Disclaimer: I've twenty-four of these dang things, figure it out yourself!
Authors note: Wow. Did that person really just read all twenty-three chapters without stopping? That's fifty one thousand, three hundred and sixty two words. His (or her) dedication to my stories is a little bit scary. Do I know you from school or something? Right, now the story.
Lamont watched with wavering interest as the body of Metal Sonic suddenly bolted to life and removed an array of wires connecting him to his computer. Metal Sonic walked forwards, looked at Lamont, and then continued to walk forward without saying a word. Metal Sonic occasionally stopped, as if he planned on saying something, but he never did. It was Lamont who broke the silence.
"So, what did your girlfriend have to say?" Lamont asked. Metal Sonic turned around to face Lamont.
"She not my..." Metal Sonic stopped himself. He thought for a second. "Robots can't..." Metal Sonic looked down sheepishly at his feet. "Now I understand what I feel, I fear I may be more confused." He muttered. Lamont showed a uninterested expression.
"I have no idea what you're on about." He stated. Metal Sonic sighed and shook his head.
"It doesn't concern you anyway." Metal Sonic turned away from Lamont. While allot had been explained from his last meting with Metal Amy, Metal Sonic still was feeling an inner turmoil tearing him apart. How could he love? He had learnt to feel many emotions, even extreme ones like hatred, but he had never felt any emotion that came close to that of the one Metal Amy stirred up. He had come to except that his life was a continual string of danger and people living in fear of him. Almost everyone on the planet would either try to destroy him or run away as far from him as they can. He had come to accept this was how he would have to live and had settled comfortably into it, but when he was in Metal Amy's arms, and she was in his, he felt safe, wanted. It scared him.
"So, do we plan on launching this 'Final Death Egg' device or just mopping around in this dank place?" Lamont questioned. Metal Sonic once again turned to face Lamont.
"Do you have the emeralds?" He asked. Lamont nodded. "Then lets do it." Metal Sonic walked towards an elevator door, followed shortly by Lamont. Metal Sonic decided Lamont was right; he would soon have all the time in the world to decide what he was going to do about Metal Amy. Metal Sonic stopped. He quickly rushed back to his computer and took a disk out of one of the disk drives. Lamont gave him a puzzled look.
"What you doing robo?" He asked.
"I'm taking my 'girlfriend' with us." Metal Sonic remarked.
The two hedgehog looking characters descended in the lift in silence. It wasn't until the elevator came to a stop and the doors creaked opened that anything was said.
"Oh my..." Lamont muttered.
"That would be the 'Final Death Egg'." Metal Sonic announced, looking up at the large shining, metallic, curving side of the weapon that faced the two. In design it resembled the original Death Egg, except it was of a much larger scale and, possibly to battle claims of a large ego, there was no giant Eggman face designed onto the side, instead there was a much more threatening collection of turrets circling the weapon in horizontal lines. There was a large laser capable of destroying planets stuck onto the bottom of the colossal weapon. Another accessory was a collection of concealed panels that housed energy taking disks like the ones Eggman had installed in Metal Knuckles. Besides all this the Final Death Egg was protected by armour and shielding of previously unimaginable strengths. Metal Sonic walked towards the ship. "The emeralds Lamont." He ordered. Lamont handed Metal Sonic the emeralds, all the while looking up at the Final Death Egg in amazement.
"It's unbelievable." He muttered. Metal Sonic took the emeralds and held one of them up high.
"Chaos control!" He shouted. He then, with the emeralds, Lamont and the disk disappeared into the green light that had suddenly formed.
The Final Death Egg's control room was a fairly dark and dank place. Its primary colour was black, but much light came from numerous flashing panels that made up the weapons controls. There was a single monitor and keypad in the corner of the room, it was of the normal white colour and looked slightly out of place. A green light intruded into the room and Lamont, the emeralds and Metal Sonic emerged. Metal Sonic instantly walked towards the monitor and inserted his disk into it.
"Lamont, set the emeralds up in that thing over there." Metal Sonic pointed at a large navy pillar sticking out from one of the walls. The pillar had twenty holes in it just the right size for the emeralds. Lamont picked up an emerald and placed it in one of the holes. There seemed to be a magnetic attraction between the emerald and the hole, as the emerald seemed to force itself into place. As soon as the emerald was in place a shield materialised over it. "That'll stop them getting stolen again." Metal Sonic claimed. He then turned back to the monitor and began typing some commands with the keyboard. "The emeralds shall be stuck the program to release them is activated, and only I know that program." Metal Sonic continued to explain as Lamont placed more emeralds into the pillar. Metal Sonic left the monitor and walked over to the ships controls. He then proceeded to press a few of the flashing buttons.
"What are you doing?" Lamont asked. Metal Sonic didn't reply. He pressed a few more buttons, and then turned to the computer monitor. The monitor flashed to life and showed a peaceful looking green field. Metal Sonic chuckled to himself.
"Well I didn't think I would be able to do that." Metal Sonic admitted.
"Did I hear something?" A voice from the computer asked. Lamont looked at the monitor confused.
"Isn't that Metal Amy?" He questioned. Metal Sonic nodded.
"I've just initiated a program so we can see the virtual world I created for Metal Amy. She can hear us, but not see us." Metal Sonic explained.
"You really know your way around a computer." Metal Amy stated.
"Well I am basically one." Replied Metal Sonic. The blue robot turned back to the controls and pressed a particularly large, red button. "Now that we're all here, lets get this show on the road!" Metal Sonic laughed. The gigantic ship rumbled to life. The floor around it crumbled as the large thrusters erupted in flames. The Final Death Egg was slowly lifted upwards, crashing into and completely obliterating the ceiling of the base. The launching of the weapon was causing huge vibrations within the control room. Due to these Lamont fell over, but Metal Sonic managed to retain his footing. The enormous weapon rose out of the jungle in which it was hidden. Small animals scuttled away from the rising ship of destruction. "Hold on tight." Metal Sonic shouted out. Lamont, who was still attempting to gain his balance turned to look at Metal Sonic.
"Why?" He asked.
"We're going to chaos control." Metal Sonic claimed. Lamont's eyes widened with surprise.
"We're going to what?" Lamont never got to answer, as at that minute, the Final Death Egg was engulfed in a green light, taking all the characters on board with it, including a black hedgehog lurking in the shadows.
The Ultimate Weapon watched with glee as General Knuckles leaned on his staff, occasionally losing his grip and slipping slightly. A smile stretched wide across Fistika's face.
"A General without an army, a pitiful site. I could put you out of your misery now, but gloating so fun!" Fistika walked in a circular paten around General Knuckles. He observed the blurry ghost's shallow breath, his quickening heart rate, and the sweat that was settling on his brow. A serious look crossed Fistika's face. "Weapon, he's getting his second wind. Kill him now." The Ultimate Weapon nodded. General Knuckles shakily lifted his staff into a defensive position. The Ultimate Weapon smirked and moved forwards. He clenched his fists in anticipation. General Knuckles' face showed a mix of anger and concentration. He raised his staff; ready to fight a battle he couldn't win. He was willing to fight to what would be called a death (as in he would stop moving, but he won't enter an afterlife, besides he's already dead, but now I'm just being technical). The Ultimate Weapon raised a fist, and then brought it down with incredible strength. General Knuckles made a feeble attempt to block the fist by putting his staff between himself and the fist. General Knuckles closed his eyes and prepared for an impact, aware his staff wouldn't hold against the Ultimate Weapon's power. A few seconds past and General Knuckles' opened his eyes. Before him stood Amy, hammer in hand. In front of her there was the Ultimate Weapon stumbling backwards, hand to head. Amy turned to General Knuckles.
"Need some help?" She asked. General Knuckles smiled and lowered his staff.
"Ah. Amy Rose. Thank you." Amy looked slightly taken back.
"How do you know my name?" Amy questioned.
"I've been watching my son from above for awhile. It only makes sense I know his friends." General Knuckles explained. "Now duck." Amy complied. General Knuckles swung his staff above Amy's head and hit the Ultimate Weapon in the face. Two blurs, one black, one blue, flew into the Ultimate Weapon's stomach, bounced off it and uncurled into Sonic and Shadow next to General Knuckles and Amy.
"Don't worry Knux senior, we'll deal with this freak." Sonic claimed. Fistika laughed.
"Why must everyone I meet be so optimistic? Weapon, deal with the 'hogs." The Ultimate Weapon nodded. He spin dashed into the three hedgehogs, causing them to scatter. "I'll deal with the General." Fistika muttered. Fistika turned to Tikal, who had been watching with a face of worry the entire time. "If I was you, I would run." Fistika claimed in a cold voice. General Knuckles smirked.
"Picking on the young and wounded, just like you Fistika." He criticised. Fistika turned to his enemy, a calm anger etched into his face.
"She's old enough to learn that being your accomplice will get her hurt, and I'm not picking on you, just finishing the job." Fistika walked forwards. "I killed you once, but they had to preserve you in this state of partial life. Well let's find out what they do to the dead which can't enter the afterlife." Fistika raised two fists to chest height. General Knuckles span his staff around his hand, and then held it in a threatening stance (like how Fox McCloud holds his staff in Dinosaur planet). "Picking on the unarmed, just like you General." Fistika mocked. General Knuckles' eyes narrowed slightly.
"I don't fear you Fistika." He exclaimed emotionlessly. He turned and nodded at Tikal. Tikal looked at the two Echidnas unsurely, before throwing a staff at Fistika. Fistika caught it.
"Nice design." He remarked. "If I'm not mistaken, it's of Tikal's tribe." Fistika stopped studying the staff and tried to bring it down on General Knuckles' head. General Knuckles blocked with his own Staff.
"We were able to find a fair few of Pachacamac's staffs." General Knuckles explained as he swept his staff sideways, only to be blocked by Fistika's staff.
"I must know, how did you think you were going to convince me to revive junior? Were you just delusional? Or did you have some 'great' plan formed." Fistika swung his staff to his right, then quickly changed the staff's direction so it was coming at General Knuckles from the left. General Knuckles fell for the trick and received a strong hit to his right arm.
"To be frank, I was hoping Tikal would be able to do it." General Knuckles admitted, using his staff as a battling ram and jabbing Fistika in the stomach.
"Her? What did you think she would be able to do?" Fistika questioned. He attempted to bring the staff down sideways on General Knuckles' right leg, but was blocked.
"Every time you talked with Pachacamac, you would talk with Tikal. Despite your drastically different views, you developed a bond with her." Fistika's eyes narrowed even more. He blocked an incoming attack from General Knuckles, and then hit him over the head.
"I do not like what you're implying!" Fistika claimed. General Knuckles smiled slightly and blocked an attack aimed at his chest.
"It was a brotherly bond. You could see she respected you. She completely disagreed with you, but respected you." General Knuckles managed to hit Fistika across the face. "You also respected how someone her age was so opinionated." Fistika laughed.
"Where do you get this stuff from?" Fistika glanced over at Tikal, still managing to block an attack. He turned back to General Knuckles, looking slightly puzzled. "Fine, but how could you know I see her as a little sister?" Fistika asked, delivering a blow to General Knuckles right arm again.
"Simple. She told me she saw you as a big brother, I just figured it worked both ways." The two echidnas both attacked at the same time and their staffs clashed (in a star wars like way)
"Well I don't think it matters, it didn't work, and you are going to go to your second grave disappointed." Fistika claimed. He retracted his staff from the clash, jumped over General Knuckles, turned, and hit him with as much force as he could muster directly over the head. General Knuckles fell to the ground. Fistika stood over General Knuckles and lifted his staff, intending on driving it through the fallen echidna's stomach.
"Fistika! Don't!" Tikal Shouted.
"Don't think just because of that conversation a second ago I'm going to listen to you." Fistika muttered. However, General Knuckles' safety came in the unexpected form of an air born Sonic who collided with Fistika. The Ultimate Weapon smirked, despite that Shadow had him held by the throat, as did he have Shadow held by the throat.
"You aimed at Fistika on purpose?" Shadow asked.
"Heck yeah." The Ultimate Weapon replied. Fistika shoved the blue hedgehog off him and got to his feet. Fistika noticed everywhere suddenly became darker, but paid it little notice.
"I hate hedgehogs." He muttered. He then once again walked over to General Knuckles, who was slowly getting up. He was about to whack him with the staff and attempt a second finisher, but then he noticed that General Knuckles was looking at something in the sky, as everyone else was. Curiously, Fistika looked up in the direction everyone else was. What he saw was a giant, circular battleship blotting out the sun.