Chapter 5

For a moment nobody moved.

Metal Sonic merely stood there, the twenty guns pointing straight at the two hedgehogs, where Amy held on to Sonic's arm.

"Destroy them, dumb-bot!" Eggman called from his cockpit, shaking his fist in rage. At once hundreds of red missiles fired from Metal Sonic's guns and aimed straight for Sonic.

"Sonic!" Amy shrieked, quickly pulling on Sonic's arm, moving him out of the way just as hundreds of bullets hit the ground where he had stood seconds ago, leaving hundreds of little smoking dents in the floor.

Sonic, although having no memory of doing it before, tried the spindash move that Amy had told him about, but Metal Sonic flew smoothly in to the air as Sonic spun towards him. As Metal Sonic landed he gave Sonic a sharp whack in the stomach with the back of his hand, sending him flying over towards Amy.

"Are you alright?" Amy yelled out concerned, running up to Sonic as he got up, rubbing his stomach. Seconds later Metal Sonic fired what looked like a grey rocket at the two hedgehogs from his yellow chest.

With a loud bang, it missed them by inches but the impact as it exploded upon hitting the concrete pavement knocked Sonic and Amy off of their feet once again.

"What are we going to do?" Sonic asked desperately, having no memory of fighting Metal Sonic before.

The guns in Metal Sonic's left arm suddenly sucked back and seconds later, huge flames burst out of it. He then pointed this at the two hedgehogs and began gliding full speed towards them.

"RUN!" Amy screamed. Sonic didn't need telling twice as he grabbed Amy's hand and ran as fast as he could, with Metal Sonic right behind them.

Sonic could feel the heat from the flames on his back as he dashed corner after corner. They were not getting any further away from the metallic hedgehog and the blue speedster was sure that the flames were getting closer.

"Sonic... we... can't... keep... running!" Amy gasped, trying to catch her breath. Sonic looked behind them. Metal Sonic was getting closer, long flames blaring out of his arm.

"Well unless you want to be cooked, I can't think of any better ideas!" Sonic shouted back, slightly deafened by the roaring sound of the flames.

Shortly they reached Mystic Ruins, where they caught sight of Tails and Knuckles who were leaning against a large tree.

"HELP US!" Sonic and Amy called to them as they approached.

Tails and Knuckles stared in horror at the scene that greeted them and knew they had to act quickly. They got as close to the hedgehogs as they could and the second Sonic and Amy zoomed past them Knuckles delivered a heavy punch to Metal Sonic, small amounts of electricity erupted as the punch hit his right shoulder, breaking it's arm from it's body with a loud smash. The right arm then fell to the floor with a clang.

Metal Sonic didn't stop at all and carried on pursuing Sonic with bright orange flames still erupted from his left arm. While his right side now had a hole where his right arm was previously attached. Sonic, Amy and Metal Sonic soon disappeared out of Tails' and Knuckles' sight.

"Man that hurt," Knuckles moaned, shaking his hand.

"Come on! We've got to help them!" Tails announced in a determined tone and they dashed to Tails' workshop where they boarded the Tornado and took off after the hedgehogs.

Meanwhile Sonic soon realised that they couldn't outrun Metal and began to worry as he knew he had to face him. He at that point had an idea thus he began heading full speed towards a rocky wall.

"Sonic, what are you doing?" Amy yelled out, confused. Sonic ran towards the wall at high speed, with Metal Sonic still chasing them.

"WATCH OUT!" Amy shouted as Sonic was about to hit the wall but at the last second he jerked to the right, avoiding the wall and Metal Sonic, just as the blue hedgehog planned, smashed straight into the wall with a loud crash. With a loud rumble, a large amount of loose boulders from the wall tumbled down, crushing Metal Sonic until he was no longer visible beneath the rubble.

Sonic and Amy came to a halt and, gasping for breath, turned round to survey the damage. There was an eerie silence as Amy and Sonic approached the wall, half of which was burying the metallic hedgehog.

"Is he...?" Amy thought out loud.

"I'm not sure, be careful," Sonic warned. Amy whipped out her hammer from nowhere and braced herself. They got closer and closer but nothing happened; all was still and quiet.

Suddenly, without warning, a missile fired from underneath the rubble heading straight for the hedgehogs who both jumped at the sudden movement. Amy was ready and, as the missile was about to hit them, Amy whacked it with her hammer, sending it flying into a nearby tree which instantly burst into flames.

"Thanks Amy," Sonic gasped, "For a moment I thought I was toast."

"No problem! Let's stop running and face this jerk!" Amy declared confidently. Metal Sonic slowly rose from the rubble like a statue; dented, dirty, scratched but still very much still working.

"Show us what you got!" Amy taunted, her hammer raised.

Metal Sonic attempted to charge towards them but only moved an inch before falling over, one of its legs jammed under the rubble. Sonic and Amy couldn't resist laughing as it struggled to move. It gave a huge tug on its jammed leg which suddenly broke away from its body, allowing Metal to freely move.

"Can you smell burning?" Amy asked suddenly, sniffing the air.

Metal gestured behind them and the two hedgehogs stepped back in shock; the fire from the burning tree had spread and the place was burning before they're eyes.

As Sonic and Amy watched in horror as tree after tree burned, Metal Sonic took advantage of their distraction and gave a boulder an almighty kick towards them. The boulder sped towards Sonic and hit him squarely in the back of the head. Sending him flying forwards and he fell to the ground unconscious.

"SONIC!" Amy screamed, kneeling down before her blue friend and beginning to cough from the smoke.

Filled with devastation and anger, Amy turned around and, without thinking, carelessly ran towards Metal Sonic, whacking the side of his face hard with the hammer. As a result, the head flew off its body, rolled a few metres and then stopped.

The body of the robot collapsed to the floor in a heap. Amy picked up the head and screamed as she threw it in to the fire, which was now huge as it surrounded them. As smoke filled the area, Amy coughed as she got to her knees, trying to find Sonic. She could barely see through the smoke. Eventually she found him, still lying unconscious. She tried to call out to him but she could only cough as the thick smoke surrounded them, leaving her only with the option to approach him slowly.

Putting her arms around his waist, Amy tried to move him but became weak from the fire and shortly, she passed out.