage, knocking off several cannons, destroying two Egg pawns and crippling one of the wings. "You'll pay for this." Shadow looked slightly disappointed that his talk with Eggman had been cut sort. But they were taking Eggman in one way or the other, so he guessed that they could do it this way.
"Are you going to stand there all day or are you going to give me a hand?" He asked, turning toward Sonic as Omega charged into the fray. The blue hedgehog was still in a stunned state, so he stood there open mouthed for a moment before his senses kicked in.
"Er…right."
Shadow nodded and darted through the dust, sliding from side to side with effortless movements to join Omega in the fight. Eggman's ship targeted all cannons toward him, but each shot missed it's target by miles. Sonic quickly following. His mind was still racing. Shadow…ALIVE?! This had to be some kind of weird hallucination. Yes, that was it. He was still in the hospital, seeing things thanks to the pain killing drugs they'd put into him.
He was proved wrong however when a bullet from the Egg Albatross grazed his arm, sending a very real signal of pain.
Shadow toured through the strings holding the balloon to the warship underneath, free from this extra weight, Eggman's half went flying up a short distance while the other half plummeted to earth, bursting into flames upon contact. Omega kept up his attack upon the balloon, trying to burst it with relentless machine gun barrage. He wasn't succeeding, however he did manage to blow a few cannons of the side. Sonic chose that moment to some tearing it, slipping through the spins of the propeller and straight toward the Egg Hawk. Eggman tried to fire more missiles, only to discover that he was out of ammunition. Sonic wasn't no time, a super spin destroying the clamps holding the Egg Hawk to the balloon.
"Ah! RETREAT! Eggman yelled, pushing the balloon aided to float aim slyly up toward the sky with the Egg Hawks hidden metallic arm, attempting to make a run for it.
"Your not going anywhere!" Omega stated, his body turning about an entire 180 degree and firing every spare missile he had left at point black range straight into the Egg Hawk's heart. Metal tore against metal, the force of the explosion ripping the metallic bird to pieces within a matter of moments. Eggman tired to eject his pod, but he was a fraction of a second too late. He screamed out load as the burning fire reached him, engulfing his body for a moment before he was thrown from his cockpit as the machine erupted, screaming at the top of his lungs. Then, it ended very suddenly.
As he fell directly onto the lance of a partially destroyed Egg pawn, half buried in the rubble, impaling himself through the chest. Sonic and Shadow grimaced. That was something they wouldn't wish on anyone, not even Eggman. Omega picked himself up, silent for a moment, before he cautiously approached. His former creator was not moving.
The two hedgehog approached in a stunned silence. After all the epic battles Sonic and Eggman had fought, the blue hedgehog never would have imaged that this is the way his ach nemesis would be defeated.
Eggman sat completely still, his face tilted down toward the floor. It was then however that they all realized something was wrong, even with the metal pole through his chest, he wasn't bleeding. No blood at all, he was just sitting there. Shadow blinked in curiosity, before prodding his lightly. Instantly, a large sheet of metal slid to one side, revealing a built in screen inside his body.
"Damn it, it's a fake!" Shadow swore loudly through clenched teeth. The screen light, revealing the dictator himself, his real self. He was laughing loudly, as usual, sneering at them with a wide smile. Omega clenched a fist, fuming inside his metallic body that the Doctor had escaped his wrath.
"Once again, you fools have fallen directly into my trap." The two hedgehog growled at him. Rage fuming in both their hearts. "From these canyons, watch as I conquer the world with my new Air fleet." With a sudden, ear splitting roar, the ground itself seem to be splitting apart. Tails and Chris X tornado watched in amazement was the rock columns crumbled, falling down to earth. Like some kind of gigantic avalanche.
"Hey, what's going on?" Tails demanded. Without moments, a giant void spilt open in the ground, threatening to swallow everything around it, had not something else been coming out of it. A colossal multitude of metal vessels burst through and into the air, hidden from sight by a layer of rock all this time. There were thousands of them, flying upwards like an insidious black warm. Each metal ship made to look like a fish, each one flying next to the other like a steal school. Then came the big one, a ship unlike any other, a colossal titan that cast a shadow over the entire mountain region.
Rouge looked up, mouth wide open in astonishment. Knuckles stepped back, taken aback by it's sheer size, blanketing the entire sky like it's metallic skin.
Made to look like a manta ray, it dwarfed all the others. Sheet after sheet of metal made up an endless purple skin as it roared past them, grasping for the freedom of the sky, straining against the earth's crust just to do so.
They couldn't see the details very well from here, with all the clouds of dust and smoke kicking about, but it's colossal size was not lost on them. Already two entire minutes had past and still the ship did not look like it was all the way out of it's hiding hole.
"A trap to stall for time!" Sonic exclaimed, realizing his mistake. The trap had never been meant to destroy them, mealy to buy enough time for Eggman to get his fleet ready to go.
"You haven't won yet Eggman." Shadow snarled, waving a finger in the screens direction.
"I think you'll find I have." Eggman replied, before the screen went dead. In a fit of rage, Shadow kicked it, shattering the glass. As soon as he did so however, the entire robotic body melted away, becoming less tangible than liquid, sliding down into a silvery puddle amongst the rubble. Shadow groaned angrily, standing away from it.
"Eggman target re-located." Omega announced, staring upwards toward the colossal ship as it made it's way into the sky. Now they were all able to see the thousands of laser turrets on it's under side. "Aboard Fleet Flag ship. Intercept mode activated." Without pause, Omega' jet's turned themselves on and he disappeared through the bellowing clouds of dust and smoke all around.
Sonic and Shadow were left alone.
"Shadow…" Sonic began.
"Don't call me that." The black hedgehog cut him off. Sonic stared at him, blinking in surprise. "At least not until I can be sure that I AM Shadow."
As they disappeared through the smoke, the puddle came right back to life, reassuming a physical shape. Twisting upwards into a thick column, that sprouted outward to become solid once again.
Not an Eggman form, but one far more sleek and streamlined. A pair of glowing red eyes staring after the two hedgehogs. The return of the Ultimate life form was an ever so slight oversight, but his presence was of no real importance. In fact, he had helped Metal Sonic evolve again.
When Shadow had touched him, he had used that opportunity to copy his life data and as soon as they were gone, he began downloading it into his being. His skin shimmered and quickly, along each spine he gained a long white highlight, copying Shadow's famous streaks almost perfectly. The data of the ultimate life form had one other important enhancement. Metal Sonic reached into his internal energy source and activated a new program. Instantly he disappeared in a green haze, before becoming visible again some distance away.
"Chaos control!" He laughed out load. There was nothing that could stop him now. He was truly was invincible. With the Egg fleet flying directly overhead, casting shadow down onto the ground. A shadow that would soon engulf the entire world.
Earth…was his for the taking!
(In Chris' voice)
Oh no! Eggman's fleet is on the move! An armada of robots! Can Sonic stop it? His odds are improving, everyone's there to lend a helping hand. But what's going on behind the scenes? What's Metal Sonic up to with the Master Emerald? Find out Next time on Sonic X, Egg Fleet Rising! Don't miss it!
(Thanks to One Winged Kuja for best Sonic Fanfic nomination)
(Hope Bokkun's execution didn't scare some people off the fic? If so, give me an email and tell me what you think of that part?)