(I do not own Sonic X…etc.)

S.O.N.I.C GO!

S.O.N.I.C GO!

GO, GO, GO, GO, LET'S GO!

Last time on Sonic X:

Shadow felt like something had just stabbed itself right through is chest, every ounce of strength he had left hi. What stranglehold Radiant Emerald had over his energy seemed to manifest in one big go, ensnaring him in paralysis. Hardly able to stand, he collapsed to the floor. As he made contact with it, more and more energy left his body.

He'd been right, this place was feeding upon him and if it feed any more, he would inevitably die.

"Shadow, what happened?" Chuck asked, feeling the black and red Hedgehog collapse. He opened his eyes to see what was going on, but the light around him blinded them, forcing them shut again.

"Chuck, what's going on?" Tails asked, trying to look around. Metal Knuckles' eye were not organic and could not be blinded. He simply, adjusted his light intact lens and his vision adjusted itself accordingly. No able to see clearly, he found that they were all standing in a large chamber with a high roof like the ones before them, only this ones defensive ability seemed to be blinding them with light to keep them in one place.

But why? The reason eluded the robot. Light kept most of them from proceeding, but it was hardly one of the lethal traps they had encountered before. A low buzzing noise began to fill their and Metal Knuckles looked up to see several red orbs descend toward them, these seemed to be made out of pure light themselves, each one at least five meters in length and width. The warps Void had warned them about, these matched their description perfectly.

Episode 20: Escape from the Radiant Emerald

Metal Knuckles pushed his creator out of the way as one of those orbs flew down at them, their deadly edges narrowly missing them by millimetres. Eggman was sent rolling to the side, avoiding certain death. Metal Knuckles himself was not so lucky, the orb picked itself up into the air from the floor again and flew right across his side, catching his right arm. Instantly, it simply vanished as if it had never been there at all, dissolving inside the orb itself. Metal Knuckles wrenched himself free just in him, a good third of his torso missing along with his right arm, sparks flying from the gaping hole.

No one else could see what was happening, the light from the walls was keeping from so much as opening their eyes. It was just too bright for any of them to see a thing, which was part of the trap. While they staggered around completely blinded, the warps would have trouble picking them off, sending them all into none existence. Shadow didn't have much trouble with the light, he could see through it perfectly. But with the entire world around him draining his power of its very life, he could barely struggle to breath. He watched as Metal Knuckles staggered backwards, hardly able to keep his balance with just one arm. The weight of the other one nearly pulling him over and onto the floor. This proved ironic, but the black and red hedgehog was going to have to lend Eggman's robot a hand if any of them were to get out of this alive. And he would have to hurry; more of those red orbs were descending from the ceiling above.

Looking around, he tried to see exactly where the walls were getting their light from. All the other traps had had ways around them; this one had to have some deactivation switch or something. It was then that he noticed that the light itself was not actually coming from the walls, but rather from some thick blue lines that coursed up and down the length of them like blood vessels. Each one pulsating with light, a constant as a heart beat.

Calling on what power he could spare, Shadow fired a small Chaos spear attack straight through the air, smashing into the side of one of them. The effort however left the black and red hedgehog completely drained and he collapsed unconscious. The blue lines bled a thick green liquid that ran down the walls like blood and the light around them pulsated and died.

Sonic rubbed his eyes, blinking to try and restore his sight. When he saw the red orbs above him, he blinked to make sure he wasn't seeing things, before he dived to the side, knocking Tails and Chuck out of the way.

"I suggest we vacate." Eggman stated, pointing to a set of stairs running around the pillars that stood in the centre of the room. Sonic looked around, seeing Shadow out cold and Metal Knuckles with only one arm and nodded, picking up Chuck and well and racing up towards the ceiling. Dr. Eggman hoisted Shadow onto his shoulder, realizing he might still need the black and red hedgehog to escape from this place, before running fro the stairs as fast as his long legs could carry him. Metal Knuckles distracted the orbs will Eggman made his escape, slamming his remaining clawed arm into the wall, cracks running up and down its length, sending tones of rubble cascading down on top of the warps. It didn't stop them though; the robot could see them eating their way through the substance. He didn't wait for them to continue, with his injury he made his way quickly to the stairs to follow his creator up.

"I though these things were supposed to be in fixed positions!" Sonic snarled, finding another two warps waiting for them halfway up the stairs case.

"Void said only some of them were!" Tails replied as they raced on. Void watched from outside the tower, well aware of their process up the spire. They were almost there now, another few hundred feet and they'd reach its summit. Unfortunately, that place was the most dangerous of all and the odds for them opening the porhole, let alone surviving were extremely small. It was part of Illumina's taunt against him, leaving a way out of Radiant Emerald for him but so laden with danger it would be impossible for him to get up there. It was the way she liked to play with her enemies. It made Void sick.

Fortunately, his cunning made up for any lack in speed.

Shadow forced himself awake, knowing full well that now was an extraordinarily bad time for a nap. To his surprise, he found he was being curried up by Eggman, who was running surprisingly fast with two orbs on his tail, Metal Knuckles right behind them as the robotic Echidna tried desperately to keep up. The black and Red hedgehog was now far too weak to help anyone, but as least he could still warn Eggman verbally.

"DOWN!" Shadow yelled. Eggman looked back just in time to see an orb fly straight at them; ducking as he ran the fat scientist avoided having his head sent into none existence as he flew right over him. Metal Knuckles leapt forward, rebounding off the side of the wall and coming down in front of the orbs and as he fell, he used his claws to slash at the pillar, cutting a large chunk of it out. The rubble of this blocked off those pursuing orbs, giving Eggman a little more ground between them.

Sonic burst out onto the next level of the spire, coming into another chamber, but this one, unlike those before it had a lower ceiling. Around the walls were closed crystal doors, at least seven in all. Sonic was willing to wager that only one lead upwards while all the others lead to deadly and possible fatal traps. Chuck climbed off the blue hedgehog, addressing this puzzle for himself. Eventually, Eggman followed by Metal Knuckles came hurtling up the stairs, the fat scientist now completely out of breath. Eggman hadn't had any exercise since his childhood and any strenuous activity exhausted him.

"Hey what happened to you?" Sonic asked with a cocky smile, seeing that the robotic Echidna was missing a limb.

"Get lost hedgehog!" As Sonic continued to taunt the robot, Chuck examined the room further, trying to see if there were any clues for them to use. There had to be something here to help them. The room itself was completely empty, only emerald walls with a low arched ceiling remained. A large spike with curved sides lancing out of the very centre of the floor. Chuck realized quickly that that had to be significant and walked over to it, studying its curved flat sized in detail. There were seven of them and each one was directed towards one of the doors around them. Jagged cut lines in the floor ran from the spike to each door; that had to be important as well. Just was Chuck was on the verge of discovered it, Eggman simply walked up to one of the door sand flung it open. Sonic didn't even have time to yell stop before two red robs flew out from behind the door, one catching half of Eggman's moustache in itself, giving him lopsided facial hair.

Sonic dodged to the side, avoiding one as it lunged at him. Tails was in the air at once, using his unique method of flying to avoid being erased fro existence, keeping well out of the range of those warps. Shadow however was a sitting duck; he couldn't move a muscle, never mind get out of the way. He just lay, struggling to move as one of the orbs flew right down at him. Sonic ran right across its flight path, grabbing Shadow around the arms and pulling him out of harms way. Sensing the speed, both orbs about faced and charged right at the blue hedgehog.

Dumping Shadow with Chuck, Sonic provided himself as a division, luring the orbs away from the others. Picking a door completely at random, the blue hedgehog raced inside, finding that his luck had held out and he'd chosen the right passageway. A spiralling passageway that wound itself up and up the interior of the spire, more and more orbs all around him as he ran sensed his presence, twitched violently before flying away him. Sonic had at least five on his tail now.

The blue hedgehog had been making good progress, that is until he nearly hurled himself off a sharp ledge and into the air outside the spire itself. Without realizing it, he had ended up outside a balcony, a thinkable distance in the air. Turning back, he found his path blocked by a swarm of those orbs.

Trapped between none existence and a very long fall, Sonic really wished Chaos Control worked here. To his dismay, he could see absolutely no way out of this situation. He tried to think positively, that he had been in worse scenarios, but then realized that this was one of the worst situations he could possibly get himself into. As if his mind was trying to distract him from his plight, Sonic felt a familiar twinge in the air and instantly he knew what it was. It was Chaos Energy, he felt the same twinge whenever he used a chaos emerald or a ring.

Finally Sonic understood exactly what Radiant Emerald was. What it was supposed to be. It was a giant Chaos Emerald, just like Shadow had described it. And the power emitting slowly from it was exactly the same was that of all seven chaos Emeralds, maybe even more so. A large smirk crossed the blue hedgehog's faced and he turned back to face the swarming orbs that hovered there, waiting for the right moment to lunge at him.

"You gave me a good run." Sonic admitted, clenching both fists, spreading his arms out wide. "But this game is over." And with that, he called on the power this entire dimension radiated. Praying that he was right or this was going to be a very short fight.

Similar to the power of all seven Chaos emeralds, it flowed directly into his body, filling him with familiar strength and power. Golden light radiated away from his very being as his blue fur turned to a chrome gold. Shadow struggled to his knees in the chamber below, looking up at the light that pierced the very material that the spire was made out of. Just as Radiant Emerald fed on his energy, this new source of power was filling him with new strength, prolonging his existence. For that he was extremely grateful Sonic closed his eyes and crossed his arms in front of his chest, his quills going erect being his head.

Void watched from the ground below, the golden pinnacle of light above confusing him. In all his years in this chaotic place, he had never seen an effect like this before.

"Just what is that"? He asked himself, peering closer. Sonic's eyes shot open; changed from emerald green to a blood red.

Raidant Emerald itself fuelling him, Super Sonic felt more powerful that he'd ever been, but no amount of power would be able to help him against things that could eras him with existence at the mere touch. Descending the option, but realizing it was the only one open to him. He would have to run.

Void had to shield his eyes as a flare of light radiated from near the tip of the spire and Super Sonic with Shadow and the others held tightly into his force field flew straight upwards, scrambling for the spire and the way out of his dimension. Every warp in the spire close on their tail.

"You need to go faster." Chuck yelled over the roar of the air around them. "If we don't hit the top going over the speed of sound we're done for." Super Sonic nodded and poured on more speed, all those in the field thrown back against its barrier by the shockwave. Void's mouth went dry and he could fell his heart beating widely in his chest. This was the moment of truth. With wide eyes he watched the golden hedgehog poured upwards, a swarm of red following him. The orbs found that they couldn't keep up with Super Sonic and some fell behind, others maintained a strange revolve and pressed on, pushing everything they had into catching up with the intruders. Racing the walls of the spire, Super Sonic put everything he had into increasing his spire, coming dangerously close on the tip now, a vertical spike that lanced high into the air. Those orbs would be all over them in an instant if he failed. There was only enough time for one shot as this.

"Come on…" Void muttered, eyes wide in anticipation. Tails watched as the tip, a single point of light marking the top came near and nearer. He couldn't bear to watch and closed his eyes.

With one, earth shattering boom, Super Sonic broke the sound barrier on the very tip of the spire. The light on the pinnacle suddenly lancing out across the entire length of Radiant Emerald, all the red robs caught in its rays dissipating into nothing. Void's eyes widened almost in disbelief, his mouth hung open in exclamation. It had finally happened. He was free.

The shockwave from the boom radiated out from the spire, the noise vibrating the emerald structures around him so much that one by one they began to shatter. The star light sky above began to crack like an earthquake was spreading through it, parts of the illusion falling down.

The spire itself began to shaking violently, before parts of it began to fall down, smashing into the emerald ground below. Void let his head roll back and he laughed as his prison crumbled all around him. Radiant Emerald shattered piece by piece and the entire dimension collapsed, replaced by a complete flare of white.

Queen Illumina looked up, sensing the sudden change in the fabric of existence. Almost like a distract scream in her divine ears. Her long green hair flowing out behind her, she rose from her throne, her violet feathered wings spreading out behind her. Her eyes narrowed as he paused to sense exactly what had happened and when she discovered what it was, she sighed out load. She though it might happen one of these days, Void's resolve was absolute, there was no deterring him. The angel had fair violet skin, her wings a darker shade, several blue steaks like tattoos running down her arms and thin legs. Her hand trailed up and her finger pulsated with a sudden golden light that disappeared as soon as he was summoned. There was a brief shimmering in the air around her as one of the angel's greatest servants manifested. Her being was smaller than herself, about the same height was void with bright blue eyes and insect like wings spreading out her back. Most of her slim body was hidden by her clothes, a tight fitting white and pink jumpsuit and a pair of golden bracelets around her wrists. She was strangely slim, her suit flattering her figure. She bowed in the presence of her queen, descending to one knee.

"Lumina FlowLight." The angel said, whispering her name into the sweet air of MaginaryWorld. Her throne room within the temple of light, the centre of that dimension was a tall oval shaped room with a ceiling so high it was near impossible to see the ending to it from the floor. The walls and floor was made up of segmented square grey stones, each one engraved with decorsative patturns. Water run down the walls between each one and into a large ringed pit in the very centre of the room and within the centre itself was the throne.

"I hate to put you through this, but I'm afraid that time has finally come." The small creature's eyes widened, meeting with Illumina's own eyes, wide and gold with a red centre.

"Void." Lumina began sadly. The angel nodded in reluctant confirmation.

"Yes. Radiant Emerald is no more." Lumina rose from her bow and stood there silently for a moment, looking thoughtful. "You were once his best friend." Her queen continued. "If he would listen to anyone, it would be you." The small fairly like creature looked up in surprise. "Be warned through." Illumina added. "If you can not sway him then I must take steps to stop his anger once and for all." She left that hanging in the air, the ominous meaning all too clear.

"I understand my queen." Lumina stated, before vanishing into a white haze.

Flip card 1

Name: Super Sonic

Age: 17

Species: Hedgehog.

Description: When Sonic absorbs enough Chaos Energy he transforms into his golden form, becoming exceptionally powerful and fast.

(R&R)