Disclaimer: You should know by now. I'm not saying it again, so there. Just check the last chapter. Go on, I dare you. Oh, I suppose General Knuckles (senior) is mine as well.
Author's note: Behold! With this twentieth chapter I crown you 'longest story I've written'! Sorry, couldn't resist doing that. This chapter is nearly all Metal Sonic, so for variety, I shall start with this:
A group of tattoo ridden Echidna's ran up the steps leading towards the Emerald shrine. Parts of the floating island were exploding; all around Echidna's were being shot down. The group of Echidna's tried to ignore the chaos as they finally reached their destination. One of them looked into the sky.
"We must hurry, the hedgehog is coming!" He shouted. Two of the Echidna's placed a dead Echidna, with a distinct knife cut in his head, onto the Master Emerald. Another Echidna turned to the first, worry taking over his face.
"Are you sure about this? I mean..." He stammered.
"There must always be an emerald guardian. With Chaos missing that means the task falls to us. By our laws and beliefs, the only one qualified to do such is Knuckles, or his child. So unless you want a baby protecting our life source..." The first Echidna threw the other a tattered scribe. "Recite." He ordered. The other Echidna sighed and turned to General Knuckles' body. "Hear me controller, as your protection lies in the balance." The Echidna talked quickly, and nearly stumbled on his words many times. "I, protector of the western tribes, am here to forever offer you a guardian. He will sacrifice entry into afterlife to keep your life in check." The Echidna brought out a knife, and cut his own arm. He held his arm over General Knuckles and watched the blood hit the Master Emerald. "Let the water from my bodies channels bring you guardian to our realm." The Echidna withdrew his hand. The group of Echidnas watched, occasionally glancing backwards to check the position of Metal Sonic. In a few minutes the Master Emerald began to glow. All the Echidna's knelt down. General's Knuckles' body rose, but it was still limp. Green light suddenly burst out of any gap it could, then it vanished.
"May the gods look kindly on you Knuckles." The Echidna's got up and ran, not willing to waste anymore time and get as far away from Metal Sonic as they could (and that is why Knuckles farther is about.
Yang walked back and forth in front of Eggman's cell. In his hand he held a Chaos emerald of an orange colour. He kept his glance fixed on Eggman.
"So where is Yin? As soon as I get this last emerald all will be destroyed, so you might as well satisfy my curiosity." Yang asked. Eggman rolled his eyes.
"Well how should I know that? Presumably G.U.N have them." Eggman replied. Yang nodded.
"Fair enough. I give you more credit than you deserve. Something you need to learn is who to trust. Lamont doesn't know who to trust either. Nor does the metal hedgehog. Is everyone on this planet so gullible? I have yet to met someone worthy of my respect." Yang walked away from Eggman, realising how useless he was. Lamont ran into the room. Yang looked up at the happy hedgehog.
"The robot has come to 'negotiate'." Lamont announced. Yang nodded and followed Lamont out. Before leaving he turned to Eggman.
"Enjoy these few minutes. There won't be any afterwards"
Yang walked through the door and stood in front of Metal Sonic. For a minute the two just stared at each other. It was Metal Sonic who talked first.
"I have the emerald, so where is Metal Amy?" Yang smiled, then put two fingers in his mouth and whistled. In a few seconds Metal Knuckles entered the room, holding onto Metal Amy's arm. Yang turned from them to Metal Sonic.
"So how do you want to do this? I doubt you trust us to give her to you when we have the emerald, and vice-versa." Metal Sonic looked over at Metal Amy. She was struggling against Metal Knuckles, but had obviously used up allot of energy, as her attempts were feeble at best. Metal Sonic felt an urge to go over there and beat Metal Knuckles into scrap, but he restrained himself.
"What do you need all the emeralds for anyway?" Metal Sonic asked. Yang smirked.
"The end of life as you know it." He replied. 'As well as life in general' he added in his mind. Metal Sonic shook his head.
"Couldn't expect anything else from Eggman." He muttered. Yang didn't bother correcting him.
"Give us the emerald robot." He ordered in a threatening voice.
"We make the swap at the same time." Metal Sonic claimed. Yang nodded. He gestured Metal Knuckles over. Metal Knuckles did as he was told. Yang and Metal Sonic watched each other's movements very carefully. Yang put a hand on the emerald. Metal Sonic wrapped a hand around Metal Amy's arm. In one swift movement, at virtually the same time, Yang and Metal Sonic swapped goods. Yang laughed quietly and nodded.
"Good doing business robot." Yang turned and walked towards the door. "Do what you may Metal Knuckles." Metal Knuckles punched his fist.
"Fighting the evil one, saving the girl, you're turning into a hero 'brother'." Metal Knuckles remarked.
"You forget one thing." Metal Sonic's grasp on Metal Amy tightened. "Hero's play by the rules." Yang turned around, that didn't sound good. "Chaos control!" Metal Sonic shouted. A green flash shortly followed. Metal Sonic and Metal Amy had vanished. A look of anger riddled Yang's face.
"You better catch them." He announced, his hand dropping, for the emerald wasn't there.
Metal Sonic lead Metal Amy through various rooms in Eggman's base.
"You okay?" He queried. Metal Amy nodded. "Good. We have some more emeralds to take back." Metal Sonic and Metal Amy ran in silence for a while, Metal Amy looked at Metal Sonic.
"Why did you bother saving me? You could have simply chaos controlled your way to the other emeralds with less haste." Metal Amy asked. Metal Sonic was silent as he pondered the question.
"If I knew, I would tell you." He simply answered. He looked down at his emerald tracker. "In the next room..." He muttered. The two turned left and burst into the room. It was small, only containing a pile of Chaos Emeralds, and Metal Knuckles. Before Metal Sonic could react, Metal Knuckles punched him backwards.
"I knew a shortcut." The robotic echidna claimed. Metal Sonic swore. He was getting tired of Metal Knuckles stopping his every attempt. Metal Sonic reached over to Metal Amy, grabbing onto her hand. In the other hand he held the chaos emerald.
"Chaos..." Metal Sonic stopped. He looked around, mostly at long black tubes running all over the room. "Great. I know what that stuff is." He muttered. Metal Knuckles nodded.
"The liquid in those tubes have the same effect as the Master Emerald. Neutralising the emeralds power. We suspected you to try something like that. That's why we put the emeralds in here." Metal Sonic let go of Metal Amy.
"We have fought one too many times in our search 'brother'..." Metal Sonic dodged one of Metal Knuckles fists.
"Make that two too many." Metal Knuckles snarled, not interested in any of Metal Sonic's compromises. Metal Sonic threw a punch back, but Metal Knuckles caught the fist and threw it to the floor, taking the rest of Metal Sonic with it. Metal Sonic fired his finger missiles at Metal Knuckles, who simply step aside, out of their way. Metal Sonic jumped back onto his feet. He ran at Metal Knuckles and curled in a ball. Metal Knuckles countered the spin attack with one of his own. The two landed on their feet and Metal Sonic almost instantly charged at Metal Knuckles. Metal Knuckles waited until Metal Sonic was mere feet away before jumping over him. Metal Sonic couldn't stop himself and ran straight into the pile of emeralds. Metal Knuckles chuckled cruelly. "What's the matter 'brother'?" Metal Sonic walked out of the pile of now useless emeralds.
"What the heck." Metal Sonic muttered. He attacked Metal Knuckles with a group of punches. Metal Knuckles dodged all the attacks with ease. "Why can't I hit you"
"Because I am, and have always been, the best." Metal Knuckles replied, ramming into Metal Sonic with his shoulder and knocking him down.
"This is madness!" Metal Sonic shouted. He fired a missile at Metal Knuckles, but the robotic Echidna punched it aside. "Metal Amy! Get the emeralds and run!" Metal Sonic shouted. He threw her the emerald he was holding. She caught it and ran towards the pile of emeralds. Metal Knuckles kicked Metal Sonic in the face and ran towards Metal Amy. Metal Knuckles raised a fist.
"I'm going to end her in one hit." Metal Knuckles claimed. Metal Amy turned to face the oncoming robot. She stood her ground. Metal Knuckles momentarily slowed down, confused, but then returned to running at her face pelt. Metal Amy raised her fist and waited for Metal Knuckles to be in arms reach. Metal Knuckles shook his head disapprovingly. "Now come, we all know you have no fighting programmes." Metal Amy threw her punch, coughing Metal Knuckles off guard, sending his head spiralling backwards, leading his body in a fall. Metal Amy continued her run towards the emeralds.
"You really think I need a programme to learn how to throw a punch?" Metal Amy remarked. Metal Sonic picked himself off the floor, chuckling. He ran towards Metal Amy and the emeralds.
"Come on, while he's down we have a chance." Metal Knuckles grabbed onto Metal Sonic's leg, tripping him up.
"You're very optimistic sometimes." Metal Knuckles claimed. By this time Metal Amy had picked up all the emeralds.
"Run! RUN!" Metal Sonic shouted. Metal Amy turned to door, to see Yang and Lamont standing there.
"Oh don't mind us, we'll just be beating you to a metallic pulp." Yang walked forwards. Metal Amy backed slightly, but was foiled by the fact there was a wall there. "I just have to touch those emeralds and this world will be destroyed." Lamont looked at Yang confused.
"Destroyed? I thought..." He never finished, as Yang knocked him down with a laser from his hand.
"I played you like violin, no, playing you was much easier, I played you like one of those guitars for two years olds which are operated by a crank." Yang announced, realising he had accidentally revealed his plan, and had no more reason to cover it up. Metal Knuckles let go of Metal Sonic's leg and got up.
"So my master has been doomed whether I helped you or not!" Metal Knuckled asked. Yang snarled as his face twisted in anger.
"I have not come this far just to be outnumbered and defeated!" Yang shouted. Metal Sonic smiled.
"Then you must be disappointed." He smirked. Metal Knuckles turned to Metal Sonic.
"When did I say I was joining you?" Metal Knuckles asked. Metal Sonic looked at him shocked.
"What does that mean? You're going to help him do this?" Metal Knuckles nodded, and then threw a punch. Metal Sonic dodged, but didn't bother returning an attack. "Are you insane"
"I have two missions. To flawlessly follow my masters orders, and to eliminate the traitor that is you, and Eggman's last order was to 'go with the hedgehog'." Yang laughed. Metal Sonic was near speechless.
"Are you insane? Eggman doesn't want the dang world to explode"
"Nether the less it was his last order." Metal Knuckles punched Metal Sonic's face. Yang began to walk towards Metal Amy. Metal Sonic began throwing a few punches at Metal Knuckles.
"I can't play with you know, I have a planet to save." Metal Sonic kicked Metal Knuckles in the chest, making him stumble backwards. "Wait, 'I have a planet to save'? Dear god, I have turned into a hero." Metal Sonic shook the thought out of his head and ran towards Yang to engage him in combat. Yang turned to Metal Sonic, his eyes so intense they almost seemed to be on fire.
"I told you, nothing is going to stop me now!" Yang declared. He raised both his hands and began shooting out lasers as fast as he could. Metal Sonic jumped the first few, missed the next two by leaping left, then the next three with a roll to the right. He ran between two, then ducked the next. He was getting close to Yang now. Yang briefly looked over at Metal Amy to make sure she hadn't escape, and then turned back to Metal Sonic, only to be drop kicked. Metal Sonic aimed a punch at Yang, but Metal Knuckles grabbed him from behind. Yang smiled, then returned back to getting the emeralds. He had barley made a step when a bullet whizzed past his head. He turned around to see Lamont with his gun.
"Drop dead Yang." He muttered. Yang shook his head slowly.
"You had promise. Oh well." Yang shot the gun out of Lamont's hand. "How many times must I say I won't lose!" Yang ran at Lamont and punched his face in. "Now does anyone else feel like being a hero?" Yang, breathing heavily from anger, approached Metal Amy. "Now little girl, give me the blasted emeralds!" Metal Amy gripped onto the emeralds as hard as she could.
"Never, you manic." Metal Amy claimed. Yang grabbed Metal Amy's neck and slammed her against the wall.
"Leave her alone!" Metal Sonic shouted, still struggling against Metal Knuckles.
"Then I'll just have to take them from your debris." Yang threw Metal Amy onto the floor with enough strength to crush Metal Amy's left arm, which she had landed on. Metal Amy got back onto her feet, only to be knocked down again by a swipe from Yang.
"Stop it now!" Metal Sonic shouted again. He could barley watch as Yang threw Metal Amy around like she was a ball. He had never felt a thing when seeing people suffer, except if it happened to be Sonic, who he enjoyed seeing suffer. For a reason Metal Sonic couldn't figure out, watching this happen to Metal Amy was like something destroying his insides slowly and painfully. Pain. That is what he felt. He hadn't felt such a feeling before, it was impossible to withstand. Metal Sonic vision was being blurred with rage. Yang threw Metal Amy again, this time at the ceiling, which she inevitably flew down onto the floor from. "I said stop it!" Metal Sonic, much to Metal Knuckles surprise, broke free of his grasp. Yang stopped is attack on Metal Amy and turned to the newly released Metal Sonic. "Leave my friend alone." Metal Sonic ordered. Yang smirked, taking a small amount of glee from causing some form of displeasure.
"Are we sure we only meant friend?" He mockingly questioned. Metal Sonic didn't answer, rage fuelling his body. He pointed at Yang.
"You want to attack her, you have to deal with me." Yang stroked his chin thoughtfully. He raised his hand, signalling to Metal Knuckles to back off. Metal Knuckles complied. Yang turned to Metal Sonic, cruelty shining from his face.
"Okay. I'll deal."