(I do not own Sonic X- etc.)
Flip card 2:
Name: Cosmo
Age: 15
Description: A Seer from Maginary world, on her own quest.
Several months ago in the north of Canada, one of the probes belonging to the Eggman Empire located a scattered set of ruins, nearly completely submerged by the perpetual snow. There those ruins had lain undisturbed by man for thousands of years. That is until the Doctor's excavation robots dug a hole straight into it, revealing underneath their scattered remains a concealed chamber. Dr. Eggman lead the excavation himself, and was glad he did. What they unearthed proved more valuable than all the gold in Fort Knox.
Ancient machines, far more advanced a technology then he had ever seen in his entire life. Even his Grandfather, the late Prof. Gerald Robotnik would have been hard pressed to create something like this. One thing was already clear the minute he retrieved the first relics; complex pieces of technology that outpaced his. Whoever built this, was NOT human.
Reluctantly leading Tails, Chuck and Knuckles through the Canadian snow banks to the secret of his recent military success, Eggman snowed them the tunnel entrance through which he had discovered the ancient technology. Like he said, the cave like entrance had fallen in, an insurmountable wall of rubble sitting directly in the way.
Luckily however, Knuckles had come prepared. One each hand, he wore his favourite fashion accessory; the Shovel Claws. While his own strength surpassed most others, he needed these metal claws to dig his way through such obstacles.
After a minute of slashing away at boulders, the Echidna finally began to make progress; burrowing his way through the fallen rubble, Knuckles soon had a small tunnel leading through into a area so dark he couldn't see an inch in front of his nose. Chuck had come prepared as well, the flick of a torch light scanning the room beyond; the last few flakes of snow following them in. The blizzard outside was still raging.
"Nobody touch anything." Chuck warned them as they all managed to see inside the strange space. "We don't want to set off another cave in." Eggman, who sat in the comfort of a small robotic walker just grumbled to himself. Decoe and Becoe and his several other Dreadnaught robots were waiting outside. There hadn't been enough room for them all to fit inside anyway.
"Wow!" Tails exclaimed as Chuck cast his torch over the inside of the chamber. Eggman hadn't been lying. This place were filled with ancient machine, all crumbling thanks to the decay of time and the instability of the rocks above and around them. The torch didn't show very much, only that whatever created such extensive machines had access to a technology far in advance of their own.
"This is incredible!" Chuck began, picking up a piece of shattered metal and comparing it to the device he had brought with him. There was no mistake now, the machine had had retrieved from Italy was of the same origin of this strange place.
"I got the technology to make badniks from over there." Eggman stated, pointed over towards the entrance of side tunnel which had been blocked by more fallen rubble. Knuckles began to walk over to it.
"Best not." Tails began, putting out an arm to top him. "Every time we tunnel, we risk the roof falling in."
"The metal itself isn't like anything I've ever seen." Chuck stated, running his hands over a large metal pillar than lanced from a stained floor to the top of an arch ceiling. Most of the architecture of this place was hidden in the darkness, but in the light from the torch a welding of rock and metal never before seen became visible. "It's neither an alloy nor a element in itself."
"There is no such substance." Tails stated looking confused. All metals were either alloys or the primary elements that made them up.
"At least not on this planet." Chuck began with a apprehensive grin. Knuckles and Tails looked up at him in astonishment. "It's not steal, iron, or any metal I know of. And all know all the metals there are in the periodic table."
"So what then?" Tails began, almost unsure of how the phrase the question he was about to ask. "All this was made by…Aliens?"
"That's a possibility I suppose." Eggman began, admiring a piece of metal he'd been able to pry of from a nearby machine that was half submerged in rocks.
"You didn't try to find out where it came from when you first found it?" knuckles asked almost sumptuously. Eggman just shrugged.
"I never look a gift horse in the mouth." He stated with a smirk. "Quite frankly, I didn't care where it came from as long as I helped me conquer the world." The red Echidna levelled his eyes at him.
"I think it would be in our best interests to find out where it came from now. Maybe we can use that information against Metal Sonic." Eggman looked up towards Chuck. "If he's using it, then perhaps it has weakness' we can exploit."
"If it did, my first test results didn't show any." Eggman stated confidentially. "The metal it's made of has an impossibly high boiling point, to melt it down to else you'd need heat close to the surface of a sun." Chuck put a forefinger and thumb to his chin, tapping his foot as he ran several idea's through his head.
"If it runs on Chaos energy, then it's safe to assume Metal Sonic knows where there's more; undamaged machinery. If there isn't, he wouldn't need the Emeralds so badly."
"Sounds logical." Tails stated, sitting down. "Only question is, where is it?"
"It would have to be a unexplored region, somewhere were you don't find a lot of people." Eggman began, looking thoughtful. Knuckles just chuckled, folding his arms.
"Fine, that narrows it down to the Sahara Desert, the Goby desert, the Nevada Desert, the Brazilian rain forest, the north and soul poles…"
"Alright point taken!" The fat scientist snarled at him. Chuck looked up at a large piece of equipment that appeared relatively undamaged. It was a large rectangular pillar with engraved rune like scriptures running down each side. The top half was covered in ancient dust and rocks.
"Maybe this can tell us." Chuck began, wiping away a thick layer of dust from it's surface, exposing the runes. Admittedly, he did not know where to start with this bizarre technology, but eventually he found a square slot directly in the centre and inside this was a small button. He held his breath, before pressing it.
For about a minute, nothing happened and Chuck began to wonder if time had eroded the insides of the machines. Suddenly the hardware stuttered to life, red lights underneath the surface blaring out like stars; the pulse of a heart like thumping resonating throughout the chamber.
"Hai-ik pal tis gik. Pal tal- histkik zikal." A flat, emotionless voice stated in a language none of them could understand.
"What the hell was that?" Knuckles asked, looking around for the speaker. Chuck backed away from the machine. In that instant, a pale red light lanced down from one point in the ceiling, passing through the humans head before disappearing.
"How could you have missed that?" Tails asked Eggman.
"I won't here for long enough to find it." Was his defence. The machine buzzed, as if making some calculations to the data it had received.
"Mind trace completed, language interface adjusted. English, twenty first century." That same disembodied voice stated, now speaking in perfect English. The lights changing from red to a mint green. "Information Index now awaiting input."
"Oh this is good." Chuck began with a grin, rubbing his hands together. He cleared his throat and stepped forward. "Er…Index, specify locations." He hoped that would give them some useful information.
"Please rephrase inquiry."
"Let me." Eggman began, his walker stepping forward. "Index, state locations; Specific Planet Earth."
"Searching Database." There was a hushed silence. None of them even bared to breath. "Three entries found; first entry, secondary scientific research settlement, Location: Planet Earth."
"State lspecific location." Eggman began, almost hungrily.
"Location several…." Before the voice of the ancient computer could finish, a rock came slamming down from the ceiling, crushing his into the ground and silencing the voice in mid sentence. Cracks began tearing their way through the ceiling, dust falling to the floor.
"The roof's unstable!" Knuckles declared. "We've got to get out of here." Another huge rock came slamming down, nearly squashing Eggman. All four of them hurried out of the chamber as fast as they could, clouds of dust bellowing out behind them.
Almost running out into the snow, the tunnel collapsed behind them, finally burying the chamber and it's secrets completely.
"Another couple of seconds and we could have learnt so much!" Chuck moaned, looking furlong.
"Looks like we'll just have to stop Metal Sonic the hard way." Knuckles stated, folding his arms in frustration.
-
"Cosmo?" Rouge repeated, letting her sun glasses slide down her nose. With little else to take her, Sonic had brought their visitor; the strange Cosmo back to the beech where the others were waiting. Cream laid out a beech towel and Sonic lowered her down on it. "She looks like Void." The blue hedgehog nodded in agreement.
"Must be the same race." A few people had gathered around, attracted either by the presence of a hero of this strange new being none of them had ever seen. After a while a lifeguard came over to ask what was going on. Since he only spoke Spanish; Chris had to deal with him.
Vanilla checked the girl over. Her sleep was deep and the all the signs were that she had collapsed from exhaustion. She should be alright if given enough time to rest. Cream and Emerl pushed the parasol her mom had bought from the shop nearby over Comso's face so the sun was out of her eyes. Amy took off one of her gloves and put it on the girls forehead. She felt hot, which might have something to do with the tropical climate, but it was better to be safe than sorry. She soaked a clothe in some sea water, wrung it out and placed it on her forehead.
"Ok people, back it up; nothing to see here." Sonic announced to the small crowd, beckoning them off.
"She called Sonic what?" Rouge asked Amy, looking confused. The female bat had bought a one piece swim suit and was distracting a few teenage boys a little further on.
"The Speedster." Amy repeated. "Don't know what it means, just told her what she needed to hear."
"I think the title Speedster fits me well. Speedster, the fastest thing in existence." Sonic said standing nearby, looking up thoughtfully. Rouge just laughed.
"Oh please Sonic, it sounds like the name of a sixties super hero." The blue hedgehog just crossed his arms and stood there sulking. Cosmo opened her blue eyes a little, staring up at the underside of the parasol and the first thing she saw was Vanilla's face.
"Hey, are you ok?" The female rabbit asked her as Cream and Emerl helped her into a sitting position. The girl appeared lost and confused at her new surrounds, putting a hand to her head feeling the wet clothe Amy had put there. Suddenly, memories came flooding back into her eyes and she looked around and finally she spotted Sonic standing nearby with his arms crossed, looking down at her.
It was him, the blue creature with green eyes she had seen in her dreams. The one she had travelled across a dimension rift to find. Him, and his other half.
"Speedster, I am Cosmo. I am a Seer, I have come here to be of service." Sonic cast Amy a nervous glance. The pink hedgehog just shrugged.
"Ok, first of all let's drop this Speedster stuff." The blue hedgehog began, kneeling down so they were face to face. "The name is Sonic, Sonic the Hedgehog." Cosmo just smiled.
"Name regardless, you are the one of the two I saw." Loosing some strength in her arms, she collapsed back to the towel. "Speedster, one half of a whole. Opposite of the Shade." Sonic blinked, something clicking into place in his mind.
"The Shade?" He had heard her mention this before but wasn't able to understand what it meant before now. "You mean Shadow?" She nodded, some force dragging her eyes down.
"Sonic and Shadow, Speedster and Shade." Cosmo began. Sonic grumbled angrily to himself, turning away; but in actuality more confused than angry. "I am a student of Queen Illumina of Magianryworld, of the Seer House." Cosmo explained. "One night, I had a vision in my dreams of a pair who became one, united against a great darkness." She pointed weekly towards the blue hedgehog. "You were one of them."
"And this darkness?" Amy asked. Cosmo suddenly froze, looking up in terror, before shuddering involuntarily and lying back down.
"Please don't make me think about that." She began, shivering in fear. "Just the memory of it scares me. It was horrible, an evil filled with unlimited hatred." Sonic turned back. He didn't go in for all this seer, fortune cookie, read your fortune stuff but by the look of pure terror on Cosmo's face, he could tell that she believed it. "I saw myself in that vision as well, standing by your side as water around you parted and a monster tried to swallow you whole." She put another hand to her head. "I don't remember the rest." Her tone was almost apologetic.
"I'm surprised they're letting anyone leave Maginaryworld after that stunt Void pulled." Cosmo looked up towards Rouge in surprise.
"You know Void?" Sonic nodded. "When I left, he was still standing in a tribunal for war crimes against the Mistress, but with her intentions revealed it looked like he might be pardoned." The blue hedgehog, who had tried to wash his hands of all that Maginaryworld politics just shuddered and turned his back. "My vision told me of the darkness, and so against the rules of the mistress I left for this world." She managed a smile. "Dimension crossing is a draining experience for someone who has not mastered dimensional travel." No wonder she had been so exhausted when they found her, Sonic thought to himself.
Meanwhile, just offshore; a small periscope ascending from the waters and watched the blue hedgehog and his friends for a while before vanishing again. Below the waves, Leviathan and an entire battalion of his best Metal X clan members waited. In the water, Metal Sonic's general converted to submariner mode, his two stumpy legs clasping together to form a very effective fish like tail. His clan mimicked the skill, only on a far smaller scale. Their General was a deep blue, while they were brownie red.
From his observations, Leviathan had not seen any Chaos Emerald, although residual energy traces of Chaos energy were high. There was a distinct possibility that Sonic had already taken the Emerald and transported it away. If that was the case, the General fell back onto his secondary orders, to destroy all those who opposed the Machine Federation. Targets such as Amy and Sonic were classed as off limits. Metal Sonic wanted to finish those two himself. The others however, Chris, Vanilla, Emerl, Cream and this new girl his records were not able to put a label to; were far game as far as the Master was concerned.
Gesturing with his fined right arm, he ordered his Clan members behind them to advance.
Cream offered Cosmo her ice cream. Cosmo however had come from a dimension where such a thing did not exist and it took a while for her to realise that she was being offered food.
"Do we really need her help?" Chris asked Sonic out of ear shot. Sonic tapped his foot against the sand.
"I don't think she's going to leave willingly any time soon." He stated. Cosmo had seemed almost desperate to be around, as if something terrible would happen if she were not. They might as well keep her happy by letting her tag along. "Ok then, we take her back with us."
"You sure that's a good idea?" Chris asked sceptically. Sonic just shrugged.
"No clue, but if not; then we find out the fun way." Chris asked him a side glance. Sonic never liked to plan ahead. He was far too spontaneous for that. He was the sort that believed that no amount of preparation could help you with the twists life threw at you.
A small hissing sound was brought to his attention and he turned back to the water where it was coming from. Two jets streams were spraying out of the waves just off shore ,coming closer and closer. These Sonic recognised as torpedoes.
Pushing Chris to the floor, the two of them narrowly avoided a pair of projectiles that came streaming out of the water, up the beach before exploding in the air. People began screaming and running as more torpedoes began flying through the air, large metal bulks surfacing near the water.
"Metal X!" Sonic exclaimed.
"The water shall attack you." Cosmo repeated, fear suddenly filling her eyes; the first part other vision coming true before her very eyes. Sonic cast her a glance over her shoulder, before looking back towards the water as shark like roots began lifting themselves out of the shallows, long arms with sharp talons unfolding from their undersides. Their back fins separating into two legs and began marching up the beech.
Amy cast her hammer spinning through the air, it's blunt edge colliding with the closest robot knocking it over before returning to her hand.
Sonic went rushing forward slamming a punch into another before grabbing it by it's arm and tossing it forward into another. The remaining five turned and fired several missiles in his direction. Sonic back flipped and spun his legs around, using the momentum to kick each of the projectiles back towards their origins.
One of the robots exploded, unable to defend it while the other ducked and the missiles past right over them. By now the beach was deserted apart from Sonic and the others and more shark like robots were beginning to emerge from the water, a small army marching up onto the land.
Emerl lifted both arms and with a single thrust, each metal hand went rocketing forward, smashing themselves into two of the enemy robots, grabbing their metal frames and smashing them against each other; the two robots exploding in a fire storm.
Amy's hammer was sending several of their number at a time flying into the air, before another two ending up impaled on the sharp end of her weapon. With huge gaping holes torn in the back of their heads, they collapsed to the sand.
Spinning around on one spot for a minute to built momentum, Sonic went rocketing forwards smashing into robot after robot before sending a final one spiralling back into the ocean with a flying kick. Rebounding off the sand, Sonic came back around towards small army slashing straight into them, super fast punches and kicks flying through the air.
Cosmo watched from afar as fragments of metal went flying. Everything was happening just as she had seen. This exact battle, right down to the last punch and kick. If she was right, then Sonic would…yes; he somersaulted backwards twice over Amy before bright his leg down sharply on the head of a nearby shark like robot.
There was no question now. Sonic was indeed the Speedster, her vision had anticipated his every move in this battle; and if remained true to form…Cosmo looked off towards the sea.
The waves were beginning to break open and a sudden rush, a colossal shape broke up from the water, a metallic form shaped like a giant shark with a several large fins lining two giant arms. Several rows of razor sharp teeth sitting behind a line of metallic lips, snapping open and shut as the giant bulk pulled itself up into the shallows; two large turrets on it's shoulders pivoting around to point indirectly inland.
"Woah momma!" Sonic exclaimed, sliding back to a safe distance as this metal giant cast a shadow over them all. The remaining robots shrank back and former a semi circle around the, using the large presence of their Clan Leader to emphasize their presence.
"I am Leviathan, third General of Metal X." The giant announced. "Residual Chaos Energy is still high, where the Emerald?" Sonic smirked at him.
"Sorry pall, wrong place. No Emerald here." Leviathan's eyes blared bright red in anger.
"Do not insult me, I know you have it." A thick stream of bullets passed from the weapons on his shoulders, embedding themselves in the sand near the blue hedgehog's feet. "Hand it over!" Picking her hammer out of the ground, Amy stood beside Sonic holding her weapon with both hands.
"We don't have any Emerald, but if you want a fight you've got one!" Leviathan pulled himself up to what looked like a sitting position. In terms of stature, he was the largest of Metal X. But Sonic knew size was rarely a reflection of strength.
"Lord Metal Sonic has already stated that you are his and his alone." Leviathan stated and slowly he turned his head towards the remaining five who stood a little further down the beech. "Them however." He gestured with his right hand the his remaining Clan robots turned towards them. Vanilla grabbed Cream and started running, with Emerl and Cheese following closely behind. Rouge remained ready in a fighting stance and Cosmo just stood there silently looking distant.
"Over my dead body." Sonic declared, stepping between the advancing robots as the others. Leviathan glared at him.
"I may get in trouble with the Master, but if you insist!"
(Can Sonic beat Leviathan? Can Cosmo help? Did Aliens really leave that technology behind? So many unanswered questions! Find out next time on Sonic X, The third general. Don't miss it!)