"We should attack together." Shadow floated next to Sonic. "I can sense the energy from another black emerald inside of him."

"No! This just makes the fight fairer. You destroy the invasion ships." Shadow slowly nodded and flew towards the remaining pyramid ships. Sonic smiled, "Your move!"

"As you wish." Metal's body shined with dark energy and he shot forward at high speed. Metal attacked with speeds that even surprised Sonic. He swung his blades with skill and it took all of Sonic's speed to avoid the attacks. The metal hedgehog loved the worried look in the gold one's face. Sonic blocked both blades with his arms. Even in his super form, they hurt. He spun around and rammed both of his feet into Metal's face. He then curled into a ball and smashed Metal into the side of a ship. He passed through the shield and into the hull. Rings began to flow out and Sonic absorbed the ones he could. Metal's eyes glowed, "So you need rings to maintain your super form." Metal retracted his blades and ripped the pyramid ship apart. Several more gold rings floated out of the destroyed ship.

Sonic absorbed them all, "You've been helping me out a lot lately."

"If I just wanted to beat you I would have done it by now. I want to humiliate you. When this fight is over, you will acknowledge my superiority to you. Then and only then will I let you be killed."

"I feel so loved!" Sonic flew forward and launched a furry of kicks and punches. Metal blocked the attacks and countered with a strong fist to the face. He grabbed his leg as he fell back and flung him into another ship. Sonic crashed through it and it exploded. He absorbed as many rings as he could as Metal blasted through the debris. Sonic flew low and slammed into Metal with a spin attack. Metal used his thrusters to correct himself and attacked. Both hedgehogs curled into balls and crashed into each other.

Shadow destroyed several of the ships, but found himself a little too late. Six of the ships had already begun their descent. He looked around, there was about a hundred left. If he went after the six, more would enter the atmosphere. As he tired to make up his mind, a light of crimson shot through the six ships and they exploded. A crimson hedgehog flew towards a ship next to him and landed on it. His quills were twice as long as Sonic's and his sharp pointed knuckles had also grown. His fur, quills, and eyes were all glowing crimson. "Why am I not surprised?"

"You shouldn't have left such valuable emeralds just lying around."

"So you here to fight or help?"

"Both! I have every intension of killing you and taking my rightful place as the world's ultimate life form. But Leda would be sad if I let this pathetic planet get destroyed. So here I am."

"So we collect the rings and then get to the most important part."

"Killing each other?"

"Yeah!"

"Good!" The two began ripping apart the rest of the ships.

The hedgehogs slammed into each other high speeds as they approached the moon. Metal uncurled and activated his blades, "Give it up!"

Sonic uncurled and flew at what was left of Robotnik's moon base. He crashed through the hull and landed in the command room. "Ok! Now what?" He looked through the large hole he had made, "Where did he go?"

A metal hand busted through the metal floor and pulled him through to the lower level. He slammed the golden hedgehog so hard that he crashed through the lower floor. "And your reason for luring me here was?" Metal dropped through the hole and landed on top of Sonic. His blades was retracted and proceeded to punch the hedgehog in then face over and over.

Sonic grabbed both fists and rammed his head into Metal's head. The android barely moved while Sonic felt like head hit solid steel. "Ouch!"

"All these years. My creation, my obsession, everything I have based my AI on, was all a waste." He picked Sonic up and flung him across the small room and into a bunch of metal crates. Sonic hit the floor and the crates fell on top of him. Metal's eyes glowed red as his shoulders separated and a large blaster barrel rose from each shoulder. "All this time, you were just lucky." The barrels glowed with black energy as they powered up.

Sonic laughed and pushed himself up, "I just remember why I came here." He smashed his fists into a pair of crates. Gold rings flew out of them and hovered around him, "Robotnik kept a large store of rings here." He absorbed them and his golden aura tripled in size. "My super form is powered directly by The Master Emerald. So my power grows with every extra ring past the first fifty."

"Whatever!" Metal fired his blasters.

Sonic shot forward and hit the energy. The hedgehog flew through the beams and slammed his fist into Metal's face. He turned into a golden blur and impacted the android with over a hundred punches. Metal fell back and Sonic flew back, "Consider your life a failure now?"

The dents in Metal's body slowly began to repair themselves, "So you're not a complete failure." His blasters retracted into his shoulders, "But you still don't have the power to defeat me."

"Then I will just have to get more." The two charged each other.

In Earth's orbit, the two hedgehogs destroyed the last of the pyramid ships. After they had absorbed every ring that they could, they flew towards each other. Both their energy auras were extremely bright and powerful. Shadow's eyes narrowed, "Now that the distractions are out of the way."

"So how many rings have you managed to absorb?"

"About two thousand."

"Same here!"

"Then let's not waste our time." Both hedgehogs rushed each other and attacked each other with hypersonic punches and kicks. Shadow was stronger than Sonic while being slightly slower. At full speed he could outrun Sperk easily, but his reflexes were no better and Sperk had more muscle thanks to his echidna DNA. In short, Shadow knew he couldn't win in a fight like this. So far Sperk hadn't landed a blow, but his sharp knuckles did manage to hit him here and there. Shadow himself managed to hit his rival a few times.

"You can't avoid my attacks forever."

"Your inexperience will be your downfall." Shadow dodged an attack and rammed his foot into Sperk's chest. He flew back before Sperk could respond. "You still rely on your power and speed."

"Shut up!" They two continued to clash as they slowly fell towards the planet.

Sonic's and Metal's fists smashed into each other as they tried to hit one another. Move for move they copied each other. Sonic stepped back and shook his hands, "That new skin of yours is much harder than your last."

"Titanium with black emerald crystal mixed in. The more power I use, the stronger my armor."

"Cute!" Sonic and Metal continued the assault on one another. Sonic was far faster then Metal, but he was unable to do any real damage to the android. Metal on the other hand didn't need to land every blow. One punch was enough to severely hurt Sonic.

"You have finally met my expectations." Metal's forearms opened up and four gun barrels appeared. "Now die!" Energy bolts flew from the barrels at high speed.

"Not in the mood!" Sonic curled into a ball and spun around in the air. A small energy sphere covered him and the bolts bounced off it. The impacted Metal and made the android step back several feet. Sonic shot forward and slammed Metal off his feet. The android flew across the room and hit the far wall with such force, he crashed into the next room. Sonic ran through the hole to strike.

Metal intercepted him and tossed him into the floor. The android jumped into the air, "I think I will borrow a page from your book." He curled into a ball and rammed into Sonic. The force caused the floor to collapse and they both landed in a large cargo bay.

"Sonic Wind!" Sonic was quick to his feet and threw his shockwave of blue energy.

Metal ignored the energy and ran through it. It caused him little damage and he charged at Sonic. They locked hands, "You are a worthy foe, Sonic. But you are still a mammal. Your strength will exhaust, your will broken, and your body drained." He started to crush Sonic's hands, "Where as my power is constant, my will unyielding, and my body tireless. No matter how much we fight, you will lose."

Sonic smiled, "I may grow to be an old gray hedgehog confined to a wheelchair, but I will always."

"Always what?"

Sonic smile grew, "Be way past cool!" Sonic's aura doubled in size and he broke free of Metal's grasp. He curled into a ball and slammed into Metal. As he fell back, Sonic spinning increased and he hit him again. Metal hit the far wall and got imbedded in it. Sonic uncurled and stood at the other side of the wall, "Metal! Fighting with you has been and will always be fun." Sonic curled into a ball and began to rev up.

Metal tried in vain to pull himself free, "I look forward to defeating you the next time we meet."

"So do I!" Sonic started to glow brightly. "Hyper Spin Attack!" Sonic flew across the room like a gold missile. He shot through Metal and landed on the moon outside. What remained of Metal sparked and exploded. As he turned back towards the base to find more rings, a black emerald shot from it and flew into space. Sonic watched it go, "That can't be good."