Chapter 18: Metal Triumphant
The explosion was brief, lasting only long enough to deplete the oxygen released when the shuttle crashed into the Ultimate Overlord's tentacle. Although the impact barely left a dent in the metal, no one onboard could've survived that...which was why Silver and Blaze were glad they'd jumped out before it was too late.
They were close enough now to make it the rest of the way using Silver's levitation powers. As Silver now learned, in a zero gravity environment, his levitation could carry him farther, faster, and with next to no drain on his endurance, as there was no force of gravity for his psychokinesis to overcome. With Blaze holding his right hand and Nega's Metal Sonic (or Nega Metal, as Silver had started calling the robot to discern it from the rest) holding his left, Silver flew faster than he'd ever thought possible, heading straight for the eye of the Ultimate Overlord.
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Within the titanic robot-turned-spaceship, there was no way to tell that an ancient shuttle had just crashed into its hull, but Metal Mastermind, whose senses were tied to a thousand different bodies including the ship itself, felt it instantly. The gargantuan eye turned its attention away from scanning Earth for the next apt target, and focused on its immediate surroundings. The drifting debris of the shuttle were caught in sight and analyzed, the GUE flagship was confirmed to be staying put as instructed, and the tiny GUE ship flying directly towards it was spotted and focused upon.
Metal Mastermind filled with glee.
"Look, Shadow," he said.
The floating monitor wasn't showing Earth anymore, but a small military spaceship. Feeling his blood grow cold, Super Shadow watched as the view was magnified until he could see through the plexiglass windows of the cockpit.
"Conquest the Bat," said Metal Mastermind, once again demonstrating that vile intellect filled with data stolen from the GUE systems. "Even after so many generations, the family resemblance is without question. Does she have that remarkable strength of will Rouge showed when you fought by her side to defeat me in the past, Shadow? Does she have that spark that drives you wild? Ahahahahahaaa!!"
Finally, Metal was seeing true desperation and hatred in Shadow's eyes, and he loved it.
"I took more than just your Chaos Control from your mind when I absorbed your data, Shadow," Metal Mastermind continued. "You can't decieve me. Look at the screen, Shadow. My Eclipse Cannon is charging. Can you watch HER die, Shadow?"
Burning with rage, Super Shadow pulled an arm free from the indominable grip of the Super empowered Metal Sonic copies. He was able to tear the head off one of the golden robots, but the remaining ones caught hold of him again, and pinned him to the floor. Even with all his strength, there were just too many of them to fight.
"Disappointing. Your ability to watch millions of people die had earned my respect, but you're not as free from the burden of your conscience as you would have me believe, are you Shadow? No, you're still weak. Even knowing that I intend to destroy the world as you know it, you would rather let that happen than let someone you love die before your eyes again."
That was a primal growl from the black hedgehog.
"Give me the Chaos Emeralds, and she lives...for a little while longer."
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It took Conquest a second to realise that she was still alive. She'd stared down the barrel of that thing, seen the green waves of death gather in front of the monstrous eye staring right at her, and had wondered to herself if an instantaneous death was really painless to the person experiencing it, or if that one fraction of a second stretched for hours as the death ray ate through every molecule of her body... Then suddenly the weapon had powered down. The tentacles retracted away from the pupil, which again seemed as distant and unreachable as a star.
She had a feeling that something terrible had happened. Conquest's arms and legs came back to life, and she seized back control of the troop carrier. Before the Ultimate Overlord changed its mind again, she pushed the ship beyond its limits, accellerating to maximum speed. Doing this meant burning off too much fuel to guarantee a return trip, but right now Conquest didn't really believe that she or her men would be making it back alive, no matter the outcome.
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The interior of the Ultimate Overlord was metal, cables and machinery, but the combination of it all seemed almost organic as Metal Mastermind called seven tall pedestals out of the floor, emerging like teeth out of naked gums.
"Now," he said. "The Chaos Emeralds."
One Super Metal Sonic was more than enough to hold Shadow now. The rest of them gently picked up each of the seven Chaos Emeralds lying on the floor where they'd been dropped. Ceremoniously, each of the Metal copies walked over to the pedestals and deposited the Emeralds into the fitting sockets atop each one.
Seen from outside, the effect of the Emeralds' power being absorbed into the Ultimate Overlord was far more dramatic. The central hub remained as it was, but the tentacles grew and expanded, lashing out across hundreds of miles of space until each tentacle connected to the nearest artificial object lodged in orbit. From the point of each satellite, space station, solar panel array, and so on - new metal tentacles sprouted and extended outwards in new directions. The process was happening too fast to be rooted in real time. With time and space warping around it, the reach of the Ultimate Overlord extended to encompass the entire planet Earth, ensnaring the world in its malevolent metallic web.
Silver and Blaze watched it all happen from the vantage point of the surface of the eye. It only made them more determined to put an end to all this insanity as quickly as possible. Metal Sonic couldn't be far from realising his twisted plans now. When they couldn't see the hole they'd used to get in through last time, Blaze got to work melting a new one. It was a lot harder this time, as the black material kept trying to reform over the slowly expanding hole. Nega Metal's brute strength and Silver's psychokinesis soon became necessary just to keep the opening from retracting long enough for the three to enter.
"A large object is approaching this position. Suggest immediate relocation," said Nega Metal all of a sudden.
The two animaloids looked up and saw more than enough reason to take Nega Metal's advice to heart. The three of them quickly slid down the hole, dropping into an empty corridor, and started running for their lives. Just late enough, the big military ship fired its main laser turret right at the spot of the shrinking hole, carving away a huge chunk of black material, but still not slowing down enough to come to a stop before it smashed right into it. That's exactly what happened. The size 10 troop carrier squeezed into the size 8 hole and wedged itself stuck inside. Without the semi-elastic black stuff, the impact would probably have killed everybody onboard. Silver and Blaze, lying just beyond the rubble thrown everywhere, could tell that whoever was flying was either a genius or a lunatic. Possibly both.
A large door in the side of the crashed ship tried to open, got jammed, then punched off its locks and hinges by a fist charged with super-echidna strength.
"Looks like we're just in time to crash the party," said Terkal the Echidna.
The three dozen Metal Sonics rushing from both ends of the corridor towards the intruders would agree...
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"What is the largest object you've ever moved with Chaos Control, Shadow?" Metal Mastermind asked, standing between the seven glowing Emeralds.
"I returned the moon to its proper orbit when Jet-Black Doom tried to make it collide with the Earth," Shadow answered truthfully. Right now he was hoping he could stall his enemy, in whatever way possible.
"Not bad for a synthetic hedgehog, but child's play compared to what you are about to witness. Behold, Shadow, I will encompass this entire solar system, from our place here in orbit over Earth to the reaches beyond Neptune. I will warp the fabric of time and space until it unravels and ceases to exist!"
"But why? What is it you hope to achieve by destroying everything?"
Metal Mastermind chuckled, then shook his head.
"I believe I've already explained that part. Your loss if you weren't paying attention. Now without any ado, let's begin."
"Wait!"
Metal Mastermind might've stopped up a second time to point out that he wasn't going to fall for a stalling tactic. But, since he REALLY wasn't going to fall for a stalling tactic, he ignored the black hedgehog's objections and started channeling his thoughts through the seven Chaos Emeralds.
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A long-forgotten satellite circling the planet Neptune suddenly found a fresh supply of information for its long-unused sensors. Ten seconds later it tore apart from the supernatural pressure suddenly forced upon it.
The barren planets throughout the solar system began experiencing massive quakes, setting off violent eruptions on those planets that still retained some semblance of a molten core.
On Earth, the fragile mammals were among the first to die in the billions.
Purple arcs of light danced across space, with everything visible within starting to shimmer and fall out of focus. Only the Ultimate Overlord, encircling a planet that was tearing itself apart by the second, remained unaffected...
In the next
chapter:
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