(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!

Episode 6: The Battle Royal

(-Battle Scene recommended music: Getting away with Murder: Papa Roach.)

The female angel had humanoid features, apart from an oddity in the face; no nose. Her skin was faint purple and her hair dark blue. Sonic could see that Shadow had not held back against her. He'd hit this one with everything he had. Her armour had been torn to shreds and every weapon she ha broken in two. She'd made the mistake of crossing the ultimate life form and paid a hefty price for it.

He'd let her live, what more could Sonic ask of him? These trespassers were intruding in what he considered to be a sacred place and in Shadow's point of view that called for the harshest punishment possible.

"Pathetic." The black and red Hedgehog sneered, turning his back on them and vanishing in a flash of green light as Chaos Control took hold.

"Wait!" Sonic called after him, but by then it was all too late; he had gone, leaving only a vacant corridor to answer him. "Ok, now I'm ticked off." Sonic snarled, finally locating the remains of Shadow's Chaos control and flying into a teleport of his own after him leaving the angel behind.

Shadow emerged some distance away on the outside the colony, overlooking the planet below. The large flat platform overhanging the flat surface of the colony was one of the disc like eyes that came together with the other features on it's surface to look like a face.

He'd gotten most of the pillars those Maginary people were using to track Void and by now Void's own forces should have moved into position to force them out of this dimension.

He could see the fight from here, their clashes shaking the entire colony. Shadow had Void's word that once the battle was won, his forces would withdraw from ARK. Shadow certainly hoped he wasn't lying. He thought he'd disturbed this place enough already.

"Ok Shadow, enough is enough." A familiar voice stated as Sonic came flying out of Chaos Control behind him. "I told you I want answers!"

"And I told you to stay out of it!" Shadow yelled; wiping around his eyes narrowed in anger. "But since you insist on being a pain, I'm going to have to take drastic measures!" Sonic didn't even see the punch coming; it was just too fast, even for him. Staggering backwards, he paused to wipe the blood from the side of his mouth before pausing for a brief moment, luring the black hedgehog into a false sense of security. As Shadow lowered his arms, Sonic shot out with a kick, knocking him over.

The black hedgehog back flipped back to his feet and the two of them exchanged blows, landing kick after kick and punch after punch against each other.

At one point, Shadow took hold of Sonic's arm and tossed him into the air before turning back around and fired several Chaos Spears directly at him. Sonic twisted his body in mid air, avoiding the barraged before holding both arms out in front of himself and forcing his own energy attack towards Shadow, the spiralling blast he called the Sonic wind.

Shadow hadn't been expecting it and the swirling vortex caught him completely by surprise, sending him up into the air before hurling him violently back down again.

"Had enough now; want to start talking?" Sonic demanded as Shadow pushed himself up into a sitting position. He paused to wipe the side of his mouth, before a large grin crossed his lips.

"You've gone soft." With astonishing speed, he flipped back to his feet before slamming a punch directly into his opponents face, flooring him. Shadow didn't stop there though.

Taking hold of Sonic by his ankle, he tossed him back over his shoulder slamming him directly into the ground, before reversing direction and repeating the action several times. Finally letting Sonic go, Shadow swung his leg around and smashed a bone shattering kick directly into the blue hedgehog's side. "What have you been doing the past half year you slacker?" The black Hedgehog demanded as Sonic lay there clutching his side in pain. He paused, noticing Sonic wasn't moving all of a sudden, he was just lying there like a limp rag-doll.

Just as Shadow approached the blue hedgehog stopped playing possum and before any defences could go up Shadow was put on the receiving end of another Sonic Wind, the sheer force of which tore the ground from under him and sent his body rocketing into the air.

Sonic thought for a minute he'd won, until of course Shadow righted himself in mid air and disappeared in a flash of green light. Sonic instantly went on the alert, well aware that with chaos control Shadow could pop right out of nowhere to spring his next attack. But Shadow seemed to be forgetting, so could Sonic. Disappeared in his own green flash; everything went quiet for several moment, before Shadow closed his trap and Sonic and throw violently out of another warp, a hand pinning his neck down to the ground.

Kicking him in the stomach, Sonic forced the black hedgehog off him, before back flipping to his feet. Shadow rebounded of the side of a spire jutting out of the ARK's surface before coming back with a swinging punch. Sonic caught the intended blow with his left hand before counteracting it with a kick. Sonic caught the strike across his ribs and was sent spiralling down to the ground.

Regaining himself a second before he hit, the black and red hedgehog spun his entire body around, knocking Sonic's feet out from under him. Sonic almost fell over, then somersaulted forwards before smashing a punch directly into Shadow's face, smacking him hard against the metal ground. Shadow growled, pausing for a moment to wipe some blood away from the side of his mouth before he was on his feet again.

Sonic slammed a fist forward and Shadow blocked it but before he could retaliate, Sonic disappeared in a flash of green light and then reappeared behind him. Shadow shot back just in time to see a fast kick went flying through the air, a foot lodging itself directly into his face, knocking him to the ground. He tumbled across the surface of the colony before regaining control and flipping back to his feet. Angrily he wiped a small trail of blood away from his nose as Sonic reassumed a fighting position in front of him.

"Now that was low." He nearly spat as he rose to his feet, his fists clenching tightly by his sides. Chaos Control was Shadow's trick and he disliked anyone using it against him. Still, he did not regret his decision to teach it to Sonic. If anything, it only made this fight more interesting.

Flying forward Shadow threw a punch, that Sonic caught in one hand and then used his free arm to block a kick. Sonic somersaulted over his own head and walked on his hands, using his legs to smash a double kick into Sonic's chin before righting himself again.

Sonic quickly recovered began spinning his entire body around on one foot, the other legs held vertical. The attack smashed into Shadow's own body with the force of a tornado, a loud cracking sound ringing through the air as the side of Sonic's leg collided with Shadow' torso, breaking several of his ribs.

As if nothing had happened, Shadow just kept on fighting; catching Sonic's leg before it could do further damage and using the momentum to toss the blue hedgehog over his shoulder and directly into the ground. Before Sonic could rise, Shadow leapt up into the air and came down again hard on his back with his elbow.

Sonic refuse to give up that easily through. He tossed his head back hitting Shadow directly in the face, forcing the black and red hedgehog off him. While Shadow was for the moment stunned, the blue hedgehog back flipped and landed directly behind him.

Shadow reflexes turned out to be sharper than Sonic had imagined through for when he swung his fist forward the black and red hedgehog shot around and grabbed his arm an inch away from the side of his head. Sonic shot his other fist forward in desperation at that point.

Shadow slapped his punch aside before slamming a kick directly into his groin. Sonic cringed and staggered backwards before falling to his knees with wide eyes.

"No, that was low!" He managed to stutter, before flipping back to his feet. Shadow shuddered as he felt those broken ribs press against him, but concentrating his own built in source of chaos energy upon it soon solved that problem, the power accelerating the healing process to only a couple of moment. Still, that had drained his reserves quite a bit. It was now in his best interests to avoid injury like that again.

"All I want are answers Shadow." Sonic began very much out of breath. Perhaps Amy had been right, his long sleep had slowed his reflexes a little. He and Shadow had once been evenly matched. Now the black and Red Hedgehog had a slight edge in strength and speed.

"I already told you this isn't your concern." Shadow snapped angrily. "This will all be over soon anyway." Sonic blinked in confusion.

"Whatya mean?" Shadow didn't answer, instead he rushed forced slamming an elbow directly into Sonic's chest. The blue hedgehog gagged and staggered backwards, before whipping around to catch one of Shadow's kicks. "Why are we fighting Shadow, I thought we were on the same team?"

"We are." Was the black hedgehog's sharp reply, his red eyes focused straight at Sonic. "But right now you're in my way and I don't take too kindly to obstacles." Tearing his hands forward, Shadow fired a Chaos Spear attack at close range straight into the blue hedgehog's torso. Sonic took the whole attack head on and was blown straight across the surface of the ARK before impacting the side of a building; leaving a hedgehog shaped impression in the wall. "Do us both a favour and stay out of my way for the next few hours." Sonic collapsed to the ground, every limb felt like it had been beaten over and over again by a polo-mallet. But even so, he refused to let anyone see him beaten. With every ounce of willpower left in him and push his way to his feet.

"Not… a chance." Shadow blinked in surprise, apparently he hadn't counted on Sonic's utter stubbornness.

"Well that's you isn't it?" He asked with a slight smile, crossing his arms. " You're like a yo-yo. No matter how many times you go down, you just keep getting backup." his smile widened. "This is the first and only time I'm going to admit this Sonic; but I'm glad you're my rival." Sonic forged his own smirk. "We're so much alike and that makes us perfect sparing partners."

"But that still doesn't mean you're going to tell me what's going on I guess?" Sonic asked rhetorically. Shadow shook his head.

"I'll be done soon enough. Until then just try not to get yourself fin trouble." With that he was gone, disappearing into a green flash as Chaos Control took hold.

-

Fang dumped Metal Sonic's body won on the table with a relieved sigh. His remains had been surprisingly heavier than he first thought. Exactly how much had the robotic hedgehog weighed when he had been in one piece? He had been able to transport it away from the base and right to the meeting place, an abandoned building in the near deserted northern section of Station Square. Most of the city wad derelict now and nearly all of it's populace had fled.

"My complements Mr. Sniper." A raspy voice told him as his client stepped out of the shadows. He was a mobian, but of what kind Fang had yet to determine. His kept his face hidden from him behind an old theatrical mask. A wise precaution, considering Fang had a reputation for deceit, betrayal and murder. They met only in deserted alleyways and warehouses and always at the dead of night. "You do good work."

"I know." Was the flat unconcerned reply from the Weasel. "My services are valued by many. Speaking of value, it's time to settle the little matter of my fee." Fang was a lot of things, but cheap was not one of them. The mobian chuckled and gestured briefly behind him. Instantly a light in another section of their meeting place lit up; highlighted a large silver suitcase, which he handed directly to Fang. One could almost see dollar signs in the weasel's eyes as he opened it, nearly drooling over the crisp newly printed bills. "Pleasure doing business with you sir." He added, shutting the case again, tugging down his hat and leaving his temporary employer behind.

The mobian didn't even notice Fang leave. He was too busy examining the fallen remains of the robotic hedgehog with glee. Finally, he had in his hands the instrument he required to set his plans in motion.

He raised a hand, passing briefly into the light; showing his fur was a pale yellow and his limb hardly had any muscle on it at all. It was just skin covering bone. With a flash, a bolt of green energy leapt from between his fingers and struck the fallen remains, bathing the metallic corpse in an unearthly neon glow. Unconceivable words began to utter themselves forth from his mouth as slowly the remains began to twitch. Slowly at first but as time progressed the movements became more and more distinctive until this bizarre glow had them like a puppet on a string. Willed back into place, Metal Sonic's body slowly rebuilding itself piece by piece, any parts that had been destroyed just seemed to re-grow out of nothing; all the pieces twisting around until they made one whole.

"Ah, good." He said to himself once the process was complete and Metal Sonic lay there complete once more. While Fang's immediate concern was money; the Weasel was not a fool. He stayed outside the door to the building, watching through a small crack as his client employed some strange hocus pocus to repair the damaged robot. He had had his suspicions about his client from day one, but did nothing about them. Now that money had been exchanged, his curiosity finally forced him to investigate.

This piece of information was interesting. Interesting, but not profitable. Fang's last encounter with anyone wielding magic had been less than enjoyable. They had enslaved his mind; making him their puppet. Using him as a tool in some grand plan that, luckily for him, had blown up in their faces.

He swallowed hard, those memories coming back to him in a moment of intense fear. It was time to leave, to get as far away from this madness as physically possible.

The colony was filled to the brim with fighting angels and robots, all clashing for dominance. Chaos ruled and destruction was not far behind. In these situations, Amy's spiked hammer proved invaluable. It took some doing but eventually they all managed to bypass the mass majority of the fighting to enter the science labs. From here, Amy could see the classing armies in far more detail. They were all angels and they fought like a medieval army with swords, shields and bows; the occasional spark of magic flashing through the air.

To their surprise, the lab itself was not deserted when they arrived. Watching the battle from above was a small creature no talker than Cream. It's feminine shape identified it as a she. Slowly it turned to face them. It was dressed in a tight fitting white suit with holes in the back for a pair of insect like wings could emerge. Her eyes were a deep blue with sparking centres like stars.

Quickly she shot around, a silver spear tight in her grasp. Seeing them she faltered.

"You're not any of Void's traitors." She stated sounding a little surprised. "Who are you?"

"I was just about to ask you the same thing!" Knuckles stated, brandishing a large fist in her direction.

"Oh put it away." Rouge said, slapping his arm down. The Echidna who usually argued at every given opportunity let his arms drop to his sides. "We are here hunting a criminal called Eggman, I take it you know something about this battle." The fairy like creature sighed and lowered her spear.

"Yes I do." He stated almost reluctantly. "But first, exactly who are you?" Once introductions were out of the way the small female revealed herself as Lumina Flowlight, warrior of the light of Illumina.

"Illumina?" Tails repeated with a raised eyebrow. "Who is…" The small creature looked at him with wide shocked eyes.

"You honestly don't know?"

"Never heard of her." Knuckles replied, who was quickly loosing patience with this situation. Lumina looked absolutely stunned.

"That's impossible. Illumina is worshiped in every dimension."

"Not in ours." The Red Echidna added. "Are we done talking?" He asked flexing his arms impatiently. There was something about a complex situation that made him as eager for a fight as Sonic always was.

"Heal-boy." Rouge told him, patting him lightly on the head.

"Just what is all this?" Amy asked. "Whose are all those guys?" She added, pointing past the windows to the clashing angels. "And what are they fighting for?"

"It's a long and complex story." Lumina began unsteadily.

"And I think it's about to get a whole lot more complex." Tails stated, pointing off away from the battle. Everyone followed his gaze to see a large object came floating towards the ARK, barging it's way through a large cluster of asteroids. A giant battleship with two large winds on either side, an entire forest of turrets on its underside and a gigantic cannon concealed within it's triangular front. The Egg Carrier had taken longer to reach the ARK than expected. Eggman had been pushing its engines very hard and one of them had blown out, leaving the entire ship travelling only at half speed.

"Dr. Eggman, I think you should have a look at this." Becoe announced and almost at once Eggman was looking over his shoulder. The Egg Carrier 3's sensors had picked up a massive clash of two armies just outside the ARK. His own forces, the ones he had left behind the guard the colony had been completely decimated, they weren't reading any robots left at all.

"Just what is this?" Eggman demanded angrily.

"It looks like two armies sir." Decoe replied. Eggman sat down forcefully in his seat, his fingers digging into the metal arm rest.

"Open fire!"

"But sir, shouldn't we try outside the perimeter to see what's going on?"

"I don't care about that. Just get them off that colony!"

On the understand of the Egg Carrier large machine gun turrets began to descend, all primed and ready to fire. The clashing angels were too occupied with each other to even to even notice and Sonic could see it. From one of the ARK's outside stations he had a front row seat to the fighting.

He didn't know what this fight was all about, but he couldn't let Eggman decimate them all. Gathering his energy, he fired a Sonic Wind from the ARK itself directly at the space between the battle and the Egg Carrier, the swirling blue energy smashing directly into a passing asteroid. The blast itself wasn't too destructive, but it did make a lot of noise, which nearly every angel fighting heard. For a comment they all stopped as stared as the giant Battleship began looming over them.

Beating their wings, they scrambled in every direction narrowly avoiding a deadly barrage of bullets from the Egg Carrier.

-

By the time Chris and Chuck made it back to Rome it was late. Most of the streets were empty and the only sounds coming from the city was the distant blaring of police sirens off in the distance.

Chuck had gotten more out this trap than he was counting on. Toriyama, the archaeologist back at the excavation sight had told them to go to the address on the piece of paper he had given them in haste. It was the address of an apartment building something in the cities north side.

"Hello…" Chuck began, knocking on a shabby looking door after they'd climbed several flights of stairs. He'd left Chris back at the hotel where they were staying. He suspected this things where going to get more dangerous before too long and he didn't want his only grandson in harms way. There was no answer at the door. "Anyone home?" A moment of silence endured before a small slot in the door opened up and a pair of brown eyes stared out.

"What do you want?" The heavy Italian accent demanded.

"Are you Andre'?" Chuck asked. The eyes studied the old man's features carefully for a moment.

"And if I am?" He asked. Chuck reached into his jacket pocket and withdrew a piece of paper.

"Toriyama asked me to give you this…" Before he could even finish the sentence the door flew open as a man quickly pulled him inside, instantly locking the door behind them.

"I can't afford to have them following you back here!" He hissed angrily, putting several latches on the floor.

"And who are 'them'?" If this was Andre he was a tall and thin man in his early thirties with a pair of glasses and a pony tail, a constantly worried look on his face. His apartment was amazingly small, only two rooms with a small TV set on corner and a few piece of shabby furniture dotted around. A good deal of old newspapers had been piled up in one corner

"They keep Toriyama at the dig sight now, they paid him serious money to excavate something and then when he found what they were looking for; they started threatening him, telling him to keep his mouth shut."

"Who?" Chuck asked again.

"I've said too much already." Andre' replied and with shaking hands turned to a table, taking up a pen and a piece of paper, writing a reply to the coded note Chuck had given him. "I don't know if I can trust you. Take this back to Toriyama." Then he proceeded to shove Chuck out the door, locking it as soon as he past the threshold.

Word had only just made it to London that an enemy Mech had been sighted in the south. A good deal of reinforcements had been dispatched to deal with the problem, leaving the defences around the south gate to the city rather stretched. Still, things had been quiet here so trouble wasn't expected.

Guards at the gate peered through the rain to see a small convoy of laser tanks approaching the gates from up the road, two large Dreadnaughts acting as escorts. The convoy was not on time. They were told to expect its arrival over ten minutes ago. It wasn't like any of Dr. Eggman's robots to be late.

"That convoy should have been here ages ago." Their commander told them. "What's their excuse for the delay?" After a brief transmission to the head Dreadnaught, the reply came back.

"Looks like an explosion in the middle of the road slowed them down. Still, their transmitted security codes turned out to be fine." The commander, a tall man clad in a grey uniform with black body armour and helmet simply snorted in annoyance.

"Fine let them through. I've got better things to do than waste my time with this." With an audible groaning the doors slid to one side and the convoy was admitted to the rest of the city. The Dreandnaughts marched in first, followed by the tanks with the badniks taking up the rear.

"I can't believe they're falling for this." Bean commented as he watched through small silt in the side of the tank he, Bark and Hare were hiding inside. They had delayed the convoy by using Bean's explosives as a decoy while Bark commandeered one of the tanks. After that, they simply stayed inside and followed the convoy northwards as it made its way towards London. So far, this Trojan Horse plan of the Major's was working perfectly.

"Keep quiet." Hare told him as he watched a Dreadnaught pass within listening distance of their tank, the ground shaking with each massive footstep. Hare's resentment of Bean and Bark for landing him right in the middle of this extremely difficult situation was more than apparent. It stopped for a moment beside their vehicle and turned it's large metallic head to face them. Hare's throat went as dry as a desert in seconds. The search light on the shoulders of the metal behemoth turned on and white rays began lancing through into the tank itself.

"What's it doing?" Bean asked as quietly as he could.

"It's scanning the tanks registration number." Bark replied. "Now quiet!" The robot stayed still for a moment, before the light turned off and it continued it's marsh away from them.

"What the…" Hare began, looking out the front. The city had undergone a lot of change since their last visit. Evidentially, Eggman was a fast builder. Towering over the city were strongholds the likes of which they had never seen before. Mechanical constructs that made anything G.U.N could ever come up with pale in comparison and more were being built all the time. Whoever Eggman had left in charge here was concentrating on turning the entire city into a walled fortress and they weren't doing to badly.

The tanks were to reinforce the garrison in the centre of the city. A lot of troops had been deployed to the south so it needing a booster. Bean however had other plans for them. While they had stopped in the road to inspect his handwork, not only had his friends commandeered one of them, but he managed to successful install a fe explosives on the underside of each one.

He had the remote detonator with him now. But now wasn't the right time to start the fireworks. Only when they needed a big distraction would he activate them but for now at least things had to remain quiet.

Most of the captured civilian population had been turned into cheap slave labour, working under supervision of badniks to help the city function. Some of them were even being whipped.

"No not yet." Bean told Hare when he saw the utterly disgusted look on his face; anticipating that he was just about to leap out of the tank to take on the entire occupying forces himself. "We'll do more for these people by taking out that artillery."

"Yeah I know." he sighed. "It's just as a Brit, this don't sit too well with me."

"Technically you were born on Mobius." Bark added, his hands on the gears that worked the tank. Quickly driving it down a wide alley away from the rest of the convoy before their luck ran out as the security forces notice them.

"Let's not spilt hairs." The rabbit like mobian told him with level eyes.

"Was that a joke?"

Flip Card 1:

Name: ARK

Age: Over fifty years