Chapter 12: Tyrant Sun
The assembled Freedom Fighters, along with Iblis, stared in shock at the levitating Hyperion, now possessing the body of Tails.
"If you think that I am going to forsake everything I have worked for to slip into your service again, father, you are sorely mistaken." Iblis spat. Hyperion's smile faltered for a moment, staring back at her. "I have come too far in my plans to give up on them now."
"What plan is that, my dear? Burn the world and rebuild it in your own image? You fool, we need the fears and beliefs of mortals to go on living, they are our food. Destroying it and remaking it, then destroying it again will not yield the worship you need- it is a plan that you would need that monochrome imbecile to pull off."
"Then I will find him, and we will consume it together!"
"Oh, that's something I cannot allow." The white fox sighed, turning to face her assembled legions.
"Okay, does anyone know what they're talking about?" Emerl asked.
"I might..." Nicole replied. "And I don't like the implications."
Scarlet fire filled Hyperion's eyes, and blasted out in a wide arc, slicing through the molten creatures, vaporising them. On instinct, he twisted, backhanding the charging Darkspine through a wall.
"Sonic!" Sally gasped, sending a wave of blue flames towards the fox. It washed over him, licking at his fur but failing to damage him, as Sonic reappeared, diving into another burning spindash. In the space of a blink, Hyperion's hand was gripping the hedgehog's throat, stopping his attack before he could even hit.
"It's a shame that I'm missing my rings, I could've shown you the real art of fire. Alas, I am rather more limited in my abilities at present..." He mocked a sigh, jetting downwards and smashing his foe into the ground. He spun in place, throwing him into Sally, knocking the brainwashed couple sprawling. He stalked towards them, flexing his clawed fingers, only to feel a missile exploding against the back of his head. He turned to see Omega, standing at the head of the Freedom Fighters. "No interruptions, please..."
Twin beams of intense heat lanced from his eyes, slicing the huge robot in half at the waist, then flicked up a wide barrier around himself, Sonic and Sally.
"Tails, if you can hear me, please, fight him!" Fiona cried out. "You can't let him kill them!"
"Oh, he can hear you alright, but there's nothing he can do about it." The albino hissed, already returning his attention to the couple, who were struggling to their feet. He reached forward, red auras appearing close to their bodies, as they lifted off the ground, spread-eagled. "But you needn't worry. I won't kill them... yet. I want to see their faces as they realise that their little protégé is the one who has slain them... and I have a far more pressing matter to be concerned with."
He warped forward, stabbing a single claw into the crystal in each Mobian's forehead. They screamed, bodies twisting, convulsing as blinding, searing light poured into the stones.
"No!" Iblis shouted, battering against the barrier with her axes, to no avail. Fractures cracked their way across the gems, until finally, they shattered, immediately immolated by the aggressor. Sonic and Sally collapsed, as the shield came down, and Hyperion hurled them over his shoulders.
Fortunately, Emerl snagged both of them out of the air, and carefully set them down by Nicole.
"Can you see what he did to them?" He asked. Nicole nodded, placing her hands on her friends' foreheads, purple light playing about her fingers.
"He appears to have... released them from Iblis' control."
"He did say that he wants them to die as themselves." Shadow mused.
"What do we do now?" Fiona asked, not looking away from Hyperion.
"Yeah, can we even fight that guy?" Emerl asked. Shadow rubbed his chin, levitating between the group and the two gods, for what it was worth.
"Emerl, conserve your energy, just as I am. Nicole, try to wake Sonic, he might be able to help if he stays in that form."
"Understood."
"Fiona, can you chance staying here to look after anyone who gets knocked down?"
"I can."
"Everyone else, I want you to go back to base." He ordered. "That thing is far too strong for you, and Omega needs attention from Rotor and Sir Charles immediately."
"I still function."
"Omega, I admire your determination to help, but you have no legs." Shadow groaned.
"Shadow, will you be alright?" Rouge asked.
"Honestly, this is the first time I can honestly say that I have no answer. Everyone else we've fought has had a weak spot, but this... "Hyperion"... his only weakness is likely to be that Hyper forms burn up Chaos Energy seven times as quickly as regular forms. We could theoretically manage a Hyper form on a single set of Emeralds, but it would last for all of eight seconds. Our only hope is that we last long enough for him to burn out."
"Well... good luck, then." She sighed, squeezing his hand. He nodded, then turned back to face the deities again.
"Now, go!" He commanded. Opening the Warp Ring again, the Freedom Fighters stepped through, taking Sally with them, and leaving the sparse group behind.
Weaving between Iblis' weapons, Hyperion slashed at her third eye, before being torn away and smashed into a wall. He exploded back out of it, unleashing a blazing optic blast, stabbing into her stomach. Roaring, she leapt forward, flailing downwards with her weapons. He knocked the first aside, but the second buried itself in his shoulder. He winced, air hissing through his still-grinning teeth, staggering long enough for her to drive the blade through the bone and muscle, severing the arm completely. Snagging him with her tail again, she hurled him away.
"Tails!" Fiona cried out.
"Fiona, that might be a good thing... we can get him prosthetics, or he can use a normal Super form to heal his arm, and the energy will leak out in full flow now that he's got a giant hole in his torso."
"And how do we defeat Iblis?"
"Same way we beat Hyperion. Look at her, she's exhausted. Then we can just seal her away again."
"You have become weak and pathetic, father." Iblis chuckled.
"Have I?" A mocking tone called out, the white fox appearing in front of her. He removed his hand from the burnt stump, which was rapidly restoring itself to full, albeit profusely bleeding, life. "You don't think that, perhaps, I might've been humouring you?"
A thin, off-white stick of bone slowly grew from his shoulder, more and more layers following it. As his elbow took form again, tendrils of muscle and tendons lashed out, binding themselves wetly to the limb, followed by pale skin, and golden fur, which rapidly regained its scorching glow. He flexed his new fingers, flapping the limb around to test its motion, then popped sharp claws from his fingers.
"You've achieved nothing." He smirked, shrugging, thrusting his arms forward, twin Chaos Lances extending from his palms.
Behind him, Sonic groaned, white eyes opening.
"Sonic?" Nicole gasped, helping him sit up.
"What hit me?" He asked.
"That depends on what you remember..."
"Last I recall, Sally had me coiled up and Finitevus de-supered me." He replied. "Which really freaking hurts, for the record."
"At least you didn't turn into a rubber wolf this time." Shadow shrugged.
"True, true."
"Anyway, as for what you missed, Sally brainwashed you, and turned you into this form, which I think is a Darkspine, whatever that is. Iblis used you two to get her real body back, and Emerl went crazy and almost destroyed the city because of something Finitevus did. I fixed him, and we came here to save you and stop Iblis. Unfortunately, she pretty much flattened everyone, and Tails tried to go Hyper with his fake Emeralds. Only it turns out that Iblis' father was in his head this whole time, and has now taken over. They're fighting over there." Nicole gestured to the literal clash of titans behind her. "Hyperion, as he calls himself, freed you and Sally, saying that he wanted to see your faces when he made Tails kill you. Sally went home with the others, though, she was still out when they left."
"Oh... I hope she's okay..." Sonic rubbed his head. "Now what do we do?"
"Wait for one to finish the other, then hope they're tired enough to go down without killing us." Shadow replied.
"Tails could get seriously hurt!"
"He just regrew a whole arm, he'll be fine. I literally just had the "Don't worry, he won't die" conversation with Fiona."
"You'd better be right about this."
Iblis' axes thudded down, Hyperion ducking below them and grabbing the poles. His tails slashed up, and cut straight through the shafts, dropping the ends he held to the ground to release a blinding flash. Reeling back, Iblis howled with pain, flailing at the air with her arms and tail, blinking repeatedly in an attempt to restore her sight. Leaping up, he landed on her shoulders, forming a glittering blade of light around his arm, which he promptly dug into her third eye, ripping it out and stabbing back in repeatedly. The attack was short-lived, however, as she grabbed him blasting him with a contained surge of fire, and slamming him repeatedly into the ground. And yet, no scream of pain issued from him. Instead, the deranged, manic cackling returned, his grin growing even wider.
"Why are you... stop that!" She roared, smashing him against the floor. "Stop laughing!"
"Why should I?" He giggled.
"Because I want to hear you scream before I kill you!"
Well... heh... that isn't happening!" He crowed. Beams lanced out of his eyes, cutting through her arm, severing it at the lower shoulder. Free, he vanished from the room, and returned, clutching the orb which Iblis' body had been recovered from.
"No..." She hissed.
The ground beneath him erupted, plumes of lava exploding upwards from it, knocking the stone from his hand. She surged forward, snagging it in her own claws. She pointed it towards him, beginning to chant the incantation, as he continued laughing.
Distracted, Iblis stopped, glaring at him.
"What's so funny!?"
"I've won." He replied.
"You haven't defeated me yet. I still stand, and I am about to seal you away."
"No, no, you don't understand. I defeated you. I made you lose control."
Eyes blazing, Hyperion snapped his fingers. A scarlet aura enveloped Iblis, and all three of her remaining arms flew to her face. She screamed, collapsing to the ground, tail contorting as she struggled against the mental assault.
"Yes... I remember now. You never inherited my psionic abilities, did you? You stole the ones you have now from Ifrit... A pity, then, that the Ifrit's powers pale in comparison to an actual god. Plus... with this host's enormous mental capacity, my powers are even stronger!"
Hyperion raised his hand, pulling the stone orb into his grip again. Beginning the chant himself, he held the sphere up. The dulled rock began to glow again, streams of energy spiralling out of it and into Iblis' body, coiling around her and then enveloping her completely. Consumed by fire, the serpentine goddess roared one final time, then disintegrated into the stream, pulled back into the orb, which now glowed malevolently in the darkness.
Rocking back, Hyperion pitched the orb upwards, through the ceiling and into the sky, still accelerating.
"She'll be safe in orbit, until I can teach her some respect..." He smirked, turning back to face the Freedom Fighters.
"Someone's not going to be winning "World's Greatest Dad"." Sonic scowled.
"That's for sure..." Shadow rolled his eyes.
"Okay, it looks like he's still going strong." Emerl groaned. "Now what?"
"We stall him. Try not to die."
"Oh, brilliant." He sighed, warping into the ether. Sonic did the same, while Shadow fired a barrage of Chaos Spears at him.
Cackling, Hyperion swatted the shots aside, blasting Shadow into the floor with his heat vision.
"How much power do you have left? Not much, I bet!" He grinned, grabbing the hedgehog's ankle, swinging him over his head, and into the ground on the other side, repeating his attack several times, before turning and throwing him into the wall. "Your creator dubbed you "The Ultimate Life-form... How blasphemous." Shadow struggled to his feet, blasting forward, punching the possessed vulpine in the jaw. He laughed, kicking him in the gut, knocking the air from him, and launching him away.
Slowly walking towards him, Hyperion formed his energy blade, only to be engulfed in searing white fire.
"Wow... I can actually feel this!" He smirked, turning to face Darkspine. "Iblis did something right when she transformed you."
"You've got one chance, freakshow. Get outta my little bro's body, and this ends here. Keep fighting, and we will stop you, we will forcibly extract you from his head, and we will destroy you." Sonic growled.
"You presume to command me? How amusing... Alright, you die now." Hyperion replied, heat vision lancing out towards him. Darkspine swerved around the shot, immediately crashing a burning spindash into him. "Oh, not bad..." Still grinning, the vulpine smashed his hands down on Sonic's skull, dazing him. Backhanding him aside, he turned to Emerl.
"Let's see if you can take this..." He said, thrusting his hands forward, white flames erupting from them. Hyperion stumbled back, the fire scorching him.
"Hey, you couldn't do that before!"
"Going Ultimate unlocked my scanning ability's maximum potential. I copied Darkspine's powers, rather than Iblis', if that helps."
"Resourceful... but not enough!" He smirked, charging through the storm, only for Emerl to vanish in a flash of yellow. "Trying to hide from me? Good... good... but it won't save you."
"I don't need it to!" The droid's voice echoed through the room. He reappeared, his chestplate open already, fire blazing inside the cannon. "Now... burn!"
"You first!" Hyperion replied. He appeared in front of Emerl in a flash, his hand closing around the barrel. He squeezed, crushing the weapon, then tore it out. He collapsed, slamming the plate closed as quickly as possible. Struggling to stay upright, he let out a strangled wheeze.
"Emerl!" Nicole cried out, one of her own beams slashing out. Unfazed, Hyperion kicked Emerl in the head, sending him tumbling end over end, before turning to face the lynx. He stalked towards her, smirking darkly, then blasted her into the wall with a flick of his wrist.
"Tails, please, if you can hear me, fight him!" Fiona shouted. She had been tending to Shadow, running towards her possessed lover.
"Oh... he can hear you alright..." Hyperion smirked, turning towards her. "He can't do anything about it, though. He's screaming out for you, desperately trying to stop me... I thought I'd broken him, but he redoubled his efforts when I saw you... Still..." He brushed his messy hair out of his eyes, the lids lowering slightly as he approached her, circling her. "I can see why..."
"W-what's that supposed to mean?"
"What it means, Fiona Fox, is that you are the most... ravishing mortal that I have ever met..." He replied, tracing his claw across her cheek, digging it in for a moment. She winced, trying to pull away, only to be trapped by his tails. "Never have I encountered a being, mortal or divine, that could compare to my dear departed Eris... Maybe I am being... influenced by my host... but nevertheless... I will claim dominion over this world, and everyone in it will become my servant. That remains unchanged... but now... I will have you by my side."
"N-no! Get off me!"
"I understand that you're scared, my dear... but I will erase your fears." He smiled. Embracing her despite her struggles, he held her close, mimicking Tails' actions perfectly. One hand gripped her head, forcing her to meet his gaze, as his eyes dissolved into a crimson spiral. "You belong to me..."