(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 26: The Clash of Titans

"Fall back." The President announced. The G.U.N Fleet, while an impressive work of construction was getting the heck beat out of it by the far more technologically advanced Black Arms and with Doctor Eggman bearing down on top of them as well meant trouble. They couldn't hold out much longer, this battle was one giant three for all and chaos ruled the skies.

As the G.U.N fleet, or what was left of them, moved back into a thick line between their enemies at and the ground the order to cease fire was given. After a brief moment, all ships let their weapon's system quieten down and the airborne streams of bullets ceased to follow.

"What's this?" Eggman asked himself, looking up at the display before him with a quizzical look on his face. G.U.N had stopped fighting and all it was doing no were defensive actions. The Black Arms, clearly puzzled by the sudden change in strategy, had called a ceasefire as well. On both sides, quiet quickly settled and the remains of the last few minutes of the fighting had a chance to fall. By now the intense fighting had destroyed all the Machine Federation ships so at this point, it was simply G.U.N vs. the Black Arms. Well…there was the little matter of the mad genius who intended to use this opportunity for a strategic advantage.

The giant Eggman style Mech, standing on the front of the Whale Shark flagship turned it's colossal head to face the G.U.N flag ship, the flying fortress Giant Wing. With a soft click, it's targeting sensors locked onto the bridge and slowly it raised it's extremely heavy arms preparing for an assault.

Climbing up the side of the giant's leg was Knuckles, sinking his spurs into the metallic surface repeatedly to pull himself up as fast as he could. Within seconds, he had cleared the waist and was making a bee-line up the torso towards the chin. Unfortunately, this large robot had a security system of it's own and as he neared the shoulders, several doors opened up and large hunkering shapes that could only be Dreadnaught robots leaned outwards, weapons held at the ready.

Before they could fire, a kick came flying out of nowhere; sending one of them tumbling down the side of the giant robot, bouncing off the surface several times before hitting the deck of the ship itself. Rouge spread her wings and soured on, heading upwards towards the second robot; which changed missions priorities and opened fire on her instead of the Echidna. Sliding in between the laser fire, Rouge somersaulted upwards, the tip of her boat striking the robot straight across the chest forcing the metal monster back through the door.

Knuckles kept going, his arms moving with the persistence of a train constantly pulling upwards, his entire body ascending higher and higher. Reaching the shoulders of the giant , Knuckles found a large flat ledge and pushed to catch his breath .Gazing out from this height, he could see the robot was just about reach to fire. The energy gathering in the cannon on it's arms had nearly reached it's peak.

Holding his arm up, Knuckles forced his rushed breathing under control and began to hum to himself. It helped him to concentrate as he needed his full attention on this. He was gathering all his strength, every last ounce of it and forcing it into his arm. He clenched a fist, his entire body shaking with the effort. Time was running out, the giant was just about ready to fire.

His eyes snapped wide open and then he slammed his fist down with tremendous force down on the floor below him. Unluckily, he was too late, a second before he hit; the cannon fired. Even before the energy had finished leaping into the air from the weapon, cracks began running down from the shoulder Knuckles was perched on, carving themselves throughout the entire giant's body. The blow had sent rippling shockwaves downwards and they was vibrating so much, that it was shaking the Mech apart.

With a deafening crash, the arms fell away, leaving the entire thing unbalanced. Straining against the metal that held it together loudly, it began to break away.

"Need a lift?" Rouge asked, flying past, catching the Echidna as he leapt off the side to avoid going down with it. As the Mech crumbled into pieces on the deck of the Whale Shark, the energy beam it fired kept going, heading out towards Giant Wing. Had it not been for Tails' intervention the flying fortress would have been destroyed. The young fox piloted the Blue Typhoon directly in the blasts path and with a crash that seemed to shake the earth below them, it collided with the Egg Shield surrounding it.

"Oh this is ironic." Eggman muttered to himself as the shield which he himself had installed onto the Blue Typhoon reflected the blast right back towards him. Before anything could be done to prevent it, the blast struck the underside of the ship causing the whole thing to tip violently sideways.

"This ship is an impressive piece of engineering." Jalios stated, looking around the bridge and a little in awe at the stunt Tails had pulled off the ships' shield.

"Thanks." Tails replied with a short grin. "Chuck, tell G.U.N we'll take care of Eggman so they can deal with the Black Arms."

"Can do." The old man replied, already at the com system on the bridge.

"Attention unknown ships." The President began, speaking through the com systems of the Giant Wing flag ship which were broadcasting the signal towards the Black Arm Fleet. "I am the President of the United States. I wish to speak to whoever is in charge of your fleet." This was a risky move, but they couldn't hold out much longer if they kept on fighting. Perhaps diplomacy could succeed where force failed. Not a lot of Presidents previous would even resort to this. They would save face and keep fighting, well; Michael intended to be a new kind of President.

There was a short buzz and a voice began to reply.

"I am Commander Rikoye of the Black Arms sect." It stated. A second later, a video communication link was established and the President got his first look at a Fesionian. A sleek, grey scaled alien with large slender heads, flaxen yellow eyes and cloven hands. A metal ring was around it's neck, translating their language into English and vice versa. "What is it you want?"

"I just want to talk so we can stop shooting at each other." The President replied, trying not to be put off by their appearance.

"Talk?" Rikoye repeated in astonishment. This went against nearly all the intelligence Metal Sonic had given them about this culture. He claimed they were a barbaric and savage civilisation that never used compromise. The commander had been told all they cared about was themselves. "Why? How do I know this isn't some elaborate ploy?"

"You attacked us." The President reminded him. "We are simply defending our homes." Rikoye was baffled. Had all the information provided by the Machine Federation been false all along? "All I want to know is why."

It didn't take the two of them long to piece together what had happened. It became clear that the Black Arms had been lied to by Metal Sonic, duped into being the main force in his attack on Earth. Despite their superior technology, they had succumbed to simple deception. Rikoye suddenly felt like an idiot.

The Black Arms had been so desperate for somewhere to hide from the Confederacy Army, he had let them get pulled into an obvious lie. It soon became clear that Metal Sonic never had any intention of helping them at all.

"Tell all ships to stand down." The commander told the bridge and the order was give for all hostilities against G.U.N to end.

"Likewise." The President ordered and the same action was taken with the G.U.N fleet.

Dark Oak folded his arms as the two fleets began talking instead of fighting, putting all his hard work to waste. Metal Sonic would not be too pleased with this outcome…still, his opinions no longer mattered. The time had come to abandon this charade. His master's call was strong, compelling him to travel to the place of awakening and prepare the final phase. Presently, Dark Oak's comrade was waiting in the shadows for the right moment. Within the hour, everything they had worked so hard to organize would pay off. Eons of planning and waiting would finally be over. Victory was so close at hand, he could taste it.

A second later, his ship exploded on self destruct, destroying all the Metal X drones loyal to him, all the clan robots Metal Sonic had entrusted him with burning to cinders. But the General himself survived, disappearing from his throne at the second of detonation to reappear some distance away safely beyond the radius of the explosion. Shame, he rather liked that ship, but he would have no further use for it.

-

"Hey, are you alright?" Vanilla opened her eyes as someone spoke to her. As if waking up from some sort of dream. The first thing she saw after everything stopped spinning as the green scaly face of a crocodile peering down at her, a pair of orange eyes set with a worried look blinked every now and then.

"I think so." Vanilla replied, rubbing the back of her head and Vector helped her up into a sitting position. Looking around, she saw she was outside sitting in the shadow of a crashed G.U.N ship. Their crashed G.U.N ship she remembered. A brief flash of memory crossed through her mind and she recalled the fall and escape from the Metal X fleet.

Emerl had had to put the vessel down in the middle of a street in the deserted Station Square city. The crumbling builds stood all around them, most of them damaged under the constant attacks from either Eggman or other enemies. The street below was hardly here any more, only a jagged ruin of asphalt covered in rubble and brick dust. It hadn't been too long ago when this had been a busy metropolis and a popular city in which to live. This city was a simple shadow of its former self.

Rei and Beck were sitting nearby with Cream and her Chao Cheese, sorting through the jagged remains of some of the stuff they had salvaged from the ship. As for Emerl himself, he seemed to have disappeared. And to note, so had Espio and Charmee.

"Looks like I owe you another apology." Vector began. "If it hadn't been for me, you wouldn't have ended up in the middle of that." Vanilla just smiled at him.

"It's alright. I told you, I'm used to that sort of thing by now. Besides, I insisted on going." Well to be honest Cream had been the only who insisted on going. Vanilla had ended up tagging along really trying to make sure she was safe. She trusted Emerl, but one could never have enough protection. Seems that statement had been proved right.

With a loud thud, the unconscious forms of Espio, Fang and Charmee dropped down from the top of the ship and landed directly in front of them. Fang had been the one to receive the worst punishment, cuts running all over his arms, the blood staining his fur. Espio still had a shuriken in his hand; he'd been taken out before he'd even had a chance to throw the thing. As for Charmee, the bee had lost his goggles and had a deep bruise on the side of his check were something had hit him hard. Rei rushed over instantly to check them all to make sure they were alright. Thankfully, all of them were still breathing.

Looking up, Vector could see the one to blame standing on the top of their crashed ship and despite his own philosophy of defiance he had to back away. A pair of glowing red eyes were looking straight down at them from the depths of a raven black visor. A royal blue form clad in armour with a flowing purple cape hanging from the shoulders stood there, arms with thick bracers folded in front of its chest. As if in orbit, the remaining six Chaos Emeralds slowly circled around it. Vector remembered him from the Egg Fleet attack and had more than enough incentive to fear him.

"You have something I want." Metal Sonic stated flatly. Beside him, armed with a very large laser rifle was Egg Robo, its own red eyes glaring down at them. Hovering above them was the Falcon shaped ship they had arrived in, its shadow slowly spreading over the ground the tips of the wings glinting brightly in the sunshine.

His metal feet scraping against the side of the crashed ship, Metal Sonic slid down the side of it down to the ground, Egg Robo close behind.

"Egg-Robo, destroy these idiots." Metal Sonic stated, jabbing a curved metallic talon towards them. The Eggman shaped robot saluted, before turning to face Chaotix. Metal Sonic turned his head and face Cream, who staggered backwards under his gaze; clutching the Chaos Emerald closer to her. "Now then Cream, be a good little girl and hand that over." He told her, walking towards her slowly and raising his left arm. Instantly, the Emeralds he had flew towards it and hovering there. "You can either give that to me, or I pry it from your cold fingers." The robotic hedgehog stood towering over her, his eyes glowing bright red. "It makes no difference to me."

"Get away from my daughter!" A voice shouted. Metal Sonic looked aside just in time to use his spare arm to parry a blow as Vanilla smashed a lead pipe she'd picked up towards him. With a single flick of his wrist, Metal Sonic batted her away sending Vanilla flying backwards towards a wall. Vector, acting on instinct rather than anything else flung himself in between Vanilla and the wall. There was a sickening thud as she slammed her back into him and then the two of them hit the wall, before sliding down to the floor.

"Wait, stop!" Cream cried as Metal Sonic raised his palm to fire an energy blast to finish the both of them off.

There was a sharp blur of blue and the two mobians disappeared a second before Metal fired, his attack missing.

"You again?"

Looking across, Cream saw who had saved her mother and her would be suitor. Vector and Vanilla lay unconscious a little further away and standing over them as a protector was the blue hedgehog she knew to well, green eyes looked onto Metal Sonic; glaring in defiance.

A second later, a metal claw came smack down on the back of her head stunning the rabbit girl forcing her to drop her Emerald. Even before it was beyond her fingers, Metal Sonic snatched it out of the air and added it to his collection, completing the set of seven.

"No!" Sonic called over, tensing into a pounce with fists clenched in a fighting stance. By now it was far too late; Metal Sonic began channelling the power from all seven Chaos Emeralds into an energy blast. As sparks began to fly, a black object came hurtling out of nowhere to slam as hard as it could into the robotic hedgehog's back. Metal Sonic staggered forward and in that instantly, the seven Emeralds were torn from orbit around and chucked through the air to land in a random heap a short distance away.

"Shadow?" Sonic asked as he saw the black and red hedgehog rebound of the side of a ruined building before spinning back towards Metal Sonic. The robotic hedgehog caught his attempt for an attack with his right bracer and parried it away, before striking out with a fist sending Shadow coursing through the air and straight into the side of a wall which in its ruined state began crumbling, cracks spreading through the surface until it collapsed on top of him.

Egg Robo raised his gun and fired at Rei, who ducked under the laser blast before dodging behind the back end of the ship to avoid being riddled with holes. Beck picked up a rock from the ground and tossed it with all the strength he had at the sniper android. It made a large dent in the back of the head and made the robot staggered about on one leg before regaining its balance and about faced to aim its weapon directly at Beck. Before it could fire however, a flying metal fist came souring out of the air and grasped its fingers in a vice like grip around the laser rifle. The grip tightened instantly and it crushed the weapon into scrap metal.

Before Egg Robo could do anything about it, the owner of the hand came hurtling down to smash a kick directly into its face. Emerl retracted his hand from the smouldering remains of the rifle, before going on a tight offensive with a blur of punches to the sniper androids chest plate.

Without a weapon, Egg Robo defected to his programmed knowledge of martial arts and began blocking Emerl's attacks. When it became clear that no punch was going to get through the sudden defence, Emerl changed tactics. Drawing back a distance; the robot paused to fire one of his hands in a punch straight at the sniper android which caught the fist stopping the attack. That left him open to an attack from the rear as Emerl's other hand came rocketed around and sank it's metal fingers into the back of Egg Robo's head and with a sudden motion, tore the back armour out, exposing the electronic brain inside.

Cream rubbed the back of her head, pushing herself up into a sitting position. Her vision had blurred and she had a terrible headache.

"Chao Chao!" Cheese began, flying hurriedly to her side a worried expression on his small blue face. Cream looked up to see Sonic and Metal Sonic going one on one, the air so thick of kicks and punches it was almost impossible to see the combatants themselves.

Shadow heaved himself up out of the rubble and shook the brick dust out of his quills. This fight had to end. It was only playing into Krish' hands, serving his sick and twisted plan, whatever it was. This had to end now. Launching forward, Shadow shot across the ground like a bullet to plough directly into the side of Metal Sonic as the robotic hedgehog was preparing to deliver a punch to his organic counterpart.

Forced to the side, Metal Sonic sank a foot into the ground and dragged it, slowing him down. Sonic took the opportunity to go on the offensive as well and together, Sonic and Shadow tore through Metal Sonic's defensives to land so many blows it was beyond counting.

Backing off to a distance, the two of them cast each other a glance, nodded before turning about and firing both of their signature energy attacks at the same time. Chaos Spear merged with Sonic wind in an astonishing display, a beam of golden energy that coursed through the air and hit Metal Sonic with full force. The Robotic hedgehog disappeared in a short flash of light before dust erupted from the ground, blanketing everything in a thick haze.

As it began to settle, they could still that the leader of Metal X was still standing. Although there were now black scorch marks running all over his armour and at least half of his purple cape had been burned off. Apart from that he hadn't sustained much damage at all.

"Turn about is fair play boys!" The robot shouted, trusting on hand up into the air palm flat towards the sky. Sonic blinked, recognising what he was doing. This was the same technique he used against the blue hedgehog when they fought on the falling Icarus. This new Metal Sonic could copy any fighting technique used against him and sent it right back.

Before Sonic had the chance to open his mouth to warn shadow, Metal Sonic threw his arm forward as that same combined attack they had used on him rocketed right back at them. Sonic hit the deck but Shadow managed to get it full in the air, only throwing up an energy defence in time to prevent being destroyed but even so he was not able to stop himself from behind blown across the ground to smash into a building, disappearing into the darkness.

Metal Sonic lowered his arm and then glanced to the side at the seven Chaos Emeralds lying nearby.

Now well aware of his sudden disadvantage, Egg Robo broke off the fighting to back away to a safer distance. That didn't stop Emerl though; he charged forward and smashed another punch directly into Egg Robo's head trying to weaken him even further. The armour at the front of the sniper Android's head proved to be sufficiently stronger than that at the back and Egg robot grabbed Emerl by the wrist, tossed him violently over his shoulders and into the side of the crashed ship.

Emerl lay imprinted in the metal, his system temporary knocked offline by the shockwave. Egg Robot raised his own metal fist and prepared a fishing punch. At that last second however, Beck and Rei slammed the lead pipe Vanilla had been using a little while before directly into the back of his head. There was a loud scraping noise and the entire of the pipe lanced out the front of the sniper android's face.

Emerl wrenched himself free in that instant, lifted both arms sent both his fists flying forward at the same time; tearing through Egg Robo's head completely.

"Hey Vanilla, wake up." Vanilla began, trying to shake the female rabbit awake. It was no good. She was out cold.

"Is she alright?" Cream asked, hurrying to her mother's side.

"She'll be ok once she wakes up." Vector replied, before casting a glance out towards the battle.

"The Chaos Emeralds!" Metal Sonic declared, before darting to the side in a sudden burst of speed towards them.

"Oh no you don't!" Sonic called after him, before his legs turned into a blur and he shot off like a bullet.

Shadow shoved the masonry rubble off him and somersaulted back to his feet. He paused just long enough to shake the brick dust out of his quills before rocketing forward skating across the ground.

It was a frantic rush between the three of them. Metal Sonic, Sonic himself and Shadow were all heading towards the Emeralds in a frantic race to be the first to claim them. Time seemed to almost slow down to a crawl, as if they were all in painful slow motion.

A second later, or an eternity, they all reached the same point at the same time. And that was when the ring around Shadow's wrist, the one with the blue strap began to glow brightly.

The Seven Chaos Emeralds lay there silently for a moment, before a bright flare erupted into the air, spreading outwards like the rising of a sun, engulfing both Sonic and Shadow in an instant. A second later, Metal Sonic was swallowed up by it. All Seven Emeralds converged together and at that point, their energy was released in one sudden and extreme burst. A single beam of white light lanced from the ground to the sky, the clouds parting around it. It crashed through Metal Sonic's ship tearing it apart in the process. Dancing around this single pillar were lightning bolts of seven different colours. The sky seemed to darken and the only source of light was this spectacular display.

Even from the fleets suspended silently in the air miles away it could be seen, an object of light so intense it baffled the mind.

"What is that?" Cosmo asked, staring out in wonder. Never in her life had she seen anything so beautiful. Jalios, their Black Arm passenger looked equally amazed. Her sect had travelled the universe, seen nebulas and star systems, super nova's and black holes and never had they seen something like this.

Cream let her arms drop away from her face and stared off to see a single figure standing there; a mobian seemingly wrapped in light. There was still a fair amount of dust in the air and it took a moment for any of them to see who it was clearly. Suddenly, Cream gained a huge grin and started cheering.

"Alright they did it!" She cried.

"Chao Chao!" Cheese went beside her. Standing there was hedgehog with pure white fur and long jagged quills curving up from the top of his head. His eyes were a pale green and shoes and gloves a mixture of Sonic and Shadow's styles. The entire body was surrounded by a thick orb of light that pulsated like the beating of a heart, occasional sparks of energy sliding over it's surface.

He was Nazo.

"They beat Metal Sonic…they did it!" Cream continued, dancing from one foot to the other.

"Wow." Rei added in, pushing himself up to a sitting position. "I thought nothing could stop that robot."

"See, I told you the situation was under control." Vector proclaimed confidentially.

"Sorry guys, but I'm afraid we're not out of the woods just yet." Nazo replied, keeping his gaze fixed forward, his body rigid in a fighting stance. Cream and Cheese stopped their cheering and paused, looking confused. Vector strained against the dust to see what lay in front of them and as the clouds began to settle, he caught sight of something there. A dark, jagged shape with a pair of bright red points blaring out from the head.

Slowly, it raised it's arms to cross over it's chest before it threw them out again and in that instant, there was a bright flash of golden light that sparked brighter than the sun blinding anyone who was looking directly at it. Only Nazo was able to keep himself calm against it was the flare erupted up towards the sky, carving through the clouds and up into space itself. Finally the dust cleared completely as Nazo's opponent was revealed.

Metal Sonic was no longer his former self. His royal blue armour had changed to a brilliant gold and the white stripes that ran down his quills were now jet black. His entire body was surrounded by flowing golden energy, rippling through the air like intense heat, distorting the image of anything around it. The eyes were glowing intensely blood red, their glow trailing through the air following the direction of whatever way the robotic hedgehog turned his head.

"Would you look at that…" Vector began in astonishment, out towards him as Metal Sonic rose up into the air and hovered there surrounded by a thick shield of the purest Chaos energy, the tattered remains of his cloak trailing out behind him. He was now Super Metal Sonic. Slowly, the robot reached up and uncoupled it from his shoulder pads, letting the smouldering remains to fall to the ground.

Nazo managed a thick smile.

"That look is so you." He stated, before folding his arms. "Too bad it's not permanent. Gold is really your colour."

"It doesn't have to be permanent." Metal Sonic said in reply. "Just long enough to rip you limb from limb." Oh, how much he had been looking forward to this moment. Finally, a rematch with Nazo, the being who defeated him in the first place. Finally, after all the scheming, the deception and hunting; he finally had what he wanted. The fight could go either way at this point, Metal Sonic didn't care, he had what he really wanted. Right now, the Machine Federation and it's ambition to control the world could go hang.

-

Flip Card 1:

Name: Nazo

Description: The fused hedgehog made up from Shadow and Sonic. Even so, there may be more to him than it appears.