Mecha Action!

Chapter 7: New Power

The tiny green emerald that hung around Knuckles' neck glowed fiercely as he charged towards ShadoMech. In return, the Mecha charged as well and the two clashed their fists as the start of the battle. Metal Sonic went to battle the other Defenders and explosions began to blind the area from Metal's rocket launchers. As Rouge dodged the explosions and pressed herself against the wall, she noticed Knuckles being thrown through a metal wall by ShadoMech's sheer strength. It was obvious to her that the five Defenders were not going to make it through the battle.

The fierce lion Defender punched Metal away from his deaf comrade with his cybernetic arm. Rouge covered herself as Metal slammed into the wall next to her and slowly peeked between her fingers at the Mecha. His red eye was looking directly at her and there seemed to be some sort of serenity within them. Just then a whip wrapped around Metal Sonic's neck and pulled him back into the battle. Rouge found herself being scolded by Knuckles and quickly joined the battle again.

With the help of the young phoenix Defender, he and Rouge were able to pin Metal Sonic against the wall while the lion charged at the Mecha ready to shock him with an electric device on his arm. Metal shoved Rouge and the phoenix away and charged the lion head on. A powerful electric flash lit up the area and as the light clear, the lion Defender had been thrown back with his metallic arm nearly destroyed. Rouge attempted to jump kick Metal from behind but the robot quickly spun around and grabbed her ankle. Immediately the blind raccoon had thrown an electric shock disc towards the blue Mecha. Metal destroyed the weapon with a simply laser attack and flew into the raccoon trapping him against the wall by his neck. With two Defenders under control, all that was left was the young phoenix. He tried his best with his whip again wrapping it around Metal's neck.

The robot used the trap to his advantage and sent a strong but non-lethal shock through all three of the Defenders. They fell to the floor lifeless for a few seconds before Rouge and the raccoon stood; the shock was too much for the young phoenix. Rouge was the first to attack again sending a fury of attacks towards Metal Sonic. The robot's responsive systems were more than efficient; it almost seemed as if he was reading Rouge's mind before she attacked. Suddenly the face-off ended just as quickly as it had started with Rouge blocking a severe blow from Metal. Her forearm was fractured causing the bat to quit the battle. The raccoon had just finished making some adjustments to his laser gun when Metal charged at him. Rouge was approached from behind by the lion.

"Are you ok?" he asked the bat.

"Yeah. My arm's a little messed up but it's ok." Rouge replied. "Is he gonna be ok? Shouldn't you help him?"

The two observed the raccoon fiercely in battle with Metal Sonic. It was amazing how accurate his blocks and dodges were as he executed them flawlessly. Then the lion informed Rouge that he used his sensitive hearing skills to detect the direction of each attack and his opponent. It was this that unlocked Rouge's memory's to when she had first joined the Defender force only ten years ago. She had remembered seeing the same raccoon during the training session for newcomers. He and the echidna worked very close together an on her first mission, Rouge saw the raccoon's undying loyalty to his leader. It was this that made her want to join the force… before she had fallen in love with Knuckles.

As the memory faded, Rouge could feel herself being pulled up by the lion.

"Come on, we better get you and Phoenix out of here." the large lion informed Rouge picking up the younger Defender.

Carefully he lifted Rouge to her feet and the three hurried over towards the elevator. ShadoMech, who was busy fighting Knuckles, spotted the three trying to escape and fired a missile in their direction.

"LOOK OUT!!" Knuckles shouted to his team.

Rouge and the lion looked behind them and dove to the side to avoid the missile as it blew up the elevator. Now the Defenders were trapped with Eggman's deadliest robots with very little hope left for them. The lion, determined to serve his kind and leader, decided to join the fight again even with his destroyed metallic arm.

"Rouge, stay here with Phoenix. I'd rather die fighting then as a sitting duck." the lion said setting Phoenix down next to Rouge.

He took off heading towards ShadoMech to help Knuckles battle the robotic hedgehog. Rouge hoped that the other Defender teams would be able to reach them.

Meanwhile, Amy found herself getting off the elevator on the 115 floor. She looked back at the elevator as the doors closed thinking about the other Defenders.

"I hope they're ok without me." she thought to herself.

The eerie blue glow of the corridor ahead of her told her that Tails was on this floor. As she began to walk down the corridor the temperature began to drop dramatically. Soon the young hedgehog found it hard to keep herself from shivering but trudged on towards the heavy doors ahead of her. After she had reached the doors, a puff of breath was exerted from Amy's mouth in a frustrated manner. There was a security clearance to get into the room and without any equipment Amy's mission was hopeless.

"I can't believe I came all the way up here for nothing."

Amy sighed turning away but a few beeping noises from the security system caught her attention. She looked back to see the system granting her access but how did this happen? No matter, the doors were opening before her eyes and soon she would be able to meet Tails face to face. As the heavy metal doors opened inward, a frosty cloud poured out from within the room nearly freezing Amy's legs and caused her to shiver horribly from head to toe. Ignoring the frostbite feeling in her limbs, Amy trudged on into the frosty room taking in the sights of the large blue room. Frost covered nearly all of the computer equipment but everything seemed to be working perfectly. The capsule machine in the center of the room caught Amy's eye and she stopped staring at the boy within the capsule.

He appeared to be a few inches taller than Amy and indeed appeared to be older than the hedgehog as well. His unkempt hair fell over half of the visor he was wearing and his two bushy tails laid motionless behind him. There appeared to be no liquid of some sort inside the capsule leaving Amy to assume that the fox floated because of a gravity adjustment. As Amy crept towards the capsule, she wondered if the boy was awake. Suddenly he gave a jolt scaring Amy and immediately his two tails became active swishing behind him in a rhythmic motion. The young Defender stared into the dark visor over Tails' eyes unable to tell whether he was looking at her or not.

"Who are you?" the boy asked Amy… but his mouth did not move.

It was strange, but Tails' voice did not seem natural. It sounded as if it was all within Amy's head and she looked around to see if there were any speakers within the room.

"WHO ARE YOU?!" Tails' voice echoed louder into the hedgehog's mind.

Stiffened by the angered voice, Amy tried her best to speak but only small clouds of heat were exerted from her mouth. There was brief silence in which the two stared at each other momentarily before Tails spoke again in Amy's mind.

"Amy… Your name is Amy?" he asked.

The timid hedgehog nodded her head silently. After another short silence, Amy had finally built up some courage to speak to Tails.

"I've come to tell you about Sonic… he remembered you. He remembered everything about you and Shadow."

Tails said nothing to her and Amy wondered if he was paying attention to her at all. She stepped forward calling out his name gently. Tails did not answer. Cautiously the hedgehog stepped forward again calling out to Tails and even waved her hand at him a bit.

"LEAVE!!" his voice shattered her mind.

"B-but what about--"

"LEAVE NOW!!"

Amy stammered suddenly confused about Tails wanting her out. The fox only grew frustrated by the girl's hesitant behavior and caused the alarms to go off finally convincing Amy to leave the area. As she ran back down the corridor towards the elevator, hundreds of tiny wire-framed figures poured out of Tails' lab and chased after Amy. Many of them caught the girl just as she reached out for the call button on the elevator and the Defender was dragged to the ground as the figures piled onto her frail body. She looked back towards the lab as the doors began to close and screamed out for Tails' help but fox gave no reply; his tails had become stationary again as the heavy doors closed and locked up. Amy screamed as the figurines pulled her down into a hidden passage in the wall where she and several figurines fell down a dark shaft.

Back on the forty-ninth floor, the mighty lion was faced with a barrage of lightning fast attacks from ShadoMech pushing him back against the wall. After the attacks stopped the lion tried to move in for a power punch but ShadoMech dodged it with ease and quickly built up electricity within his hand. The Mecha jammed the hand into the lion's stomach violently shocking him and knocking the great beast unconscious. Suddenly Knuckled tackled ShadoMech from behind and they were at it again.

The raccoon had finally overpowered Metal Sonic wrapping the Mecha with strong cables and aiming his laser gun at the robot. ShadoMech briefly to see his brother at gun point. Immediately he threw Knuckles aside and, in a flash, flew towards the raccoon. The experienced Defender heard the Mecha flying towards him and spun around pulling out a dagger from his pocket. CRASH! ShadoMech rammed into the raccoon with his razor sharp claws piercing through the Defender's stomach and the Defender's dagger and arm through ShadoMech's left eye. Knuckles and Rouge were left in shock as the raccoon grunted in pain helplessly.

"Rick! No!" Knuckles shouted running towards Rick and ShadoMech.

"Stop!" ShadoMech ordered the echidna.

Kncukles forced himself to stop clenching his fist.

"Take one more step and this Organic will be destroyed." the Mecha used his free hand to rip Rick's arm from his eye and threw the dagger to the side. "I can be repaired easily by Father, but as for you…"

The sinister robot slowly turned his blood covered hand inside Rick's body; the raccoon tried to hold in his yells.

"You are irreplaceable."

With no warning, ShadoMech ripped his hand out of the raccoon's stomach. His yells echoed throughout the area as well as Rouge's and Knuckles' as a large amount of blood splattered everywhere. Rick fell to the floor with Rouge rushing to his side and Knuckles glaring at ShadoMech.

"You!" the echidna's eyes were glowing a mad green. "YOU'LL PAY FOR THIS!"

A giant hand wrapped around ShadoMech's neck but the Mecha did nothing to stop the echidna. This behavior was quite suspicious to Knuckles but he was too focused on avenging one of his best Defenders.

"If I was capable of feelings I would pity you." ShadoMech spoke calmly.

Knuckles said nothing in return.

"It's incomprehensible as to why you Organics continue fighting against Father's power. Day in and day out you make futile efforts to try and overpower Father, but they are easily crushed by one move we Mechas make setting you back years and years. I'm surprised that after so long you still haven't figured out the obvious truth."

"And what would that be?" Knuckles finally asked.

"That Father is allowing you to foil a few of his unimportant plans such as your disabling of the Capital's protective barrier. Father knew that sooner or later you would do such a thing and let it happen for us two Metals were about to be unleashed upon your tiny nation."

Rouge was taken aback by the new information but kept her comments to herself. Knuckles, however, was not phased and still held ShadoMech by his neck. Suddenly he looked away from ShadoMech and stared at Metal Sonic who was standing in a dark corner, his red glowing eyes standing out clearly. Knuckles grunted before turning his eyes back to ShadoMech.

"You must understand that Father has the power to defeat you in a single battle but enjoys watching you Organics struggle. Now that you know that your existence is useless… it's time to bring it to and end."

Just as ShadoMech emitted his last words a gigantic claw exploded through the wall and grabbed onto Knuckles and ShadoMech. Rouge shouted as the two were pulled back into the hole which apparently lead to the outside to a giant orange and gray machine with seven legs. Eggman, who was piloting the machine, had drilled his way to the inside of the tower and was now holding Knuckles and ShadoMech grinning.

"I'll just skip the formalities and get straight down to business with eliminating you Organics." the scientist said with an unkindly hiss.

Quickly Eggman threw Knuckle and ShadoMech towards the ground with ShadoMech disappearing as he fell. The echidna was alone now with a chance to possibly rid the world of Eggman. Using the powers of the Emerald of Order, he slowed his descent and began to fly upward towards Eggman ready to attack. A bright green light flashed from the area as Knuckled collided with Eggman shield and the two went into a furious battle. Several of the machine's claws went after Knuckles but he was able to dodge them even as they attacked continuously. Slowly the two leaders were climbing up Prime Tower as they battled and eventually found themselves on the rooftop with Eggman's machine almost too big to fit.

As they continued to fight, ShadoMech silently ascended from over the edge of the roof and began to power up an attack aimed at Knuckles. Immediately the echidna sensed the impending doom and briefly paused from his battle with Knuckles to encase ShadoMech in an emerald green shield. He then forced the shield away from the area and it crashed into another building releasing ShadoMech upon impact. The Mecha only glared at the bright flashes of green coming from Prime Tower's rooftop and then flew off elsewhere.

Inside Prime Tower on the forty-ninth floor, Rouge was stuck with three disabled Defenders and had no way out. Just as she thought the mission was over a loud banging noise came from a secret passage in a wall nearby. Rouge looked over at the small door as it was kicked out and Amy fell out of the secret passage slightly covered in dust. The hedgehog looked at her surroundings frowning a bit at what she saw. She then saw Rouge kneeling next to the still conscious raccoon who was holding on to his life with the bat pressing a rag onto his wound to stop the bleeding.

"Oh my goodness! What happened? Is he ok?!" Amy asked as she joined Rouge.

"Yeah, he'll be fine. One of Eggman's new robots got him. I'm sure you know who I'm talking about." Rouge answered looking away.

It didn't take long for Amy to figure out who Rouge was talking about. It had to be ShadoMech for Metal Sonic had already chose not to be apart of the war anymore. A light clanking noise came from behind Amy and she and Rouge looked to see Metal walking towards them. Rouge proceeded to stand up ready to fight but Amy stopped her. The hedgehog shook her head and quietly the bat sat back down quit confused.

"I should've stopped him." Metal said quietly.

"I don't blame you Sonic. You had to show your loyalty to Eggman or else Shadow would've gotten suspicious of you." Amy replied.

Just then Rouge stood up joining the two with a shocked look on her face.

"What did you just call him?!" Rouge demanded.

"Sonic, it's his name." the pink hedgehog replied in a quiet manner.

"He's…but… how… everyone thinks that they're dead." Rouge was referring to the Three Legends.

"They're not. This is Sonic and I'm sure you just saw Shadow."

"Well what about Tails?"

"…He's alive too… but not roboticized. I found him near the top of the tower inside a capsule." Amy explained. "Sonic, I told him about you. About how you remembered him and Shadow. He didn't say anything at all. He just wanted me to leave after that."

Metal Sonic silently looked at Amy before speaking again.

"Eggman must have known someone had entered into the lab. He constantly monitors it for intruders even if he's away. Tails was only trying to protect you and himself." the Mecha replied.

Amy nodded her head and then surveyed the area and the three Defenders.

"We better get them out of here and back to Defender Territory. Are there any others in the tower?" Amy asked Rouge.

"Yeah but I'm sure they left as soon as things got too rough, at least that's what Knuckles had ordered them to do before we came here." Rouge answered. "But how are we gonna get out of here? The elevator is busted."

By then Metal Sonic had left the two girls and was carefully lifting Rick in his arms. The raccoon grunted a bit but did not seem to protest the robot's help.

"There's a service elevator at the other end of the level. I'll lead you out of here but you two are on your own once we reach the exit. I can't risk being seen helping you Defenders." Metal explained.

The girls nodded their heads and picked up Phoenix together and followed Metal Sonic down the corridor he and ShadoMech had blocked off to the Defenders. As he led the girls Rick grunted again in his arms and Metal looked down to see a smile on the raccoon's face.

"Bless you Sonic." he struggled to say. "It's a miracle to have you back again after so long."

Although he wasn't able to show his appreciation, Sonic began to feel a familiar comforting feeling that he hadn't felt in a long time.

Outside the battle between Knuckles and Eggman raged on with the two delivering more powerful attacks towards each other. A crushing claw smashed Knuckles into the pavement and Eggman slammed the claw onto the echidna over and over to make sure he was dead. But a bright green light shone from under the claw and a powerful force pushed up against the claw. Eggman fought against the force but the gears on his machine soon began to creak and spark under the heavy pressure. Suddenly the arm gave away to the force and broke down with a large explosion. Knuckles flew out of the small crater yanking the mechanical arm off of the machine and threw off over the edge of the tower. Despite the loss of one leg, Eggman still had an ace up his sleeve. A large cannon appeared out of the front of the machine's body and Eggman already had Knuckles locked on target.

"You know Knuckles if you try hard enough I bet you can guess what powers this cannon." Eggman said almost teasing the red echidna.

Knuckles' eyes briefly flashed green and he gasped upon his findings.

"The Emerald of Chaos…" he said.

The scientist merely chuckled and began to power up the cannon.

"You know after fighting for so many years now I've grown tired of toying around with you Organics." Eggman said resting head on his hand.

"Then I'll relieve you of you boredom." Knuckles before he began to power up.

The scientist smiled accepting the invitation to a power showdown. When the two were fully powered hey looked each other in the eyes before two power beams where shot off. They lit up the smog filled skies giving off several shock waves that shook Prime Tower. Gradually Eggman raised the power level of the cannon forcing Knuckles to give out more power. Suddenly the beams of energy began to mix in with each other causing a chain reaction. Immediately an explosion occurred blowing Knuckles away from the area and pushing Eggman's machine over the edge. The scientist himself was knocked out by the explosion leaving him helpless and his machine to crash into the ground.

Knuckles was able to stop himself in mid-air and watched as the machine crashed with an enormous explosion. A fireball shot up incinerating one side of Prime Tower and the entire block. Amy, Rouge, and the revived Phoenix and lion had gotten far away from the area but looked back to see a bit of the fireball rise over the smaller buildings. Both Amy and Rouge hoped that Knuckles wasn't caught in the blast. Hovering high above Prime Tower was ShadoMech and he watched as the fireball subsided into a large fire. Slowly the Mecha's eyes scanned the area and he spotted Knuckles leaving the area… but the robot did not follow. Instead he scanned the fire below and picked up the Emerald of Chaos still in one piece.

In the flash of an eye ShadoMech zoomed downward towards the fire diving into it to retrieve the Emerald of Chaos. Seconds later he emerged, his metallic skin glowed a hot red color. His metallic skin slowly cooled off returning to its normal color as he gazed at the tiny emerald in the palm of his hand. Its grayish purple color shined fire light mesmerizing ShadoMech's eyes. Suddenly he looked up at the gaping hole Eggman's machine had created and saw Metal Sonic standing in the opening. ShadoMech clenched the jewel in his hand and then flew to the rooftop where he summoned Tails with a radio signal. Seconds later the blue capsule appeared on the usual platform among the debris from the battle.

"Miles." ShaoMech approached the fox. "Send a message to all Mechas. Inform them that the Organics have killed Father and that I, ShadoMech, have taken over as supreme ruler of the Mechalands!"

Tails frowned a bit before sending out the message using the antenna on top of the capsule. As the signal traveled throughout the land, Mechas big and small began to make all sorts of noises either using objects they had or using their own noise making systems. ShadoMech stood on the rooftop looking all around him as the air filled with the mechanical grieving of the robots. Down below still standing in the gaping hole, Metal Sonic observed his surroundings as well taking in all of the noise. He then looked up and wondered what his brother was thinking.

…As Tails' capsule disappeared back into Prime Tower, ShadoMech walked out towards the ledge and look towards the horizon where the Defender Territory stood.

"Finally," ShadoMech spoke as his red eyes glowed. "I have risen over you my dear brother and have become the better of us both as it should've been for years."