Alright! Next chapter! I don't think I need to say too much. After all, it's Sonic we're talking about here. For now, I'll just say to enjoy the chapter!
"This is the end, Sonic."
The aforementioned blue hedgehog turned to his captor. Zavok was staring at him from outside his cell, an annoyingly arrogant look plastered on his face. As per usual, however, Sonic had nothing but sarcasm for him. The prison shook violently, something that had been happening on and off for the past few minutes.
"Oh, hey. Looks like the party's started!" He grinned sardonically. Seeing a lack of any real reaction, he decided to continue.
"You gonna let me join in? No? Of course not. You hate fun," The blue-furred hedgehog lowered his eyelids, only for them to widen slightly when the prison shook again, even more violently this time. The lights flickered for a second, before coming back on, slightly dimmer than before. The blue cuffs of energy binding Sonic's hands and feet suddenly disappeared, much to his and Zavok's confusion.
"The end, huh?" Sonic grinned, hopping up off the bench he had been sitting on. He began to walk towards the cell door, which had just slid open as soon as the power came back on. "Let's see you try something now that I'm free."
"Foolish hedgehog," Zavok sneered. He clenched his large red fist. "Getting out of your chains does not make you free. Now, come and face the inevitable."
Sonic smirked in response before suddenly vanishing from sight. Zavok's eyes widened in alarm as Sonic simply disappeared from his sight. That was until he heard the annoying hedgehog's voice from behind him.
"The only thing 'inevitable' here is my foot kicking your butt!"
Zavok growled before turning around and launching a shoulder tackle at Sonic. The Blue Blur effortlessly jumped out of the way, mockingly grinning at the Zeti as he did so. Zavok launched himself off of the platform the cell was located and fell just short of a small hexagonal platform directly in the chamber. Smirking, Sonic jumped after him, landing on the platform.
A loud, insect-like buzzing noise filled the chamber as Zavok rose from the pit below, standing atop a large beelike mech that bore a striking resemblance to a Buzz Bomber (1).
The mechanical insect rose above the platform as Zavok beat his fists together, before roaring loudly.
"I can't wait to see how long you last against this," The Zeti remarked as Sonic quickly nabbed eighteen Rings from around the platform. A small group of Buzz Bombers materialized right before Sonic. He smirked.
"Come out and fight me yourself, and I'll mop you up real quick!" Zavok scowled at Sonic's boast.
"Impudent runt! I'm going to savor watching you suffer," He growled, holding out his hand. The Buzz Bombers began to home in on Sonic's position. The blue hedgehog responding by jumping into the air, curling into a ball as he did so. Homing in on the Buzz Bombers, he quickly slammed into one of them, before continuing on to the next, moving so quickly that it looked as if he'd destroyed them all at once.
The mech Zavok was riding on lowered slightly, aiming its legs at Sonic as it did so. Sonic recognized what this meant and flipped out of the way of a group of six lasers that began to follow him around the platform. As he jogged ahead of the lasers, he noticed that Zavok himself wasn't moving.
Wanting to take advantage of this, Sonic leapt into the air, pirouetting in mid-air as to avoid the lasers as he did so, before curling into a ball and rocketing towards him. The Zeti recognized the attack, and quickly put up his arm to block, doing so successfully. Only for Sonic, who had bounced off of his arm, to suddenly launch forward again, this time landing a blow directly on Zavok's chest.
Zavok and the mech were both sent reeling from the sudden strike as Sonic landed back on the platform. Zavok glared at Sonic, who merely smirked.
"What's wrong, big guy?" He asked mockingly. "Can't keep up?"
"You're going to regret making a fool of me!" Zavok scowled. Sonic kept smirking in response.
Frustrated, Zavok summoned a large ring on Buzz Bombers, before ordering them to close in on the blue pest. Sonic, in response, leapt into the air, allowing them to harmlessly crash into the spot he had just been in. Sonic landed on the pile of broken robots and gave Zavok a questioning look.
"That it?"
In response, Zavok's mech lifted higher into the air, until it was hovering about 30 feet above the platform. Sonic recognized what it was about to do and somersaulted out of the way as it came crashing down where he had been a mere second before. The impact created a shockwave that threw Sonic into the air, slightly surprising him.
Quickly recovering, Sonic curled into a ball again and blasted towards Zavok, who in turn, blocked the Homing Attack with his arm. Sonic curled again, only to be met with the same result. The third time, Sonic curled into a ball and began spinning as if to prepare a Homing Attack, which lead to Zavok raising his arm again.
He was thusly caught off-guard when instead of a Homing Attack, he was greeted by a Sonic Storm (2). The blue shockwave of energy slammed into him with enough force to throw him off-balance, leaving him wide open, long enough for Sonic to somersault above him and come down on top of him with a Sonic Eagle (3) that sent the Zeti reeling.
"You're not making this easy, are you?" Zavok growled as he recovered his balance, before smirking sadistically. "No matter. Crushing you will be all the more satisfying!"
"Funny that you say that when you haven't even hit me once!" Sonic shot back grinning as he landed. Zavok scowled, before launching the mech, stinger first at Sonic. The hedgehog dodged easily, before launching a Sonic Wave (4) as it as it passed by. Zavok managed to block the attack before sending another wave of Buzz Bombers at him.
Sonic didn't even bother with these ones, instead standing in such a way that when Zavok attempted to run him through again, he instead hit the badniks as Sonic jumped out of the way, before attempting to bounce on his head.
Zavok managed to smack him away, before raising the mech above the platform once more. Sonic smirked as Zavok attempted to bring it down on top of him. Just as the mech began to fall, Sonic suddenly jumped high into the air, curled into a ball, and slammed into Zavok. Zavok threw up both arms to defend himself. The sheer force, however, of the attack quickly overtook Zavok's defence, and left him dazed.
Sonic promptly homed in and struck Zavok once more, this time opting to land on the mech afterwards. When Zavok saw him, after shaking his head to clear the stars in his vision, he attempted to throw a punch at Sonic. Sonic quickly jumped into the air, before curling up and striking him in the chest yet again. This time, Sonic didn't let Zavok recover.
Just as Zavok was trying to recover his bearings, he was punched in the face by a gloved fist. Another strike, followed by a swift spinning kick followed. One strike, two strikes, three, four, five, six strikes. Sonic struck Zavok in the face six times in rapid succession. Then Sonic leapt up, curled into a ball, and dashed into Zavok's chest, sending him hurtling off the mech.
"No!" He shouted in pain and disbelief. "How could I lose to the likes of you again!?"
Sonic made a three-point landing on the robot and smirked down at his fallen opponent.
"That was a blast. Bring some chili dogs next time," He called out mockingly.
The mech, as no one was piloting it anymore, began to fall out of the air. Sonic leapt off of it, landing directly in front of Zavok as he did so. The Zeti was left on his hands and knees, panting to recover his breath, before finally collapsing into unconsciousness with a mighty thud.
For a few still moments, nothing happened.
Then, Zavok's body began to flicker with red static. A distorted garbling noise could be heard as Zavok began to fade away into nothing. Sonic raised his eyebrow in surprise.
"It's that sound again…?" He looked around in confusion. What could've made that noise? He was quickly snapped out of his thoughts, however, when the ground began to shake even more violently than before. So violently, in fact, that small pieces of debris began to shake loose from the ceiling. Sonic quickly came to the conclusion that the prison itself may be becoming unstable, which meant…
"Woah! It's not time for thinking, it's time for running!"
Dashing forward, Sonic leapt off of the platform and landed on what appeared to be the only path leading away from the prison.
Sonic dashed through a long passage at high speed as the sounds of alarms blaring reverberated throughout the halls. Looking up, he saw that the ceiling was beginning to slowly descend, threatening to crush him. Amused and undeterred, he began to pick up the pace, eventually coming to a conveniently placed spring.
Bouncing off of it, he came across another platform with the ceiling once again coming down to crush him into a hedgehog pancake.
"Guess they found out I escaped. Oh, well," He shrugged nonchalantly as he ran. "Time to kiss this yawnfest good-bye!"
He clenched his fists. His body became enveloped in a shimmering blue aura and he Boosted down the hall like a giant blue bullet. He snatched up ten Rings quickly before coming to a small pitfall. Without stopping, he leapt over it, grabbing some twenty-five Rings as he did so before leaping over another pit, which brought him out from under the collapsing ceiling and into a long, narrow hall.
Running through a series of dash panels, Sonic didn't even blink as dozens of armored doors quickly began to close behind him in a desperate attempt to contain him with loud metallic thuds. Reaching a spring, he leaped out of the hallway and onto a large rail floating outside. He casually glanced around, and discovered himself being treated by a breathtaking view of the Earth below.
"Woah, we're off planet! Guess anyone who crosses Eggman gets a one-way trip to space," He realized as he grinded down the rail, leaving a shower of sparks. Noticing a group of Buzz Bombers at the end of the rail, along with a branching path of rails, three to be exact, he leapt up and dashed towards the nearest one using his Homing Attack. As he did so, he noticed what appeared to be a swarm of Aero Chasers flying past.
Shrugging it off, he chained one attack after another and found himself taking the rightmost path, bringing him to another rail. He clenched his fists again and was once more enveloped by blue energy as he Boosted through, kicking up a massive cloud of sparks as he did so.
"No way I'm sticking around here! There's nothin' to run on!" He decided as he did so, jumping over a few inconveniently placed spikes on the rail.
The rail ended with a spring that bounced him onto a platform that appeared to be built into an asteroid. Seeing a few Egg Pawns, Sonic once again chained together a few Homing Attacks, destroying the robots and allowing him to quickly ascend a few platforms with utmost ease. The platform in front of him was moving up and down, making it an elevator of sorts. Barely paying it any mind, Sonic leapt up onto it and up the next few platforms.
On the edge of the highest platform was a set of springs that sent him flying to another rail, this one with a large loop midway through. Sonic Boosted once more, allowing him to blast through it quickly, grabbing a few Rings along the way.
Having made his way inside the facility situated on the asteroid proper, Sonic charged inside. Seeing a group of Egg Pawns waiting for him, he Boosted again, sending each robot flying into the opposite wall as soon as he made contact with them. He quickly came across a segmented section of the floor that, the instant he set foot on it, sprang upwards into a makeshift stairway, ending with a spring on upper segment.
Leaping into the air using the spring, Sonic nabbed a Red Star Ring before shifting his position, allowing him to land on a floating platform. Jumping up two more platforms, Sonic was able to make his way to a passageway above him, where the ceiling began to come down on top of him once more.
Grinning, he Boosted forward once more, blasting down the hall and through a horde of Badniks with record speed. Several wall-mounted turrets emerged and began to fire volleys of shots at him. Without stopping, Sonic easily weaved in and out of the shots before running straight through a line of Rings and into a conveniently placed spring that sent him up onto another platform.
Charging into the next room, he ran through a Star Gate before leaping onto a platform above him.
"I don't do well in tight spaces," He mused, jumping onto another rising staircase and another spring. He then noticed another rising platform and Air Boosted into it, evading gunfire from another turret and landed on the spring, sending him into the air using the sudden upwards momentum and the spring. "I'll pay back Eggman for putting me in this jam later!"
That was for the future, however. For now, he had to focus on getting back to Earth.
The spring had launched him onto a platform with a dash panel on it. Blasting forward, he came across another spring. He was subsequently launched out of the facility, to another spring situated on a small asteroid, that sent him crashing head-first through several smaller asteroids, onto another spring, that then launched him onto a trio of rails.
Then, like clockwork, that trio of Aero Chasers he had noticed earlier came back, flying just ahead of him above each rail. The one closest to him, the central one, fired. Sonic flipped to the right. The rightmost Aero Chaser fired. Sonic flipped again to the left.
As soon as the central robot began firing, Sonic flipped onto the leftmost rail and sent a Sonic Storm at it, knocking it off balance. He then jumped into the air and used his Homing Attack. Using his newfound height, he then jumped over and delivered a Sonic Eagle to the central one, sending it crashing into the rail. The third Aero Chaser quickly retreated, leaving Sonic to land on the leftmost rail again.
As he dispatched the robots, he noticed a giant sphere of metal, one bearing the likeness (and moustache) of a familiar egg-shaped scientist.
"So they had me locked up on the Death Egg," He realized. "This big ball of scrap just won't stay destroyed!" He was propelled forward by a dash panel situated on the rail that sent him careening down a series of loops that then lead to another trio of rails with more Aero Chasers.
"I'll be outta here in no time, though. Just wait and see, Eggman!" The Aero-Chaser in front of him fired off a laser blast that Sonic quickly flipped out of the way of. Deciding to not give it a chance to do that again, Sonic homed in on it and slammed into it in mid-air. He then leapt onto the leftmost Aero-Chaser and made a mocking gesture to the rightmost one. Seeing him, it fired a blast at him, only to strike its own comrade. Sonic took the chance to leap onto the last one and tear through its jetpack, sending it hurtling to parts unknown.
Satisfied, Sonic landed on the rightmost rail, grabbing several more Rings and another Red Star Ring. This rail brought him to another spring that sent him flying through several dash rings. After plowing through several more asteroids, he reached another Star Post.
The ceiling began to lower again, prompting him to Boost forward through the upwards-sloping hall. Noticing a dash ring below him, Sonic allowed himself to fall into it, allowing him to land on the platform below.
Noticing another rising staircase, Sonic leapt over it and onto the spring, sending him into the air. Before he began falling, he noticed a series of what looked like metal crates. He positioned himself over them and Stomped on them, enveloping himself in blue energy as he did so.
Plowing through them, he landed on a platform with a turret on the wall opposite to him. Smirking, Sonic accelerated, getting to the wall before the turret could fire. Noticing several crates below him, he leapt up a little before Stomping through them. As he did, he began to ponder.
"So, what's my move? It's not like I can swim out into space…" He landed on another rising spring. He then saw a Buzz Bomber about to fire on him. He quickly homed in on it, smashing it into pieces. Using the momentum the explosion gave him, he cleared a short wall and landed on a group of downwards facing dash rings. As he went down the small hole, it hit him.
"I know! I'll just grab a shuttle! The one I came in on must be around here somewhere..."
He Boosted down another hallway with yet another lowering ceiling. As he did so, he grinned. "I could do with a little space cruise on my way home."
He Stomped down another line of crates. Boosting as he landed, he went through a Star Post and a long line of Rings. After being launched off of yet another spring (he'd stopped counting how many), he landed on a lone rail that lead towards the Death Egg.
As he grinded towards the massive space station, he noticed a group of what looked like fighter drones flying besides him. Shrugging, Sonic leapt up off the rail and onto the nearest one.
With incredible speed, the fighter drones flew up to the Death Egg. As they travelled above its surface, Sonic saw a series of energy blasts being fired in his direction. As the drones swerved to avoid the shots, one of the was hit and exploded in a large fireball.
"Man, they're packin' a lot of firepower," He whistled. "Still, doesn't matter if they can't land their shots! Here goes nothin'!"
When he saw a blast heading straight towards him, he leapt onto the next drone. Several more exploded behind him as he jumped. Seeing another blast headed his way, he leapt onto the next drone, just before the one he was on previously exploded.
As he landed, several more turrets revealed themselves and fired a sudden burst of shots. With no more drones to land on, Sonic leapt up off of the doomed drone and into a large shaft directly below him.
Momentarily surprised, he nonetheless righted himself and dove into the shaft. After a few seconds of freefall, he finally landed. Looking around for a moment, he grinned to find that he was in the shuttle bay. Exactly where he wanted to be. Seeing something ahead, he Boosted forward.
"Well, THIS sucks," Stitch grunted, holding up his Wispon. He and Angel were surrounded on all sides by a veritable horde of Badniks.
"It sucks even harder that we're in orbit," Angel added, holding up her hammer. "My powers are basically useless here."
"Still, I think we can handle it, right?" Stitch asked, lowering into a fighting stance. Angel did the same.
"Only if reinforcements don't show up," She responded. Stitch was about to chastise her for tempting fate when he heard something land at the far end of the shuttle bay. Thinking it was more robots, he silently prepared to groan.
…Which is why he was pleasantly surprised, along with Angel, when a blue blur shot in from out of nowhere, tearing through the Badniks at unprecedented speed. He blinked. Whatever had just happened was too fast for even his supercomputer brain to process.
"What the-?" Angel started to ask, only for the blue blur to land right in front of them, uncurling to reveal a blue hedgehog. The hedgehog grinned smugly, looking over his handiwork before turning to them.
"Easy there. Everything's cool," Sonic said, holding out a gloved hand. Sonic quickly made note of their odd appearance, though he wrote it off. What interested him more was what they were doing here, on the Death Egg.
"Are you here to rescue me?" He asked. Both Angel and Stitch looked at him for a few seconds.
"If your name's 'Sonic', then yeah," Angel said. Sonic sighed in relief.
"Thanks," He grinned. "Can't tell you how much I appreciate it. It's been a while since I've seen a friendly face."
Stitch went to answer, only for Knuckles to speak up over the comm link.
"Hey, rookies. You still in one piece?" He asked.
Angel groaned and prepared for the explosion that Stitch would inevitably unleash upon the red echidna, only for Sonic to speak up before he got the chance.
"Oh, sure," He grinned, letting his voice drip with sarcasm. "Don't even bother to ask how I am."
His grin vaporized in an instant when he heard a certain fangirl shouting over the radio.
"SONIC! I'm so glad!"
"Amy!?" He groaned, facepalming. The instant Amy shouted his name, the other Resistance members stopped dead in their tracks.
"We've got him?" Shadow (598) asked.
"Great. We can get off this dump…" Summer yawned.
After a moment, Sonic looked up at them quizzically. "Hey, there a way outta here?"
Stitch pointed over to the ship at the end of the walkway.
"Ih. Right over there," He said.
"Hold on, Amy," Knuckles tried to calm Amy down. "We're all happy he's alive, but he won't be for long if he doesn't get off that egg in a hurry."
Sonic grinned in response.
"Your concern is touching, Knuckles," He sarcastically noted, before jogging towards the shuttle. Angel and Stitch blinked. His jogging speed was easily as fast as a full-blown sprint from either of them. Realizing that he was leaving them behind, they took off after him, running down the path.
Sonic leapt from the walkway and onto the ramp that lead into the shuttle, leading Stitch to grab Angel and do the same, using his grappling hook to latch onto the ship and swing towards the hatch.
After a moment, the rest of the Resistance followed suit, running into the shuttle bay at full speed and clambering up the ramp. As the last member (Vector) did so, the ramp retracted into the ship, which began to off the ground. The bay doors opened and the shuttle blasted off at incredible speed.
"Well, THAT sucked…" Zack groaned. At present, he had his arm on Clover's shoulders, and vice versa, as the two were using each other as support.
"Jumba was telling 623 that was terrible idea," Jumba remarked. He had gotten off easier than the two experiments, as the masked figure hadn't registered him as anything resembling a threat, though he was still walking with a noticeable limp.
"Least we tried, right?" Clover asked. Zack and Jumba just gave her odd looks in return.
"If by 'try', you are meaning, 'could not see masked monster moving, getting beaten up, and having Jumba's database stolen,' then 623 did 'try'," Jumba responded. Zack sighed.
"Yeah, let's be honest, Clo. That wasn't the best idea you've had, ever," He said. Clover managed a slightly weak, but still cheeky, grin.
"Ah, you guys are no fun!" She said teasingly. Zack managed a smile. Somehow, Clover always managed to lighten the mood.
…That is until what Jumba said registered in Zack's mind. His eyes went wider than dinner plates as he whipped his head towards Jumba.
"Wait, he stole the experiment database!?" He half-shouted in alarm. That now seemed to click with Clover, who gave Jumba an expectant look. Jumba nodded.
"Yes. Masked monster stole database from Jumba's pocket. Lucky for us, a good evil genius is always carrying around spares, no?" He managed to chuckle a little, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a second computer. "No major loss."
"That's NOT what I'm worried about!" Zack retorted. "That masked freak just got his mitts on the database! Y'know, the thing that has everything from our strengths and our weaknesses on it!?"
Before Jumba could respond, Clover stuck her tongue out.
"Bah! I'm sure we can handle it!" She grinned. Zack sweatdropped. "What could that guy do with it anyway? It's not like he can just conjure our weaknesses out of thin air, right?"
"…Right," Zack said after a moment.
'Assuming that isn't EXACTLY what his power is…' He silently added. He then turned to Jumba.
"Look, either way, I think we should worry about the computer later. We've got other stuff to deal with right now." Jumba gave him a quizzical look.
"Like…?" He started. Zack sighed again. Being the sane one was grating sometimes, even if it gave him plenty of things to joke and snark about.
"…Like getting ourselves some bandages and some cover. You see how we're walkin' right now?" He pointed out. "Clo and I can't walk without help, and you've got a bit of a limp yourself."
Jumba shrugged in response.
"Eh, 623 and 625 are 600-series experiments. Will be fully healed by tomorrow."
"Yeah, that's tomorrow, not today," Zack remarked. "Unless, you know, you wanna fight the giant robots over there with us barely being able to stand."
"Hm…" Jumba thought for a moment. "625 is raising a good point. What cover are you having in mind?"
"Well..." Zack started, looking thoughtful. "I think I saw someplace when we first wound up in this dump…"
He's baaaaaaaaaaaaaack! And he's with the Resistance! Eggman, say your prayers, 'cuz anything you try is now doomed to fail!
…Or is he? Okay, yeah, if you've played the game, you already know the answer to that, but, yeah. Hopefully, the addition of some new places and missions should keep readers on their toes.
Honestly, this was fun to write. For those not in the know, all of the moves he used (which are listed below along with another little bit of trivia) originated from Sonic Battle. Figured it'd be more interesting to use some of his other techniques besides the Spin Attack, Sonic Boost, and Homing Attack.
1) Fun fact, this thing happens to be called the "Death Queen" by the official soundtrack.
2) A shockwave Sonic produces by spinning in place while in mid-air.
3) A mid-air axe-kick performed right after a somersault.
4) Ground-based version of the Sonic Storm.