Act V: Floating Fortress
It had been days since Sonic left. He was running on no sleep- literally- but he had to find those Emeralds before Metal found more. He was in a race against a machine that didn't tire, didn't rest, so neither could he. But fuck he was exhausted. And hungry. Chaos he was hungry. And tired.
He withdrew the Emerald he acquired from the power plant had a very faint glow to it. The dim, purple glimmer meant he was getting closer. If he got another, he'd take an hour long nap. That was his deal with himself. He pocketed the Emerald and took off, stumbling every so often over a branch in the thick, cluttered forest of Mystic Ruins. He continued along, keeping the thoughts of Tails' face out of his thoughts. His best friend looked miserable while was shouting at him but... Tails betrayed him. Sonic stopped to catch his breath against a tree, and punched it. Damn it Tails, you had to go work for G.U.N., didn't you?
He took off again, focusing on what Metal had unleashed on him. His arsenal was akin to Omega, a payload that had never been there before. He was quicker too, with a brand new chest laser, and Chaos Control!? How the hell did Metal use Chaos Control!? That meant whoever programmed him to use it must have been able to as well. Eggman didn't know Chaos Control, but who else would have been able to repair Metal? The only other person Sonic knew with the brains to fix Metal, upgrade it, and imbue it with Chaos powers was Tails, and shattered trust or not, Sonic knew Tails wouldn't do that. Why would Tails ruin his power plant, that he's put so much work into?
Sonic felt the Emerald pulsate, and he withdrew it again. It was brighter, by quite a bit. Good. He was almost there. He wasn't sure if he wanted it to be Metal he was being drawn to or not. Sure, it'd be nice to try and steal them back, but another run-in with Metal would be lethal. He was in way better fighting shape for their last fight when he was rested, and he still needed Shadow to save his ass.
He followed the intensity of the Emerald, until he finally came across a cliff. It was so intense, it had to be nearby, somewhere! Sonic glanced up, and realized what it was being attracted to. In the distance hovered Angel Island, a couple miles out over the ocean. Of course, the Island! It had been so long since he'd been to the Island (or the Mystic Ruins, truth be told) that he'd forgotten how impossible it was to track Chaos Emeralds in this area.
Just as he went to turn around, he paused, and looked back at the island in the sky. Hm... Knuckles wouldn't know about Metal. And Knuckles was never able to one v one Metal Sonic, so, maybe he should at least be prepared... Plus, maybe Knuckles had a Chaos Emerald Sonic could offer to secure.
In a purple flash, Sonic was gone, leaving the Mystic Ruins as though he'd never been there. He arrived on Angel Island, unknowingly the first visitor in nearly half a decade. The island looked relatively unchanged though, at least from what he could tell from the few seconds he'd been on the island. He started jogging to the Master Emerald Shrine, knowing he'd find his old friend standing guard there. Suddenly, he stopped. Sonic spun around to find the jungle... just as it looked when he passed where he'd stepped. Huh. It felt like eyes were on him but... there was nothing there. He glanced up, above the canopy, and it was the same thing... nothing.
A rustle to his left made the blue hedgehog jump back and assume a battle stance. Slowly, he crept up on the bushes the sound came from, and dove into them, swinging wildly at whatever caused it. Nothing. He sighed, laying in the overgrowth. Yeah, he was gonna need to sleep when he got to the Shrine, because now he was getting paranoid. Pulling himself out, he took a nice, long stretch. If there was a noise, it was probably just a squirrel. His hand came up to his forehead as he realized he and his exhaustion could have led him to assaulting an innocent woodland critter. Idiot... just breathe.
The tiniest buzzing sound came from behind him. If he hadn't heard that distinct noise so many times over the years, he'd have thought it was just a bee flying nearby, but it had the slightest accent of a soft machine engine. Sonic spun around, and a shoddily put together Buzz Bomber was descending through the canopy, charging up a laser sting. The giant bee badnik looked like it had been stitched together with scrap and... maybe even other damaged Buzz Bombers, but the weapon systems worked just as fine as ever. He leapt into the air when the cannon fired at him, and followed up his jump with a homing attack straight through the Badnik. They'd infiltrated Angel Island. He'd have to get to the Shrine fast, and hope they hadn't taken the Master Emerald yet. His Emerald reacting meant that maybe it was still okay, after all, it wouldn't react to something that wasn't there... Plus, the island was still floating so-
His meandering train of thought helped the squad of Badniks ambush him. From the trees, several Coconuts Badniks descended with bombs in their hands, from the bushes, Crabmeats emerged with hand cannons pointed at the Blue Blur, and above him, several more Buzz Bombers with a ring of readied stinger cannons that would keep him from jumping straight up into them. If they weren't evil, he'd have been a little impressed... this was the most competence he'd ever seen out of an Eggman robot, much less twenty of them.
Cracking his knuckles, Sonic dropped into a spin dash and took off, not giving the Badniks the opportunity to start unleashing their combined arsenal on him. Bouncing off a Crab Meat, he began homing through the Coconuts, switching off to the Crab Meats to throw off the firing pattern of his ambushers. After taking out most of the ground troops, he turned focus to the Buzzbombers. Sidestepping a barrage of lasers, he back to bounce off a tree and get the drop on them. As his feet made contact with a tree, a body flew out from his right side to grab him and slam him into the ground.
The collision left a crater where the two bodies landed, and when the dust cleared Sonic saw Knuckles above him, grabbing him by the throat with his spiked fist raised and readied. "You have a lot of nerve coming to my island and busting up my defense system, Sonic!" Knuckles snarled, fist trembling with fury.
"Y- your defense system!? Knuckles, those are Badniks!" Sonic spat back, forcing the words out despite the crushing force on his windpipe.
"Former. I've spent the past few years reprogramming them to take out any intruder on the island. Which you currently are. Now, give me one good reason to not toss you off my island right now."
"Knux, take it easy! I thought we were cool, man!"
"That doesn't sound like a good reason!"
"Woah! Woah! Easy! I came here because Metal Sonic is stealing Chaos Emeralds and I just wanted to give you the heads up!"
Knuckles rage faltered, before returning. "Don't bullshit me, Sonic. I'm not in the mood for games, especially now that I have to repair all these robots!"
"I'm not lying! It stole one from the museum and one right out of Shadow's hands! I swear to Chaos, Knux, Metal is back!"
Knuckles' eyes narrowed as he attempted to read Sonic. After a moment, he growled, and released his grip on Sonic's throat. "Stand down." He ordered, and the Buzz Bombers' charged lasers faded away.
"Oh thank God..."
ooo
The two descended down the long pathway to the Master Emerald. Knuckles clarified that as long as he was there, none of the traps would trigger. The Emerald used to be displayed proudly on a Shrine on the top of the island, but now, it had been buried deep under the surface, hidden away from any potential thieves. In front of them was a Buzz Bomber, using its charge laser as a torch, illuminating their path.
"I'm surprised you could stand to have those Badniks on the island," Sonic finally said.
It took Knuckles a minute to reply, but eventually he mumbled back, "Yeah, well, I wasn't a fan of it at first, but when I gathered all the scrapped robots on the island to dump, I realized, why let it go to waste?"
"You repaired them though? That's surprising."
Knuckles grinned proudly, but Sonic couldn't see it. "Yeah, well, I'm not the old gullible moron I used to be! I didn't have much to do for the past five years so I took up engineering to better defend the Master Emerald with some 21st Century upgrades."
"Well, based on how things are going right now, I'd say you're the smartest out of us all."
"Yeah. I wasn't expecting Metal Sonic to be the culprit, but just in case someone tried to steal it, I'd be ready this time. That started with taking it off the top of the island. Now no one can just fly up and steal it from above. It's gonna take a lot of work to get to it. Especially with the minor military I have working here now."
"Yeah, that's pretty cool and all, but... badniks? You don't think that's kinda, uh, dangerous?"
"Don't worry, I reprogrammed them well. They'll take down anyone who comes here. You saw how quickly they managed to ambush you."
"Yeah, but I tore most of them apart."
"There were more reinforcements on their way. Plus, there are only two people who are that fast. You and Shad."
"And Metal."
Knuckles went to speak, but stopped. He was silent as they reached the Emerald chamber, which was blocked by a reinforced metal door. "See, you can't even access it without being me." He removed his glove, and squeezed the door. "There's a tiny little needle on the backside that'll even check my DNA. Sonic, I've been guarding this Emerald my whole life. I'm done letting it get stolen, or damaged." The door judged them as safe, and it opened. "See, the room is surrounded by this reinforced steel, and several hundred yards of dirt and stone. Anything coming through from the sides or above will be detected immediately, and anything coming down the steps will be helpless to all the traps."
The two stepped into the subterranean shrine, and high above them rest the Master Emerald on a replica of the old temple it used to rest on above ground. "Knuckles, I trust you, but under the circumstances, I'm not sure how safe the Emerald is right now. I mean, Metal and whoever is programming him will know it's here. And having the place swarming with Badniks is especially dangerous if someone is restoring Badniks to assault-ready conditions."
Knuckles sighed, as they began to ascend the grand, stone temple. "Sonic, even if Badniks are being turned back on, the ones I have are secure. Sure, someone may have turned some back on, but they'd have had to do it manually, like I did. The only one with the general intelligence or experience with experience with Badnik coding at this point to turn my Badniks back would be Eggman himself." A Motobug rolled up to them, carrying a tray with drinks on them. "Look at them, I've completely reprogrammed them to defend the Master Emerald from any threat." Knuckles took both drinks and offered one to Sonic.
"But how will they handle a threat on Metal Sonic level!?" Sonic cried, pushing the drink away.
"With me backing them up, we'll crush any would-be thieves." Knuckles replied, putting Sonic's drink down.
"Knuckles, I'm telling you, Metal Sonic is too much for you. He kicked the ass of Shadow, Omega, and me. Why do you think you'll do any better?"
"From what you told me on the way over here, it sounds like Shadow and Omega barely got the chance to do anything to it. And no offense, but you don't look like you're exactly in fighting shape. And I don't just mean the exhaustion. When's the last time you worked out, huh? I've been pushing myself ever since you killed Egg-"
"We. You and Shadow were up there too."
"Oh please, you were the one that was there when he died. Shadow and I were taking care of the Death Egg Robo."
ooo
Eggman detached himself from his giant mech, leaving it on autopilot. He'd successfully stolen the Master Emerald, and was holding the world at ransom, as per usual. Tails was leading the charge with Team Rose and most of Team Dark against the Badnik forces on Earth, trying to rescue the President, while Sonic, Knuckles, and Shadow tried to stop the mad Doctor on his mother ship. The entire Eggman Empire was controlled from this spacecraft. If they could take it down, they could stop his army. Not for good, but for now. It was always just, for now.
Eggman retreated to another room, trapping the heroes in with the independent Death Egg guardian. Knuckles growled, and turned to Knuckles. "Shadow! He can't get away with the Master Emerald! Can you blow a hole through the wall?"
Shadow nodded sternly, and prepared a Chaos Blast. "Cover me!" he ordered, needing a minute to ready the destructive force required to take down the metal wall.
Sonic sprinted past Shadow, grinning cockily. "Don't sweat it! And if I take this thing down while you're still charging up Shad, well, don't be surprised you took too long!" The Death Egg Robo fired a punch at Sonic, its arm extending out to allow it to put a dent in the floor where Sonic just was. Sonic jumped onto the fist and dashed up the arm, letting it take shots from its own turret up its limb. "Come on, Eggman's 'latest and greatest' is more like 'lamest and brainless!' Knux, how'd ya let him get the Master Emerald out of your hands anyway?"
Knuckles bared his teeth at his blue rival, but Shadow prevented him from speaking when he roared, "CHAOS, BLAST!" An eruption of Chaos energy shot out from Shadow's glowing, red body at the back wall, eviscerating it almost instantly. Sonic hopped above the Death Egg Robo and landed on the top of its head. It threw a punch above its head, which Sonic dodged with ease.
"Guys! You take care of lame and brain! Uh, less... I'll go after Eggman!" Sonic called down, dodging another swipe.
"Sonic! Get the Emerald back, at any cost!" Knuckles shouted up.
"You can end this now! Remember how much he's done to us all! What he's taken! Don't let him get away again," Shadow ordered authoritatively.
Sonic glanced back at his friends, biting his lower lip. He knew what they were implying, but he didn't want to acknowledge it as a possibility. He leapt off the back of the giant mech, and ran after Eggman. The Death Egg Robo began to spin around to chase after him, but Shadow launched a Chaos Spear at its back. "Hey!' he shouted, preparing another Spear. "Don't think we're gonna let you get away big guy!"
Sonic caught up with Eggman in no time. The doctor knew the Mobians would catch up with him, but despite Sonic being the fastest thing alive... he didn't expect any of them to catch up so quickly. Eggman's hovercraft sped off towards another machine to strap into, but Sonic moved, naturally, too quick for him. He launched a homing attack straight into the hover craft, knocking Eggman and the Master Emerald to the ground. Sonic landed first, and made an immediate spring backwards to catch the Emerald, narrowly before it hit the ground and shattered. Eggman used that time to hit the ground and immediately start fleeing.
Sonic set the Emerald down and placed a hand firmly on it. Knuckles would catch up with it. He had to stop Eggman now damn it. A golden glow surrounded Sonic as he assumed his Super form, then looked down the hallway Eggman had fled down. It's on. He raised a foot off the ground, and took off, soaring down the hall after the mad scientist.
He skidded to a halt in front of where Eggman just was. A sealed escape pod hatch. He saw Eggman's pod soaring away from the space station. Escaping. To do this again. To threaten the world, again. It was a split second decision that caused him to crouch down, and blast through the door, after Eggman. With blind fury, he threw a punch straight into the pod, screaming into outer space as his fist drove into the miniature spaceship. It flew off course, stray wires emerging from the gash Sonic put in it. He froze, floating in space, watching it spin off with smoke billowing out of it. Sonic leaned forward, and was pushed back by an explosion. He stared at the exploding escape pod, eyes wide and jaw dropped, as he felt his Super form waver. This wasn't good, he couldn't concentrate on his form, but... Eggman. He blew up. In outer space. It took a few minutes before Sonic rejoined Shadow and Knuckles. He just drifted out there, watching where his former nemesis had previously existed.
ooo
"Ever since Eggman died, I've been pushing myself," Knuckles said with resolution. His eyes sparkled as he went on to describe how "Every day I've either worked on myself physically or worked on the island's defenses. There's more than just Badniks, the island is an impenetrable fortress. If it weren't for your little Chaos Control, you wouldn't have had a chance at getting on the island, or at least undetected, which, if you'll recall, you were, almost immediately."
"But Knuckles, Metal Sonic-"
"Is a chump. Just like his biologic counterpart. He can come if he wants, I'll just turn him to scrap and make him the general of my defense team. If he even bothers coming."
Just as Knuckles expressed his doubt, there was a rumbling from above. They both snapped their attention straight up. "Floating islands don't get, uh, earthquakes, do they?"
Before Knuckles responded, a red alarm began blaring from one of the walls of the shrine room. "No. No earthquakes," Knuckles replied, heading for the door. "Come on, let's go see what it is. And if it's Metal, let's send him after his maker."
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