Chapter 8: A Mystery Solved is Only The Beginning
"I'LL CAVE YOUR HEAD IN YOU LITTLE SHI-" Knuckles charged towards Eclipse in pure fury, but was intercepted by Shadow.
"Oh no you don't!" Shadow sneered, throwing Knuckles back. Lux ran in and attacked Shadow, pushing him away from defending Eclipse.
"Oh great, you again!" Shadow groaned, shielding himself from her. He attacked back at Lux with a kick to her face.
Whisper, Tangle and Sonic stepped back, letting Lux, Knuckles and Amy take the fight, but still ready to jump back in at any moment.
"Are you hiding something?" Whisper asked Sonic out of the blue.
"Huh? N-No, of course not!" Sonic replied nervously.
"Yo, Whisp, what's this about?" Tangle butted in, concerned.
"When Amy was talking about her "intuition", you started acting we-" Whisper was interrupted by something randomly shooting her in the foot. She looked up into the sky, and saw two young foxes, she's seen them before! They were the two foxes she saw arguing with each other when she first entered the building in front of her, except they weren't foxes anymore, they were whatever alien creature Eclipse is! One had cyan stripes, and the other had crimson stripes; almost like they were an exact younger version of Eclipse, except that they looked a bit more feminine. The crimson striped one was holding the cyan striped one as they shot at the ground.
"LASER PARTY!" The cyan striped darkling shouted in reckless enjoyment. Tangle grabbed Whisper's wispon and shot at them
"Tangle! Those are KIDS! I've MET them! Shouldn't we-?!" Whisper yelled after her, worried.
"That's what you thought about "Clysdale" themself, didn't you? And now look at what we're dealing with!" Tangle said to her.
Whisper realized that Tangle was right and took back her wispon, but before she could take a single shot, Tangle was kicked in the back by the crimson striped one of the two. They flew off and grabbed the hand of the cyan striped darkling just before they hit the ground.
"WHAT THE HELL CREGAL?!"
"Oops, sorry Cyzer~!" The apparently named Cregal said in a snarky tone, as they placed Cyzer on the ground.
Cregal flew off once more, towards Knuckles, Amy and Eclipse. They slammed into Knuckles, pushing him far away from Eclipse. This did leave Eclipse alone with Amy though, who instantly started swinging at them with her hammer. They were able to dodge her, but they were roughed up now. Quite quickly, a third dark darkling jumped in between Eclipse and Amy; this one with vibrant blue strikes, nearly just as vibrant of a blue as Sonic's fur. Amy striked at the kid, but he pulled up a blue-tinted shield, which Amy's hammer snapped in two right as it hit.
"MY HAMMER!" Amy cried.
"C'mon Ma', let's get outta here." The kid grabbed Eclipse by the hand and ran off to where Cregal had retreated.
"Wh-What's going on here-?" Eclipse tried to ask, but was interrupted.
"Cregal, go get Cyzer and Shadow, quick!" the blue striked darkling ordered.
"Got it, bro!" Cregal flew off.
"Would you like to explain what's going on here, Blurk? Did y-you guys plan a-all this? I-I'm not mad, I'm just confused!" Eclipse sputtered.
"Yep, it was all her idea." Blurk responded.
"Who-?"
"If everything's going to plan, she should be on the roof right now."
"WHAT-?" Cregal came back with Cyzer and Shadow, and flew with them behind Eclipse.
"Eclipse! What the hell is going on?! Since when did your Dark Arms have these forms?!" Shadow asked.
"Oh, my bad, I was going to tell you at some point…" Eclipse responded, clearly being sarcastic.
"Enough chit chatting, we've got a battle to win." Blurk said as he formed a bubble around the five of them. Suddenly, there was a shout from the roof of the clinic, a war cry.
"ALL HAIL THE BLACK ARMS!"
A large sonic boom blasted through the area, damaging the surrounding buildings, and knocking down the heroes, though Eclipse, Shadow, and the three kids were protected by Blurk's defenses.
Whisper was the first to look up and try to see the source of such a powerful attack. It was the pink striked girl she had seen the night before numerous times, now in a new alien look like the others. That young girl was the one behind that sonic boom, and the war cry.
She hoped down from the roof, into the arms of a very concerned and panicked Relic, but was quickly dropped when Knuckles yanked Relic to him in pure fury.
"You… You sneaked onto my island and took advantage of the fact that I and my island were in peril to further YOUR career, but I pushed that aside, because after getting to know you, you SEEMED trustworthy. But you turn your back on me after 4 years, NEARLY HALF A DECADE of friendship, and leave me all alone, and ally yourself with the likes of ECLIPSE for what? WHAT do you get out of this, Relic?! You've betrayed not only me, but all of Mobius! … In short, what i'm saying is…"
"I hope you burn in hell, Relic the Pika."
Knuckles thrashed Relic about and then threw her into the distance, with such power that she completely disappeared.
"RELIC!" Both Shadow and Eclipse called out. The last of the young darlings ran to Eclipse, as finally, Wilma walked out into the city streets battlefield.
"Hmph… You all have caused all this destruction without me? What a pity.. Well, at least I can have some fun now! But no… I don't think this will do… It looks like you all… You horrid creatures… Will get to see the REAL me!" Wilma snickered, and threw her glasses on the ground, crushing them underneath her foot, before beginning to transform. Unlike with Eclipse's reveal, "Wilma" not only simply shifted form, but grew in size. Sonic in particular took a defensive stance. Once she was done, the woman who the heroes knew as Wilma Brevair towered over them, looking at them with five shining eyes, filled with fury and hatred. She resembled that of the late leader of the Black Arms, Black Doom, but had her own distinguished look, with the center point being the ivory colored mask over her face.
"This looks serious… At least I came prepared!" Sonic said, Summoning the seven Chaos Emeralds around him. Everyone around him was surprised, not even Knuckles and Amy knew that Sonic had taken the Emeralds with him. Absorbing the power of the Chaos Emeralds, Sonic became Super Sonic. This caused "Wilma" to become even more furious, tears starting to form in her eyes.
"No! NO! I REFUSE TO DIE LIKE HE DID! FOR HIM! FOR ME! FOR OUR PEOPLE! I REFUSE TO BE KILLED IN THE SAME WAY YOU KILLED MY HUSBAND! I, BLACK WIDOW, QUEEN OF THE BLACK ARMS, REFUSE TO LET WHAT'S LEFT OF MY CITIZENS TO SUFFER THAT PAIN TWICE!" She cried out. Sonic said nothing back, and just attacked her.
Everyone on both sides stood back and let them fight, because this was THEIR fight, their battle.
For the heroes, it was Sonic's battle to protect Mobius. But honestly? This was the usual, the expected. Nearly everyday is like that for Sonic and his friends.
For what was left of the Black Arms, the small bit left of them… This battle was life or death, not just for Black Widow, but for ALL of them, even the two who were previously on the heroes side, Shadow, Relic, and Omega, if Black Widow lost, if this day, this moment is to be her last, they have no way of saving themselves. That's it.
There's no coming back from this.
Both Sonic and Black Widow prepared to give this their best effort, and soon after, the fighting began, making such a sight, that it could be seen from miles away, which was quite helpful to Relic in particular, who had found herself landing in with two lone Black Arms, trying to find their way to the rest of the pack, and someone who Relic wasn't surprised decided to give them assistance in such a mission.
"What is that?! No, it must be… It's Widow!" Relic called out.
"Are we thinkin' of the same Widow? Like, Black Widow?" a lanky Black Arms Elite asked her.
"Uh, yeah, Yuki, I think she is." Responded a short coral colored hedgehog, that looked like she was made the same way Shadow and Eclipse were.
"Damn, no need to get mad at me, Hara, I was just asking…" Yuki snapped back.
"So… Go straight into the chaos, right?"
"Ah yes, that'd be right on, Rouge!" Relic answered.
"Sounds about right!" Rouge snarked.
"Looks like we've got a bit still to go, then. I'll put this flag up so they know which side we're on!"
"You think you'll be good on your own Harazuki?" Relic asked.
"Yeah, I'll be fine! Even though some would disagree, I'm still a Ultimate Life Form… of sorts." Harazuki responded, flying up to the antenna of the beat up jeep Rouge was driving with a flag with the Black Arms symbol on it in her hands.
The fight was making both Sonic and Black Widow tired, but neither of them refused to give up. As time passed, it was very clear that Sonic had the advantage, but that didn't stop Black Widow, she knew that she needed to protect her people.
"You really are determined to win, aren't ya, lady?" Sonic said mockingly.
"Of course I am! What if YOU lost nearly everything, even the one you loved the most, GONE! Wouldn't you do just about anything to protect what you have left?" She responded back, full of emotion.
"Ya know, I'd feel bad for ya, but you and your hubby wanted to enslave us for your own selfish needs so… Tough luck!" This set Black Widow into a blinding rage, her hastily but forcefulling attacking Sonic with a Chaos Blast. Though with her so emotional, it was clear that she was vulnerable. "Wow! Cool move! Mind if I do the same to you?" Widow didn't respond, she COULDN'T respond. Her emotions overtook her in that moment. In that moment, her one thought was that of at least getting to see her love again in whatever was after this life.
But before Sonic could provide the final blow onto Black Widow, Shadow ran in front of her, and screamed out.
"I WON'T LET YOU HURT HER!"
And blasted Sonic with a Chaos Blast that was far beyond Shadow's power.
Widow reverted into her "Wilma" form in order to hug him.
"What the… What the hell was that..?!" Shadow looked at his hand, completely stunned. Everyone else was stunned as well, looking at Shadow in pure confusion, and even fear, for some.
Sonic was knocked out of his super form, the Chaos Emeralds scattered about where he landed, as Amy and Tangle helped him up.
At that moment, Omega came out of hiding with Garrick sitting on his shoulder.
"Are you in need of assistance?" He asked to Shadow. Shadow looked out, and saw Rouge's jeep drive in front of them, and smiled.
"Nah, we got a ride." He said, lugging Widow to the jeep. Omega went to the jeep, with Garrick still sitting on his shoulder, and Eclipse ran to the jeep and hugged Relic, with their four kiddos following them. The heroes were too stunned and weakened by Shadow's attack to try to stop them. Though Knuckles was able to yell out a warning to them.
"We aren't done yet! This is only the beginning, I tell ya! Only the beginning!"
