Flip card 2: Metal Overlord
Before the Government could allow salvage to begin, special forces were required to sweep the graveyard of ships to make sure it was safe for the carrier ships to move in. Rouge, Topaz and their team, along with several others from special branch were authorised to search the damaged flag ship from top to bottom.
Hidden in the maze of steal corridors, they had discovered a large iron door at least four foot thick. It had taken several attempts at cracking the code on the door lock, and one missile barrage from Omega to open it, but finally the Bat, assault android and the members of the human military now stood directly at the top of a large corridor light by a steady green glow from the overhead lights which were only kept on by the flag ships back up systems. All staring in awe at the sight that met them.
"What is all this?" Topaz asked in a hushed whisper. One either side of the corridor were row after row of pods. All of them were similar to the one Rouge had discovered Shadow inside. About twice the size of the average human, with a metallic lower half, encased in large metal pipes and plastic wires and a glass top half, the surface gently reflecting the light from the overhead lights. But what had them all frozen solid in amazement and horror was what lay inside, gently floating in a soft green liquid.
Each pod held a black and red hedgehog.
"This is impossible." Rouge managed to utter. But it wasn't, it was all right here in front of her. An army of Shadow's.
"Clones." One of the soldiers said, stating what was on everyone else's mind. Rouge suddenly went very cold inside.
This would make a lot of sense from Eggman's point of view. With an army of Ultimate life form copies, he could march right over the world meeting with little resistance. But…did this mean that Shadow…the one she had freed from the confines of Eggman's base…was one of these many copies? Had he been right all along? Had he been right to despair, had he been nothing more than a very good look-alike?
They carried along, finding row after row of pods, each one containing a Shadow, identical to their present one in everyway. All the wires on the floor and ceiling, all seemed to run along to a central computer housed somewhere toward the back of the chamber, the large screen poised above a arched computer panel. Omega lumbered up to it, studied the outlets for a moment and a small opening appeared on his left arm, two small wires snaking out of it. They writhed through the air before they arrived at two entry pointed directly in the top of the computer panel.
"Accessing memory core." Omega announced and the screen flipped itself on with a loud clicking. "Encrypted files, please wait…." The robot added and on the screen flashed several programs displaying progress charts and various other pieces of data all moving too fast for any of their party to see clearly. "Download complete, accessing main file entries." The screen changed to more charts, staying put long enough for Topaz to get a look in.
"According to these notes, Eggman extracted living tissue samples to create these things." Topaz stated, starting up at a chart showing the steady growth of taken cells in a stable environment.
Living Tissue? Rouge asked herself. The only way that was possible was if Eggman had the original Shadow, alive that is. He must have survived the fall from ARK and then picked up by Eggman's forces She had discovered their present Shadow separated from all these others. Could he really be the original, keep apart from identification purposes?
Whatever the reason, she found she had acquired a deep resentment for the man who had created all this. There was evidence here to support both possibilities. She waited until Omega was finished scanning the files for anything useful.
"If council is required." The robot said, detaching himself from the computer. "It would prove productive if these units were not allowed to be activated. I recommend immediate termination." Each word he said felt like poison inside her, eating way at her self esteem and pride. All this coupled with the fact that she could tell that if Shadow ever saw all this, then he would suffer over ten times more. It just wouldn't be fair to allow that.
"Destroy them all." Rouge said calmly, or at least as calmly as she could. Topaz gave Rouge a cautious side glance, regarding the seriousness in the bat's eyes.
"Right." She finally said. "Well you heard her, set the demolition charges!"
"Go find Shadow and keep him company." Rouge told Omega, who's large eyes swivelled to look directly at her, the lens directly on her. "And relay nothing of this."
"Affirmative." Omega said almost in a whisper, before disappearing out the way they had come, his heavy footsteps resonating throughout the corridors.
"Ok, we've set the charges." Rouge didn't even look back at the packs they'd placed on several pods and support structures, hoping to bring the entire chamber down. She simply followed them out of the door and stood with her back to the entire thing as Topaz pressed the detonation switch and the fire works began. It was painful more painful then she had imagined. It was almost as if she was killing Shadow over and over again with this one decision. A small tear ran down her cheek as the ground beneath her feet shook with the explosions. She'd just have to pray that Shadow didn't ask her if she found anything.
A fork of lighting lanced across the sky and it began to rain hard. The large pellets of water rippling against the metallic skin of the half submerged flagship. G.U.N agents and scientists and technicians were everywhere now, taking notes of what was damaged and what was ready to be taken away and patented. Salvage ships were dotted around, along with several of the battleships which were keeping it's guns active in case the flagship's cannons tried anything. Shadow watched them from a metal ledge just jutting out from the base of one of the larger cannons.
Some natural instinct was telling him not to trust them. The others were still questioning Eggman, trying to pull more information out of him before the Military police arrived to place him in custody.
Omega, who had strode in, had remained unnoticed by the rest of those around. The rain intensified again and by now it was tipping it down. The robot simply stood nearby and began pondering silently what to do now, reshuffling his large heavy feet so he was partially sheltered by the cannon from the rain. For one who fixated on revenge, he surprised himself by showing a remarkable amount of restraint in the presence of his creator. He briefly wondered if killing his betrayer should be his next course of action, but then deduced that perhaps it should be better for Eggman to held accountable for his crimes in a court of law. Either way, Omega's quest for revenge was nearing an end. And the question remained of…what purpose did he have after this?
"Gamma." He stated to himself as rain began to bounce off his metal shell, creating a small clinking sound. "What would you do in my place?" He looked up, noticing a couple of Mobian birds, categorized as Flickies in his database, fly overhead toward the Mystic ruins. "Codename, Omega. United specification number: E123. Mission complete." Suddenly he seemed to struggle against himself, almost as if he was fighting his very core network. "I…." He began. "Must continue my existence, honour the fallen E100 series."
Shadow had noticed that despite the presence of Eggman, the people with the camera had refused to move the lens from his position at all. He was still on international television, being broadcast to the entire world. He could just picture that panic it was creating, the return of Project Shadow, the black hedgehog that had nearly destroyed the entire world. Well let them panic if they wanted to. Certainly not his business what they did with their short lives.
Short lives? Was that another piece of his memory? Did he live longer than they did? No? Yes…he did. In fact, he couldn't die.
"What's up handsome?" Asked a voice. Shadow looked back over his shoulder to Rouge as she landed next to him, her wings folding behind her back.
"And just where have you been?" He asked without batting an eyelid. She smiled sweetly.
"Here and there, smashing up robots and the like." Shadow sighed through his teeth and looked away. "So you get anything interesting out of the fat guy?"
"Nothing that made sense." He growled angrily. "All I got out of him was deranged babbling about drones and something he called Original." Rouge held her breath for a moment. "This is maddening!" He said, thumping the cannon behind him, it's barrel falling off. "Who the hell does know who I am?"
Whatever made Rouge say what she said next, she would never know.
"No one can ever tell you who you are Shadow." She said. Shadow stared back at her without saying a word. "Only you can tell yourself that. Whatever past you had doesn't determine who you are either, only your present actions do." A fork of lightning lanced across the sky, illuminating Shadow's quills. He sighed as a small crossed his face.
"You could have said that at the beginning and saved me a whole lot of trouble." He said with a short laugh.
(This bit is to make up for the famous SonAmy moment that the real Sonic X had on the final episode.)
Since Chuck had now forbade Sonic's interfering presence until he was done with Tails, Sonic had taken up refuge from the rain in the shadow of the tower. Amy had joined him some time after that. At first they simply sat next to each other saying nothing. Then Amy gathered courage and began to edge closer.
Sonic hadn't disapproved of her presence yet so she took that as an encouraging sign and nuzzled up closer. She was so busy enjoying herself that she didn't notice the blush on Sonic's face. He hated to admit it, but there was something strangely attractive about her company. He continued to remain silent, simply watching the rain pour down around them. Amy shuddered and out of instinct, he put his arm around her. Of course he paused to think exactly why afterward. Normally the image of himself in this position willing would be portrayed in a strange dream brought on by cheese topping pizza before bed time. But this was no dream, Metal Sonic had given him the scars to prove that.
He looked down toward Amy, who was staring up at him with a faint smile on her lips.
"Sonic…" She said softly. Amy had achieved a goal she had been after for years without even trying. For the first time, the blue hedgehog was entranced by her eyes. His mind was failing to register with reality at all. What that remained was a white haze, and her. She must have done something, fed him mind altering drugs or whatever.
Whatever conspiracy theories he had had disappeared in the next moment when she laid her head on his chest, smiling to herself. "You really don't have to say anything." She said. Sonic blinked. Amy looked up at him, a fresh tearful glaze to her eyes. "I've been through it all myself."
"Amy I…" He began.
"You think you've gone mad, feeling that way about someone, feeling like you'd die if you left they're side." Both of them were silent after that, simply standing in each other's warmth. "I can't thank you enough for feeling that way about me." She added eventually with a sniffle, her hug tightening.
For the first time, Sonic's eyes were opened to the pink hedgehog. He saw her for all that she was now. And he realized just how stupid he had been. How could he have passed her affections off as heroes worship? There was obviously much more too it than that. Along with Tails, she had been his most loyal companion.
Shadow looked down, catching the scene before him momentarily, smiling in brief amusement.
Their faces were now only a few centimetres apart. Her breath hot on their cheeks.
"Amy, I'm sorry." Sonic managed to mouth. She just smiled at him.
"That's alright…" She replied.
They're lips were about to touch when a sudden green flash erupted from the pinnacle of the tower, bolts of light coursing around it before a new form solidified. Shadow blinked in confusion and stood up, straining his eyes through the green mist. Everyone could see it, from the skin of the flagship to the borders of station square.
"What the hell is that?" Espio asked, looking up toward the tower's apex. Eggman forced his way to his feet.
"It's Metal Sonic!" He snarled.
(Personal note: This next part works best if you listen to Rob Zombies: Super beast while you read it.)
With the Master Emerald as his platform, through his feet Metal Sonic began absorbing enormous amounts of power. His power cells recharged in an instant, but Metal Sonic didn't stop there, he kept feeding. The Master Emerald's power was almost addictive, once he sampled the tiniest amount of it, nothing was going to stop him from devouring it all.
"Power!" He laughed, his body outlined by a powerful green pulsated glow. "So much power, more, must have more!"
"Metal Sonic you treacherous fool, stop it!" Eggman cried up to his creation, his voice fragile on the winds that began encircling the tower. "You can't possibly hope to contain all that energy. It'll destroy you!" Metal Sonic let his head roll back and he laughed, the power contained with the master Emerald already coursing throughout his body. His entire wiser now pulsated with green light. His laughter echoed throughout the sky, calling forth thunder clouds within moments. Darkness reigning all around, only cast off the libidinous green light erupting from Metal Sonic. It was like an apocalypse, like the word was ending due to Metal Sonic's mere whim. The sea around them was beginning to froth and boil.
"Oh that can't be good." Chris stated.
"You're a small minded fool Eggman. I will claim dominance over this great power, and achieve the perfection you denied me!" With that, he drew on more of the emerald's power, a fierce green vortex engulfed the entire tower, blowing Eggman off his feet and directly into Big, knocking him over. Knuckles looked up in disbelief. This was his worst fear, and why he had assigned himself guardianship over the emerald. The power inside the master was immeasurable, if it fell into the wrong hands, the existence of the world was in peril. But now, he could do nothing but watch in horror, even the harsh winds wrapping around them like a cocoon were far too strong for him to fight. "Witness the birth of a god!" Metal Sonic declared, pointing his right arm upwards toward the sky, forcing his will over the power of the emerald, ordering it through his body to jump start his final transformation. A bolt of lighting erupted from his palm and leapt up toward the endless clouds, inspiring a swirling vortex around itself. Sonic looked up, instantly seeing all the energy building up in the sky, and came a sudden conclusion.
"RUN! He cried, turning about and grabbing a stunned Amy around the waist, pulling her along with him. Shadow didn't need any warning, he could see it just was well as Sonic. It took a few moments for a others to see it, and quickly followed, Eggman was flung over Big's shoulder. The chopper nearly tipped off at the sheer force, throwing Tails onto the floor.
Then, Metal Sonic recalled the now purified energy directly back into himself. The spiking bolt shot down, flowing directly into him with a violent explosion that ripped through the tower, shattering it's metallic structure into fragments. Flames, coupled with shards of flaming metal shot into the sly, bellowing pillars of smoke following closely behind. A barrier of wing radiated out from the explosion, knocking them all off their feet as they ran.
"As you can see viewers. Things have taken a turn for the worst here, we can't see what happening at the moment…." Garcia tried to yell into her mike, raising her voice as best she could above the scratching wind around them ."Despite personal danger, we will remain here to bring you the details live from the scene." The wind suddenly picked up at that point,
"My Beautiful fortress!" Eggman cried, slamming both fists down on the ground in despair. Sonic and Shadow managed to pull themselves to their feet, peering through the clouds of smoke and dust.
"What's going on?" Shadow asked. Suddenly, shattered pieces of metal that lay in various places came to life, wrenching himself into the in a flurry of debris, encircling the smouldering remains of the tower like a cyclone. All surrounded by white light.
"What the hell?" Vector stammered. Pieces began flying together, contacting, merging, becoming one, connecting with the whole bulk, increasing it's size. Each piece knowing exactly where they were required. All the time, Metal Sonic's laughter could be heard vibrating from somewhere deep within the cyclone.
This stunning spectacle was visible even from station square, where crowds of military soldiers and still terrified civilians stood and watched in awe. All attention was on this strange occurrence.
"Sonic." Eggman declared, struggling to stand up. "Listen to me, Metal Sonic's transformation is not complete yet. He must be stopped now before it's too late!"
"What?" The blue hedgehog asked.
"You know what's happening?" Knuckles demanded. Eggman nodded solemnly.
"Yes... In order to have the power fully at his disposal, Metal Sonic is fusing with the emerald." He swallowed hard. "They are quite literally becoming one and if he is not stopped now, it will be too late!"
Shadow didn't any more encouraging, his jets flew into life instantly as he began skating forward, holding his left hand back, cupping a chaos spear attack between his fingers. Once he was close enough, he spun around on heal and tossed the attack toward him.
"The black hedgehog has launched an attack toward this amazing spectacle." Garcia told the millions of viewers, looking toward the whole event herself, her gaze distracted from the camera. The chaos spear looked for a minute like it was about to make contact, but without warning a green force shield engulfed the towering cyclone, made from sparking strands of chaos energy. The attack simply was absorbed by it. The shield fizzled and disappeared.
Omega lumbered forward, his arms switching from hand to hand combat mode, to machine gun mode, the tips of his fingers folding over and remaining stubs linking together. The air was suddenly filled with bullets and the robot proceeded to launch most of it's ammunition toward the pinnacle. Metal Sonic just kept laughing from somewhere within the whole spectacle. Not one of them was making any damage.
"I vote we leave while we still have our lives!" Charmee suggested to Vector.
"All those in favour?" The crocodile asked weakly. All of Chaotix and most of the others put their hands up.
Suddenly it was over. A bellowing cloud of steam went up like a vial, cloaking whatever lay beyond from sight. Whatever had happened, it was very quiet.
"All is now quiet here." Garcia began, stepping out from he hiding place with her film crew. "We'll just have to wait till this smoke clears till we can what the defenders now face." Sonic was looking straight ahead, trying to catch some glimpse of his metallic rival. Something however, alerted him to a presence and his gaze shot upwards, to a towering shadow overlooking them all.
The smoke cleared and all was revealed.
"Ah crap!" Sonic cursed, taking a few steps back, over come by the sheer size of this beast.
This new creature was titanic, casting a shadow over them all, A forest of metallic spikes lancing out it's back. On It's right arm, instead of a hand there now lay an immense lobster like claw that was constantly snapping open and shut at regular intervals. All over it was covered in thick navy blue armour, each plate at least a good foot or two thick.
But what struck Sonic the most where the eyes. They were Metal Sonic's, one above the other resting in the middle of it's almost shark like face, it's mouth wide open, revealing three rows of metal teeth. it's neck was made up from a mess of pipes and wires, all curled around one around in twister of metal and wire, all coursing down into the large four foot thick metal plate spreading over it's chest and shoulders. It's lower body as a convulsing mass of metal, pulsating angrily, still attached to the main bulk of the ship, absorbing more of the mass. A second pair of arms began sprouting out the back of his midsection, first little more than two large stumps they kept growing, becoming longer, forming metal skin and articulated joints. A long tail, made up from segmented sections lanced out from behind it, the tip covered in the lances from destroyed egg pawns. Spreading over the back of it's head was a frill, the edge lined with large spikes.
Directly at it's centre, where it's heart should be was a curved dome made up of shaped strands of segmented metal, inside which was the Master Emerald, engulfed in wires, locked into place tightly by metal straps. It was beating wildly, exactly like a heart.
On the battleships, the sailors just stared at it. No ones had ever seen anything quite like this in their entire lives.
The creature reared it's head back and screamed, a beam of energy erupted from it's jaws casting a blinding flash of light out in every direction for miles. This destructive force leapt up into the air, hovered only before a moment, before separating into four equal parts and falling down toward the dozen Navy battleships surrounding the flag ship. Each one sank into one of those ships and instantly they were engulfed with flame, disappeared in a huge fire ball before sinking beneath the water. Leaving the sailors just enough time to jump off. The shock wave from the explosion tearing through the air, ten foot waves radiating away like ripples. Whatever Metal Sonic had become let out an ear piercing roar.
"Chris, I have a confession to make." Chuck began.
"Yeah, what's that?" His grandson asked back, his arms falling by his sides.
"…I am not longer wearing clean underwear."
In Chris' voice:
Metal Sonic, is he unstoppable? Seems so, but there's one small chance. If Sonic doesn't gather all the chaos emeralds real quick, then we all die. Can he succeed?
Find out next time on Sonic X, Enter, Metal Overlord. Don't miss it!