(Quick review response)
I suppose Metal Sonic being created now dose clash a bit with the official storyline, however, Sonic X is sort of an AU universe. Besides, speaking from the viewpoint of Sonic X, if Metal Sonic had been created before Sonic Heroes then why didn't Eggman use him before? As for Emerl, I confess that the start of the fic was written before the finale of the Battle Adaptation so I have to classify it as a spin off type thing.)
Flip Card 2: Nazo
Two down, four to go. With two emeralds already placed inside a large canvas bag he'd picked up on the way, Sonic raced toward the third X on the make shift device Eggman and Chuck had quickly thrown together to track down the Chaos emeralds. Finding the first two had been extremely difficult, and he knew he hadn't too much time to spare. Why was it that every time the Emeralds scattered, they always ended up in those hard to reach places such as the peeks of mountains or the bottom of lakes.
He forced himself to remember that he hadn't time to think about that. Metal Overlord could emerge from that pod any minute now and if they were to have any chance of tdefeating him, the chaos emeralds were absolutely essential. His legs became a blur as he poured on the speed, shattering the sound barrier, knocking any tree around him over, leaving any noise behind and entering the mute void one must travel through when they go that fast. Running at this speed required a surprising amount of concentration, and as distracted as he was, Sonic couldn't help thinking that he could somehow go faster.
"Don't think blue boy, just run." He told himself and involuntarily put on another burst of speed.
"So what now?" Shadow asked, staring up at the towering pod. Loud squelching noises were emanating from inside and Vector had conquered up the courage to edge toward it to get a better look. Using this opportunity, rescue ships had sailed in to rescue the pilots that had bailed out of their planes during a severely unsuccessful air attack. Everything around was in chaos, the strange combination of fire and water strangely and poetically apt. Despite the roar from military choppers as they began lowering in ground troops to the Flag Ships massive surface, the soft laugh of the flames and the noise from inside the pod itself, everything was very quiet.
Eggman gritted his teeth, staring at this grotesque thing in loathing, before his arms collapsed to his side and he fell to his knees, the thick frustrating look of defeat on his face.
"We can't do anything now, none of us." Everyone looked his way. " Once Metal Sonic's transformation is complete, he'll emerge from that thing like a butterfly from a chrysalis, ten times stronger than before." He looked up weekly. "Go ahead, attack it, you won't so much as make a dent." Shadow looked up at it himself, studying it in detail. Vein like lumps were pulsating over its surface, each one it seemed lead right down to the web of metal strands that encircled the tower. "Metal Sonic was designed to be the ultimate assassin robot, to that extent I have him the ability to absorb accumulated battle data like AI prototype Emerl, learn and improve on it,"
"But all that power…" Chuck began with his eyes narrowing. "Did you design him to be able to control it so well?" Eggman shock his head.
"No, and that's the reason Metal Sonic turned on me in the first place I'm lead to believe. Shortly after I created him, I discovered that not only would his strategically thinking improved when he absorbed data, but so would his strength and other physical attributes. So I decided to keep a close eye on his evolution to make sure that he did not grow too powerful were it would be come necessary to deactivate him. Metal Sonic is seemed discovered his hidden potential as well and when he discovered a sought to suppress it, saw no other option but to turn on me." He smacked the deck of the flagship with his open palm. "Now he's evolved to a level far beyond anything I could have imagined."
"All the more reason to shut him down now." Knuckles commented, charging forward with a fist drawn back before smashing it against the metallic web. There was a loud clanking sound and Knuckles scrunched his face up in pain, tears forming at the edge of his eyes. "EEEOOOOOOOOWW!" He yelled, withdrawing his now limp hand. As for his intended target, the shiny metallic surface was completely without flaws.
"See?" Eggman added with a strangely humored smile. "Our only hope is that Sonic finds the Chaos emeralds and returns in time to make a difference." He slapped his hand to his forehead. "I'm relying on the rodent again, how humiliating."
"How much time do we have?" Chuck asked.
"Who knows? A year, a month, an hour, a minute? As long as Metal Sonic needs to complete his transformation." Eggman replied, not even aware that more of the military's soldier's had begun arriving on the scene, setting up a perimeter within moments. Chuck looked up as the arrived.
"This is now a closed off era, you're to leave at once. An assault is about to be mounted within a few minutes." One of them announced as the others, with several Big Foot walkers and Laser Hunter units took up positions directly in front of them, preparing a line of fire. Apparently the President had ordered military intervention. Eggman simply chuckled.
"Don't waste your ammunition. Attacking it right now would prove pointless." The solider smacked Eggman on the back hard.
"You don't give the orders around here Terrorist." Another who was not with the other group up front reached around into his pack and produced a pair of hand cuffs.
"Hands off!" Decoe and Becoe exclaimed, rising very quickly to protect their master.
Everything was brought to a very suddenly halt when the gigantic pod gave off a loud churning should and the top half began to crack, compromising lines spreading down it's length. Everyone remained very quiet and simply watched. The pod flexed itself again, whatever was inside trying to force it's way out. Parts of the web began to strain, the strange metallic substance groaning reluctantly, a strange and terrifying moaning spreading across bay to the already scared civilians in the city.
"That certainly doesn't sound good." Amy stated, backing off slightly.
Five emeralds already attained, all Sonic had to do now was acquire the sixth and the location was already marked on his locator. The emeralds inside his bag sparking wildly, coming into closed proximity to each other, but he couldn't worry about that. His legs were beginning to pulsate in pain, but he kept going anyway. Just one more, then head back. It was just he was so….very…tired. He shook his head violently, snapping himself back from the brick between wake and asleep.
"Keep it together!" He told himself, pouring on more speed, the world simply a white void around him, black outlines the only things telling him that he was entering a large city in China. The locator blipped loudly, telling him that he was nearly on top of the emerald. Placing on foot horizontally in front of the other, he came screeching to a halt, sound and color flooding back in an instant. The thing he noticed at once was that the streets were empty, people were terrified, hiding behind locked doors. Sonic really didn't blame them, a large, black, ominous looking cloud was towering out from the west, bolts of lightning crackling around it's bulk. The loud, angry thundering roars hanging in the air. This was enough to make even Knuckles nervous.
"Hey!" Someone called. Sonic looked around to see a man approach him cautiously, casting glances up to the towering cloud. He was in his middle ages with short black hair and eyes, dressed in very plain pants and trousers. He appeared to be slightly overweight.
"Who are you?" Sonic asked as the man approached him.
"Name's Hawk…and we don't have time to talk right now…just take this." The man reached into his pocket and withdrew a large, fist sized purple jewel. Sonic took a few steps back in surprise. "Heard that you were looking for them." Hawk added, handing the blue hedgehog the emerald. Sonic's face lit up.
"Alright! This is the last one."
"You had best get going." Hawk told him. "I was watching the news coverage and the last I looked, things didn't seem to look too good." The smile on Sonic's face disappeared, replaced by an open mouth.
"Right, I'm off….and thanks." He added, calling over his shoulder, already his legs in a complete blur, a blue darting blue already coursing through the streets, a sonic boom shaking the windows.
The cocoon cracked, before shards of it went flying as a pair of gigantic wings stretched out to their full width. Vector held his arms up in front of himself to shield his eyes as pieces of debris began flying. A ear-piercing roar shook the ground as a bulking shape shattered the remains of the pod, several pairs of gigantic arms tearing the rest of it to pieces.
"Sonic's too late!" Eggman exclaimed, staring up in horror as a horrible and titanic shape propelled itself into the air on metallic, yet bird like wings, each created and feather fitted and molded with artistic precision and as black as the darkest night. Metal Overlord's newest form was both majestic and terrifying. Engulfed in a thick cloud of smoke, this metallic bird soured into the sky. Those same parallel red blazing eyes staring down at them, only their intensity blared a thousand times brighter than before. Its tail end had enlarged, more spikes lancing out of it's tail. It had kept its two sets of arms, large curving talons now on the end of each finger. Directly in its chest, it's master emerald heart pulsated with a bright green light.
Sonic stared in horror from the shore as Metal Overlord took flight, encased in a blanket of cloud, rearing a silhouette that could only be it's head back and vomited several beams of energy that shot off in nearly ever direction, burning everything that came near them. Chaos reigned all around, buildings and ships crumbled into flames and ashes. The water of the sea boiled and churned, sinks, both Eggman Empire and G.U.N sinking before any of the sailors had a chance to escape. The storm around intensified ten fold, gale force winds wrapping themselves around everything it would, tearing, shredding and biting
"Holy crap!" Sonic exclaimed, shielding his eyes. A hideous, evil laughter somehow managed to tear through all this chaos. He was too late!
"Get those people out of there!" The president screamed at down the phone. "I want a complete evacuation of Station Square, I don't care if it's never been done before, just do it!"
The Chaotix retreated back to the main group, some instinct guiding them for safety in number. The metal bird was in full flight now, once it reached a good height, made off toward the city with a burst of unthinkable speed.
"Better late than never." Shadow said with a grin, his fur still matted with seawater as Sonic raced up beside him, breathing hard. Chaos was everywhere, everything around falling into the sea. The flagship beginning to groan and strain as it began to sink. Sonic didn't reply, he simply tore his bag off his shoulder and tossed it to the floor, tearing it open.
"I got them all." He said, pausing for breath. Eggman's face lit up.
"Now we have a fighting chance." Metal Overlord flew over the city as people began flooding into the streets, running for their lives. Sneering down at them, the metallic dragon-bird threw its head back and another beam of destructive energy down towards them. Fire tearing through the buildings, smoke bellowing up into the sky. A sky scrapper that towered up out of the ground got in Metal Overlords way and it simply tore through it, the tip of it's black wings shredding through the building without even flinching. It's top half swayed for a moment before crashing down to the streets below.
This was his true calling, now Metal Overlord was sure of it. He was not simply a robot in the Eggman Empire's arsenal, he was the herald of the age of machines. When these disgusting organic beings would be exterminated and glorious mechanoids walked the earth in their place. He took great pleasure in destroying as much of the city as he could, leaving much of it in ruins, reducing whatever lay in his path to rubble.
More fighter planes from the military came screaming across the sky, two missiles already coursing through the air toward him. Metal Overlord simply batted them down toward the streets with it's large tail, before screaming at the planes. The sonic scream rippled through the air, shattering the metal frames, engulfing the planes in fire before they went spiraling toward the ground.
The entire city began to burn. Buildings collapsing into rubble and smoke, crowds feeling in terror as the colossal metal bird swooped down toward them.
The seven emeralds reunited, each glowed brightly, as if happy to be with its brothers. A soft, almost musical notation seemed to buzz in the air as a bright flare, the starting point of Chaos Control blared outward, casting bright pillars of light into the surrounding darkness. Sonic closed his eyes, his mind already connected to their energy. Every time he had turned Super before, he had had to concentrate, merge his own energy with theirs. Something however, was different this time. A voice, repeating the same statement over and over again began to ring in his ears. Shadow could hear it too, and stood transfixed by it with Sonic.
Suddenly, the white blur disappeared and two hedgehogs found themselves standing in front of a stone shrine. Everything around was bursting with life and vitality. Grey, snow covered mountains stood in the distance and rolling green hills in the fore ground. The sound of birds chirping and a babbling brook nearby gently entertained their eyes. The Shrine itself was made of gray stone, and set into several layers, each one with a ring of water around it, gently being drained away by two sets of aqueducts. The top of the shrine had an overhanging arched roof held up by four stone pillars, a soft green light imitating from some point within. The same musical hum still was buzzing around. Everything seemed so natural, so peaceful than neither of them actually questioned what they were doing here.
Suddenly, everything was engulfed in flames and the giant pulsating form of Perfect Chaos reared it's transparent head up and roared. In the sky above the giant form of the ARK could be seen plummeting toward them, pulled along by the Biolizard, still fused with the point of the Eclipse Cannon. Another form manifested in this chaos, a figure made completely of green flames with blaring white eyes. Then, all was well again and they were left back at the shrine again, as if nothing had happened.
Standing at the foot of a step of steps that lead up to the top of the shrine was an Echidna girl, with blue eyes and bright orange fur, dressed in Aztec looking clothes. Sonic and Shadow remained motionless as she began to approach them. Finally she stood before them and Shadow could see her in better detail. She wore a golden tiara on her head, each side disappearing behind dreadlocks, each one with a white band around them. Around her buzzed several bright blue Chao, all singing a soft melody that seemed to match the already present musical note that hung in the air.
"We've been waiting for you." She said with a smile, extending her hands toward them.
A silhouette appeared by her side, a faint outline that began to solidify and Shadow found himself staring at the transplant outline of a human girl, probably no older than 16. Bright golden hair and sea blue eyes. The familiar face transfixed shadow. The girl sidestepped and her barley visible form slid into the physical one so it occupied that same space as that of the Echidna female's, she outstretched her hands as well, then they both spoke together.
"The two become one."
Sonic and Shadow only hesitated briefly, before each reaching out and placing a hand each on hers.
The Chaos Control flare turned from white to Emerald green and without warning, both Sonic and Shadow were pulled off their feet and sucked directly into it, swallowed up completely.
"SONIC!" Amy screamed. Metal Overlord hesitated from his attack and looked back, then was suddenly blinded as the small pinnacle of light expanded into a flare so bright the darkness around was engulfed. The city, the bay, the Mystic ruins, everything was swallowed up by an expanding ball of green light. A loud groaning becoming lighter in pitch began resonating in the air. Just like the Chaos Control that brought them to Earth in the first place, the light kept expanding and expanding.
"What on earth?" Eggman asked, staring at this new hedgehog, standing directly in the centre of a bright ring formed by the emeralds, bathing in their combined light. Pillars of sunlight lancing down from the thick storm clouds above, highlighting him like spotlights. Fur completely white and softly glowing. Like Shadow, these streamlined and fused quills at an angel, all pointing upwards apart from the one directly in the centre. The two fused quills on his back twice were long, standing out against the shoulders. Each spike was outlined by a streaks, very much like shadow but the streaks were erratic and not perfectly straight. The eyes were a green like Sonic's, but far lighter in color, almost made indistinguishable by the soft white glow.
Metal Overlord hovered above, staring down at this new source of incredible light in amazement. Tails, Chris and the others still in the chopper were watching from out of the window, the light from this new hedgehog running through the streets of Station Square.
"Sonic?" Amy began, approaching slowly. "Is that you?" The white hedgehog turned to give her a very Sonic type grin.
"Nope." He replied, his voice was almost warped and distorted, like two people were talking at once.
"Then, are you Shadow?" Rouge asked, supporting herself on Knuckles' shoulder. The hedgehog shook his head.
"No, not him either." He spread his arms, blazing white flames dancing from his shoulder all the way down to his fingertips. A ball of this concentrated force gathered between the fingers on his left hand, light bolts that seemed to put fiery heat into the air lanced around it. Metal Overlord flapped its wings and hovered high in the sky, retreating to a safe distance.
"Call me Nazo." He replied, before bring his arm sharply across his front, his fingers arching as this spectacular attack ripped through the air, veiled in the purest light.
(In Chris' voice)
Nazo? Who the heck is he? Nevermind, just go fight Metal Overlord and win. It's coming down to the wire and could be a photo finish. Who will win the battle of the Titans? Find out Next time on Sonic X, the final clash. Don't miss it!