A/N: Due to an increase in popularity of this story (and certain girls telling me to update constantly), I've been rather hurried in updating through my list. In honor of Sammie Weisenbach, I will announce that Manage Thy Anger will be exactly twelve chapters in total. Three of these will be Last Chapter, and three will be interludes and the ending. Now, enjoy the first of Last Chapter!
Chapter 7: Last Chapter: Part 1
The door of the Egg-steminator's control tower slid open as Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Dave surged through. They were surprised to find that there were no robots here in the dark foyer. The opening hallway seemed to spread all the way around the tower's head, and a huge door stood in front of where the nose was on the outside. As the team ran through the door, they were faced with a huge robot.
"You again!" cried the obese man from the cockpit of the four-legged machine. "I won't have you ruining my plans this time, Sonic!"
"You wish you could stop me from stopping you, Eggman!" the hedgehog shouted jubilantly. "Let's get him, guys!" Tails and Knuckles ran forward, each aiming to attack the front legs of the new enemy. Robotnik laughed menacingly and punched a button, causing several spiked balls to drop from a hatch in the robot's midsection. The spheres rolled toward the heroes, but the fox and echidna jumped from their course. The legs now sported many fancy dents and punctures.
"No!" Eggman bellowed. "Take this!" Another button was pressed, and the machine transformed, the legs melting into the body and the back planting itself into the floor. The cockpit turned itself to fit the new, snake-like robot, and a few missile pods opened on all sides. Sonic ran forward, and several of the pods shot. The blue daredevil leaped into the air and performed Homing Attacks on the projectiles. As the spiky ball bounced off of the exploding points, the metal snake reared back. A large, beak-like spike grew from the front of the cockpit, and the robot snapped down. The point barely missed Sonic, and the hedgehog landed a clean slash into the glass of the cockpit. The entire machine flashed, and it began to transform again.
"Do his machines normally do this?" Dave asked, gazing at the new form. It was an anthropomorphic tank, and the missile pods had moved to its forearms. At the end of its right arm was a giant cupped claw, and the point on the robot's head melted, becoming two yellow "eyes."
"Usually, Eggman's last resorts are a one-form thing," Knuckles replied. "For some reason, he's thrown out all the stops this time."
"Damn right, I have!" cackled Robotnik. The eye-like parts fired several short laser bursts, and the team scattered. Dave ran forward, dodging the laser blasts. Eggman lowered the right arm to catch the elder hero, but Dave was too quick for him. He reached the robot's leg and grabbed a sort of handhold, and then he began to climb. "Stop it!" roared the scientist, but Dave was already near the chest.
"Go, Dave, go!" Tails cheered from his position in the air. Dave looked back, nodded, and continued his climb. His progress was impeded, however, by the chest's opening. Out of the midsection grew a large cannon, but Schnieders just used the square segment of metal as a new platform to stand on.
"Fire Egg Ray Jr.!" Eggman commanded, and a huge white beam emerged from the cannon.
"Scatter!" Sonic shouted, and all three Mobians ran to different places. The beam cut a clean hole in the control room, but Robotnik persisted. The robot turned, causing the huge attack to rip a big section of the wall to atoms. The assault was too late, though, because Dave was already balancing on the rim of the cockpit.
"What are you doing?!" bellowed Robotnik.
"Taking you down!" Schnieders answered. The teacher reached into the knapsack that hung on his back and retrieved an aqua-green gem. "Chaos Spear!" The bolt of energy seemed to come from nowhere, but its aim was true. The robot flashed again as the pointed shot crashed into the cockpit window. To Dave's surprise, the supporting shell he was standing on collapsed, and the cockpit flew away. It wasn't really a part of the machine, that was for sure. It looked as though Eggman had tailored an old one-person aircraft to use as the new contraption. The egg-shaped pod flew around the room, and Eggman laughed as he pressed several buttons.
"Let's see how well you can fight me when I'm in the air!" the doctor taunted. The collapsed form of his machine seemed to jump into the air and form around the pod. When the transformation completed, the robot resembled a helicopter with six legs and a very long tail. The legs were tipped with small holes that glowed yellow, and the flat, rectangular tail dragged across the floor. The helicopter thing buzzed around, and lasers shot from the legs.
"I'll take care of this!" volunteered Sonic as they all ran from the stinging shots. The hedgehog dashed around the room, catching Eggman's eye and making the machine swivel on its servos. Before it could catch the azure hero, he had jumped to the tail's end. A blue blur zipped up the long tail, and the rotor blades spun faster. A wave of wind emitted from the blades, so strong that it shone white as it whooshed toward Sonic. The wave was nowhere near Sonic in the next instant, for the speedy hedgehog had already found his perch on the central pole of the helicopter. Sonic charged a Spin Dash and launched it, smashing into the cockpit and making it flash again.
"Grrrrrrah! I hate you, Sonic the Hedgehog!" screamed Robotnik, punching a new button. "No matter how many times you hit this machine, you'll never take down the Egg Morpher!"
"Can't you come up with anything better?" Sonic taunted as he bounced off of the almost liquid exterior of the Egg Morpher. The transforming robot shifted again, becoming nothing but the pod surrounded by six spiked metal spheres. The spheres spun slowly, being held together somehow by artificial gravity.
"I'll show you better!" retorted Eggman. The balls rotated faster, and one of them shot out, meant to crush his blue nemesis. Sonic ran in the same rotation as the spheres and drew the projectile. The sphere seemed to try and hit Sonic, even as it returned home. This reaching sensation caused the ball to hit another, which bounced into the pod. The sphere exploded and the pod flashed madly.
"Too easy!" Sonic jeered. Before he could run off, Eggman had caught the hedgehog in a pyramid-like light-trap.
"Sonic!" Tails shouted. The fox ran forward and dodged another ball. Tails performed Sonic's same maneuver, and another ball hit Robotnik's escape pod. The kit laughed merrily, but not befoe he, too, was trapped. Knuckles looked at the pyramids that matched the other sapients' colors, and knew that because it would not do much harm to go for the attack, the echidna rushed forward and drew one of the remaining balls out. Knuckles wasn't the fastest of the team. In fact, Sonic and Tails had often beaten him at races. Still, he was able to make the protruding projectile into one of the other three, forcing it to slam into Eggman.
"Hah! You'll never defeat me, Sonic! I've trapped all of you!" There was the sound of a throat being cleared. "What?!" Robotnik demanded, whirling the hovercraft around to see Schnieders.
"You forgot that Sonic brought an extra along…" Dave reminded the scientist.
"I'll just trap you, too!" cried Eggman triumphantly. He pressed the button that shot one of the traps. The pod clicked. This gave the old teacher the opportunity to run forward. "I'll have you yet, old-timer!" One of the spiked balls shot out, and Schnieders led it along the expanded path of its brothers. The sphere pulled back, but it missed the other two spinning balls. Eggman cackled and launched another attack, this time also shooting a bolt of lightning at the instructor. Dave barely dodged the electrical attack, and he continued to run to keep the ball moving. This time, the spiky sphere bumped another of its kind. The third-to-last ball crashed into Robotnik's cockpit, causing several small explosions to appear in the air near the closed pod.
"You can't get away with this!" cried Dave, breathing heavily.
"This isn't the end!" the doctor howled, the two remaining spheres exploding as he flew out of a hatch in the wall. The pyramids disappeared, and Team Sonic rushed to Schnieders' side.
"All right, Dave!" Tails cheered, hovering up and clapping the aged man on the back.
"You saved our bacon back there, pal," Sonic complimented.
"I knew you wouldn't let us down…" said Knuckles flatly.
"Well, I guess we can go home now…" Dave mused. The three Mobians nodded, and they made their way to the exit.
It's probably not as thrilling as the fight between Blade and the Green Guardian, but I wrote this thoughtfully. I've planned the battle in the fashion of most Sonic games, but it's most like Sonic Unleashed and a bit like Sonic Rush, in that the attack patterns change and there are multiple parts to the fight. Well, enjoy!
Next Chapter: Green Thumb