Once again, we are starting to reach the end of an epic story. Thank you guys so much for your reviews and for reading this story. And this was meant to be a short story, for those of you that are confused. And for those of you that wanted more fighting in this story... you're definitely gonna get some here.

And Alexis... well, before I start spoiling stuff, let's get on to the chapter!

Sonic the Hedgehog stood at the edge of the woods wit the rest of the Knothole Fighters. Tangle was looking around at the clearing in front of them. "That's where we were attacked," she confirmed.

"Well then," said Sonic, pulling on the edges of his gloves, "let's give Neo some nice payback, shall we?" Everyone nodded. And with that, they stepped out of Knothole Woods.

Instantly, blasters started firing at them. Everyone stood behind Mighty as the armadillo turned his hard shell towards the direction of the blaster fire. The bullets bounced off of his hard shell. "The times when you're grateful for a hard shell," he remarked.

"Indeed," said Tangle. Her tail whipped out from the cover, smaking into the robots and knocking them over.

As soon as the blaster-fire ceased, Mighty turned around. Sonic was the first one who stepped forward. "Alright!" he called out, "Where's Neo Metal Sonic? We have a date to finish!"

*Then it will be a date to die for.*

Everyone turned their heads slightly. There, standing in front of a massive Badnik horde with several Egg Hammers and other Super Badniks, was a familiar blue metal hedgehog. "Neo," greeted Sonic, "ready to continue our last dance?"

*Always.* said Neo.

The upgraded version of Metal Sonic was at least a foot taller than his rival, with tall, pointed blue and silver quills. His blood-red optics glared menacing at Sonic. Little bits of yellow, silver, and blue coloring peeped out from the long, flowing trench coat that was attached to his shoulders and flowed back behind his black and silver legs.

"Don't look very different," commented Sonic.

*Do you remember these?* Neo extended his arm and suddenly whipped it forward. It extended rapidly, the claws on the end of it seeming to grow as well.

"MOVE!" yelled Elias. Everyone jumped to the side as the claw slammed into the ground where they had been standing a moment previously. As they recovered, Sonic quipped, "Nope. But then again, I thought your arms were supposed to be beefier."

*How much can I say about you, matchstick?* gloated Neo.

Sonic's eyes widened. He looked down at his long arms and declared, "Oh, its on!"

And with that, the battle began.

Sonic sped forward, crashing into Neo and locking hands with him, Neo claws scratching his white gloves. Mighty surged forward, racing behind Neo and curling into a spin-ball, smashing into Neo's back. As the andriod's head turned, Mighty slammed his fist into its faceplates. Neo fell back, letting go of Sonic. The hedgehog nodded to his friend and curled up into a spin-dash. Mighty grabbed him, chucking him at Neo as it looked up. Sonic slammed into the andriod's middle, causing it to fall over.

"How did that feel?" gloated Sonic.

Neo stayed still for a short while, then looked up, his red eyes flashing silver for a short second. *Lifeform data: Sucessfully copied.*

"Oh yeah," said Sonic nervously. "Nearly forgot you could do that."

"And what does that mean?" asked Mighty.

His question was answered as Neo suddenly surged forward as fast as Sonic, before flooring the two with a massive punch. Sonic rolled over with a groan, looking at his friend. "That answer your question?"

"I wish it didn't."

The fight with the others was actually going pretty well. Tangle was whipping her tail among several of the smaller Badniks. As soon as a good amount was wrapped in her tail, she yanked hard. They quickly vanished in an explosion of light.

"Whoo!" she cheered, examining her scorched and blackened tail. "And ow. Whoo and Ow!"

"Head up!" Ray quickly smashed into the Badnik that treatened to shoot her with a spin-ball. Then he grabbed her hand and took off into the air as an Egg Hammer slammed into the ground where they had been a moment previously.

"Thanks Ray!" said Tangle.

"You're welcome!" he called back. "Want me to drop you off?"

"Sure thing!"

Ray let her go, allowing the lemur to land on top of the Egg Hammer. As it reached up to grab her, her tail whipped out, snagging the arm. She raced several times around the neck until her tail was wrapped around the Egg Hammer. She started pulling on her tail, pulling the Super Badnik's fist down until it smashed against its own head. She lept off as it exploded in a shower of light. "Never hit yourself, kids!" she called out as Ray quickly caught her again.

Elias Acorn was actually managing to hold his own very well. In one hand he held his sword while in the other hand he held a shimmering blue sword, courtesy of his Ring-Blade. He was a pinwheel of light as he cut among the lower ranking Badniks, slashing almost all of them to pieces. As the last two tried to get away, he lept through the air, stabbing his swords into their heads.

A Super Badnik quickly approached him. He spun around rapidly, his blue sword enlonging in length until it was almost as tall as the Super Badnik. With an angry yell, he slashed forward, completely cutting the Super Badnik in half, which caused a domino effect for the rest of the Super Badniks. "And that was for the Acorn Kingdom," he snarled as his sword shrank back down.

Tangle and Ray landed beside him. "Whoa," commented Tangle, looking at the destroyed robots, "Overcompensate much?" she asked. Elias shrugged.

"Heads up!"

The three fighters turned, narrowly dodging Neo's enlengthened arm as it tried to claw them. The three of them rushed forward to join Mighty and Sonic. Mighty already had a few cuts on his arms and his back was dusty. Sonic had a cut over his eye which was bleeding slightly. "I'll be fine," he said at Elias' curious glance, "We need to tae care of this guy now."

"How can we when he just got the rest of our powers?" asked Elias as a sword formed on Neo's left arm and for a brief moment, shimmering holographic membrane formed underneath his outstretched right arm.

"We'll do it," said Sonic, "we just need to be smarter than him."

*You will not suceed,* said Neo, *I have gained all of your powers. What makes you think that you can succeed?*

"Because good always triumphs over evil," said Sonic, "It took us a while with the war, but we won in the end."

*If it weren't for your friend,* added Neo. *Where is she? Was she too afraid to come? Or were you too afraid to let her?*

Sonic's gaze hardened. "You leave her alone," he snarled.

*Oh,* said Neo, *Have I struck a soft spot? How about after I finish beating you and your friends into the ground, I take your broken body to Knothole Village? I'm fairly certain that she'll love to see you dead. Not like you haven't seen her dead. I saw what Eggman had Infinite do to you. Saw her broken body lying in front of Eggman? How would she react when she sees you in front of me?

*Yesssss... as soon as I am done with you, I'll pay her a visit myself!*

That definitely pushed Sonic's 'Don't Test Me' button.

He gave an angry yell of rage and lunged forward, his hands curled into fists. To everyones, except Neo's, shock, his bright blue fur turned a dark navy blue. Dark energy surged around him as his green eyes turned white. "Oh no," said Elias in horror.

"Uh, what's that?" asked Tangle in worry.

"Mighty?" asked Ray.

Mighty's gaze had hardened. "Dark," he said. "Whenever Sonic is under extreme pressure or is very angry, the Chaos Energy that is stored in his body turnes him Dark. According to Knuckles, it's just about as powerful as his Super form, maybe even stronger. And it's very hard to defeat. Unless..." His eyes suddenly widened in realization. He looked over at the two fighting hedgehogs, one made of glinting metal, the other pulsing out waves of dark energy. "He's fighting himself," he whispered. This just got bad.

"SONIC, STOP! IT'S WHAT HE WANTS!"

As Dark Sonic turned, Neo said the dreaded words; *Lifeform data: Successfuly copied.* The Metal Sonic raised its hand.

For a brief moment, Sonic's eyes turned back to green. "Guys! Move!" he yelled to the team, but it was too late.

A wave of dark energy surged from Neo's hand. Everyone screamed as they were launched backwards. Sonic turned to Neo, sending off a burst of energy of his own, sending Neo backwards. With that over, the hedgehog landed, his fur returning to normal. He rushed over to his friends, kneeling beside the comatose Mighty. He checked for a pulse and gave a sigh of relief when he felt one.

Neo got back up. *A shame,* he droned, causing Sonic to freeze, *Now you have no one to back you up. What happened to your "Super-power of teamwork" that you were always going on about in our last battle? What will you do now that your 'team' is gone?*

Sonic stood, his hands clenched. "I'll tell you what," he said in a dangerous tone. "I'll do what I always do. Even if..." His fur turned dark again and when he turned towards Neo, his eyes were white. "I have to become Dark to protect those I love!"

Dark Sonic sped towards Neo, waves of dark energy blasting from his hands. Neo raised a hand, deflecting the dark energy. A wave of dark energy surged from Neo's own hands. Dark Sonic quickly grabbed it. It morphed into a dark version of a jagged sword, which he swung at Neo.

Neo's hands formed into swords surrounded by dark energy. He quickly deflected the staff and swung out. The two of them fought, trying to cut each other to ribbons. Whenever a hit was scored on Sonic, the dark energy in his body sealed the wounds. Whenever a hit was scored on Neo, the metal hedgehog's own dark energy sealed the wounds.

For a long time, the dark duel continued, neither one of them letting up or showing a sign of stopping. But one thing that Mighty didn't mention to his friends was that unlike Sonic's Super form, his Dark form didn't last as long as it. And Sonic remembered that when the dark sword suddenly vanished from his grip. He barely dodged a swing from Neo and floated in the air. The two hedgehogs floated tere in the air, looking at each other. Sonic was breathing heavily while Neo didn't appear to be tired at all.

*Nothing is too powerful that I cannot absorb,* said Neo to his rival. *Even your so-called 'Dark' form. You call that power? I call it nothing. Something for you to fall back on whenever you have a temper-tantrum! Whenever you feel that you have to hit something! The power that you wield should never have belonged to you in the first place!*

"Well, there's a reason that I have it," said Dark Sonic, "because if someone like Eggman had it, they wouldn't use it right. I have it, and it's my responsibility! I wasn't able to save my world when Eggman conquered it the first time! NEVER AGAIN!"

The two of them surged forward, eager to continue their fight...

()

Boots pounded on the forest floor, wind rushing past.

She had felt the surge of power. She had to hurry...

()

Sonic stood back from Neo, floating in the air. He didn't realize that his dark hands were starting to regain their regular coloring and his eyes were starting to turn green again. Neo noticed. It gave a small hum and stood still.

Dark Sonic took that as an invitation. He surged forward with a scream of anger...

...only for his coloring to return to normal and for Neo's metal fist to connect with his stomach.

Sonic screamed in pain as Neo suddenly took off around Sonic. Cuts and bruises suddenly started appearing on Sonic's body as he was tossed through the air like a ragdoll. Finally, with one last punch, Sonic was sent to the ground.

A massive plume of dust burst into the air. When it cleared, Sonic was revealed to be on his back. He was breathing heavily as a few cuts slowly trickled blood. He managed to get on his hands and knees as Neo landed.

Sonic looked up, wincing from the blood that trickled into his eye. "Be done with it then," he hissed.

Neo's hand turned into a sword and Sonic closed his eyes. I'm sorry sis, he thought.

The sword came up and started downwards...

*CLANG*

Sonic waited a few moments, then realized that he wasn't dead. What..? He dared to look up. At first, his vision was overtaken by silver. Then, he heard the grunting sounds. He managed to look further up then.

A female blue and aquamarine colored hedgehog wearing a silver cloak was standing in front of him. A sword with a thick, triangular blade was held in her hands, which didn't have a single nick in it as it held back Neo's own sword. The sword suddenly caught on fire, the orange-yellow flames swirling around the metal hedgehog. A swift heave of the blade later and Neo was sent into the air.

Alexis Rey Hedgehog turned to look at her brother, her sword still bathed in her reality-bending flames. "Am I late?" she asked jokingly.

Sonic stared up at her hin shock. "Sis, what are you- augh!" He had tried to stand, only for him to double up in pain.

Alexis quickly knelt, her sword coming off her shoulder and the point digging slightly into the ground. She gave Sonic a gentle smile as she laid a hand on his shoulder. "You've done your part," she said gently, "My turn now."

"But he's-" Sonic started, "He could copy your powers."

Alexis's enigmatic smile grew wider. Flames gently swirled around Sonic, taking the forms of glowing bandages. She quickly helped her brother to his feet and half-carried, half-supported him to the edge of the woods, where the still-comatose members of the Knothole Fighters were waiting for them. Alexis had grabbed them during Sonic's fight with Neo.

As she helped him to sit down, she shouldered her blade and turned. As Sonic's vision darkened, he heard her ask a simple question;

"What makes you think he can?"

Ooooooooooooooohhh! What does Alexis mean by that I wonder? Next chapter might be a little bit short (I'm not too good at writing battles) and have a lot of confusion. See you all next time!

I'll be posting a poll as to who the 'voice' was that was introduced in the last chapter. Feel free to put your thoughts down as to who you think it could be!