Chapter 8: Nightmare realised

Silver saw himself floating in space. Looming above him, the titanic form of Metal Sonic. Unable to move in the zero-gravity void, Silver could only watch helplessly as the titan reached out and picked the moon from its spot, then lifted it over its head. Numb with fear, Silver heard Blaze's scream accompany the sight of Metal Sonic smashing the moon into the Earth. The planet's crust broke up into pieces, exposing its molten core, which exploded. Lit with a hellish red glow, Metal Sonic now turned towards Silver...

The white hedgehog awoke with a start. For a moment disorientation took over, and he couldn't figure out if he was still in a dream. Then consciousness flowed back, and he remembered where he was. This was the hospital. Blaze's room. He'd spent the entire night searching the city for any trace of Metal Sonic. He'd even stormed into the GUE base and demanded an intelligence report on the rogue machine, which quickly turned out to be a complete waste of time. The military force had redoubled their efforts to locate Metal Sonic after what he did to their squads. All they had to report back was grim news: Metal Sonic had succesfully assimilated the technology from the GUE tanks and droids, which meant that the robot was now rendered virtually invisible to scans by GUE satellites. He could be anywhere, and they'd never know until after Metal made his move.

Silver walked over to Blaze's bed, his back feeling sore from the flat chair he'd slept on. He moved the covers aside slightly, then threw them back, revealing the bundle of pillows put there to resemble a sleeping body. What the heck? Silver tried hard to remember if he'd seen Blaze when he staggered into her room at 5 AM. Had he checked on her, or had he just fallen asleep right away? Damn, he couldn't remember.

"Oh, it's you. What took you so long?" said a familiar voice behind him.

Silver turned to see Blaze. In a flash, he realised that this was the first time since they'd met as children that he'd ever seen her without long sleeves and pants. He very wisely didn't comment the marks on the cat's arms or stare too long.

"Sorry about the ruse," said Blaze, looking as dignified as was possible in a hospital gown. "Couldn't risk one of these clowns trying to sedate me again, and I know how easy you are to convince."

Medical science had reached perfection of cloning technology and organ regrowth, yet hospital gowns STILL hadn't acquired a better design than the back-less white strip of cloth.

"Just give me my clothes and turn around," Blaze said after waiting in vain for Silver to think of something to say. "I'll burn your tail off if you try to peek."

Silver didn't need to be told twice. Desperate to think of anything but Blaze's exposed appearance, he informed her of everything that'd happened since she was incapacitated, up to and including Metal Sonic's mysterious disappearance. He was a little satisfied to hear an impressed grunt from his from his friend when he mentioned the historical details and his own theory of what Metal's ultimate objective might be.

"That's some impressive thinking, Silver. But do you really think world domination is all Metal Sonic wants? Remember why Dr. Eggman created that robot in the first place."

"To defeat Sonic, I know. But so what? He's a couple of centuries too late for that."

"Don't be so naive, Silver. We have time travel technology in this day and age, remember? Even if Metal Sonic doesn't know about that yet, he's certainly going to find out about it soon enough."

Silver gasped. "You mean, he's going to try to go back in time to kill Sonic the Hedgehog?"

Blaze nodded, and then said "Yes" out loud, as she remembered that she'd barred Silver from looking her way on pain of flame.

"We'll stop him before it comes to that!" Silver said with determination.

"I hope so. But just in case, I think our first move should be to head to GUE headquarters to tell them to get Eggman Nega's time machine out of evidence storage and get it running. If things go wrong, we'd better be sure we've got a way of chasing Metal Sonic back in time."

Why didn't I think of that? Silver asked himself. What would he have done if he didn't have Blaze around? No, no point in thinking about that now. What he should be worrying about is how history would've turned out if Sonic the Hedgehog hadn't been around. Earth could've faced total destruction at the hands of any number of evil god-like entities, alien overlords, or the catastrophic miscalculations of Dr. Eggman.

"Would I even have been born?"

"What did you say?" said Blaze, stepping in front of Silver, fully clothed.

"Er, nothing. Let's go."

-

Shadow kept his arms crossed and his expression defiant. In a battle of wills, Shadow always came out on top, and Conquest the Bat was aware of that.

"I'm not your agent, anymore," said Shadow. "I don't have to answer to GUN or to anyone else."

"It's 'GUE' now, Shadow. Guardian Units of Earth. Look, at least let me send some troops to help defend the Ark."

"Hmph! If what you say is true, then it's obvious that any combat engines you send against Metal Sonic will only end up making him more powerful."

"I meant real flesh-and-blood soldiers. I know your...your powers have evolved since the last time you fought Metal Sonic, but you know you can't defeat him alone!"

Shadow's stare made ice seem toasty.

"Why the sudden interest in my safety," he asked.

"Shadow, I'm not stupid," the GUE Commander insisted. "Did you really think you could round up all seven Chaos Emeralds and not leave some trace of yourself behind? Out of respect to you and faith in your abilities, I've kept the evidence of your actions under lock, but I can't ignore the threat that's been awakened now. If Metal Sonic takes the Ark and what's inside, then he'll be able to withstand everything the combined forces of GUE can throw at him. He'll be unstoppable. I'm not about to let that happen!"

"Neither am I," said Shadow simply.

"Just let me send a few shuttles to the Ark. It's a highly classified matter, but GUE has been training Angel Echidnas as elite assassins. Say the word, and I can send you a dozen soldiers, each one as strong and resilient as Knuckles the Echidna himself."

Shadow sniffed. "Always with the cloak and dagger, Miss 'GUE Commander'," he said. "GUN or GUE, it makes no difference. This is my home, and I'll protect it my own way. Goodbye."

"Shadow, wait!"

It was too late. Shadow typed in a command on the console, ignoring the pleading look of Conquest the Bat on the display.

"Master override, password: MARIA. Terminate all transmission channels."

Shadow walked over to the plexiglass window. Whether it be GUE troops or an evil robot lookalike, no one would be allowed to trespass in this place.

-

It was quite a trek to the central headquarters of the global military. Silver and Blaze didn't dare send a direct message. With Metal Sonic in control of GUE technology, and proven fully capable of exploiting it, there was no way of knowing what the villain may or may not be monitoring. The robot could be watching thousands of channels at the same time, multi-tasking as only a machine can do.

-

Research station Prower 5. The jewel in the crown of the global corporation that practically ruled the galaxy in terms of business opportunities. The space station was as close as anything could come to being an embodiment of the proverbial cutting edge. Although the Ark was still the largest man-made object in orbit, the streamlined mile of the Prower 5 came close.

The technician in charge of orbital monitoring on the space station was about to have the most exciting day of his life. It would also be his last. His epitath was as follows:

"Sir, I'm reading an unidentified flying object approaching us from Earth at high velocity. No, sir, I can't tell. I'm retrieving scan data, but it comes out as a blank on all fields. I don't know, maybe there's a malfunction. It should read something, not nothing, and- It's speeding up! What's that? Oh god, it's heading right for us!"

The blue dragon-like robot made a spectacular crash with the station.

In the next chapter:
- Eggman Nega does some exposition.
- Metal begins his ultimate transformation.
- The author scratches his head, trying to think up a good name for Metal's gargantuan form.