Chapter 12: Teen Spirit
In the Center Right Flank of the Egg fleet, Shadow, Amy, Sally, Rotor, and Bunnie, as well as a tied up Metal Sonic, sit in the computer room.
"Now that that's out of the way, do you mind telling us what's going on?" Sally asks.
"Of course," Shadow complies. "I was on my way to see the Doctor about another issue. There was another me and when I followed him, it seemed he was headed for Eggman. However, I lost track of him. I can only guess he used Chaos Control."
"That must've been our Shadow then," Rotor tells Sally.
"Seems so," Sally replies.
"At the time, I thought it was another android version of me. However, after tracing the Doctors whereabouts, I ended up here. And who should I find escaping but Amy Rose?" Shadow concludes.
"Hehe~ Yup!" Amy yips adorably.
"Well that's good," Sally says. "We came to look for her anyway. Now that we have her, we hurry up with the mission."
"That being said, you must be here to shut down all of Eggmans big ships, is that right?" Rotor asks.
Shadow nods, looking at the terminal. It's currently shut off, along with the whole ships armed cannons and shuttles. That also goes for any communications that could reach Eggman. "And now that its off, I'm guess whoever else out there is trying to shut them all down at once?" Shadow questions.
They all nod.
"I cain't shake the feelin' somethin is off here," Bunnie admits, adding to the tension in the air. Sally and Rotor and everyone else looks at her with puzzled expressions. "If Eggman was really serious about keeping Amy, and I mean both of 'em, why would he just let 'er escape?"
Amy raises her eyebrow and points to her hammer. "I mean, it wasn't easy. I did meet some resistance."
Bunnie shakes her head, her ears floppy around just like her long braid. "Even if that was the case, we didn't have too many issues gettin' on this here ship either..."
Sally rests her hand on Bunnie's shoulder, bringing her out of her trance. "Maybe you're just overthinking it. In any case, we have Amy. We should probably head out," Sally turns to Shadow, who has his eyes closed and arms folded. "You too Shadow. You could probably fill us in a little more of any information you have."
Shadow shakes his head. "No. Because for one, I don't really know you guys. And two, I came here with Rouge and Omega. We have our own rendezvous we need to assemble at. Maybe on the way back, we can meet up and talk. But for now, fair well."
Shadow pulls out a chaos emerald, the typical green one he carries all the time. Sally jumps at the sight of it. "Chaos Control!" He says as Sally tries to stop him. But he's gone.
10 minutes ago, before any of the past 2 chapters even occurred, with the Sonics blasting through the air with style.
"WOOO!" Sonic cheers as he rockets onto the nearest possible ship, Archie Sonic running next to him across the deck of it. They blow through a variety of the enemies a head of them, leaving them either dizzy or destroyed entirely. Sonic smirks as his blue double runs next to him. "Hey, you're not too shabby. Let's pick up the speed so we can crack this egghead!"
"Hey, that's my line!" Archie Sonic retorts. He speeds up, hopping off of the front of the battle ship and on to another across the starry sky, jumping between them as he quickly reaches across to the next battle skip. But Sonic himself takes a different route, hopping off from the other side and shooting off into the distance and onto a distant rail floating in space (it's actually debris but its so thin, it could be used as a rail.). Sonic lands on it, grinding across the night sky at the speed of sound. It twists around and leads him to the inside of the next battle ship through the back.
Once inside, he boosts through to a wall of enemies, causing him to slowdown and turn right, doing a quick cartwheel and hopping over a few bomb-badniks until he reaches a circular vent that forces him to curl into a ball and roll through. Doing so, he ends up in the engine room, running a top a thicker duct as he looks at the scenery. Though, all he can see is a few rockets hurtling towards him. Scoffing, he goes faster, bouncing off of the wall and running across the ceiling to see who's shooting. A more bigger Egg Pawn that looks to be a guard robot. Now running down the wall, he spots the main engine and chuckles. He deliberately flashes past the Pawn, trying to guide his missiles while he runs up and over a small loop. He hops to and fro, landing on the engine then jumping off as soon as the missile hits. This causes the engine room to begin exploding, setting off a chain of them everywhere. Sonic leaves the room in the dust, boosting through the subsequent room of badniks and Egg Pawns as the rooms come crossing down by the sheer force of the explosion. As he reaches the end, it looks like Sonic might not make it as smoke and rubble chase after him, but he's still smiling as if he's having the time of his life.
From afar where Archie Sonic runs across, he sees the ship Sonic was on implode, sending a shockwave across to the other ships around it, but as the smoke clears, he doesn't see his twin anywhere. "Don't tell me he was too slow after all..." he thinks in suspected disbelief.
Soon after the smoke comes, Sonic emerges victorious, flying out into the darkness while the ship continues to explode. Around him, multiple massive ships and floating rocket shooters target him. As he soars through space, he realizes he's a sitting duck if he doesn't land soon. Without hesitation, all of them start firing both missiles and large plasmic lasers towards him at light speed. But he was faster, thinking quick as he clutches onto an oncoming jet fighter and ripping its metal wing off. It spirals into space and soon the incoming lasers. Luckily for him, Sonic lands bottom first on the laser and it doesn't automatically burn through the metal wing. He stands up, using it as a board while he rides across the laser's flames as if it was just another day at the beach. He flips across to a much larger beam of light as it carries him over the next battle ship, letting him skip it entirely. He continues to jumping from one another. Eventually the wing burns out and so Sonic backflips onto a rocket, riding it to the next ship. In that whole sequence, he was able to skip over two ships through the air alone.
Archie Sonic was only behind by a ship though and he didn't like the idea of losing a race to himself (?). In front of him is a large Guardian Egg Pawn that shoots a plethora of missiles in his direction. Fortunately, Sonic realized before it was too late, given how he instead jumps off the side of the ship and runs along the side where there's more cannons waiting for him. Too fast for them, he easily outruns their attacks and continues to run under the ship while the incoming missiles land into the ships walls.
"Too many of them. I've gotta get off this joint..." Archie Sonic thinks to himself in annoyance. Looking around, he notices there's more than enough room on the hull not too far in from of him. Along the hull is the sharp point that leads back up to the top. He hops on it and starts grinding along it, though his speed along begins cracking it in half. He doesn't mind it though because he keeps going up to the top, curling into a ball as he flies off and enters the big cannon at the the top. Doing so allows it to shoot him off ship and into the endless cavern of space. With there still being a lot of distance before the next highest battle ship, he homes in on a set of enemies and sends himself boosting towards the back of a lower battle ship.
In time he lands in the back entrance through a ring of fire thats keeping the battle ship moving forward, a risky move on his part. Archie Sonic stops in front of a wall of enemies that's keeping him from advancing into the ship. "Hey, you guys are kind of in my way. You mind getting lost?" A. Sonic asks in a sarcastic tone.
The pawns and badniks all assemble, moving closer to Archie Sonic. Some of the Mobians move further as well, with their guns aimed at him. He smiles in frustration, while also slightly amused. "Well, I tried..."
He turns and starts running up the circular wall slowly as the Henchmen begin shooting at him. He simply quick steps out of the way to avoid them as he laps them once, then twice, then four times, eight, 16, 32; He goes so fast that it causes the henchmen to float, as well as the pawns. The ring of fure outside begins to collide with the wind inside Archie Sonic is making. It's his Sonic Wind, an old trademark ability with the wind power of a tornado. He eventually stops brushing his hands off as he grins and runs off to avoid the chaos. "I warned you! See ya on the flip side!"
He runs out of the room and rolls up a vent to the top of the ship as the room he was just in catches fire and soon burns out, causing the ship to capsize as Archie Sonic runs up the Titanic monstrosity. He ends up flying off of it like a comet and landing on the next ship, not watching as the battleship falls into the void of space.
Archie Sonic comes to a slow as he meets up with his quick friend, Sonic. "Hey, why're you stoppin here?"
Sonic chuckles. "Hehe, didn't wanna leave you in the dust."
Archie Sonic sarcastically laughs, though he's secretly enjoying his time with himself. "Haha, very funny."
"We're in the final stretch though," Sonic finally says. "You see that big tampon thing?"
Sonic points to a larger than average space shuttle that floats vertically in the center of all the chaos. It's painted red and gray and linked together at several points. Some bridges are there leading to alternate buildings near it. Some ledges and balconies also have henchmen and odd looking pads. Yet, the top is what really stands out as it's disk-shaped head creates the most blinding light in the vicinity.
"It looks more like a dildo actually. Like...one of Mario's Toads..." Sonic mentions.
"Ok I get it," Archie Sonic says stopping Sonic.
"Let's call it a truce and smash that thing!" Sonic suggests as he smashes his hands together, cracking his knuckles with force. He's thrilled.
Archie Sonic nods and gets in position. "Yeah! Let's crack this Egg!"
Both of the Sonics blast off towards the large tower, breaking into the front door in the process. Once they head in, there's already a large Egg Guardian ready to kill them. It brings it's fist down on both of them, but they've already went through it. It falls on its front as they run up the walls, smashing everything they see in their diameter. Some cylinder poles come out of the walls to crush them, but they simple leap over them, running along them as if it were a lost world. Sonic leaps into the air to catche another extending pole. "On your left!" Archie Sonic warns Sonic.
Sonic looks to see a second one coming from underneath to crush him into the coming one. Archie races to his rescue, grabbing Sonics hand and pulling him out of the way. The two cylinders destroy themselves. "That was close," Sonic says as he tries to laugh it off.
They land on one of the previous cylinders they were on. Another looks as if it's coming for them. They look at each other and nod, willingly hopping on it as it chases after them. It catches them, but because of their position, it keeps going upward, pushing them towards the top of the tower. It stops a third of the way.
"Hm...now what?" Archie Sonic asks. Sonic points to the ceiling, at a sealed wall. "Ooooh."
Sonic and Archie Sonic holds each other hands as they take a step back. They leap and run up the wall towards the sealed ceiling and start to speed up. "1..2...3!" They call in sync as they began to double boost, breaking through the ceiling and shooting up towards the top. After about 3 seconds, they break into Eggmans's's highest room and land onto the floor.
"Alright Eggman! You're through!" Archie Sonic calls as he stands up.
"Yeah, give up now and I won't have to break all your new toys!" Sonic jokes with his outstanding witty commentary.
In the far side of the room, Eggman, as well as Archie Eggman sit in their floating (eggpods?) at their respective distances. It seems as if they were waiting for the Sonic's to arrive. "Well well well, if it isn't Sonic," Eggman says. "And his multi-dimensional copy, Sonic."
"So nice of you to join us. We were just discussing how we were going to outwit you!~" Archie Eggman boasts.
Sonic crosses his arms as he tries to figure out what sort of hair-brained scheme the Eggmen were cooking up. "As if. We're not letting you get the better of us."
"Even Crossword Puzzles are less predictable than you two hope to be," Archie Sonic says.
The Eggmen laugh with their usual...not so menacing Santa laughs. "Oh I see...well that's unfortunate. For you that is."
The lower floor reinforces and all of the doors are locked shut. They are now sealed in the room. The Sonics get serious, ready for anything the Eggmen throw at them. The Eggmen, however, look relaxed.
"Putting on your big boy pants, eh Doc?" Sonic asks.
"Do you really think you're going to beat us this time?" Eggman responds. "This isn't your run of the mill fight, you know. You're way out of your league this time."
"Whadduya mean?" Archie Sonic questions.
"Well...let me be frank. I've grown quite tired of this world. The idea of me ruling the world is useless if you're around," Archie Eggman says, stepping out of his floating vehicle. He goes over to a coffee pot and makes himself some.
"So we've decide to work with each other, to complete the task of erasing the both of you," Eggman adds.
Sonic's quiet, closing his eyes so he could think. In his gut, he definitely knows something isn't right. Archie Sonic is still defensive though, knowing he shouldn't let up just yet. "But you couldn't do that alone, could you? Not even you two are smart enough to do this much. Who's the third guy?" Sonic asks after a moment of silence. He looks sure of himself with his trademark smile, albeit his question is a bait.
The Eggmen are silent for a moment before laughter breaks out, killing the tension in the room. "Alright. You caught us. There is on more person. Someone not even you're aware of," Eggman admits.
"Without him, this whole thing would've been a wash. In truth, we don't even know him too well either. Even we had to be extra careful with this one," Archie Eggman continues.
"His ideas were marvellous though, it makes me wonder why I haven't though of them before. 'A world without Sonic.' And all it takes is the drop of this capsule," Eggman pulls out a small red pill with an evil grin on his face. "It's all over for you Sonic! And it all starts with this!"
Archie Sonic frowns but then smirks. "Is that all? Too easy." In less than a second, Archie Sonic takes it out of Eggmans hand. "You can't drop it if you don't have it."
"H-hey! That's just rude!" Eggman yells.
Archie Sonic chuckles then looks at the pill in his hand. He looks at his palm and notices the pill has turned to dust. Confused, he raises his eyebrow. "Uh...I think your pill was defective, doc."
Archie Sonic then starts feeling pain in his hand. He looks down and sees a light forming in his hand, lighting up and blinding him as it grows. Sonic stands in the back, watching in shock. The Eggmen begin taking extreme delight in Archie Sonics misery. At this point, Archie Sonic's hand is turning to dust, being absorbed into the light. Not only that, but even the floor and metal material around him is turning into dust and getting absorbed.
"HAHA, ITS WORKING AS PLANNED. ALL WE NEEDED WAS HIS TOUCH!" Eggman cheered.
"Y-you bastard. You tricked us," Sonic growls as he holds his hand, starting to leak of blood particles.
"Of course, and was I lying when I said I'd outwit you?" Archie Eggman asks rhetorically. "Get turned to dust, you greedy little pin-cushion." He looks down and notices his skin is also turning to dust. "AHH! NO! THIS CAN'T BE. HE SAID IT WOULD ONLY ABSORB HIM, NOT US!"
Eggman looks at Archie Eggman is shock, then quickly looking at his own hands to find they're eroding away as well. "No way! I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS!"
Soon, Archie Sonic's left leg snaps off as well, leaving him to fall in pain. He groans, and this makes Sonic freeze. Sonic just stands there in fear, not knowing what to do but run. But in his heart, he doesn't want to leave his self behind like this. "Hey! Listen!" Archie Sonic calls to Sonic. Sonic snaps out of it. "Look. I don't think I'm running from this one. I messed up for the both of us. But do me a favor and save yourself! As long as there's one Sonic, I'm sure everything will be fine. Go and get everyone out of here while you still can." He says with a smile.
Unlike anyone else in the world, even Tails, Sonic may be the only one who can understand Archie's feelings. He nods and bursts through the window of Eggman's room, boosting out of the building and back towards the ship they came in on. He runs fast, even ignoring the sound of the tower breaking apart, but he knows he could've done something back there. He could've stopped Archie from grabbing the pill, but he would've done the same had he had the chance. No, he can't think that way now. He keeps running, flying at the speed of light down the path of busted ships him and his double left behind.
Homebase
Within minutes, he arrives back at the base. He runs up the stairs towards the control room and busts open the door. Everyone turns around to see just Sonic at the door. Amy, Archie Amy, Sally, Rotor, everyone. They all seem happy about the ruined Egg Fleet. Tails and Archie Tails are even watching the light swallow the trail of ships.
"Wow. You and the other Sonic must've did massive damage to the mothership for such a big explosion to happen," Tails says, almost as if he's applauding Sonic's handy work. "We should probably get going. We don't want to get caught up in that."
"Tails...thats not-" Sonic goes to speak but as he does, the windows of the control room blow open, turning into small crystals, then grain as they're sucked into the in coming white void.
"Ah?! Sonic!" Tails exclaims. Everyone gets down as to not get sucked into space, and to avoid the strong winds. In the midst of it, Tails even watches his hands start bleeding, decomposing. The light grows stronger, causing him to be turned to dust even quicker.
"TAILS!" Sonic cries out as he watches his buddy erode away into the storm. Just as quickly, the ship starts dissappearing too and his friends who were on it dissappear one aftsr the other. Sonic panics, grabbing Amy, the last person there still breathing, and ran.
He escapes to the bridge, carrying her to the ends of the ship as the front of it gets devoured entirely. Amy clings on to him tightly, not sure what's even going on anymore. They stop at the absolute end of the ship and he lets her down.
"Sonic? What's going on, what is-" She's cut off by Sonic's lips. The wind blows fierce and strong, fighting and tearing against the fabric of Amy's clothing and the metal of the ship, as well as the quills of both the two hedgehogs. When he pulls away from her, he notices she looks confused, afraid, and cute all at the same time. "Sonic...I...I thought you loved Sally..."
Sonic's eyes widen in horror. He receives chills down his spine and trembles at the thought of leaving Amy behind to die. This wasn't her. This wasn't the Amy he fell in love with. She wasn't even from his world. This was Archie Amy. This was a girl who didn't stop fighting for Sonic, even though she knew she wouldn't get him. This was the one who helped him before, fighting off the Alliance. The light was getting close. By the point, he could feel his own skin being pulled off of him from behind. "Amy..."
Amy, still blushing and scared, carefully listens to Sonic and what he has to say. "Yes...Sonic?"
"Even if you're from another world...even if I don't know you and you don't know me like we usually do, you do know the philosophy I live by...when it comes to hard times, right?"
Amy nods. "Yes..."
"Could you say it to me? Just to make sure? I'd like to hear it from your mouth instead of mine..."
"Are you sure?"
"No. I'd love to hear it from your voice."
Amy blushes and smiled, her eyes tearing up. She put her hands together and held them close to her heart. "Ok... 'whatever you do...don't cry. Keep your head held high and just smile!~' "
Sonic lifts his head up high, smiling through his tears as he hugs his other worldly beloved. "Exactly right..."
In such a lovely mood, the light actually feels right. Just this once, when the universe is getting shredded into nothingness, the light feels like a strong hold on the heart, keeping something beating within it. Whether it be true love or not, that has yet to be determined. But in this storm of light, a blue wind blows as cool as the night, carrying rose pedals safely to the ground. Spring.
Next. Chapter 13: Chaos
"Oh no...this isn't good at all."
Ok. We've made it to chapter 12, the end of part one. This is probably the most I've written in a story like this. I almost gave up on it, but luckily I didn't. Stay tuned for part 2. It's going to be completely different.