NB: Profuse apologies for the lateness of this update, I hate to keep the fans waiting, but I'm sure you all know how big a thief of time revision and exams are. Anyway, enjoy this insalment. More regular updates promised from now on.
Going Underground
Stray bullets of blasted rock hurtled past in a blizzard as the Freedom Fighters braced themselves against Cryax's last ditch-effort. Against a glare so blinding that the surrounding darkness seemed visibly shoved backwards to the cavern corners, Cryax's towering silhouette, now riddled with assorted scars and crumples from his intense battle, became lost to the shrinking organic eyes trying to keep track of him. As the roar of the shredding rock tore past his flattened ears, Sonic crouched steadfastly against the blazing torrent, ignoring the occasional impact of a loose flying pebble against his flesh, and kept his squinted eyes strained for his opponent. The instant this new enemy had dealt him his first beating, when he had heard traces of insane desires and dreams oozing from his throat in the form of that twisted little poem, he had been wary. Outwardly, he was the same aloof, all-conquering hero that Mobius knew. But inside, lodged within his base, heroic instincts, he had sensed something that could pose a new, quite horrific threat to the planet. Which meant that Sonic couldn't rest from now on until his duel with Cryax, started in the bloody dark of an Emerald Hill Zone cave system, was ended for good.
In spite of himself, Sonic allowed a grin to cross his features. Hadn't he been thirsting for such action only hours before now, gathering dust under Tails' hammock? It was almost as if his prayers had been answered. But he needed to keep himself grounded to ensure that this challenge didn't overrun him.
As the light of the blast finally died, winking out of existence in an antithesis of the fury with which it had entered, the heroes strained to see past the hanging curtain of smoke and vapour to catch some glimpse of their quarry. Sonic heard Knuckles, possessed of far better night-vision than him, curse savagely through bleeding lips.
"Damn it, he's gone!"
Amy lowered her crossbow, until that point trained on Cryax's figure somewhere in the blast, from her shoulder. With the smoke lifting at last, the Freedom fighters were able to catch some sight of Cryax's handiwork. The rock wall had caved completely, blown cleanly open by the robot's energy blast. It was now a saw-edged arch, leading into another pitch-dark corridor snaking under the Emerald Hill Zone. From somewhere in the impenetrable darkness, the unmistakeable rhythm of heavy, lead-footed steps, becoming fainter as they retreated into the gloom.
Sonic loosed a triumphant snort of laughter.
"How about that! He's chickening out on us!"
"He isn't getting away…" Knuckles growled, "the whole planet is in deadly danger with that monster still at large. Plus," he added, massaging his bruised and burnt chest, "I owe him a beating."
Amy took this opportunity to take stock at last of her friends. All of them were badly beaten, and Knuckles in particular seemed to have taken a ferocious pounding. She placed a hand on his upper arm, trying to coax him back.
"Knuckles, that doesn't sound like a good idea to me, you're in bad shape…."
"I'm fine, honestly, just let me…."
Knuckles' final protest lapsed into a pained howl as the pain sealed within his numerous wounds suddenly flooded his being, brought him groaning in agony onto one knee. Tails stumbled forward, still only half-conscious from shortness of breath, and caught the echidna around the shoulders.
"Easy Knuckles, none of us are up to chasing that creep now."
"You're right," Amy interjected, taking command as the only fighter who was not currently smeared in her own blood and carrying so many wounds that her body was barely held together, "We'll just have to get our strength back and hunt him down. With Mobius on the alert, we'll be prepared when we run into him again. C'mon Sonic, help me with this…."
Amy realised that she was talking to an empty space. The steady whir of a sudden breeze in the dark told its own story. Her spikes billowed in the slip-stream of Sonic's sudden acceleration. While Tails and Knuckles frowned behind her, Amy loaded another round of bolts into her crossbow and shook her head.
"I should have known," she sighed, "just try telling Sonic not to chase something…"
The surrounding rock was simply another dark smear as Sonic bounced and hared along the tunnels, tracing the dull thunks of Cryax's metallic footsteps. His teeth were set into an unfamiliar grimace, a snarl that betrayed the true desire to fight that was now pouring through his blood. Of course he was going to pursue the robot. Chiefly of course because he represented a very real and definite threat to the wellbeing of Mobius, but also for the reason that he had just been dealt a particularly humiliating pummelling at the hands of his fleeing opponent. And, as was always the case in such situations, Sonic just had to have the last punch in edgeways. Some distance ahead, from out of the stalactite-enclosed darkness, a glint of golden metal flashed against Sonic's narrowed eyes, and he quickened his pace, readying his limbs for a blizzard of strikes. Sure enough, Cryax was looming out of the dusk a second later, struggling to outpace Sonic at his hobbling, damaged stride. Sonic sprang from the floor, vaulting towards his opponent.
"What's the rush train-wreck?"
He was regretting the quip a second later as the flat of Cryax's wild hand connected with his jaw, sending him tumbling backwards in a ball of blue motion. He managed to right himself at the last instant, a quick backflip setting him back into combat stance for another shot. He leered back towards the mechanical scowl of the android, one eye spasming periodically in the half light.
"You and me aren't finished yet."
"I can assure you we are….."
The icy calm of the robot's cracked voice was obliterated seconds later with a scream of fury as he dived on the hedgehog with a clenched fist. Sonic darted nimbly out of the way of the attack and felt himself graze his arm against the rock wall. The space around him was itself now an obstacle, the rock walls threatening to pound him as hard as Cryax's fists. He ignored this discomforting revelation as he made another dive at Cryax, burying a swift one-two punch in his shoulder. The impact sent Cryax rocking sideways, his upper-body spinning clumsily into the wall. Sonic would have grinned at his triumph, but the robot didn't give him a chance. Sonic felt the bone-crushing impact of the robot's knuckles break against his spine like a tidal-wave, hurling him face first to the floor. As Sonic picked himself from his ungracious landing he became painfully aware of a growing heaviness in his bones, a feeling of his muscles hanging limply from each bone like stewed meat, bereft of any of their usual vim or toughness. It was the fatigue, so rare in his stamina-stacked body, crawling through every nerve and slowing it down, cajoling his body into shutdown limb by limb.
As if Sonic would listen when his ears were currently clogged with adrenalin, killer instinct and sheer arrogance.
Another sweeping roundhouse-kick pummelled into the robot's chest, a strike that definitely should not have sent the giant machine sprawling against the cave wall. When, to Sonic's immense surprise and relief, this was precisely what happened, he wasted no time in diving on top of Cryax with a thunderous Spin-Attack that tore the machine's left shoulder plate free in a scream of twisting iron. Cryax loosed another strained mechanical below and lashed out with a free elbow. Sonic felt the blow whip over his head, barely ducking its bone breaking force, and dived for the floor. Perhaps he could keep the momentum behind his rebound onslaught going, keep the giant on his toes? But there was a disadvantage heaped onto his shoulders here. Not just the fatigue gradually squeezing his strength out of his body, but something altogether more pervasive, crushing, all-surrounding….. it was washing against his face right now, in stark mockery of his blindness. Sonic cursed silently as he realised that, true to Cryax's predictions, he couldn't see well at all in the constant gloom. Wrapped in the blackened veil, Sonic heard the mountain of metal crash down on top of him out of the dark before he knew which way to dodge. A mammoth arm, gouged with chips and cuts but still no less punishing, swept underneath him and caught him under his chin, hefting him cleanly off his feet and planting him, with a bloody artificial vengeance, against the jagged rock of the cave wall.
Sonic felt the fragments scar his face, howled as the rock smashed against his back, groaned where he hung as Cryax ruthlessly pressed his hydraulic biceps into his ribcage, teasing the bones to snapping point under his malicious neon stare. Steam gushed from between the brutal jaws, as if the monster was panting from battle exhaustion. Through the deepening red haze of fading consciousness Sonic could see the irregular jerks and pops of electricity and fibre around the robot's head become more agitated, more violent. Whatever equivalent this beast had for sanity was vanishing swiftly into the abyss.
"Squeal, hog, squeal…."
The metal tightened its vice-like hold on Sonic's body, warping the flesh that squirmed beneath it. Sonic felt his breath become hot and bitter in his mouth, gritted his teeth against more screams as the bones under his skin got ready to shatter. If he did die down here, perhaps he could hope that as his body burst it would soil the demon's skin in some way. It was all that was left for him to do now.
Then, from out of the crimson-shades that had now settled on Sonic's head, there came a sudden brilliant shaft of light, an arrow of fire that whipped past the gloom and buried itself against Cryax's skull. The impact rattled the monster to the base of his neck, jolted him the miasma of tiredness away from the fight. As the robot's grip slackened, more crossbow bolts hammering home against his torso and upper-body, Sonic kicked away from the wall with the last shred of his agility, his body sinking back into a crouch next to the advancing shadow of Amy Rose, silhouetted in the light of her own fire. The last of the bolts coughed out of her crossbow to assail the villain. Glittering green eyes leered playfully at Sonic through the wisps of gunsmoke as Amy lowered her weapon.
"You can pay me back later Sonic." She giggled. Sonic cringed visibly and brushed a clinging line of sweat off his forehead with the back of one hand.
"Don't count on that one…."
Amy's intervention could have been all that Sonic needed to get back into this fight and win. At least, Sonic relentlessly told himself this one shred of consolation. But he only wished his broken body would believe him. If he launched himself back into battle with Cryax now it would not end well. He was simply too exhausted to fight any longer, even with Cryax in his weakened state. But his pride kept him on his feet and his glare as fresh and as young as ever as he and Amy fixed their sights on the robot before them, now hunkered down under the sheer weight of his own pain. Sonic flexed one fist. Despite the pain his felt whenever he moved his fingers, the blood oozing from the torn fabric where he had cut his hands against Cryax's body, he still wouldn't allow himself to lose. He grimaced at his opponent and noted, with some degree of satisfaction, that he was trembling.
"Give it up, bag-of-bolts. You can't keep this up, even you should have got that into that dustbin you call a head by now."
The mechanised judder and wail of plates grinding together as Cryax raised his head was a chilling enough reply in itself. But now Sonic could see whatever falsified emotional spectrum churning under those malignant eyes rising to the surface, toiling like waves over the android's metallic skin. Underneath a body that was now having increasing trouble holding itself together, Cryax looked ready to burst apart under the sheer pressure of the hatred and malice now storming out from under his shell. Sonic felt a very real fear steal into his bones as a familiar spark of insanity, crocodilian menace laced with the madness of a certain well-known, much hated despot, burn out from Cryax's one remaining eye.
However in the world it was possible for a machine to go mad, Cryax had managed it. And with every passing second that life intruded on his protected world his madness gorged itself on his own anger and confusion. Cryax was ready to either explode or crumble to dust.
"This fight isn't over, infidel! I know what you fear, more than ending this fight here. If I escape, heal my wounds, recover my strength….. this planet of yours has a new gun to its head, doesn't it?"
Sonic hid his tremor of nervousness beneath a wall of disgust. He narrowed his eyes to emerald slits as he readied himself for the final drive.
"You're done…"
"Not yet meatbag!"
The sudden violent flash of Cryax's wrist blasters flaring into life punched through the darkness of the cave, sending Sonic's senses reeling from the sheer ocular impact. Both Cryax's hands were enveloped in quivering globes of orange fire, ready to hurl in Sonic's direction. Sonic heard the gravel scrape beneath him as Cryax's enormous feet dug in, gathered for a blast.
"Bye-bye, infidel!"
Sonic and Amy were both so prepared to dive out of the way of the hurricane of destructive energy at Cryax's behest that it took them totally by surprise when, a heartbeat later, Cryax had flung both his hands over his head, sending a serpentine column of energy burrowing with a bestial howl into the rock ceiling. Curtains of rubble and debris crashed to the floor in a panicked quake as the heroes tried to gather themselves. Through the intensifying curtain of smoke and dust Sonic saw Cryax turn heavily on his heel and bolt into the darkness, hobbling clumsily further down the tunnel.
"Hey! Hold it…"
Sonic would have dived past the cascade of rock to reach his fleeing adversary. He would have hared down that tunnel in a flash of blue fury and finished the job, ripped that sneering mechanoid limb from limb and nip this growing nightmare in the bud. Unfortunately, burrowing through several tons of solid rock in the dark would have been a feat for Sonic on a normal day. Down here, battered and wrecked and bleeding into the dirt even where he stood, his body just wouldn't allow itself to be damaged any further. It shut down in mid-spring, sending Sonic crumpling to one knee, paralysed with pain, while the cave roof whirled and smashed to the ground. With every second Cryax's fierce light and the pounding of his footsteps faded into the all-consuming thunder of the rockfall.
"Shoot…."
Several steps to his left Amy sheltered her face against the sprays of rock with one outstretched arm, her spent crossbow hung in one hand.
"Damn…. I knew it…."
Gritting her teeth against the rising tide of exhaustion, Amy felt herself choke silently on that unfamiliar sensation of defeat.
"Well, that was naughty…"
The humour was wasted on Sonic. It bounced off the bruised wisps of his quills amid a shield of burning humiliation as he glared at the tumbled boulders. He stared as if his own rage would burn through the ton upon ton of ancient rock. Amy stepped forward smartly and planted a hand on Sonic's shoulder, jolting him to his senses. She allowed herself a brief shot of gratification; it was rare enough for her to be the one taking command of Sonic.
"C'mon, we've lost him Sonic. We'll just have to…"
"I'm not done! Not… done…."
If Sonic had been intending to make a dramatic, last-chance charge through the barrier, it certainly didn't go as planned. Against the overwhelming hammer-blow of his own exhaustion, his muscles simply rubberized, flinging him head-first into the debris as he tripped over his own blasted feet. Rolling her eyes to the faceless heavens, Amy reached forward and hauled Sonic's battered form back to its feet.
"I think you'll find you are. Now let's go. If Cryax is gone then we need to put the alert around. We'll be ready for him next time."
"Next time…." Sonic was parroting the phrase with every tentative, baby step back up the tunnel, one hand draped over Amy's shoulder for support. Beneath the thick dribbles of tired foam now rolling down his chin his teeth were gnashing feebly as Knuckles and Tails, both looking all the more rested for their lack of involvement, hared into sight from the rising path to the light.
"We heard the racket," Tails explained, bringing himself to a lurching stop after a burst of his double-tails, "are you two…." His eyes focussed quickly on the beaten wreckage that was now Sonic's body and widened to the cartoon diameter of saucers, "Oh…. Looks rough…."
"I had him…" Sonic gabbled, practically vomiting the words with each laboured breath, "….. just needed a…. right where I…."
"I'm afraid he could be like this for a while," Amy interjected, "We're all going to need to rest up for a while. I'm afraid we lost Cryax, but at least now we know what we're up against. I guess we've got another search on our hands!"
"Porker should be thrilled," Knuckles drawled, "Providing he stays indoors during the fisticuffs."
"How is he anyway?"
"I saw him out the way we came in. Said he had some research to do that might help bring Cryax down."
Knuckles couldn't resist the grins surging to grip his face as Sonic passed him at a limp.
"And by the look of you we're going to need all the help we can get, eh Sonic?"
The hedgehog's growl of futile aggression inflated Knuckles' obscene smile tenfold.
"I had the…. The…"
"Right where you wanted him? Now where have I heard that before….."
"Knuckles, leave it," said Tails, "we all had a hard enough time laying into that thing as it is."
Knuckles obeyed grudgingly, but he could see that the fox's heart was not in his defence. As he turned to face his friend he could also see the fits of giggles surging, barely under control, beneath Tails' face. He and Knuckles exchanged a brief moment, hitting their fists together in an expression of boyish enthusiasm. It was very clear that seeing Sonic in this state was too good an opportunity to pass by, regardless of whether or not you happened to be his closest friend.
By now the heroes were climbing the ascending cavern back to the light and air of the surface world, away from the rust and blood that had been unleashed below. Amy led the way, leading a hobbling Sonic with as much dignity as could be mustered for the occasion, and fumbled at her belt for her communicator.
"I'll get on the buzzer to Porker," she explained, "let him know how we're doing. Might be worth telling him to get the med-kits ready for you guys…."
"How many times did you say you had to hit him Sonic?" Knuckles guffawed, unable to resist the impulse to stay silent any longer. Sonic could only close his eyes and try to detach himself from the world that seemed to be ganging up on him at last.
"No seriously, how many times?"
"Shut up…"
