Chapter 16: Key to Salvation - Key to Destruction

Silver's psycho-kinesis once again saved the duo from likely death. He caught the falling section, and held it up long enough for Blaze to find a sufficiently stable chunk of rock to prop up the ceiling with.

The pyramid had survived for thousands of years, since it was built by invading Echidna tribesmen as a symbol of their eternal rule. The Echidna empire was destroyed by an evil their leader unwittingly set upon the world, but ruins of the once-great civilisation that ruled everything remained all over the planet. Although best known for their arts of war, the Echidnas were astounding architects for their time. It was that fact that kept the pyramid erect following the blast from space. With the fundament crumbling, it wasn't going to stay erect for much longer...

-

Although his intention had merely been to impress his power upon Shadow, Metal Mastermind had now succeeded in creating pandemonium across the entire planet. 200 years ago just about anyone could film footage of whatever they liked with the use of their handy-dandy cell phone. Today, the wrist-watch would suffice. If you insisted on cutting edge, you could get a camera so small it was invisible implanted in your skin, but that was hardly convenient. The Eclipse Cannon blast that'd hit the desert was fully visible from Central City. In fact, anyone with an unobstructed view Eastward at the time of impact got their retinas fried by the impossible brightness of the explosion. Within a quarter of the hour, footage of the disaster was on all the news networks all over the planet. Very soon greater chaos would erupt throughout the metropolises, as fearful citizens would insist on evacuating their families.

At the same time, news of GUE's failure to stop the Ultimate Overlord was getting back to Earth. It all went to show that no matter how sophisticated society became, it could all revert back to primitive standards in the face of an all-encompassing threat. In the city of Westopolis, which already carried a history of falling victim to bombardment from space, riots were breaking out on the streets.

Conquest didn't have to listen to the reports from Earth to know that she wasn't going to have a job anymore when all this was over. It was her decisions that had led to the GUE fleet being destroyed and the Ultimate Overlord becoming a great deal more formidable than it'd been prior to her plans.

Still, she'd made up her mind. The fact that the enemy wielded a replica of the Eclipse Cannon didn't change anything.

"Bad odds. Even if that works, we're not likely to get back home alive," said Sergeant Terkal after listening to Conquest's suggestion. "Still, it beats sitting around here waiting. You can count on me and my boys, Commander."

Terkal was a reddish-purple echidna. He'd had a pigmentation augmenation procedure when he was young, after doing some catching up on the history of his people. When he learned that that was the true colour of the ancient echidnas, then there was no stopping him. He even wrapped strips of white cloth around his individiual dreadlocks, just like the ancient custom.

Terkal the Echidna had a lot of views that weren't popular with the with the current generation of echidnas living away from their ancestral home of Angel Island. They mainly centered around what "proper" and "true" echidnas should be like. He'd be a source of constant scandals if he ever went into politics, but in the military he was the perfect material.

"Excellent. I'll let you take charge of this mission, but I'll be going with you out there," said Conquest.

"Whoa! Ma'am, that's crazy. Er, with all due respect, I know we got the same grand-something-pappy, but you ain't in the right league when it comes down to fight. Ma'am"

"You need a pilot to get there. I'm the best we've got right now. I order you to agree." Conquest didn't have time for arguing, and Terkal was loathe to disobey a direct order, no matter the circumstances.

"Yes, ma'am. Er... Yes, ma'am."

-

Blaze gingerly lifted Eggman Nega's visor, and pried an eye open.

"He's out cold."

The renegade scientist had fallen through the floor, several levels down. After a quick climb, Silver and Blaze found him lying on top of a massive pile of rubble. Nega was lucky that he was so...well, fat, as a skinnier man would've broken nearly every bone in his body.

"Try slapping him."

Blaze was more than happy to.

"Grargh!" Nega uttered, then groaned at length. "It's ruined! RUUUUINED!! This isn't how it was supposed to happen! Uaaaaa!!"

And then Nega opened his eyes. It took him a moment to focus. Meanwhile Silver and Blaze shared the same expression, as they wondered if their old enemy had bumped his head a little too hard.

"Who? Where am I!?"

Somewhat awkwardly, Blaze put Nega's visor back on his head. With that, a little bit of sanity seemed to return to the man.

"Are you alright?" Silver asked.

"Grrrrr! No, I'm not! Look at that! LOOK AT IT!!" Nega was positively screeching.

Silver looked at the pile of twisted metal. He didn't see anything special about it.

"Was that something important?" Blaze asked.

"It was my TIME PORTAL, you stupid cat!! It took me a year just to complete the prototype and now look at it! It's ruined!"

"Tough break. Looks like you're stuck here just like the rest of us," said Silver.

"Wait! You can still get me the time machine from the GUE headquarters!" Nega interrupted himself before the two had time to answer, with: "Nooo! That's no use! The power cores in that machine are duds. I snatched the real ones before GUE invaded my old base, and left a bunch of molecular destabiliser bombs in their place. They were supposed to go off when GUE tried to use my machine, but they never did, those overcareful morons!"

Blaze raised her fist, which burned with a temperature equal to her rage.

"Turn over your Metal Sonic to us now or I'll make sure you regret that you'll live to regret it," she said through clenched teeth.

Defeated, Eggman Nega called for his servant. The head of the robot appeared at the edge of the hole in the ceiling, then it made the jump down to the bottom through a series of classic hedgehog summersaults.

"After I give the command, Metal Sonic will obey the person whose voice it hears fist. Ahem. N-409 Metal: Reset loyalty protocol."

"Er, maybe you should say something Blaze," said Silver, and then realised he'd said it.

"Loyalty protocol reset. New master registration accepted," said Metal Sonic.

"Whoops."

"It's fine, Silver," said Blaze.

-

"Well, Shadow?" said Metal Mastermind.

Super Shadow looked at his enemy with contempt. "To kill innocent people in order to get to me is your action, not mine. I can live with that, but not with turning over everyone on the planet by giving you the Chaos Emeralds."

"Impressive. Sonic the Hedgehog would've given me what I wanted if even one single life was at stake. But you're not a hero, are you, Shadow? You're an "anti-hero" as they call it, aren't you? And anti-heroes don't have to conform to the rules of idiocy followed by the plain old heroes. Nevertheless, I believe you can be coerced, if only something personal was at stake. Someone close to you..."

"All the people I cared about are dead," said Shadow.

"We'll see."

In the next chapter:
- Silver and Blaze, yes still the focus of the plot, incredibly enough, return to the Ark with their secret weapon.
- Conquest and the Angel Echidnas prepare to launch themselves at the Ultimate Overlord.
- We're getting close to the Final Showdown for real this time. Or are we? Yes we are. Or are we? Yes. Or? Definitely. Question mark?