Edited November 24
All canon characters belong to Sega.
Reincarnate
Chapter 11: Ghost Dragon
Amy skids helplessly along the ground, her breath knocked clean out of her by whatever had struck her. She rolls over, gradually slowing, and finally slides to a slow halt, blinded by debris. She lies there for a minute or so, her body feeling like one big bruise, and then painfully rubs her eyes and blinks rapidly to clear her vision.
The cloud of dirt in the air settles, and she can make out her friends sprawled out in all directions. Sonic is getting to his feet, Shadow is sitting up, and Knuckles is already standing, fists up and eyes darting around in a hopeless attempt to find their enemy.
A groan sounds from behind her, and she turns around and sees Tails lying a few meters away from her, twin tails fluttering weakly.
"Tails?" she asks, her voice hoarse and weak. She clears her throat and speaks again. "Tails, are you okay?"
"Y-yeah…" the fox says faintly, and with the aid of his spinning tails manages to stand up. Amy gets to her feet too, automatically brushing off her dress, although it's a stupid gesture.
"Amy," Tails says decisively, "Get in the Tornado so you don't get hurt. I think I know why this thing's invisible."
"Hey!" she says, a little offended. "I can fight just like everyone else."
"Just stick with me for now, okay? None of us will have a chance unless we can see this thing. And you know you're not used to fighting really tough enemies – you're just not as strong as the others."
She bites back a retort, taking in the truthfulness of this statement. He does have a point – she wouldn't last nearly as long as Shadow, Sonic, or Knuckles could. She scrambles up into the Tornado after Tails obediently, and he looks a little relieved.
"Okay," he mutters to himself. "Up we go."
The jets ignite, and they rise straight up. Tails fiddles with the controls, and a bright blue beam shoots out of the plane and, miraculously, strikes something large and solid.
The invisible beast roars in pain, and the air hisses as something flies towards them. Tails hurriedly steers the Tornado to the right, and Amy feels the strong breeze as whatever came at them misses narrowly.
"I think I hit its side," Tails says, his voice shaky from the near miss. "This is going to be tough."
"What are you aiming for?" Amy shouts over the roar of the engines.
"Either its back or its head – one of them will solve our problem," he tells her as another laser charges.
"Why those spots?"
"Do you remember the Biolizard?"
Of course she does – that whole incident has been on her mind for the past few days, what with Shadow's return. She nods affirmatively, and Tails continues, "When Shadow was first fighting it, its vulnerable spot was on its back. Now, I'm guessing, since Eggman created this himself and he wants the most powerful monster possible, that he used the Biolizard prototype as a model and then made a few adjustments."
"Oh! So that's why you're aiming at the back. Got it."
"Right. I think the only reason this thing is invisible is because of some kind of cloaking device, which is located on its body somewhere. The most obvious spots would be on its back or on its head, so we'll see if they work."
The laser is fully charged and Tails releases it. This one doesn't go quite so well – it only skims the thing instead of striking it, tracing a scorching trail along its spine without doing any actual damage.
"Shoot," Tails mutters. "It would be so much easier if we could at least see the outline of this thing."
Amy snaps her fingers.
"What about dust? If there's enough, it should coat it and we'd still have a general idea of where everything was…"
Tails looks at her in some surprise.
"That could work…if Sonic and Shadow are fast enough, they might be able to stir up a lot of dirt."
He frowns suddenly and shakes his head.
"But there wouldn't be enough," he says, sounding disappointed. "This thing is a lot bigger than we are. The most we'd be able to see is its legs and underbelly. We still wouldn't have any idea how big it is, or where its head's going."
Amy slumps, deflated at the rejection of her idea, and says, "What are we going to do? You can't just keep firing random shots – it takes too long and there's no guarantee that you'll hit it."
"Look," Tails says, ignoring her comment. "What's Knuckles up to?"
The echidna stands out as a small red spot on the side of the mountain, climbing steadily upwards and occasionally glancing over in the general location of the monster, which is preoccupied with keeping Sonic and Shadow away as they perform repeated homing attacks on its legs and belly. Several times the air screams as something large, which Amy assumes must be its tail, whips around in hopes of knocking them away.
"Hey, there he goes," Amy announces unnecessarily as Knuckles jumps away from the rock, gliding around in slow circles before –
"He's got it!" Tails exclaims as the echidna drives his sharp knuckles into…well, something. The monster roars again, and Knuckles is jerked around in the air as it thrashes, trying to dislodge him. The scene would be comical if it wasn't so serious.
"I think he's on its neck," Tails says, watching Knuckles' movements closely. The echidna was climbing up this invisible something as though it were a rock wall, driving his fists into it whenever he could.
Finally, with a sharp crack and a flash of light, he hits something that sounds like metal. With a screech and a sound like silk tearing, he is thrown off the beast completely. He glides to safety, looking a bit dazed but unharmed.
And his actions have had massive results.
The cloak around the beast is deactivated, and it finally becomes visible. Amy gapes at its odd appearance.
It does look like the Biolizard, but considerably larger, and its skin is a vivid electric blue. Just underneath its surface, ripples are forming and dying away, testaments to the countless souls that are powering it. In some spots where the spirits are particularly active, its skin takes on the look of oil in the sun, what with the rainbow of colors that are produced.
And, just as Tails predicted, there is a pulsing, gemlike section on its back, a deeper blue than the rest of the creature.
"That's its weak point," Tails says, sounding satisfied.
"I wonder how Knuckles knew what to do," Amy muses, and Tails shrugs.
"Guardian intuition? It doesn't really matter – he's turned the tables for us. Here we go…"
He lets another, fully charged laser fly towards the shimmering point on its back, and Amy tenses in anticipation of the hit and consequential roar. It doesn't come.
Halfway through the laser's flight, the beast's head whips around on its long, sinewy neck, and it opens a mouth full of glimmering fangs.
It swallows the laser whole, absorbing it without so much as flinching. Amy gasps and Tails makes a choking sound.
"H-how?" he sputters. "Even if that isn't its weak point, it shouldn't be able to do that!"
Robotnik's laughter crackles over the speakers again, and Amy groans.
"Idiots!" The doctor taunts gleefully. "Behold the Ghost Dragon, an improvement on my grandfather's design! You may have destroyed its cloaking device…but you still have no chance of winning! None of your attacks will even come close to damaging it – it's too powerful."
Tails swings the Tornado around, spiraling slowly towards the ground again.
"Tornado transforming," he announces dully, and with a series of gears shifting and metal clanking against metal, the robot form of the machine lands on the ground. Amy hops out and jogs over to where Sonic and Shadow are standing a safe distance away from the monster, watching the movements beneath the Dragon's skin.
"Hey, Amy," Sonic says, glancing up at her arrival. "There you are."
"Are you all right?" Shadow asks, tearing his gaze away from the Dragon to look at her with some concern.
"I'm fine, just…how the heck are we supposed to hurt this thing?"
"I think I know," Shadow says, "But I'm not sure how we're supposed to do it. We'll need Tails for the technical part. I was just telling Sonic…if the soul machine can suck souls in and out, there should be a way to get them out as well."
"Yeah," Sonic says, taking over. "If the souls are what power the Dragon, then without them it won't stand a chance. It might even shut down on its own and we won't have to worry about resistance while we destroy it."
"That is a good idea," Amy said. "Do you want me to get Tails?"
"Nah, I'll do it," Sonic says, and zips off fast enough to make Amy and Shadow's quills blow around in the resulting breeze.
"I guess he would get there faster," Amy offers up lamely. Shadow gives her a small half-smile.
"Hey, Shadow," she asks, suddenly remembering how his borrowed form had spoken earlier, "What was up with the girl inside the fortress? I thought you were the only soul in that body."
Shadow lifts a shoulder.
"I was," he says thoughtfully. "The disturbance that was caused when I resisted the machine's pull probably allowed another soul out, and it must have entered the only soulless body in the vicinity – that one."
"That's strange…and kind of sad. What do you think will happen to the souls once they're freed from the Dragon?"
"They'll be sucked back into the machine," he says, obviously thinking about it as he speaks, "And…I'm guessing that we'll release them and they'll find their way back to their bodies on their own. This is just an assumption, but I think that the reason I took on the body that I did was because she was one of the first victims of the doctor's machine."
"So her body was free for your soul, and once we release the other souls from the machine hers will be able to go back into her body."
"That's right."
"I guess it makes sense. Uh…Shadow?"
"Yes?"
"Are you…glad you came back?"
He doesn't get a chance to answer, but looks over as Sonic comes back, wearing his trademark confident grin.
"Tails says he can take care of it," the cobalt hedgehog announces. "He's on the way. Meanwhile, I think we should keep our distance. We won't be doing any damage until the thing's weaker, anyway."
"Right," Shadow agrees, and Amy nods.
"Where's Knuckles?" she asks, suddenly realizing that she hasn't seen him in a while. Sonic looks around, shrugging as he does so.
"Who knows – knowing him, he's probably still trying to attack this thing."
"Not exactly," a deep voice says sardonically from behind them, and Sonic's grin weakens.
"Hey, Knuckles," he says somewhat nervously. "All right over there?"
The echidna shakes his head in mild exasperation and says, "Let's just go a little farther away and wait this thing out."
"Right, right," Sonic says hurriedly, and they move out as a group. Shadow grabs Amy's hand, and whether it's a gesture of affection or just a means to tug her along faster, it sends a zinging sensation all the way up her arm. Behind them, the Dragon roars. They quicken their pace.
Hurry, Tails, she urges the fox inwardly. They charge up a hill and turn around, watching and waiting.