(I do not own Sonic X, etc.)
S.O.N.I.C GO!
S.O.N.I.C GO!
Episode 21: Darkness of the Heart, part 1
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Metal X security androids were on top of them before they knew what was happening. Humanoid robots, clad in royal blue battle armour and armed with laser rifles seemed to be everywhere at once. Knuckles sent each one flying with one of his infamous punches, but more just seemed to be coming out of the woodwork.
"We've got to get out of here now!" Tails exclaimed, jabbing a finger up towards the gapping sky light high above them. Knuckles nodded, before his fist smashed the head of a robot open like a watermelon. Turning, he tossed the green Chaos Emerald in his hand up towards Tails.
"Go, get that thing outta here, I'll hold them off!" The Echidna stated, before almost literally throwing him into the fray, two robots going under with a flurry of super strong punches.
Tails hovered there in mid air, a chaos Emerald in his grasp. They had to get the Chaos Emerald away from the Machine Federation, but he couldn't just leave the Echidna to face such overwhelming odds. "Move it, I'll be fine!" Knuckles shouted up, dodging around a swing from an android. Tails looked down at the jewel in his hands, before turning and making a direct line upwards towards the sky above.
Knuckles watched him go, before deflecting a punch from a robot. These new Metal X robots were a lot tougher than the ones Eggman came up with, but they weren't without their weakness. The extra armour and weaponry made them slow and that was something very easily exploited in battle.
And against him, their armour didn't do them much good anyway. Smashing a fist forward, the spurs on the end of his hand sank through the metal. Spinning around, the Echidna tossed the robot over his shoulder directly into another oncoming three.
A second tried to attack from behind, aiming the barrel of a laser rifle at Knuckles' head. Ducking under the shot, the Echidna shot back, smashing the metallic knee caps off the legs before shoving the robot to the side. A loud cracking fill the air, before the legs broke in two and the machine collapsed to the floor.
Tails discovered that the inside of the base had laser turrets, which activated when he accidentally flew through an infra-red detection grid. Several round metallic devices rose out of the walls, before rotating around to face the intruder. Bright yellow laser blasts flew through the air and Tails had to use every aerial trick he'd ever learned to out pace them.
Souring upward, several flight capable Metal X drones barred his way, charging their own weapons preparing to fire. The young fox kept going and shot past them before they had the change. Now behind them, they opened fire, one beam narrowly missing his arm.
The final attempt to keep him from leaving was a Spider Mech. It came clambering over the side of the bases centre, all eight legs keeping it pinned to the wall. Sighting Tails, it turned and opened its mouth, preparing to fire its plasma cannon, purple lightning burning across its front end as power began to accumulate. Tails stopped dead, there was no way he could outdistance or avoid that.
Just as the spider was about to fire, another attack lanced out of nowhere, striking the giant metal insect straight on the back, the intensity of the energy beam tearing it in half in seconds. Tails had to cover his eyes and bits of charged metal went flying everywhere.
"That defective machine almost destroyed the lab." A voice stated. Looking up, Tails backed off to the wall as a giant shadow fell over him. Flying above, blocking out the sun was a mechanical dragon, its wings spread out wide, the head on top of a long neck full of steal teeth. Standing on the top of this head looking down towards them was one of the Metal X General's. Built very much like a knight, Lancelot was head of the Machine Federation air force. His armour was shining silver and on one arm he can a curved shield. Like wings, a pair of curved blades angled downwards from his shoulder pads and out the back between them was a long tail. "There is no escape." The robot told Tails, his mechanical mount a descending closer. "Hand over the Chaos Emerald."
There was a loud whirring sound and a colossal trap door on the front of the Blue Typhoon opened upwards and the Turtle Mech rose into view, the cannon protruding out the back of its shell already in its firing position.
"Sonic, what the hell do you think your doing!" Eggman demanded, but by then it was two late. The blue hedgehog had already started spinning inside the gun, a increasingly steadfast glow beginning to leak out of the cannon's tip. Amy who was sitting in the Walker's cockpit activating the machines weapon system and aimed directly towards the metal Dragon hovering over the island in the distance. There was only going to be one attempt to get this right. Lighting began sparking widely up and down the length of the Mech as the power reached critical mass. Eggman looked down at the controls and gauges in front of him in alarm. Sonic was channelling energy from the Emeralds in the energy core into his attack, making this shot twice as powerful as the one he used to destroy Leviathan. Even so, if he fired it would give their position away to Dark Oak.
"Sonic, WAIT!" Cosmo called out but it was already too late; Amy had already pulled the trigger. The whirring reached its zenith and in one spectacular light show and like a bullet, Sonic went flying out of the cannon, spinning around so fast he nearly created a hurricane. Fuelled by the excess energy of five Chaos Emeralds, he broke the sound barrier several times before smashing through the camouflage that kept the ship hidden and on his way. Dark Oak looked up as he saw the speeding hedgehog shot past him at an unthinkable speed. As the hedgehog coursed through the air, the water beneath him parted like Moses and the Red sea. He as so fast the atmosphere around him was beginning to burn, giving the spinning hedgehog a very bright orange glow. The shockwave finally hit the Machine Federation's vessel and Dark Oak was nearly knocked off the side of his own ship by the sheer force of it.
Cosmo watched in horror. Sonic had gone to the island despite her warnings of what might happen, now all she could do was hold her breath and hold that for once, her visions were incorrect.
Lancelot looked up when he heard the sonic boom and in that same second, Sonic collided with full force into the side of his Dragon. The metal beast screeched as the blue hedgehog tore through it like paper, smashing through one side and coming out the other in a spray of fire and shards of metal. Lancelot exclaimed and looked down at his dragon, who was frantically thrashing about in the air. Sonic had pierced its energy core and now its reactor was achieving a critical failure.
The result was like someone had dropped tons of solid concrete onto the top of a Nuclear PowerStation. Beams of light slashed out through the cracks running over the machine, sparks of loose energy travelled around its form before finally with one cataclysmic effort the entire thing exploded. A blinding white light erupted in the air and Lancelot was completely consumed by it as it expanded rapidly outwards. Tails was thrown towards back into the giant laboratory below him as the shockwave hit his body and he dropped the Chaos Emerald in the process.
The jewel sparkled in the air, before falling with him. Tails would have caught it again, but the force from the explosion threw him back against the wall and he hit his head against it and instantly he was knocked unconscious.
As he fell, a bright blue blur came rocketing down from the opening above, rebounded off the side of the wall and caught him, before spinning around, rebounding off the other side of the gap and catching the Chaos Emerald in his remaining hand.
Knuckles smashed another two fists to his sides, tearing a hole through two robots when another two came at him from front and behind. With no way to defend, they smashed into him at once. He felt a couple of ribs break and when they backed off, he collapsed to his knees, the reluctant beginnings of tears building up at the edge of his eyes. Looking up, the Echidna saw one of the last Metal X standing over him, holding a laser rifle. Deliberately, it lowered its weapon and aimed the barrel directly between the Echidna's eyes.
Before it could fire, a kick came out of nowhere, slicing its head off. Knuckles looked up to the side as Sonic landed beside him with an unconscious Tails in one hand and a Chaos Emerald in the other. Nimbly the blue hedgehog tossed the jewel over towards Knuckles and now with one hand free, he arched his arm before throwing it forward.
"Sonic Wind!" The swirling blue vortex of the hedgehog's attack tore through the robots like a thousand knives through butter. All of them were lifted like toys off the air and cut to pieces before dumped back again.
"Is he ok?" Knuckles asked, propping himself up to one knee. Sonic looked down at the orange furry bundle he had tucked under one arm. He quickly checked him over. Apart from a few cuts and bruises he was fine. As if to verify it, Tails opened one eye and looked around clumsily, clearly knocked into a daze.
"Yeah he'll be fi…" Freezing in mid sentence, Sonic paused and looked up towards the remaining nine glass pillars above them. His gaze was locked onto the cloned emeralds there, all of them more black then green. Their energy signature cut through him like a knife and he couldn't help but shudder. "Are those…" He began. Knuckles just nodded, trying to pull himself up to his feet but found it a little too painful.
"That's them alright." The Echidna stared at Sonic, noticing the horrified awe on his face. "They contain nothing but Negative Chaos energy." The blue hedgehog looked back at him.
"Metal Sonic was planning to use these?" Knuckles nodded. Sonic felt a lump wheeling in his throat at the thought. He had used Chaos Emeralds all the time, and none of them had felt anything like these. The radiating pulse coming from these things was powerful, yet made him sick to his stomach. "Come on, Dark Oak can't be too far behind. Let's just trash these things before he gets here."
Knuckles took the dizzy Tails and Sonic let both hands now free trail out in front of himself he gathered energy, preparing to destroy all the equipment here with one last Sonic Wind attack.
Before he could, someone smashed into him full force with a powerful kick from behind as he sent flying over the platform to collide with the side of the machinery.
"You're still alive!" Knuckles exclaimed. Sonic rubbed the top of his head to send the throbbing pain away, before shooting around, to find Lancelot standing there. The explosion of his dragon had not been kind on his body. One arm had been completely ripped off and half of one of his wings had been demolished. Cracks and small holes riddled his armour, half of his helmet was now scorched black and his thin tail had completely disappeared, a smouldering stump between his wings was all that was left of it now.
Sonic looked stunned. That explosion should have destroyed him.
Lancelot raised his free hand and tugged by some unseen force; the Green Chaos Emerald yanked itself out of Knuckles hand and flew straight into the General's waiting palm. Once in his grasp, energy began to flow from the jewel straight into Lancelot's body. The robot's entire form was suddenly surrounded by a white light and Sonic had to cover his eyes from the glare. Knuckles watched as the robot's arm re-grew out of nothing and the cracks running like a web over his body began to recede backwards before disappearing all together. The tail flew out behind him with a sudden swish, now with a barbed spike on the end. The blades that served as wings twisted sickeningly before lancing outwards, transformed into complex, multi-joined constructions like the wings of his former Dragon. Completing the transformation, the armour changed from silver to emerald green.
Then the glow died away and transformed Lancelot stood before them. His form had changed, now his body was far less bulky and the armour more streamlined. In the centre of its head, the flat top angled forwards like a giant eye was the Chaos Emerald he'd used. Now he looked like a green version of Dark Oak with wings.
"The destruction of both Equinox and Leviathan will not go unanswered." The General stated; trailing one hand out before clenched a fist, the ringing clang of metal on metal resonating through the chamber.
"You know, you guys are going to get into a lot of trouble with Metal Sonic." The blue hedgehog retorted. On the inside however, Sonic began to worry intensely. Metal X generals were trouble even without a Chaos Emerald backing them up. Equinox had used the red one to transform himself into a near unstoppable titan. There was no telling just how strong Lancelot was now.
Suddenly, darkness engulfed them all as something large above flew in front of the sun. Lancelot looked up to see Dark Oak's ship hovering above, followed by the rest of the fleet he had brought with him. "Better late than never brother." Lancelot commented as the others stared up at it in horror, seeing the first of Metal Sonic's general's standing on the bow, looking down at them. "I will deal with these three. Just keep those others away from here." High above, Dark Oak nodded. Until a time when situation dictated otherwise, Sonic and those others down there were Lancelot's prey.
"Those last two were pushovers." Sonic remarked, descending into a fighting stance, his hands cupped beside him. "Let's see how you do." His fingers arched and instantly the swirling vortex of a Sonic Wind crashed forward. Lancelot simply held his hand up and the blue swirling attack simply diverted to one side away from him. Before Sonic could react, the general sped forward and landed a bone crushing punch against the blue hedgehog's head. Knocked sideways Sonic left himself open. Lancelot grabbed his foot and then swung him repeatedly over his shoulder, smashing him again and again into any nearby solid object before finally tossing him into the air. As the blue hedgehog hung there above, Lancelot fired his own energy attack that screamed upwards and struck Sonic will full force. An explosion occurred and the hedgehog was thrown down into the ground, his quills smouldering.
Knuckles charged, swinging the strongest punch he could manage with a couple of broken ribs. Lancelot dodged around the swings with near 'sonic' like reflexes before landed what looked like a slap against the side of the Echidna's chest. Knuckles staggered back, gasping for air. That one single tap had stunned him, try as he might he would move any part of his body.
Lancelot had no pity and grabbed Knuckles by one of his arms. Spreading his large wings, the Metal X general soured up into the air, flying up to a good height before swinging the Echidna round and around, before letting go, sending him back into the ground with a loud crash.
Sonic shoved a few fallen pieces of machinery of him and somersaulted back to his feet.
Wasting no words, the hedgehog soured up the side of the wall until he as level with Lancelot, before bounding off going for a tackle. Suddenly, Lancelot disappeared completely and Sonic ended up hitting his head against the wall on the far side. Rebounding, Sonic sped up into the air again to find the General there waiting for him. Before he could do anything to defend himself, Lancelot smashed a kick into his stomach, then a flurry of punches before finally finishing it with a painful lash to his side with his tail. The barbed edge caught itself on Sonic's skin and ripped it open; blood flew out into the air and the blue hedgehog yelled out in pain, before Lancelot's hand shot forward, grabbing him by his neck, silencing his scream in his throat.
"Your skills aren't what they're cracked up to be." The general told him, before smashing a punch into Sonic's stomach with his free hand. Sonic tried to cry out, but the metal finger around his throat stopped him. All he could do was hang there, his mouth open and eyes wide in pain. Suddenly a blur of red came up from behind the General and struck him across the back of the head. Lancelot shuddered violently before he released his grip on the blue hedgehog, who finding a little strength left re-bounded off the platform floor and smashed a kick straight into Lancelot's chest plate. The machine Federation leader went spiralling through the air before smashing to the side of a wall, clouds of brick dust flying up into the air.
"Owe you one buddy." Sonic shouted back to Knuckles, who was standing there trying to catch his breath. The Echidna simply sent him a thumbs up. Turning back, the two of them watched as bits of brick and dust went flying and Lancelot emerged, already in a fighting stance.
His wings spread and instantly it as in the air, firing several missiles hidden inside his body right at them. Sonic dodged around several, before kicking the others back towards their origin with a kick. Lancelot dived under the projectiles before souring down towards sonic with his arms spread.
Knuckles dived in from above and grabbed the general by the head and proceeded to pummel away at his head, trying to dislodge the Chaos Emerald from the centre. Lancelot grabbed him by his tail and slashed him across the chest with his talons several times before blasts him away with an energy attack. Trailing smoke, the Echidna crashed into the ground and did not get up again.
Sonic dived in with a kick, that Lancelot dodged around before trying a volley of super fast punches. The general blocked them all before throwing a punch of his own, sonic deflected it then dodged under a kick.
The tail caught him by surprise, flying around from Lancelot's back, wrapping itself around his leg, before lifting him off his feet. This time, sonic was ready for that kind of move. Curving his body around, he started spinning and with his tail stuck on his leg, Lancelot started spinning with him.
Sonic took the general for a ride, sending the both of them crashing through anything solid that was nearby. Lancelot finally managed to release him, grabbed the spinning Sonic like a ball and then proceeded to slam dunk it through a wall.
While the dust was still flying up, the general gathered his energy in both hands and lanced a strong energy blast straight into the hole Sonic had made. A rumbling sound began rising, before the wall collapsed, burying the blue hedgehog under a lot of rubble.
Suddenly, at Lancelot's surprise, Sonic shot out again with another spin with collide itself with the general chin, forcing him to stagger backwards.
"Come on…I'm just getting warmed up." Sonic stated, although being severely out of breath he didn't sound to convincing.
Lancelot, who seemed to be running high with his Chaos Emerald power source spread his wings and flew forward at an unbelievable speed. The blue hedgehog couldn't dodge in time and took the full force of the tackle.
Lancelot soured into the air with the blue hedgehog in toe, flying at high as he could within the lab core before swinging his opponent around several time, smashing his body against anything nearby before, smashing him back down towards the ground with a blow to the back. As Sonic fell, Lancelot fired a barrage of energy attack downward hastening Sonic's descent.
The blue hedgehog collided with the ground and dust flew up everywhere, leaving Sonic lying there face up, now nearly half dead.
Looking up, he saw Lancelot standing over him, talons raised.
"Now, this is what the master should have done in the first place." The general stated, before swinging down. At the last second, Tails came flying in, smashing a kick into Lancelot's arm, deflecting the strike so it hit the ground several inches to the left on Sonic's head.
Angry, Lancelot grabbed Tails by the leg and held him up high. Sonic tried to get up and stop it, but didn't have the energy. Tails tried to fight back, to get away, but he was no match for Lancelot, who let the fox drop a short distance before smashing a super strong punch into his head.
"TAILS!" Sonic called after him as the fox flew through the land, rolled along the ground before coming to a stop next to the unconscious Knuckles. The metal X general raised the arm faced him, sparks of the beginning of an energy attack building between his fingers.
It was in that instant, that one second that everything seemed to happen. Anger flooded into Sonic's heart and mind, so overwhelming he couldn't control any of it. Like it was forced on him, it overtook every conscious thought, every whim or idea. Within that second, there was nothing left in Sonic's mind accept rage.
That opened the door.
In his minds eye he could see the figure standing there, clad in burning green fir, burning red eyes fixed upon him. His darkness, his malice was everywhere, swallowing the blue hedgehog up before any chance of a fight could be put up.
The nine fake Chaos Emeralds above him burned with their black light, every ounce of their negative energy now fully awake. Lancelot stopped and looked up as the emeralds Metal X had manufactured glowed brightly, filled the entire chamber with an unearthly dark light.
From his spectator's seat on the bow of his ship, Dark Oak watched curiously as shafts of darkness lanced upwards into the sky from below. None of the tests results preformed during the cloning process had produced such results, so what was causing this reaction?
The skies above, once clear, began darkening as thunders clouds began to accumulate. Big black clouds with lightning passing in between them, the faint tingle of drizzle in the air. The sea boiled and frothed, giant waves smashing into the island chain at full force. Then the rain crashed down, heavy drops of water colliding with the ground like a drum.
With one lurch, the energy leapt from those nine emeralds that crashed down into the battered hedgehog's body. The sheer force of it sent Lancelot flying backwards until he collided into the side of a wall, sinking into the solid matter. New, dark strength following through his body like a river, Sonic slowly picked himself up. Every cut and bruise in his flesh and fur began to heal, closing like a zip. His entire body was outlined by black, with a tinge of blue just around the outside. His face was set in the most horrific sneer, and he clenched and unclenched his fists.
Knuckles opened his eyes and groggily pushed himself up, feeling like every cell in his point was screaming with pain. The tingle of negative Chaos energy flowing through the air was the first thing that brought him back to being aware of the real world.
Looking up, he saw Sonic, standing there covered in darkness, all the energy contained with those fake emeralds flowing directly into him. An unending sea of negative energy, and Sonic was absorbing it all.
"Sonic STOP!" The Echidna called over, but by now it was too late, the blue hedgehog was too far gone. The negative energy had him completely. With smirk still on his face, Sonic crossed his arms in front of his chest, before throwing them out, a final flush of energy rushing into him. There was a bright flash, and what seemed like a pillar of darkness rose upwards into the sky. Knuckles had to cover his eyes at the brightness of it.
"I'm ready an influx of Chaos energy." Eggman reported, every light and alarm on the console in front of him blaring out load. "It's off the scale, and still growing! I'll try to a lock on the…" Before he could finish his sentence the pillar of black shot high into the sky and every pieces of equipment in front of him short circuits, a panel even blew out smacking him in the face.
Dark Oak had to swing his ship around to avoid being hit as it lanced upwards, extending into the sky as far as the eye could see. From the blue Typhoon, they watched in a quiet awe as the darkness shot higher and higher, a never ending pillar of black. Cosmo stared in enlightened horror, for she knew what this heralded. Her visions had shown her plenty.
Even from this distance, Tikal could see it. The darkness towered over the land and as it hit the clouds above, thunder and lightning began sparking wildly across the heavens. Shadow, who as still unconscious lay next to her. His black fur occasionally highlighted by the flashes of lightning from above.
"What the heck?" Hare demanded, glaring up at the pillar in astonishment.
"Oh Sonic…" The female echidna began under her breath. "What have you done?"
Finally the beam dissipated, but the storms around did not. If anything, they got more intense and savage. As if something, lain dormant for years had been unleashed and it was striking out at anything that moved. Knuckles, through sheer determination forced his way to his feet and now stood before Sonic. A Sonic, reborn.
His fur was now jet black, eyes pure white and set in a locked stare full of malice. He seemed to be cloaked in absolute darkness, it swirled around his body, carrying with them all nine of the fake Emeralds. Between the jewels sparked negative chaos energy, tremendously powerful in it's intensity. His outline was covered by a black and royal blue glow, with a faint brush of gold around the outside.
Lancelot roughly tugged his body out of the wall, before dropped to the floor. He shook himself to dislodge pieces of brick between his armour, before turning to confront this new opponent.
"No theatrics this time." A voice from above. Lancelot looked up as Dark Oak dropped down, landed beside him, his dark cloak trailing out behind him. With a flick of his metal wrist, the curved scimitar blade as in his hand. "We kill him now."
Flip card 1:
Name: Dark Super Sonic
Description: A negative version of Super Sonic, born when too much Negative Chaos energy is present within Sonic's body.