This new place was perhaps the weirdest place Sonic had ever found himself, and he had been to some pretty damn weird places in his time. It not take him long to realize that he was on a floating landmass, an island twice the size as Angel Island and covered in a thick forest, the trees and other plant life a pale aqua instead of the usual green.
The land far below the flying island was barren and riddled completely with lava flows. Even from this height he could see the glow from the thick streams of molten rock. There seemed to be nothing down there but an ash filled wasteland, as least from what he could see through the occasional breaks in the clouds.
Glancing up again he took note of the sky, its colour bright orange. The sun above was huge; three times that of the one he was used to seeing and blood red. Sonic had read something somewhere that stars turn blood red before they die, or explode; or implode. Whichever, Sonic did not want to be around when it did.
Clearly he was no longer on Earth.
"Ok, what now?" He asked out load folding his arms in front of himself. Some vague hope of something answering vanished in an instant and sighing he turned away from the edge and walked back into the forest. The Dragon or whatever it was that had flown overhead had vanished, flying back down to the charred land below. He was not foolish enough to try and go after it so decided instead to see what he could find on this island. Something had to be keeping it up in the air, some version of the Master Emerald perhaps. Perhaps he could use it to get back from, where he was.
Racing through the trees and shrubs, he found more and more debris from the battle at Area 99 scattered here and there. Trees had been broken and ground torn up around them, showing they had just been dropped here and recently. Sonic realized that the light that brought him here must have been an unstable Chaos Control warp, picking up whatever it could consume and transporting it to this place; including himself.
Suddenly, he found the trees ending abruptly as he surged out onto a cobble stone road. Screeching to a sudden halt he glanced around. It was road alright and he could see foot prints in the mud along one side, leading to his left. Looking up that direction, he squinting at the distance but whatever lay at the end of this road was too far away to see properly. The tall trees bloated out all but the sky from view.
Guessing his best bet at finding something useful lay in that direction, he took off. The road lead on for quiet a distance stretching it seemed around the outside of the flying island until it arched around a corner back along the centre. Even at his usual running speed, it took a good ten minutes until finally the road ended. Sonic slammed on the breaks as he found himself gazing up at a sheer wall of glass before him. A curved bomb lanced up out of the ground before him, carrying on up further and further into the sky before curving up at the top a good few hundred feet above. The think had to be covering a good seven acres of ground. Sonic gave an impressed whistle and put his hands on his hips. Glancing through the hedgehog saw that the trees, ground and road continued, just a few inches beyond the glass.
"Has to be door here somewhere..." He muttered to himself casting his gaze over the glass to look for someway of opening it. There had to be an opening of some kind or why would the road keep going past here? Finding nothing he growled and took a few paces backward. "Well, I hope they don't mind if I just myself in then." Sonic added with a grin, before he started spinning on the spot; his entire body curving into a ball. His momentum increased to a pitch before he rocketed forward and smashed his attack into the glass.
It was like slamming at break neck speed into a brick wall.
A shockwave that shook every bone in the hedgehog's body bounced several times back and forth through him before he was repelled away from the glass and slammed ungracefully into the side of a tree.
"Ok, scratch that idea then." He growled sliding down until he landed on his backside with a loud thud. Whatever that stuff was it wasn't any normal glass. Picking himself up him trudged back to the dome's surface. Not even a dent. "Damned double glazing." He muttered, taping the surface with his finger and then proceed to give it a kick. The result was the same; the force he exerted was reflected right back to him and all he had to show for his effort was acute muscle pain.
"You hear that?" A voice from beyond asked, the sound dulled by the glass in the way.
"Hear what?" A second asked in reply. Acting on instinct Sonic hurled himself into a bush to take over. There was movement from inside the dome, leaves parting way and two felines stepped forth. Sonic watched them through gaps in the leaves as they neared the inside surface of the dome. By the leather and forged metal armour they wore, the blue hedgehog could tell they were a part of that same group that he had fought at Area 99. "I don't see anything." The larger of the two added peering out placing a flat hand above his eyes and balancing himself on the end of a silver tipped spear.
"No dragon at least." The smaller replied. "But best to be safe than sorry." He reached over and tapped something just out of sight and Sonic watched as an invisible door opened, parting vertically down the middle before spreading out either side.
The larger walked out first, his spear held in both hands. His large pointed ears twitched this way and that, listening for anything out of the ordinary chirping of birds echoed out from the jungle.
"Nothing." He stated eventually, before turning back. Suddenly someone tapped him on the shoulder. Looking back he saw Sonic standing there, his long blue quills trailing out behind him.
"Don't suppose either of you'd be interested in helping a hedgehog out?" The feline swung his spear back and nearly impaled Sonic on the tip had the blue hedgehog not dodged around it. "I guess not."
The smaller feline drew a dagger from a pocket on his armour and leapt at Sonic; two simply sidestepped and as the feline shot past the hedgehog dealt him a blow to the back of the head. He stumbled forward before crashing to the ground knocked unconscious. The larger took his spear in both hands and made a succession of several very good jabs at Sonic trying to strike him. Dodging around each attempt, Sonic found it easy to get it close and smash an upper cut across the feline's chin.
The cat-like being staggered backwards with blood running from his nose down his face, his spear spiralling from his hands; sinking into the ground nearby.
"Now come on, I'm not here to pick a fight. All I want is a little help." Sonic stated gesturing out with open palms. The large feline snarled and charged with claws outstretched. The blue hedgehog simply side stepped at the last second and the feline flew past him and into a tree. "Look this is getting real old real fast." The hedgehog added as the cat picked himself back up, shaking the dirt and fallen leaves from his fur. "Can't we just call it quits?"
"You don't belong here." The cat snarled barring his fangs.
"You can say that again." The blue hedgehog replied with a short smile. The feline charged and Sonic swung his leg around, knocking the felines' feet out from under him. As he fell, Sonic shot back up and slammed a punch into his stomach. Forced to the ground faster, the cat hit his head against the hard floor and was knocked unconscious. "Sorry 'bout that." Sonic told the two of them, pulling the two felines over against the side of the dome and propping them against it, checking them both over briefly to see if he'd caused them any unnecessary damage. Reaching over, Sonic plucked the spear out of the ground and gently rolled it in their direction "You guys must not be used to company." With that he raced off in through the open door.
Now inside the dome, Sonic carried on running, keeping his speed up just in case there were anymore of those felines around. Eventually however he was forced to slam on the breaks. Skidding to a halt the blue hedgehog found himself staring up at a large gate. A towering stone wall ran through the jungle cutting off what lay beyond from view, leaving the massive metallic door in front of him as the only means of entry.
"Knock Knock." The blue hedgehog muttered, tensing his legs and leaping at the wall. His sneakers took grip and using the momentum in his body shot vertically up the wall towards the top. Upon reaching it he somersaulted up, did a graceful flip before standing directly on the edge. "Whoa…" He breathed staring out at what lay beyond. The jungle ended here as the wall encircled a city, but a city unlike any he had ever seen. "Spiffy." Sonic added with a smile gazing out across it. It was completely circular, the streets designed so they all ultimate arrived at the centre point were a tower lanced up from the ground towards the top of the glass dome above.
From here, he could see the streets were filled with felines; hundreds of them at first glance. Many of them were the larger warriors he'd fought with but a good deal of their number was small children. The buildings were all wedge shaped, their tapering points directed towards the middle. Apart from the odd shape, it was not all that different from other cities he'd seen. There were still roads, pavements and even a park at the far left of the central tower.
The tower itself was so tall Sonic had to crane his neck to look up at it. He was amazed he hadn't been able to see until now. It was made from what looked like sand stone from this distance and completely smooth all the way around even as it fattened out at the bottom. At the top it branched out into a tree leafed clover shaped platform; the middle of this being directly beneath the top of the glass dome.
Sliding down the side of the wall Sonic came to a stop at the ground on the other side, dropping down onto his feet with acrobatic skill. He doubted he was going to get much help from the locals but anything was worth a try at least once. As soon as he was within sight however of one of the child felines, it stared at him before crying out load. The yell attracted many eyes and they all locked onto the blue hedgehog, and soon every feline with line of sight was looking directly at him.
"Well this is awkward." Sonic stated with a goofy smile as several large felines began to approach him.
-
Falling Star Independent was a large media corporation with branches in newspapers, Media TV stations and radio. After Hexagon started seizing financial control of just about everything, Falling Star became the number one news broadcaster in the States, backed completely by the company what funded their rise up the corporate ladder. As such, Espio was not particularly surprised to find that the newspaper censor they needed to investigate was Falling Star.
"You really think they're going to tell us anything?" The chameleon asked giving Vector a sharp glare as they made their way towards the large revolving doors of the lobby entrance. "It's not as if we can walk right up to front desk and ask; "Hey, you guys been keeping secrets about flying dragons?" Vector did not dignify that with a reply. The Falling Star building was a sky scrapper that stretched up above and beyond the rooftops to the clouds. Every wall seemed to a sea of silver windows that tapered off at the top.
"I don't believe this…" The crocodile hissed angrily as he walked up to the door to come face to face with a sign placed upon the inside, visible through the glass. Upon it were the words; (Mobians or residents of the former Planet Mobius are not allowed beyond this point.) Espio smacked a fist into his palm turning away in disgust. They had all see the Presidents broadcast about half a day ago and about five minutes after the streets outside their apartment had broken out in riots, human and Mobian alike crashing against a mass of Swat police called out to deal with the problem.
"Alright you read the sign; get moving." A security guard with a short grey beard and shaggy eyebrows outside the glass door shouted at them, gesturing with his baton for them to get lost.
"Hey we have rights to ya know." Vector snapped at him, barring every one of his sharp teeth,
"Look bud I'm just following orders." The guard replied with a flat tone. "Come on, move it alone." Vector tried several times after that to gain entry to the building, and each time the guards turned him away. On the fourth and final time they called out a Laser Hunter Robot that tossed the crocodile violently out of the front door and sent him rolling across the street to come to a stop at Espio's feet.
"Something tells me we won't be getting in that way." The chameleon stated folding his arms in front of himself. Vector pushed himself back up, his scales dirtied by the oil from the robot's fingers and brick dust from the street.
"Alright that dose it." He snarled going through the motions of rolling up none existent sleeves.
"Before you humiliate yourself again." Espio quickly added stepping into the crocodile's path. "Take a deep breath and count to ten."
"No way." Vector replied brushing him aside with one hand. "This is a matter of pride, of honour."
"Half the time you can't even spell those words!" The chameleon grabbed Vector's tail and dug his heals down trying to put the breaks on the crocodiles advanced back towards the doors. "Look we're here to gather intelligence, not get into a fight with the security guards." Vector looked back over his shoulder with a disappointed look on his face.
"Can't we do both?"
"No." Was Espio's stern reply.
"Awww." Vector's tail suddenly went slack and Espio nearly tripped over. "Oh alright then." The crocodile sat himself down on the stone steps leading up to the front entrance. "You got any other idea's to get inside?" The chameleon just grinned and balanced a single shuriken on the end of his finger. "Ah right, the ninja thing."
"But I'll need a distraction." Espio stated flipping the throwing star between his fingers like a coin. "Something to draw their attention for a moment." Vector grinned evilly and ground his knuckles into the palm of his other hand.
"Alright, looks like I'll get to bash some heads after all." Espio quickly put a hand on his shoulder to silence any thoughts of impending violence.
"No. I'm going to need guidance from the outside once I'm in and you can't be doing that and wrestling with security at the same time." Vector clicked his fingers and looked away folding his arms as if pouting. Suddenly a familiar buzzing sound eared their ears and looking up they saw Charmee flying towards them.
"Hey guys." He called down as he descended. "How's it going?"
"I thought you were supposed to be helping Rei and Beck?" Vector asked. Charmee folded his arms behind his back as he hovered in the air,
"Oh but that was boring. They went around simply asking people about that dragon-Henry-person. Nobody wanted to talk to us." His expression was that of utter boredom, before it vanished with a thick clueless smile. "So can I hang around with you? Pretty please?"
The two reptiles shot each other a glance, before a loopy grin spread simultaneously over their lips.
"Sure Charmee, you can hang around." Vector remarked, his smile showing everyone of his sharp teeth. "But you mind doing us a little favour first?" Charmee's head tilted to the side as a puzzled expression passed his face.
The security guard next to the front desk looked up as the large glass doors opened in but nothing seemed there to open it, as if the thing had swung in on it's own. Suddenly a loud buzzing caught his attention and he glanced around expecting to see an insect. He did, and his stole his hat.
"Hey!" The guard exclaimed as Charmee put it on the top of his own head. The hat was twice his size and fell over his eyes. "Give that back!" The young bee simply stuck his tongue out.
"You'll have ta catch me first!" He laughed, hovering just out of reach as the man made several lunches at the bee, who proceeded to fly through the lobby stealing pencils and pens and slapping anyone close enough on the back of the head. Causing such a commotion, all eyes were taken off the entrance; leaving Espio a clear shot across the lobby to the stairs leading up into the main buildings.
Becoming visible behind a potted planet, the chameleon quickly fitted the communication device into his ear behind his horned frill.
"You read me Vector?" He asked as a small mechanical arm no bigger than a pencil descended over his lips, a microphone on the end.
"Yeah, lines ok." The crocodile was relaying the signal from an alleyway about a block away. Being too large to sneak through into the building, Vector had set himself up outside with a communications device so he could stay in contact with him. "There could be several places the info we need is; so we'll start with the editing section. Anything they cut out, it's probably gonna be there."
"Roger." Espio replied before his outline shimmered like rising heat and his body became translucent.
-
Void had been completely silent for a good while now. He stood on the front tip of the Blue Typhoon, one arm placed onto his stomach and the other held out in front of himself; the palm pointed towards the horizon. His eyes were closed and he emitted a soft constant hum. The sun was beginning to set now, his long shadow cast back over the runway behind him.
Sighing, he opened his eyes and lowered his arm.
"I thought as much." He muttered; floating up on whatever force gave him the power to levitate before turning back towards those waiting for him. Amy had been standing there waiting for him to finish for ages and Bean was slumped against the side of the ship with an extremely bored expression on his face. Seeing movement, the duck pushed himself back to his feet.
"Did you find out where Sonic went?" The pink hedgehog asked looking up hopefully. Void nodded once.
"Oh yes I know where he is now." He replied floating past her. "I could sense the warp and its exit point from here. Whoever tried to activate the dimensional rip was trying to reach the Felines home world of Fellena."
"Then what took so long?" Bean asked raising an eyebrow. Void stopped and looked back at him.
"I had to be certain that the warp itself had not destroyed those travelling within it." A sudden panic stricken looked passed over Amy's face. Void raised both his cloven hands quickly. "Don't worry, it hasn't. Sonic is alive and well and if my senses are right, he's on Fellena." Amy let herself breath out a sigh of relief.
"So what now?" The dynamite duck asked again.
"I go and get him of course." Void replied folding his arms and turning back fully to face them. "Only problem is I might need to stay there a while."
"What? Why?" Amy asked suddenly looked a little alarmed.
"There's clearly been a breech of dimensional autonomy." The imp like creature replied. "It's my job to clear up messes like that. I've got to get to the bottom of this and I'm willing to bet I'll get some answers on Fellena."
"Well then I'm coming too." Amy stated. "I'm not going to leave Sonic stranded on some planet in another dimension." She smiled suddenly coyly. "Not without me at least."
"That world is horrible infected with Dragon Blood." Void warned her. "It'll be dange…" He paused, seeing the stern look spread across her face. Realizing it was utter pointless to argue he just sighed. "Oh alright." He added throwing his arms up into the air. "But before anyone else gets any ideas, I am NOT going to be taking everyone on this ship. Oh no. Only four can come along."
"Then make room for us." Knuckles stated sliding down from the top of the glass that covered the bridge, Rouge gliding after him.
"This is one adventure I'd pay to come along on." The she-bat stated, gently landing next to Amy.
"And one I can't afford to miss." Knuckles added but with none of the anticipation in his voice Rouge had had.
"And I hope you don't mind I tag along as well." There was a soft shunting nose and a trap door leading into the ship opened up into the air and Okida climbed out, spreading his large wings as he exited. He had his holsters strapped on either side of his waist and a one handed shot guns loaded into each one. "Sorry Bean, you're going to have to sit this one out."
"Fine." The green feathered duck replied with a certain amount of relief in his voice. "Can't say travelling to a dimension full of fire breathing dragons that mutate from dead bodies is my idea of fun. I'll just let everyone else know where you're all gone."
"Yeah you do that." Void replied, raising a single finger. There was a brief moment of silence and then the tip of his finger started glowing. Slowly he pushed it into the air as if was prodding something and then he began to draw a wide circle before him. As if his finger was cutting space itself, the circle manifested in a link of bright white light. As soon as the circle was complete, the space in the centre seemed to cave in and form a long tunnel that spiralled in.
"Sure this is safe?" Rouge asked giving the porthole a sceptical glance.
"My dear, I've been using these to travel to and fro from dimensions for the last couple of hundred of your years." Void replied, gesturing with his right hand and suddenly the general size of the hole expanded, the width now well over two meters wide. "By now I know what I'm doing." Suddenly he clicked his fingers. "Oh that's right. We need that big Feline down in the cell."
"Why?" Knuckles asked looking a little puzzled.
"Well for one thing, he doesn't belong in this dimension." Void replied turning back. "And secondly, I might need him a bargaining chip to pry any information about the situation from the Felines. As you can guess, they don't like people from Maginaryworld pretty much."
"One can hardly blame them." The red echidna added with a flat look.
"Bean, go tell our prisoner he's on parole." Okida told the green duck. "Then bring him up here." The duck looked petrified. Jack was strong enough to break him in two with those muscles.
"Hey you don't pay me enough to risk my life with Mr. 'Hannibal Feline'." Bean remarked folding his wings. "Heck you don't even pay me at all."
"Just go will you?" Okida told him, jabbing a finger off in the direction of the bridge. Bean shot him a glare, before groaning and heading off grumbling to himself. After about a five minute wait he turned with Bark and Hare helping him escort Jack up onto the deck. The feline had large hand braces pinning his muscular arms together, and Hare had a laser rifle aimed at his head. Not one of them trusted his feline an inch. Jack's multi coloured eyes locked onto Void with an iron grip stare. Void himself simply smiled and floated to the side revealing the open porthole behind him.
"We're heading to Fellena so, unless you want to stay in this world, you'll be coming with us." He announced. Jack looked around trying to read the faces around him for any hidden motives.
"What's the catch?" He asked giving Void a suspicious glare.
"No catch." Void assured him gesturing out with his hands. "You don't belong in this word anyway. We're simply taking care of business there so we might as well give you a lift. But could you do us a favour and tell your superiors how we helped you out?" Jack's face remained unreadable, his expression forced into a frown; but it was always like that so no one had any idea what he was thinking. Unexpectedly a smile made past its way past his lips. He suddenly wrenched his arms to the side, tearing the hand brace as if it were made of tissue paper. Everyone tensed themselves expecting him to throw himself at one of them. Instead he simply straightened his back and stood upright.
"Very well then." He stated. Hare just glanced down at the broken metal remains at his feet, then to Jack, and then back again. "Just so it's perfectly clear..." The large feline added barring all of his teeth at the rabbit like mobian. "I could have done that any time I felt like." Brushing past those in front of them, the feline simply walked to the porthole and without a moments hesitation and vanished into the depths with Void close behind him.
The four of them stared after them, watching the swirling light they had just disappeared into.
"You people coming or not?" Void's voice called back.
"Right then." Knuckles sighed, before stepping forward. He paused at the edge of the hole, contorted his face before leaping in and like Void, vanishing a small surge of a white glow. Amy was next, determined not to be shown up by the Echidna, plunging into the porthole with a single jump.
Now only Rouge and Okida were left outside the gate. The two bats cast each other a glance, before walking both at the same time in through it; vanishing at the same moment. Once they had gone, the porthole contracted and shrunk; growing smaller and smaller until finally it disappeared with a soft and almost wet, popping noise.
-
The Egg Carrier 4 had now reached its escape position, the ARK's gravity well pushing the ship up and away from the planet. Now all the systems were waiting for was the push from the jump drive system, which Doctor Eggman was tinkering around with at a fantastic speed. Multitudes of wires and cables now lanced from the computer outlet in the wall to the large glass container housing the giant golden ring. Eggman didn't need the reports flashing up on the lab's main screen to know that Shadow was getting nearer and nearer. He could feel the metal floor beneath his feet shudder as one by one, the security lock down doors went flying off their melted hinges. Time was running out.
"There!" He proclaimed in triumph, connecting the last cable into place. The machines around him hummed in response, the only indication that anything had happened. Darting over to the terminal, Eggman's hands moved so fast over the keyboard they appeared to be a blur. Programs opened and closed in such rapid succession they were impossible to see. "Ok boys, hang onto your mother boards." The doctor added, glancing up at the screen to see the worried faces of Decoe and Becoe in the upper left hand corner.
"Oh I'm not going to like this." Becoe puttered putting his metal hands in front of his eyes as Eggman's finger neared the button marked- 'ignition'. Before he could press it, the door leading into the lab burst inward in a spray of molten metal, bellowing clouds of smoke spilling out into the lab.
"Metal Knuckles, defensive pattern…" Eggman called up, but was silenced by a loud thud. Looking down, he saw the charred remains of the robotic echidna lying at his feet, the head torn clean off. Amongst his remains were the burnt out shells of both E1004 Theta and Egg Robo, their bodies ripped open and then incinerated. Glancing up, Eggman watched as a dark shape began emerging from the smoke; but it wasn't Shadow.
"Hello." A voice stated as a pair of half eclipsed circle red eyes glared down at the doctor. Before Eggman could even cry out a hand with metal claws for fingers lashed out and grabbed him by the jacket and hoisted him, despite his weight, into the air. "Now then, if you'd be so kind as to answer a couple of questions I can be on my way." Metal Sonic's claws tightened around the fat throat threatening to cut off the air supply.
"Metal Sonic!" Looking back, Metal Sonic watched as Shadow slid to a stop just within the door frame; hands held at either side; the golden embers of a Chaos Spear attack burning between his fingers. A moment later, Tikal and Chaos arrived at his side.
"Ah, I thought one of Sonic's flunkies would be involved in this somehow." The robotic hedgehog stated and the next instant, his metal claws opened and Eggman dropped to the floor with a loud thud. Metal Sonic shot back around, his red cape following out behind him. "I don't suppose you're simply going to tell me what's going on?"
Shadow did not reply; he kept his iron unblinking gaze locked on the robotic hedgehog. He had not forgotten what Metal Sonic had attempted less than a year ago and had little reason to start trusting him. Eggman saw his chance in this moment if conversation and leapt for the controls, slamming entire hand down on the console so hard he broke the keyboard. The machines around them all blurred to life, surging power channelled from the golden ring and directly into the Egg Carrier 4 itself.
Metal Sonic responded with a lightning fast kick, slamming Eggman away from the controls with one swift motion but he was too late, the sequence had already started. The golden ring's glow increased ten fold and the engines at the back of the Carrier were beginning to emit a strange blue light. "And just what is this supposed to be?" The robotic hedgehog asked glaring up at the ring as more and more of its dimensional energy was channelled into the Egg Carrier's jump drive. "Well it does not matter. Whatever this is, I'll be making sure you never use it Eggman."
Slowly Metal Sonic raised a hand towards it and a spark of energy began travelling down his arm to form an attack.
"No stop!" Tikal cried out but her cry was both too late and fell on deaf ears. Metal Sonic's energy attack shot from his fingers and struck the side of the glass container, ripping through it and ploughing straight into the golden and black surface of ring itself. Instead of breaking, the ring just seemed to absorb the blast and suddenly it grew it size a good couple of feet. Its surface swirled like oil caught in water and suddenly it started spitting, flares of golden energy spinning outwards at tremendous speed; anything caught in their path was cut as if a spinning hacksaw had slammed into it.
"What have you done!" Eggman cried out scrambled for what was left of the controls. The moment he pressed a single button, a power surge shot back through the console and burnt his hand forcing the doctor to stagger back as the plastic keys began to melt one by one. Sparks began flying from the equipment around and the large screen had just enough time to display the words 'System overload' before exploding with a spray of plastic shards. "You stupid Machine! The Ring's lost stability!" Eggman snarled as the ring began burning with golden fire, flare lancing out every moment to scar any physical object around them. By now the entire holding tank had been reduced to nothing and the giant ring was hovering there in mid air, spitting off the deadly arches of energy in which direction it pleased.
One flare came souring right at Tikal but at the last minute Chaos jumped in the way and absorbed the blast. In a spray of water he exploded, covering the Echidna behind him in his liquid body. "I can't contain the reaction!" The doctor declared, finding every piece of equipment around him completely useless. The dimensional energy from the ring was still flowing into the jump drive. There was no way the Egg Carrier's engines could handle this kind of energy flowing through them. They were gonna blow!
Metal Sonic looked back in time to see a flare coming right at him. Instantly he threw his arms out to protect himself as it soured straight at his head. Clamping his metallic hands together, he forced a force-field into the air around him and the flare struck it hard. Metal Sonic's feet dragged themselves across the ground as he found the stretch of the energy discharge surprisingly on par with his own. Eventually he was forced back so far he was nearly flat against the wall. Ducking down at the last minute he avoided the direct path of the blast as it soured one, scorching the ends of his red cape.
"See what trouble you've caused Gerald?" Shadow muttered as computer panels all around the lab and of course, all over the ship began detonating outwards one by one. The ground beneath their feet gave a sudden lurch and a loud echoing roar erupted through the entire carrier. At the back of the ship the primary engine had overloaded and the reactor shielding had been breeched. If the energy flow did not stop now it was going to go critical and explode; making an awful loud bang when it did.
Shadow shot forward, skating through the streams of golden flares as they shot outwards at rapid succession. He could feel their searing heat as he passed by, his fur standing up on end as the flares energies the air like a magnet. He had to get this thing out of the ship before it went 'kaaaboom' and there was only one way he knew to do that.
Getting with range, he reached out with his left hand and arched his palm towards the giant ring's surface. "Chaos Control!" Trying to warp the thing safely away, he found his efforts yielding hardly the results he expected. The ring instantly flared up so bright gold in response, burning so brightly it blinded the black and red hedgehog. The light was so intense that even outside the ship, beams of it were flying out through cracks the flares had carved in the ship. Suddenly the ring began to dissolve, consumed by a ball of white light growing within its centre. That ball grew in size steady devouring the ring bit by bit and it didn't stop there.
Shadow was next, draw into the light as it expanded and vanished within. Eggman tried to run but even without his physique he was pointless, he was next; gone in an instant. Tikal followed, along with Chaos as he reformed from a puddle beside her. Being further from the ring Metal Sonic had time to watched the ball steady grow; spreading itself out to consume the entire lab inch by inch. Soon it crept over his foot, up his leg.
In a single instant something occurred to him. The ring responded to a Chaos Control, then perhaps it would also respond to... With little time left, he wrenched the Red Chaos Emerald out of his chest and with it tightly in his grasp thrust it into the light. There was a sudden surge and the light flew up at an incredible rate of speed, swallowing the robotic hedgehog whole in an instant. The light turned blood red as it travelled, eating through the Egg Carrier in seconds. One the entire ship was inside its sphere, the giant ball floated there in mid air for a second; before arching inwards and once again becoming a ring. The giant golden circle hovered as if in orbit around the Earth before it began spinning on its axis and as it did, began shrinking. Smaller and smaller it got until finally it disappeared all together with a loud ringing sound that shot across the planet echoing for miles before dying away to nothing.