Magical explosions erupted relentlessly about the grounds of the DWMA. Tikal was atop a building, watching Blaze's movements and sending out clusters of tendrils at opportune times. It was obvious to the witch how much the princess was struggling, so she felt elated.
Blaze was also being chased by Eclipse and Starline. She could outspeed them normally, but changing direction to avoid Tikal's magical bombardment was giving them ample opportunity to catch up with her. After avoiding another barrage of exploding tendrils, Blaze turned around completely. Her resonance strengthened.
"Burning rush!"
Blaze's speed surged; she was on the darkling in an instant. His body resisted her sword, but the following explosion sent him away. She had been fairly certain that the attack wouldn't kill him. Starline went in for a soul force hit right after. Blaze was ready, and dodged correctly. She kicked the professor aside once he missed, then went for Tikal.
"Burn the witch!"
The meteoric fireball cluster destroyed the rooftop Tikal was on. The witch had moved out of the way, now finding the hunter charging straight at her new location. One sword swipe neared the echidna before a magical boost panel appeared below.
Tikal was sent away from Blaze's advance. The meister was prepared to judge her target's change in trajectory, and sent a fireball accordingly. Her attack was on target, but it didn't land as intended.
"Starline!" Blaze shouted.
The doctor had taken the attack in Tikal's place; he was struck on his left side. The attack burned away his sleeve up past the shoulder, and his body had become visibly seared. Luckily, a shortage of time had kept Blaze from launching a fully powered attack, so Starline wasn't gravely injured. The princess did know, however, that he likely wouldn't take another hit very well. Despite that, Starline's expression was still vacant, and tired.
"Thanks Starline," Tikal patted him on the head. "You're so thoughtful,"
Eclipse regrouped nearby. Tikal strutted a few steps before grinning at her exhausted opponent.
"Few people in the world could last as long as you have in a fight like this. You're really doing the kingdom of Sol proud before dying like a sad animal," She laughed.
Inhaling and exhaling, Blaze could feel the world around her slowing.
"You have a plan right?" Silver's voice was in her mind now, clear as day. It had been a while since they'd linked minds, so their resonance felt strange at first. It soon felt natural.
"Not really," She sighed.
"You always have a plan!"
"The only plan I have is to kill Starline and the darkling so we can fight Tikal one on one. After that, the resulting emotional toll of killing two innocent people will ruin our resonance, allowing Tikal to kill us instantly, which she might do even before we try the first part of this plan,"
"Yeah, I uh, don't like that plan,"
Blaze took another look around, and noticed something important with her soul perception. "Alright, I have a new plan. It's going to take a lot of trust, so you should take the lead on this one,"
Silver wasn't sure what his meister meant. All he could sense was that her soul had calmed, and she was suddenly hyper-focused. Someone else appeared.
"Tikal! You bitch!"
Vanilla dove into the fray. A hammer head had formed on her arm, and she caught Tikal with a direct hit. The attack rattled the witch and sent her away, but she was still very much alive. Starline landed a soul force attack on Vanilla, but she withstood the impact. Fighting through the pain, she brought her hand back to normal.
"Starline!"
Her hand touched his heart, bringing her healing wavelength into his body. A weak resonance formed when his soul responded. All the ensnaring magic was driven out of his soul. Starline fell.
By the time Tikal landed, Eclipse was already between her and Blaze. The princess was pointing her weapon straight forward at them. Her soul wavelength fully empowered Silver, and he could feel that Blaze was giving him all the strength she had left. The temperature of the air around them skyrocketed.
"Psychic inferno!"
Tikal had no option left but to try escaping. She generated another panel underneath herself.
"I'm out of here!"
Her body hit an invisible wall. A transparent tunnel with only the faintest of glows had formed around the four of them. Said tunnel quickly caught fire, and the flames weren't growing slowly.
The heat was hellish; Tikal couldn't keep the fire away from herself. She held out her arms to produce a magical attack, but noticed her flesh was already burning away. Her body, alongside her wavelength, failed. Disbelief made her stare onward. Were they really killing Eclipse, too?
The last thing Tikal saw was the darkling standing in place, unharmed by the inferno around them. A glow from Silver's wavelength formed a veil around him. Tikal's body finished burning; the flames died. Eclipse's body relaxed, and he hit the ground. The soul of his creator hovered in the air behind him.
Blaze sunk to her knees, still clutching her sword tightly. Realizing the fight was over made her grip relax. Silver glowed, then was standing next to her.
"You okay?"
Blaze didn't answer right away. Silver took her hand to help her up, and found himself being hugged.
"Thanks Silver," She said at last.
Being hugged by Blaze made Silver instinctually feel like he might get in trouble, either with Blaze herself or by some unseen force. When that feeling passed, he hugged his meister back. He squeezed even tighter and lifted her off the ground, spinning them in a half-circle. Blaze yelped, then found herself laughing quite loud. Silver couldn't help but do the same.
Moving freely through the air allowed Metal Sonic to easily avoid Amy's attacks. Still, she swung her hammer ferociously while charging after the strange robotic imitation of her favorite hedgehog. The robot would occasionally change direction and head straight for her.
"Whoa!" Amy yelled when her opponent swiped at her using razor-sharp claws.
Metal Sonic went back to hovering out of reach while searching for his next moment of attack.
"Maybe if I can fling something at him," Amy thought.
She noticed Omega, who had all of his limbs torn off. His torso sat in the middle of the walkway, unable to move.
"I can still fight. Fight me! Fight me!" He yelled at Tails and Amy without distinction.
"Bingo,"
The pink hedgehog ran with her hammer ready. Omega analyzed Amy's movements and quickly understood her intentions.
"Amy, no!" He yelled.
"Amy, yes!" She replied.
A vigorous swing of her hammer jettisoned what was left of Omega up high. He collided with Metal Sonic midair. Both robots crashed into one of the DWMA's side towers. When Metal Sonic fell from the structure, he caught himself with his thrusters. He kept from hitting the ground, but his elevation was considerably low.
"Yah!"
Amy jumped. Her glowing hammer collided with Metal Sonic's head. It detached, then flew off across a great distance. The rest of him collapsed.
"That was amazing! Tails did you see-"
Three pink daggers sunk into Amy's body. She lost all her strength, and went limp. Cream, who had been hit by one dagger while in weapon form, shifted back to normal after falling. Amy weakly turned her head around, finding Tails and Knuckles on the ground a ways away, both in a similar state.
"Tails, you butt! Did you really lose to that witch?"
"She was right, the fight did get harder as it went on," Tails admitted. "Plus witches are tough,"
"I thought you were supposed to be a genius or something!" Amy complained. "And what about you, Mr. Tough-guy?"
"No comment," Knuckles growled.
Shade loomed over each of the meisters and weapons she'd defeated. "I don't think any of you are strong enough to be fighting a...a…"
Shade sneezed violently. A strange purple mist came from her mouth. The witch blinked twice, then sniffed.
"Looks like Tikal's dead. I'm out of here,"
Shade took a few steps away before Amy yelled at her.
"Wait!" She managed to sit up. "You're not going to…?" Amy drug a finger in a line over her neck.
"No. Were you wanting me to kill you?"
Amy held up her hands. "No! I just want to know why you suddenly decided to leave,"
"Tikal had a spell on me, so I had to follow her orders if I wanted to live. The spell is gone now, so I'm not staying here," Shade explained.
"If that's what happened, maybe you can help us now?" Knuckles proposed after standing.
"I don't have any interest in putting my life on the line for the DWMA, even if I'd prefer you not die here,"
"Why do you care so much about me living?"
"I already told you that echidna gauntlets are special," Shade related. "The world could use more echidnas in general. It'll be good if you go on living so you can reproduce. Help get the echidna birth rate up,"
Knuckles cautiously looked around. "Are you hitting on me?"
Shade flinched, and blushed. "I didn't mean with me, you creep!"
Knuckles crossed his arms. "Pretty sure if I told you to help get the birth rate up, you'd say I'm mansplaining or whatever,"
"That's not what mansplaining is," Tails whispered.
"I did not- I wasn't-" Shade could feel her face was quite flush by this point. "I'm leaving,"
Shade stormed off, hoping her current embarrassment wouldn't bring her to recall this moment at 3 AM while struggling to fall asleep. It would. Cream got out of weapon form and stood up with her meister.
"Knuckles, you moron. It's okay when women say stuff like that," Amy said.
Knuckles ignored her. Tails, who was putting his soul perception to good use, spoke next.
"I sense Blaze nearby. She's with Silver and Vanilla," Tails's eyes widened. "Starline's there too! I think they might need help!"
Amy, Cream, Tails, and Knuckles found Vanilla, Blaze, and Silver gathered around Starline.
Tails saw that his professor was laying on the ground, in rough shape. "How bad is it?"
"Not bad enough that I can't heal him, at least," Vanilla replied.
"Healing him is good, but won't he still be affected by the madness?" The fox asked.
"Probably, but I won't leave him like this. Cream, help me,"
Mother and daughter both placed their hands on Starline's chest. A dim, golden glow formed around their hands. Each of the burns on Starline's body faded in a matter of seconds. One groan escaped from his mouth, then his eyes fluttered open.
"Starline?" Vanilla spoke cautiously. "How are you feeling?"
"My head hurts,"
"I may have kicked you there once or twice," Blaze confessed.
Vanilla helped Starline sit up. "You remember us don't you? A lot's happened,"
"How could I forget such a happy bunch?" Starline stated dryly. He thought for a few moments. "Last thing I remember is speaking with Sonic. Everything after that is hazy," His brow furrowed. "Was I teaming up with Eclipse?"
"Tikal took advantage of your drained sanity. She was influencing you; making you fight," Silver explained.
"Always the charmer. Where is she now?"
Silver and Blaze moved aside, gesturing toward the glowing soul in the near distance.
"Lovely," Starline brushed a hand through his long hair. "Please tell me I don't look as bad as I feel," He whined before noticing the state of his clothes. "Oh, dear god..."
"Starline, focus," Vanilla pressed. "The kishin warped straight here and killed Ivo with a powerful scythe. Sonic and Shadow are fighting him right now," She pointed up at the tower, which now bore a dome of maroon darkness around the top.
"Poor Ivo," Staline sighed, with only a minute amount of sadness. "That barrier looks troublesome. Did anyone bother checking on Eclipse? He was being controlled like I was,"
"I'm here,"
Eclipse's voice came from behind the nearest trash can. His dark eyes barely peeked out from behind it.
"It's okay Eclipse, you can come over here," Starline said.
A period of silence passed. Eclipse examined the group from the safety of his hiding spot before shrinking back. "That's too many girls,"
"Too many?" Amy sneered. "Why don't you tell us your preferred number of girls, then?"
"Zero," Eclipse replied without peeking again.
"So the villains finally reveal their sexist agenda," Amy held out her hand. "Cream, let's bash this fash,"
Cream only looked at Amy with one eyebrow raised.
"That's enough, Amy," Vanilla chided.
"Come on, Eclipse," Starline directed.
Eclipse reluctantly crept nearer to the group, keeping his gaze trained on the ground. He stood behind Starline. The doctor spoke, hoping to reassure him.
"Seems we both had a rough go of it, thanks to Tikal,"
"She used to tell me to hurt people all the time," Eclipse stated casually.
"That's horrible," Vanilla griped. "So glad she's out of the picture,"
"You're not hurt, are you?" Cream asked.
Eclipse didn't reply until he'd adjusted his position behind Starline, such that he was more hidden from Cream's view. "No, I'm pretty durable,"
"I wish I could say the same," Starline spitefully adjusted his damaged clothes.
"Shouldn't you still be insane?" Knuckles asked Starline.
"Not that we aren't glad you're better," Tails added with a hint of side-eye aimed at his weapon.
"Normally I'd be struggling, but the air is clear," Starline examined the surroundings. "The kishin has drawn all the chaos waves in the area back inside himself to gain more power. Basically, we're inside the eye of the storm. Things are calm here for now, but if Sonic loses, we'll get the worst of it,"
Blaze marched onward. "Then we better see what we can do to help,"
Update
The current release schedule for future chapters is: whenever I get them done.
It's probably implied at this point since the updates have been taking longer, but I want to make that clear for any new readers who get current with the story from now until it's complete. I made a temporary post about making updates less frequent and this is basically a follow up to that. Future chapters will probably be longer than they have been for a while, and I won't speak to how frequent they may happen. If you've stuck with the story this far, thanks for reading!
