(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 24: The war begins
-
The walls, the floor, the ceiling; the entire room was alive. Some bizarre welding of organic matter and technology. Veins that pulsated with the regular beating of some heart ran across nearly every surface, through the metal as well it seemed before disappearing altogether. Some of the cells seemed especially made to keep their occupants in place. For Knuckles, the walls were like elastic; restricted and expanding with the same force as any punch he could throw. The surfaces just took whatever he could throw and reformed instantly, like he was punching rubber.
The cell Okida and Tails had been placed in just pulled them both down to the floor, keeping them pinned there. The gravity inside that one room kept them from so much as opening a wing or spinning a tail. The rest just seemed like ordinary rooms, ordinary for this vessel anyway.
Sonic wasn't being kept in the same area as the rest of them. None of them had seen the blue hedgehog for a while now. They all knew he was still alive, Knuckles had seen the creatures take him alive; as well as take the Chaos Emeralds.
The creatures themselves, most probably guards stood outside. There where two of them, lizard like beings with grey scales that turned red on their hands and feet. The eyes were bright flaxen yellow and their hands were cloven, the fingers at least four inches long. Like humans, while having similar characteristics; each one was different from the other in some unique way. One was taller than the red and the eyes a lighter shade of gold. Another had paler red parts on the end of it's limbs and another had a hunch like an old man.
"Just what are these things?" Amy asked under her breath, watching one of them walk past her cell; a long broadsword in it's left hand, the blade sparking with purple lightning. Cosmo, who was sharing the cell with her, peered closer at the being as it strode past, walking on it's soles ; the two large toes acting as a balancer. A swift and muscular reptile like tail held to keep it upright as it walked.
"My people have encountered something like these before." The seer stated, pressing her face against the glass like substance that prevented them from entering the corridor just beyond it. "I remember hearing about it in the Achieve Lectures."
"Well, who or what are they?" The pink hedgehog asked, looking apprehensive. Cosmo sighed, levelling her eyes.
"I can't remember exactly." She replied as Amy rolled her eyes. "It was a very big Achieve, I can't recall it all." There was a loud thud as their jailor tapped a fist against the side of their cell, getting their attention.
"Thealk ka ka!" It told them. The two just stood there with dumbfounded looks on their faces. "Maliata." It began again, but their expression didn't alter. It groaned, shook it's long head before walking off, finally grasping that they had no idea what it was saying.
"What we need here is a Rosetta Stone." Sam Speed remarked, sitting on the floor of the cells next to theirs; watching the guard match past it before walking out of sight. Chuck sat inside it with him, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. These creatures had put two in every cell, no more, no less.
"Maybe we have." Chuck announced, suddenly the brightest realization dawning in his eyes. "I thought their language sounded familiar."
"Familiar?" Sam asked, looking back in surprise. "You mean you've heard it before?"
"That's generally what the word 'familiar' means. I remember hearing it back in Canada when we went to find that stash of hardware Eggman was salvaging." In the cell on the opposite side of the corridor, Tails looked up in surprise. Okida was taking the not being able to fly business the hardest. He was pacing their room with his arms behind his back, muttering to himself. The gravity effect inside was triggered only when they tried to fly, otherwise they where pretty much left to themselves. The major was a naturally flying creature, so not being able to lift his body off the ground was setting him on edge.
"You mean that ancient talking computer?" Eggman had, reluctantly, lead them through the trundra to the frozen cave where an abundance of ancient but incredible advanced technology lay buried. Inside it, they had found a computer that spoke a strange language not local to the planet. It scanned Chuck's mind and learned how to speak English, but not soon enough to give any much of it's secrets.
"I noticed these beings using some of the same words that computer did." Chuck replied. "It's possible that this race is the same one that left all that stuff in the first place."
"But this doesn't look anything like the hardware we saw in the cave." Tails replied, gesturing to the strange organic like construction of the walls around him.
"Well, there have bound to have been some technological upgrades in the past ten thousand years." Chuck ventured, spreading his arms.
Knuckles sat in his private cell alone, silently brooding; placing himself apart from the others so he had time to contemplate. Everything had been flipped around so suddenly. They had been one Chaos Emerald away from beating Metal Sonic and suddenly all this. He should never have come on this trip. He should be back on Angel Island where he and the Master Emerald belonged, but that wasn't what got him so uptight. Somewhere out there, was the Master Emerald; and he had to find it before that power hungry maniac used it.
Through his mind ran everything that had happened, how they had gone from winning against the Machine Federation; to prisoners in this bizarre place.
They had taken everything the Machine Federation had been stockpiling and all they needed to do now was pick up the remaining crew they lost when they arrived on Mars. So far, all they lacked was, Bean, Bark, Hare, Tikal and Shadow. To scan more of the planet's surface, Doctor Eggman took the Blue Typhoon up into a high orbit. There they floated, doing serious repair work to the ship after Dark Super Sonic's tore through it to get to their Chaos Emeralds. Luckily they had managed to turn Sonic back to his old self in time to prevent disaster.
The repairs to the ship had taken all day and by now, Tails was exhausted. He lay asleep in the pilot's seat of the bridge, his goggles over his eyes and snoring loudly. Even though Eggman had helped put this vessel together, this was considered his ship and it was his responsibility to make sure it was up to factory standard.
"Tails…" Someone called to him, but by now he was to exhausted to answer. He lay there in the seat, still snoring. Cosmo looked up at him with a small smile on her face, before she cupped her hands over and mouth and shouted; "Tails!" The young fox woke up with a start, sat up, hit his head on the underside of one of the control panels and fell back to the chair. Cosmo made her way up those the pilot's seat and crossed her arms as she leant on the side and watched him as he slowly sat back up, pushing his goggles off his eyes.
"Starboard engine, need, immediate repairing." He began groggily, rubbing his eyes.
"You love this ship don't you?" The seer from Maginaryworld asked with a giggle. Tails shook himself fully awake.
"It's my pride and joy." He admitted, tapping the side of the main control panel with a hand lovingly. "I've built many planes in the past, but something like this has always been a dream for me."
"And what a dream." Sonic remarked, sitting in a seat on their left hand side, his hands behind his head and one leg perched on the other's knee. "You really know you're flying stuff."
"Need I remind all of you that first and foremost, this is MY ship." Eggman told them from the front of the bridge. His two robot, Becoe and Decoe were busy helping the Doctor repair the systems and restore control to the bridge after the ship suffered horrendous attacks by Metal X and then Dark Super Sonic.
It had taken hours to fully remove the effects of the Negative Chaos Energy from the blue hedgehog's body, but with all that power safely destroyed by the Master Emerald, there wasn't much of a need to worry about another emergence of the Dark hedgehog. "My nano-bots helped construct it. Without my assistance, none of you would have gotten it off the ground."
"Get back to work." Sonic told the Doctor with a grin. Eggman locked him with a sideways glare, before turning back; a sadistic smirk spreading over his face. What any of them didn't know of course was that his microscopic robots had done more than just put the ship together.
Things had settled into normalcy on the ship, or as normal as it got for the crew. Knuckles, after recovering from his injuries went back to guarding the Master Emerald and the six Chaos Emeralds they had been able to gather. Now all they needed was the dark blue one and they had a full set.
Rouge had taken the opportunity of a peaceful period to have a shower, which the Echidna had had the misfortune of walking in on. He had ended up with a slap and Rouge reused to speak to him for hours. He hadn't even seen anything, part from her hand coming towards his face at a million miles an hour. He rubbed the still sore spot on his cheek with a hand, a dull expression on his face.
Chuck was asleep, tired out from doing all the work on the ships' engine systems. Gently on the bed in the Thorndyke's room, snoring his head off. Chris and his uncle were off wandering the ship, as usual, looking for something to do. Eventually, Chris wandered into the kitchen area were Major Okida was busy boasting to everyone there about his cooking skills.
"Prove it." Amy remarked flatly. "It's lunch time anyway, so let's see those cooking skills in action." Okida gained a near sadistic smirk.
"Café Okida is now serving." He remarked, putting the knuckles of his fists on his waist. "So, what are the orders?" Topaz rubbed her hands together with relish and Okida ended up taking on an order for and extremely exotic dish he couldn't even pronounce, never mind cook. Truth be told, the best he could manage was a fry up. Still, pride preventing him from actually admitting it; he got to work anyway. "You just wait until…" He began walking towards the cooking area itself, then he froze in mid sentence, the skin under his brown fur going blue. One eye twitched nervously, before he exclaimed loudly and darted backwards out of the kitchen door to dive behind a table. Topaz and Chris watched him with confused expressions on their faces, until Topaz got up to see what had spooked him so much. Sitting near the microwave oven was a small spider, no bigger than a thumb tack. "Keep it away!" The Major told her cowardly, creeping backwards as she picked it up and brought it out to them all to see.
"You've got arachnophobia." She began, before breaking into a laugh.
"He doesn't like wide open spaces?" Chris asked.
"That's agoraphobia." Topaz explained, before turning back to Okida with the Spider in hand and walking towards him. "The leader of Freelance Division, the Major who brought down those Elite guys is afraid of Spiders."
"Just keep that thing away from me!" Okida told her again, backing off as she presenting the small insect to him.
"Oh but it's so cute." The major looked at the eight legged creature with short black hairs and a multitude of staring wet eyes and a short pair of pincers at the front of it's mouth. It was honestly the most revolting thing he had ever seen and had to back away and hide behind Amy, who was trying not to laugh her head off.
Things onboard had been so quiet, almost complacent and then suddenly it, happened. One second had been utterly peaceful, and then; as if some cosmic force had clicked it's fingers, everything was thrown into utter chaos.
It started on the bridge, as the light coming through the windows began to darken, before disappearing altogether as some giant shadow slowly spread over the entire ship.
"Hey is that an Eclipse?" Tails asked, glancing out the window; only to come face to face with an incredible sight. It was like a monumental wall of metal was moving towards them, glittering with thousands of green lines running through engraved runes over the surface. It was covering the entire line of sight, slowly covering everything that could be seen.
The entire ship shook violently as some invisible force grabbed their ship and held in an iron grip and no matter how much Tails tried to free the vessel; nothing worked.
"Eggman, help me out here!" The shouted over. There was no reply. "Eggman?" Looking up, the young fox saw that the doctor and his two robots had disappeared completely. They'd been there a second ago, now the bridge was completely devoid of their presence. "Where the heck did he go?"
Down in the Energy chamber core, Knuckles looked up in slight confusion as he felt the ship vibrate slightly. Cut off from the rest of the ship, he couldn't tell what exactly was going on. Maybe Tails was trying to bring their jump engines back online? There was a loud shifting sound and the door to the chamber opened up. Looking over, the Echidna saw Doctor Eggman and his robots enter through the metal security door.
"What's going on up there?" He asked. Eggman didn't reply. He simply grinned and reached into his pocket, withdrawing a remote control. Knuckles looked confused as the Doctor pressed a single button on the top.
All the nano-bots he had installed through the ship activated, seizing control of the security systems on board. The laser stun grid installed inside the energy core chamber turned on, several turrets projecting from the walls and before the Echidna could do anything; firing a stun blast at him. The Echidna had time to swear, before it hit him head on and sent him cascading to the floor; knocked unconscious.
"Get them, quickly!" Eggman gesturing to the Chaos Emeralds behind the sleeping Echidna. Becoe and Decoe nodded and ran up the steps towards them, tugging at the Master Emerald first; pulling it out of the pedestal it had been placed upon.
"Hold it right there!" Someone yelled from behind him. Eggman shot round to face Sam Speed and Rouge standing there. Sam had a gun in his hand, and Rouge was in a fighting stance. Eggman simply sneered at them, before pressing another button on the remote control. The nano bots got to work again, pushing a holographic camouflage over the interior of the ship, causing Eggman, his two robots and the Master Emerald they had in hand to disappear.
"He did what?" Tails demanded as Sam sent the bridge a holo-message. But now, most of the crew had assembled there.
"Just like I said, Eggman stole the Master Emerald!"
What about the other Chaos Emeralds?" Amy asked.
"They're still here." Rouge replied butting in.
"And I would have had time to take them, had you not butted in." A voice added. Sonic looked up as the message was replaced by a transmission from the Doctor himself. He was sneering at them, the ends of his moustache curling in delight.
"I should have know you'd try something like this!" Sonic announced, shaking a fist at him.
"Oh you wound me dear hedgehog." Eggman said, feigning a hurt expression. "I hadn't planned on betraying you, at least not just yet. But since you and your quest are clearly dead in the water, I thought I would collect my severance pay and go now." he stepped aside to reveal the Master Emerald behind him, being pushed into a Metal harness by the Doctor's two robot henchmen. "See you in the funny pages." Eggman laughed, saluting them all with two fingers; a sadistic smirk on his face; before the transmission cut out.
A second later, a loud bang rang out as a vessel; hidden by the Doctor during the building of the ship; shot out the back and rocketed away from the Blue Typhoon, before disappearing on the horizon.
"That backstabbing…!" Tails exclaimed as he watched Eggman's escape ship fly away with the Master Emerald. "We should never have trusted him!"
"Let's not be too surprised here. We all knew he was going to do this at some point." Amy announced. "Right now, we've got other things to worry about."
The giant ship above them dwarfed their own vessel. It was at least fifty times the size of their own ship and as quickly flying over them. Once was good degree of it's front had passed by, a colossal hatch on it's under side opened and slowly, the ship was pulled inside. As it passed though the boundaries and into the interior of the titan sized ship, some force passed throughout the entire ship.
It shut down every system on the ship apart from life support and everyone was left, quite literally, in the dark. Not only that, but gravity seemed to increase everywhere. Suddenly bodies felt like they weighed fifty tones and those without super strength were pulled to the floor and left there, unable to move.
Sonic, who had raced into the energy chamber; left his legs go from under him and he collapsed to the floor. Sam and Rouge were there as well, trying to pull themselves up, but nothing was working. It was like someone had tied a thousand weights to their arms and legs.
There was a loud thud of a foot step and the blue hedgehog glanced backwards to see a large crowd standing there, but not of a species he was familiar with.
The creatures were unlike anything Sonic had ever seen before. They stood a good dealer taller than mobian and a human. They were lizard like, their skin covered in scales and a long muscular tail trailing out from the end of their backs. They had cloven hands, webbed skin running between their fat fingers. Their eyes was large, oval and completely flaxen yellow with a black ring running around the edge. When they blinked, their eyelids came in from the side rather than from above. Their skin was grey in colour, apart from around their snouts and the end of each limb where it slowly changed to a blood red. Their heads were long and the back arched a little as if to house a larger brain. Some of their number wielded bizarre looking weapons that resembled swords but didn't look like any weapon the blue hedgehog was familiar with. Their blades were crocked and buzzed with an odd purple lighting that danced from the tip down to the hilt. Even with all these similarities, each one differed in some way to the rest, as if no two of them were the same. Their numbers were extensive and quickly, with intense precision in each step they quickly surrounded them.
"Tal-rik kra, shal mal tik sha." One of them announced to the others, looking down at Sonic as it stood over him. Their language was not one the blue hedgehog was familiar with. With a sudden thrust, it reached down and snatched him into the air by his wrist. Lacking the strength to even struggle, Sonic just hung there like a rag doll. For a moment, this strange being studied him with it's wide eyes, as if learning all there was to know about his anatomy from a once over before dropping him roughly back to the ground.
Sonic land back down on the cold metal floor with a loud thud, wincing at the cold and the sharp pain. Desperately he tried to find the strength to get up, to fight, to do something. Anything.
"Kalik-ka." Another of the creatures replied, leaning down to examine Sonic itself. "Jalious, malik." It prodded the near helpless hedgehog with a fat finger, before roughly yanking one of the blue quills out of his head to study it more closely.
"No one touches the 'do!" Sonic told them, trying to push himself up. The creatures looked a little startled by the outburst, almost as if they hadn't realized he was capable of speech, even if they couldn't understand the language.
Stopping Sonic from rising further, a large metal red foot came slamming down right next to his nose. Looking up with whatever strength he had left, Sonic saw his metallic counterpart standing over him. Staring down at the blue hedgehog with glowing blood red eyes, his purple caper flying out behind him, Metal Sonic was perfectly silent. Their eyes met and past the emotionless façade of the robotic hedgehog's metal face, Sonic could see a bottled sea of tense anger, frustration and utter hatred.
Looking up, Metal Sonic turned towards the six Chaos Emeralds that sat nearby, in union around the empty space where the Master Emerald used to be. Trailing his arm up, Metal Sonic presented his flat palm towards them and a sudden jolt passed through the air. As if ripped out of the air by a magnet, each Emerald one after the other left their place to hover just in front of his hand; buzzing amongst some form of energy field as they came to the robotic hedgehog.
"No…" Sonic managed to mutter. Metal Sonic could not be allowed to get those Emeralds. Forcing his body, against the pain and against the fatigue, Sonic managed to push his way to his knees. It was like trying to run uphill dragging the entire world behind him, but keeping his gaze locked on the emeralds mere inches away from Metal Sonic's talons he kept going.
The collection of creatures around them looked confused and a bit startled, as if nothing they had used this weapon on before had ever shown this degree of defiance. Metal Sonic looked back casually over his shoulder, half of his head hidden behind his purple cape. Sonic reached forward, resolute in his intentions to stop him. The glow from the robotic hedgehog's eyes suddenly increased.
"One more to go." He stated, before holding out his free hand towards Sonic, the fiery embers of an energy attack gathering between his fingers. With no strength to defend himself, Sonic took the full force of a bright yellow blast of energy straight to the torso. Sent flying, the blue hedgehog crashed into the wall on the far side of the chamber, leaving a 'sonic shaped dent' in the metal before sliding to the floor; knocked unconscious.
-
While things had not gone exactly according to plan, the end result was the same so Metal Sonic did not care. All that mattered now was the fact he had six Chaos Emeralds floating in a beam of light that lanced between the floor and ceiling before him; ready for use.
He would have killed Sonic then and there, but the Black Arms insisted he be kept alive, so that they could study him. His anatomy peeked their scientific curiosity and they deemed him worthy of observation and Metal Sonic was not able to endanger his alliance with them. Sonic would die, eventually, but he could wait just a little longer.
The robotic hedgehog took his attention away from his prizes for a moment to glance out the towering window to his left. From here, on his Flag ship the Behemoth; he could see a flee of ships assembling, ready for the assault on the Earth. Half of them belonged to Dark Oak, his only surviving General and the other half were Black Arm fighters and fraters.
Their technology exceeded his own presently and so, for the moment at least, he found it necessary to engage in deception. It was not a tactic he enjoyed using, as it made him more like Eggman than he was comfortable with, but for the time being he had little choice. These beings his mysterious benefactor had been able to secure the aid of were only interested in their own survival, so in order to have their cooperation; he had no choice.
Now, with the sheer military force he had, he was ready to finish what he started. To destroy the organic life on Earth and start anew, better race of living machines. The invasion would begin in a few hours and Metal Sonic was willing to bet G.U.N already had their own forces mobilised against them. But their technology level paled in comparison to theirs. It would be no contest.
"My lord." Dark Oak began, his face appearing in a holographic message. "The fleet is ready and I have had word from the Black Arms. The decent will begin in an hour."
"Good." Metal Sonic replied. "Keep some ships back in reserve around Mars." He added, glancing over his shoulder.
Dark Oak began, his face appearing in a holographic message. Metal Sonic replied. "Keep some ships back in reserve around Mars." He added, glancing over his shoulder."Are you expecting trouble?" Dark Oak asked him.
"No." The robotic hedgehog replied. "But I have to be prepared for any possibility."
"As you wish sire." With that, the general's face vanished.
-
Strangely, Sonic found it very easy to sleep, despite his situation. His strength had been sapped, so his eyelids kept growing heavier and heavier until finally he nodded off. He hung there, suspended in a strange organic like capsule, surrounded by a liquid he could breath and he slept. It was all he could do at the present moment.
At some point when his eyes were open, he saw another of those creatures that were holding him captive. It was alone and seemed slightly smaller than the others he'd seen. It was watching them through the glass with it's big yellow eyes, blinking horizontally before it reached over to some console panel out of sight and pressed a button. There was a loud whooshing sound and Sonic glanced up, seeing the liquid slowly being sucked out of the chamber through two holes in the ceiling. Once it had all gone, he found himself coughing and spluttering for all he was worth, forcing all of it out of his lungs as air surrounded him again.
It took a good five minutes for his body to cough it all up and it was not something he would like to repeat any time soon. Once he had finished, the alien pressed another button and the bounds around his arms and legs released their grip and he dropped like a rag doll to the floor.
Still weak, all he could do was sit there, spluttering a little as he pushed himself up to his knees; brushing the water logged quills out of his face. The creature outside pressed another button and slowly the glass in front of himself peeled back like a scab and something shoved the hedgehog out and into the room beyond.
Sonic rebounded off the floor and darted away from the creature, already in a fighting stance. He hadn't had much of an opportunity to see exactly how good these things were at fighting, so he was ready for anything. Slowly, the creature raised it's hands in a defence and non-hostile action; surprisingly to show the hedgehog that it intended him no harm.
"Shallaka-ka-ka-palka." It stated. Sonic just stood there with a confused and dumbfounded look on his face. The being reached up and pressed a button on the metal ring around it's thick neck. There was a loud humming and suddenly it's eyes glowed bright yellow. "Can you understand me now?" It asked, in English and with a female voice.
"Just what are you things?" The hedgehog asked, now fed up with the situation entirely.
"My name is Jalios." The creature replied. "And we are the Black Arms sect."
"Black arms?" The hedgehog repeated in confusion.
"There is no time to explain, quickly; come with me." She told him, gesturing towards the entrance to a corridor; a large metal door was closed in front of it, red vein like lines running through it from above.
"What should I trust you?" Sonic asked, lowering his arms and unclenching his fists.
"Because I can help you escape our vessel, reclaim your crew and your ship." She replied. Her voice was being synthesized by the ring around her neck and sounded emotionless.
"The others? Amy, Tails, Knuckles…are they alright?" Sonic asked, almost cutting her off.
"They are being kept in the detention cells for further study." Jalios replied. "They are alive and well and as for your ship, it's being stored in the docking area. I can help you retrieve both."
"And what's in for you?" The hedgehog asked suspiciously.
"I will explain on the way. Quickly we must go before they detect your pod has been opened." Time was of the essence and Sonic didn't have time to stand around. He shouldn't trust this being he knew, but if they wanted to keep him and his friends under control, they could just as well have kept him inside that containment pod.
"Alright, let's go."
The Black Arms, Jalios explained as they made their way through the ship, was the name of an organisation rather than their species. Their sect as a renegade, separatist faction of a larger empire that spanned a good deal of this spiral arm of the galaxy; or at least that was what Sonic managed to pick up. There was a lot of words that even when translated into English, did not make much sense but he got the general gist of it. The Black Arms had been travelling through space for some time now and had come across this solar system when their passing fleet was alerted by a signal from the Machine Federation.
"I believe that this, Metal Sonic, is withholding truths from our leaders." She told him. "Twisting the facts to suite his own needs. Of course I cannot accuse him without direct proof. I would be accused of jeopardising the alliance Commander Rikoye finds so important."
"Alliance?" Sonic felt it strange that a civilisation obviously so advanced would ally themselves with the Metal X Machine Federation, an army that only wanted to conquer Earth. What could Metal Sonic possibly offer them? "What for?"
"The confederacy army, the ones our sect broke away from are hunting us. They do not tolerate diversity in their culture." She explained, pressing her cloven hand up against the flat panel at the side of a door. "They have pursued us a great distance and we now look for a place in which to hide. Metal Sonic offered us both planets in which to conceal our presence."
"Hey, we were here first!" the hedgehog told her with an annoyed expression on his face. She turned to give him a flat, sideways glare.
"When you're being hunted like animals by a people who think you scum, that sort of thing doesn't worry you." There was a short beeping noise, and the door they were in front of slid upwards out of the way. Just beyond was a long corridor with several cells on either side. Several Black Arms were standing guard and exclaimed loudly when they saw the blue hedgehog they exclamations suddenly died out when Sonic speed forward and silenced them with a solid punch and kick.
"Sonic!" Tails cried out, watching the blue hedgehog through the translucent window of his cell.
"You ok little buddy?" Sonic asked nearly pressing himself against the glass.
"We're fine, just get us out of here!" Okida told him, nearly flying against the glass. He paused, seeing the hedgehog's companion. "Sonic, look out there one behind you!"
"No sweat, she's on our side."
"Our side…she?" Amy asked from the cell opposite.
"Explain later. Right now, we've got to get out of here."
-
Flip card 1:
Name Jalios
Age: 'meaningless concept to her species'
Description: A Black Arms Dissident