Chapter 9: The Ultimate Overlord

2 hours before Metal Sonic's next stage of transformation...

Dr. Eggman Nega was faced with a predicament. On the one hand, helping to defeat Metal Sonic would mean eliminating a powerful obstacle on the road to world domination, but on the other hand, Nega was loathe to fall into the habits of his ancestor, by constantly siding with the good guys whenever a new and greater threat arrived on the scene.

The renegade scientist had been tracking Metal Sonic's movements ever since the robot was reactivated. GUE scanners might be helpless to locate an unregistered obsolete, but Nega had taken the time to gather a lot of data in the past when he built his own Metal Sonic copy to aid in his bid to turn the planet into a card, which he could control. From his hidden base in the desert east of Central City, Nega could locate Metal's signature signal no matter where the rogue tried to hide.

Right now Eggman Nega was watching an ominuous blue blip on his viewscreen, moving inexporably towards the strip of lights surrounding the 2D representation of the planet. The Prower 5 carried some of the most sophisticated technology in existence, but Nega was certain that the oblivious crew wouldn't detect the danger until it was far too late to react.

So what to do? Relate Metal Sonic's exact location to GUE headquarters, and hope they didn't trace the transmission back to his secret lair? Perhaps send an N-series robot to intercept Metal Sonic? Or maybe he should just ignore this whole mess and concentrate on completing the new and improved time portal to replace the time machine that those wretched GUE thieves stole.

Nega made his choice.

-

Now.

Violent shockwaves tore through the bulk of the science station, gradually demolishing it. The Metal Overlord clung to the outside of the vessel like a starfish from robot Hell. Miscellaneous equipment flew out of the cracks, along with the bodies of those crew members who'd perished in the explosive decompression. Metal's massive body was reforming as it collected material from the station. The robot giant focused on forming dozens of tentacle-like appendages to collect debris before it got thrown away by the momentum caused by the escaping oxygen.

The process was so systematic that it was hard to make out where the chunks of material ceased being Prower 5 debris and started being part of Metal Sonic's growing body.

At the halfway point of the transformation, the rays of the sun were eclipsed by the moon. Let the eye of the imagination turn towards the black sphere surrounded by the halo of the eclipsed sun. The resemblance is illusionary, because what is displayed is the eye of the behemoth. The pupil alone of the Ultimate Overlord would dwarf its original metal hedgehog form.

Blue and silver metal were the colours of the collossus, surrounding a single black eye in the centre of the doomsday octopus. The tentacles of the transitional shape had been retained, and grown large enough to grab satellites out of orbit, and hold them in a crushing grip until they could be swallowed up by the central body. The transition from dragon-shape to giant squid might've seemed anti-climactic, but size mattered, and Metal Sonic was over a hundred times larger now.

Still not satisfied, the Ultimate Overlord wasted no time activating its massive thrusters and setting course for the nearest orbital man-made object. Nothing less than the entirety of the artificial rings surrounding Earth would suffice for what the titanic villain had in mind...

Metal Sonic was going to destroy the solar system. Once accomplished, he would repeat the action again, and again, and again, erasing each incarnation of the world through each second of time, carving his way backwards through time and space until he caught up again with the present he'd been torn away from. He knew it could be done. All the data he'd absorbed from the GUE archives and the Prower 5's science reports implied a definitive possibility. Time itself could be warped within an enclosed area of space. If it could be warped, then it could be destroyed. This pathetic future would be erased, and a new one written in its place according to Metal Sonic's own vision.

He needed more power...far more...

-

Silver and Blaze were too late, again, when they arrived at the mountain headquarters of the Guardian Units of Earth. Silver for one was getting really sick of arriving moments to late to be able to do any good. As was now being shown on the news worldwide, Metal Sonic had transformed again, and the only good part of that was that he was now far too large to be able to hide anywhere. Actually, that really wasn't a good thing at all.

The duo insisted on being allowed access to the government-regulated teleporters that ferried supplies between Earth and the orbiting stations, but their pleas landed on deaf ears. The general in charge of the Metal Sonic matter was only concerned with the possibility of teleporting fusion bombs in order to blow up the big blue parasite as soon as it tried to swallow up another station. The fact that there were people up there as well, not to mention what kind of damage to the planet the fallout would cause, didn't seem to matter.

The situation seemed hopeless until suddenly the Commander herself stepped into the makeshift war-room. To the general's frustration, she went over his head and told Silver and Blaze that she would give them a chance to teleport up to a research station close enough Metal Sonic for them to be able to make it across on portable propulsion units. She only had one condition...

"No matter what happens," said Conquest the Bat, "you must prevent Metal Sonic from reaching the Ark."

Since they'd been given a gift horse, so to speak, the two heroes didn't question the terms. However, even that unsocial pair had caught on to the common knowledge of who the Ark's sole resident was. Actually, there were rumours going around that Shadow was dead, and that his death had been covered up so that no villainous masterminds would think it open season. Blaze, the more intelligent member of the team, guessed the truth correctly on the first try, but she didn't voice her thoughts and she wouldn't know for sure until a bit later... Silver's mind was currently focused on not looking at the bat's cleavage.

In the next chapter:
- Silver and Blaze attempt to get inside the Ultimate Overlord.
- Prelude to the rematch between the hedgehog Metal Sonic and the pair.
- Shadow continues to excercise very poor judgement.