(I do not own Sonic X, etc.)

Flip card 2;

Name: Topaz

Description: A member of Freelance Division, currently getting a little 'friendly' with their commander, Major Okida.

Okida found the Spider Mech far more difficult to pilot than his Yahger. While it possessed superior fire power, a lot of concentration was needed to keep all eight legs moving without them tripping over each other.

Jabbing the front legs of the machine forward, he forced the cargo bays doors of their crashed ship open, a good deal of sea water rushing in, flooding the cargo bay up to the holding area where they housed the other two Mech's. The spider wadded outside, its long legs keeping its main body above the surface.

The ship was in terrible condition. Most of it was submerged beneath the waves. The other half was jutting out into the air, heavy scarred from the dog fight and the crash. The wings had gone, the shattered metallic shards of the remains floating in a collection of debris nearby. The sky above was bathed in a storm cloud, bolts of angry lightning shooting left and right, lighting up the thick cloud cover whenever they emerged. It was raining, heavy drops of water were pounding away at the armour plating of his Walker, the metallic ringing sound they made driving him to distraction. The sea itself was also restless; large and foaming waves were flashing against the Spider's making it that much difficult to pilot. The island chain around them was being battered by the fierce weather; palm trees, shrubs and other flora were torn from the ground by the harsh wind and cast high into the air.

"Topaz..." He called into the Walker's onboard Com-system. "Topaz, come in, this is Okida. Are you alright?" A short buzz of static followed but no one replied. Okida tried again and once more, no answer. The vampire bat left a lump well up in his throat. He turned, sighting the cockpit at the highest point of the ship. It wasn't on fire and there appeared to be no exterior damage, but still who knows what could have happened inside. Suddenly, a reply came through.

"This is Topaz, Major, I'm in one piece." She replied. Okida blew a sigh of relief. "We're in luck sir, the Blue Typhoon is within radio distance, I called them a minute ago, they're close by under a hologram for camouflage. I have the coordinates." The Major hadn't been listening to that last part. He had the Mech climbing over towards the ship before he even knew what he was doing. Slowly, the right first leg of the Spider raised itself out of the water and over towards the hatch marked 'emergency exit'.

"Right then, let's get back onboard." Silence followed, broken only when Topaz opened the hatch, his short pale brown hair lashing around in the fierce wind. Her uniform had been torn in the crash, the sleeves on her left arm gone. Okida pressed a button and the cockpit of the machine, near the unison between all eight legs, opened up with a loud whirring. Slowly, he climbed out and stood on the head. "Come on, I'll catch you." I called over, trying to raise his voice over the howl of the wind. Topaz nodded and began to walk over the leg. It was wet and slippery, but luckily the armour had ridges onto which he could hold onto and prevent a twenty foot fall. Once she was hallway across, Okida edged his way forward, holding his arms open ready to catch her. Topaz judged the distant, before jumping. The second she did however the wind picked up and her jump was shortened, meaning she would never be able to make the distance. Okida, acting on instinct let his wings open out and the wind carried him forwards.

The two of them collided in mid air and quickly the Major wrapped his right arm around her waist before fighting against the air current, his leathery wings beating hard as he forced his way back to the cockpit of his Mech. Finally, with one huge effort he pulled them both back over the edge and into the seat. Then, he used his free hand to close the cockpit, shutting out the elements.

"Er…sir, do you mind?" Topaz asked. Okida looked back at her questioningly. The human female was bright red and looked incredible uneasy. Suddenly the bat noticed that the tips of his fingers were touching her backside, that he hadn't removed his arm from her waist. Blushing uncontrollably, he let her go; looking more embarrassed now then he'd ever been in his life.

"Sorry." He muttered so fast that it came out as gibberish.

-

This new Sonic was unlike anything Knuckles had seen before. Not a shred of the hedgehog's old energy signature remained. All the Echidna could fell now was the unrelenting presence of negative Chaos energy.

"Sonic, listen to me!" He called over. The hedgehog, clad in darkness turned slowly to look down at him. His gaze set in stone. "You have to let go of that energy or it's going to destroy you!" The hedgehog remained silent. "I know what Negative Chaos energy can do. It's already hacking away at your mind, eroding who you used to be. It's changing you into something you're not!" To his dismay, the hedgehog's mouth set itself in a smirk. The eyes alight with sadistic humour. "If you value your soul, then do as I say!" For a moment, he looked like the hedgehog was about to respond, when the two remaining Metal X general's attacked.

Both general's charged at once, but by the time they reached Sonic, the hedgehog had disappeared completely. Lancelot nearly ended up crashing into the side of a wall while Dark Oak slammed to a stop in mid, swinging his blade around to block a swing as Sonic shot back, trying to land a punch.

The force with which the hedgehog attacked was tremendous and Dark Oak was forced backwards, inch by inch through the air. Finally the general batted sword away and slid to the side, disengaging the power struggle.

Lancelot came charging in with a flying kick. But the way Sonic moved, it appeared as if both general's were in slow motion. His swing was so fast, Knuckles couldn't even see it. As the green robot came near, Sonic landed several punches and a kick before smashing the machine with deadly force into the floor.

Dark Oak backed off to a safer distance as Sonic hovered there, fists clenched at his side. His long fused quills flapped gently in some non existent wind, sparking with power as the nine fake emeralds hovered in orbit around him. His fur, once royal blue was not completely jet black and his eyes, those eyes were horrifying. Nothing but white, an empty void of nothingness.

Lancelot somersaulted back to his feet and raised both arms, before firing a volley of energy attacks straight at him. Each one curved around in the air before striking at Sonic, only to be absorbed by some curved egg shaped shield covered his entire body. Angrily, Lancelot tried again, firing one long attack that burned up towards Sonic, desperately trying to hit him, but the shield surrounding the hedgehog didn't even flinch.

His wings spreading out wide, Lancelot soured into the air and tried to land a punch, only to find Sonic dodge around it with ease. His Chaos emerald eye glowing brightly, he tried again with a rapid succession, along with several super fast kicks. Again Sonic seemed to flow through them like water. Nothing was able to touch him. Now he was way too fast. Now he was invincible.

Lancelot flew backwards, before cupping his hands above his head. For a second nothing happened and then sparks of energy channelled upwards through his arms began to build within his hands, forming a ball between the fingers. Lighting danced around him as he called forth every piece of available power he could muster and threw his arms forward; firing the most destructive beam of energy he could fire straight forwards.

It collided with Sonic and the hedgehog disappeared in a blinding flash of light. When the beam finally dissipated, Lancelot lowered his arms and dropped to the floor, unable to keep up flight until his energy cells recharged. A great deal of dust and smoke was in the air as silence gripped the moment. Then, it began to dissipate, and the thick concealing mist gave away.

As the dust settled, Sonic remained as stationary as ever, his shield holding and completely unharmed. Then after a moment of silence, he raised his left hand. Lightning sparked between his fingers before he clenched a fist and the sky above seemed to light up, power called down to the heavens, channelled down through the hedgehog's arm, before leaping through the distance and striking Lancelot head on.

The second Metal X general writhed, trying to break free, but the deadly lightning kept up, burning away at his armour, pieces of it flaking off into ash as he staggered backwards.

The first to go were his wings, shattering into pieces before crumbling into a black power. Then his tail and finally all the armour began to dispute.

Sonic let his arm drop and the shattered remains of the General now stood before him. Deep scars ran down his entire body and all his armour flay in ruins around him. All that was left of his defence was the helmet that held the green Chaos Emerald.

Sonic narrowed his eyes at him, before turning away, then swinging back and firing one long beam of energy downwards. It collided with the already defenceless machine. The sheer force of blast tore the arms off Lancelot, then the legs, before finally what was left of him crumbled away into nothing.

Knuckles watched as Lancelot's head rolled past him before hitting the edge of some rubble and shattering completely, the green Chaos Emerald lying in its charred ruins.

Slowly, this new Dark Sonic turned to face one of the last remaining threat, Dark Oak himself. Who hovered there nearby with his arms crossed, his double cape trailing out behind him. The single green glowing bright green.

Lightning flashed as the two of them faced each other, either moving a muscle, their gaze locked squarely on one another.

A light chuckle escaped Dark Oak, and with a sudden thrust, he soured up into the air disappearing upwards. Sonic remained stationary, looking up after him, before narrowing his eyes and he followed, souring upwards out of the laboratory and up into the sky.

There, he found the Metal X general there waiting for him. All around them both were the remaining ships belonging to the Machine Federation, at least fifty in number. As soon as Sonic was in then air, several of them turned and opened fire; the air suddenly lit up with laser fire as the entire fleet locked onto the hedgehog and hit him with everything they had.

Even from the Blue Typhoon about a mile away, they could see the fire works. Cosmo watched in horror as the entire sky seemed to be bathed in the light from the attacks, intermixed with the lightning.

Dark Oak watched from the bow of his flag ship as his fleet bombarded the enemy with an intense barrage. They would keep firing until he gave the order to shop, and he wanted to make sure Sonic died this time. After a good minute had passed, the last of the general's raised his arm and the ships stopped. Silence fell as the light show stopped and smoke began to vanish into the air.

There, as always was Sonic. His shield surrounding his entire body glowing bright white. The hedgehog himself looked clam and collected, having apparently spent no efforts to keep himself safe. The fake emeralds around him was glowing brightly, supplying him with more energy than even he dared to fathom.

His eyes shaped wide open and suddenly it was like the heavens themselves turned upon the fleet. The storm grew in intensity and power, the sky turning pitch black, bolts of lighting shooting across from ship to ship and each one was confused by fire. One by one they began to fall out of the sky, clad in flames before they hit the frothing sea below.

"What is going on over there?" Amy demanded, watching as the Metal X ships dropped like flies before them, consumed one after the other by the sea.

Cosmo dropped to her knees, the ominous finality of everything hitting her hard. She'd warned him this would happen, but now it all too late. "That's it, I'm going out there." The pink hedgehog declared, grabbing her hammer with both hands. Before anyone could stop her, she left the bridge with her weapon swinging around in her hands.

"There's something up there." Eggman stated suddenly, looking surprised as he pointed a finger over towards the largest of the five islands. Chris followed his gaze, to a small dark speck hovered above the centre of the landmass and where it seemed all the savagery of the storm seemed to be coming from. "Get me a close up."

"Magnifying." Becoe replied to the Doctor's demand, isolating that spec on the monitor, narrowing the view more and more until all they could see what that black spot.

"Sharpening resolution." Decoe added, typing away on the keyboard in front of him. The blurred image began to clarify until they got one clear picture, of something that was all very familiar to them.

"Is that Sonic?" Sam asked in surprise. It certainly looked like him, but with black fur instead of blue. They would have mistaken it for the Shadow, were it not for the fact there wasn't a drop of red anywhere on his entire body. Around him, floating in a short orbit were nine, merged green and black Chaos emeralds, all emitting a strange black glow.

Dark Oak, last of the Metal X general's hovered there before him with his metallic arms crossed as the final flaming wreckage of his fleet crashed down to the water below. Silence brewed between them, stagnating as the minutes wore on. A lightning bolt crashed down near Sonic, highlighting his features. Every part of him was now as black as the night and seemed to be growing darker the more energy those fake emeralds fed into him.

"I can't say much for the new look." The General stated and Sonic's smirk widened into a sadistic sneer. Dark Oak trailed his right arm out and with a sudden swish, the hilt of his curved sword was back in his iron grip. "Those nine emeralds are by no means as powerful as the combined force of all seven real ones." He added. "The experiments results were less than encouraging." Sonic did not reply. "The echidna was right. The negative energy is slowly eroding the core of your personality. You are being swallowed by the Negative energy. Before too long, you'll be everything you hate a little more besides."

The hedgehog raised his hand, clenched a fist, before throwing his arm forward, a bolt of burning Chaos energy leaping the distance between them. With a single slice, Dark Oak seemed to cut it in half, each half flying off to one side. Sonic's smirk faltered a little. "I'm not like the other General's you've fought thus far Sonic." The Machine Federation leader told him. "There's far more to me than meets the eye." His free hand trailed down towards the island and a beam of green light leapt from between his fingers, before lancing down into the ground. Sonic watched it go, striking the earth and then disappearing. Another second later, something burst up through the canopy and screamed through the air towards him. It looked like the trunk of a tree, twisting as it shot upwards in a tremendous growth spurt. Before Sonic could react, it formed a hand and the giant wooden fingers wrapped themselves around his body. Even being this powerful, Sonic couldn't break fear.

The hedgehog looked up to see Dark Oak floating there, laughing to himself, before he clenched his metal fist and the controlled foliage began retracting rapidly back towards the ground, dragging Sonic with it. All the hedgehog could do was struggle as it tugged him down below the island's canopy of leaves.

Dark Oak dropped down to the ground, his spike like feet landed with a metallic clank. All around he could see the mess left by his summoned help, but no sign of the hedgehog anywhere, only a giant hole carved into the ground through which his help that pulled him down. Slowly, the general raised his sword and in that instant, the blade began sparking as his energy soured through it. A powerful yellow glow following around the metal, a light that could be seen in the distance, even on the Blue Typhoon, a deadly white star that was steadily growing brighter.

Once the energy reached its zenith, Dark Oak swung down and a curved edge of energy screamed forward, smashing into the ground will full force. It was as if the earth literally tore itself open to receive the attack as it cracked and spilt even before the energy collided with it.

In some spectacular light show, the entire island went up in flames, engulfed in one tremendous flash, which Tails plane was barely able to outpace. Having made it back to their mode of transportation in time, and woken the fox up, both Tails Knuckles were one a straight line towards the concealed Blue Typhoon.

"What's going on back there! The fox asked, his goggles doing little to shield his eyes from the blinding flare.

"Don't look back, Sonic can handle himself!" Knuckles replied as the plane soured on, finally escaping the relentless advance of destruction. With only final flash, the island and everything on it was completely reduced to rubble, crumbling into the ocean.

"What the hell!" Okida exclaimed as the shockwave caused by the island demolition smashed into his Mech, forcing the eight legged machine forward at an accelerated rate, before finally tumbling through the Blue Typhoon's camouflage field. On the ship itself, the floor beneath their feet shook violently and several of them were knocked over. Eggman managed to escape it by hanging onto his chair for dear life. His two robot henchmen were less fortunate, landing in a big heap over in a corner.

"Hold on Froggy!" Big told his amphibian companion was the entire ship vibrated angrily, the shockwave finally smashing full force across the bow, tipping the vessel sideways, nearly over into the raging waters.

Amy pulled herself up, rubbing her arm which she'd bruised in the fall. That shockwave had come as a surprise and, with her off guard; her knocked her off her feet. Looking out the window towards the island, she staggered back as she saw the island paradise which had been there moments before crumble into charred ruins.

"It's a Metal X robot!" Chuck declared, pointing at the Spider like machine that had just stumbled clumsily through their illusion. A large royal blue metal insect, marching rather clumsily towards them.

"Relax, it's just us." A voice stated as Okida opened a link, his face appearing on a holographic display. It showed the cramped inside of the Spider Mech's cockpit. It was so small; Topaz was sitting very close to the Major, his shoulder right up against his.

"Comfortable in there?" Rouge asked slyly.

"Now is not the time!" Topaz told her, blushing. "Just what is going on out there?"

"You tell us." Chuck replied. "Right now, we haven't the faintest idea what's going on over on that island."

-

Dark Oak floated above the shattered remains, looking down at the wreckage; his double cloak dancing in the harsh wind. The glow on his sword began to die away and once it was gone, he sheathed it. There was no sign of the hedgehog anywhere, but Dark Oak was not stupid enough to believe him destroyed without solid evidence. He was being powered by nine Chaos emeralds. Even if they were all fakes, they would still be boasting his power to new heights.

There was a sudden green flash from behind him and the General shot around in mid air just in time to block a punch as Sonic came souring out of a Chaos Control warp. Grabbing both fists with his talons, Dark Oak held the hedgehog off and a power struggle took place, each trying to out do the other in raw strength. As it wore on, it began apparent that they were evenly matched.

Finally they broke away and faced each other. With a flick of the wrist, Dark Oak had his sword back in his hand again.

Lightning forked across the sky and they charged towards edge other, engaging in another battle. Kicks, punches and slashes were thrown so fast the naked eye would have been unable to see it.

Dark Oak slashed at Sonic and the hedgehog slid around the swing, before flying in close with an energy attack burning between his fingers. The general blocked the attack with his sword, before landing a metal punch against the hedgehog's check.

Sent spinning backwards, Sonic backed off to a distance before firing several blasts all at once in Dark Oak's direction, the flashes of light illuminating the sky. Dark Oak deflected them with his blade before gathering what he could into the sword, the metal sparking wild, before he arched forward and sent one of his strongest attacks souring at him.

Sonic remained were he was and let his shield absorb the hit. Which it seemed had not been a smart move. Dark Oak was more powerful then he had given him credit for. Sonic was forced backwards, inch by inch as he fought the attack, barring his teeth fought against it, calling forth as much energy as he could before finally forcing it away from him.

Now, both of them were a good distance from each other. Silence endured for another minute, their gaze locked only on each other, before Dark Oak raised his sword one final time and changed through the air his cloak trailing out behind him.

Sonic smirked evilly, before charging himself.

The two of them glowed brightly as they soured through the air on a collision course with one another, before finally they struck. The light created from that one finally clash could be seen from space, and even from the Earth.

All over the planet, people looked up towards the heavens as Mars for one brief moment burned as brightly as a second sun, before finally dissipating and the skies returned to normal.

Sonic stopped, let his arms dropped to his side and looked back toward the Metal X general. Dark Oak was floating there silently, his sword at his side. It had been him to suffer the damage in that scuffle. As he turned around to face him, the hedgehog could see a large hole was gorged open in the side of his armour, lightning sparking around it like blood from a wound. Sonic however hadn't escaped without something to show for it either. A large bruise lay on his shoulder, with Dark Oak had tried to slash him but had ended up hitting him with the hilt instead.

Sonic paused, seeing Dark Oak raise a finger to the side of his head. The general looked off into the distance, as if his thoughts were elsewhere.

"But My lord…Yes, I understand. As you wish." Dark Oak stated, looking out into nowhere, before turning back toward the hedgehog. "You are fortunate." The metal General told him, sheathing his blade. "My Master seems to think you deserve a second chance." Sonic narrowed his eyes.

"Metal Sonic will be destroyed along with the rest of you Machines." He repeated, speaking for the first time since his transformation, his voice tainted with a sadistic streak. Even without a mouth to smile with, Dark Oak looked amused

"What makes you think I'm talking about Metal Sonic?" Before Sonic could react, the Metal general faded away, disappearing into nothingness as he teleported to some other place.

Sonic was left alone, still burning with Negative energy and without an opponent. He cared not who, so long as he could fight, and win….and destroy. Nothing else mattered, nothing at all.

It was only then, when he relished at the thought of destroying everything in sight, that he realized that Dark Oak and Knuckles had been right. The energy of these fake emeralds was eroding his mind.

Turning, he looked down to where the Blue Typhoon lay concealed behind its illusion. There was no fighting it now; the need to destroy was too strong. In one instant, all that Sonic was disappeared and what remained was this, remorseless creature of destruction.

He was, Dark Super Sonic.

-

(In Chris voice)

What? If Dark Oak doesn't really work for Metal Sonic, then just who is his boss?

With Sonic turned evil, how can there be any hope left? It's a raceagainst time as Amy's limits are tested, next time on Sonic X with the end of the Metal X Saga. Darkness of the heart, part 2...Don't miss it!