Hi! Unaware of how many are actually keeping up, but won't stop me from continuing anyway! So for those who have enjoyed so far, here's chap 11!
Geoffrey continued his long trek across Mobius Z's vast landscapes to reach his destination and rendezvous point: The Metal Metropolis Zone. His mission: Meet up with his team so that Necronos could activate Rotor's portable Chaos Control Booster and remove the Zone location disrupting the planet's balance and prevent it's own destruction! Running through the jungles of the Meta Junglira Zone, he began losing his breath.
" 'huff-puff' Man oh man……Why did my reactor location have to be so far away from where it was going to be useful??" he complained. "If I keep this tiring pace up, I'll keel over and pass out as soon as the planet blows!"
Just then he stopped. He heard some type of whistling sound from behind him…
"Hmmm….That's a familiar ring" he said to himself. The sound grew louder and closer
"If I didn't know better, I'd say that was Sonic running at top speed"
Then something hit him in the back. 'WHAM!!'
"OOOOFF!"
Upon impact, he found himself moving at an incredible velocity! And no wonder, he was just grabbed and picked up by Shadow!
"Not Sonic, but you were close" he said holding his arm.
Geoffrey looked quite shook up. "Aye, mate! Next time, give a bloke a fair warning!"
Shadow looked forward. "No time, Clyde. We gotta get moving and pick up anymore lagers like you. That ol' shady blue-eyes is countin' on us to speed up!"
With a sudden burst of increased power, Shadow and Geoffrey dashed out of the jungle and further to their destination, waiting to run into their other comrades on their mission.
High above Metal City, in the highest chamber of the dark tower, stood Sonic and Amy, and Gamma Catalyst; giving each other quite a long (overly dramatic) stare down. Not wanting to spend the rest of their lives that way, Gamma finally spoke up.
"So you both finally got the spine to face me at last. I must say, it took you long enough! Congratulations……hmhmhmhmhmmmm…"
"Save the taunts for someone who cares, blackie" Sonic answered back. "You know why we're here."
"That's right" Amy joined in. "I owe you one obliteration! You and I both know the last time we met should've been your demise!" She glared at him with great anger.
Gamma just grinned back. "Ha, ha! Very interesting. It's amazing how much someone can hold a grudge. But you are somewhat correct, my old foe. Last time, one of us should've been wiped out. Namely……YOU!"
Amy raised her hammer for defense. "Tell me what happened, Gamma! How the heck did you survive that day? I had collected your Cataclysmic Emerald shard and everything! How did you do it???"
Gamma's red eyes slightly squinted as he crossed his large, metal arms across his chest.
"Heh...very well. I suppose a little explanation wouldn't hurt, as it will soon be your last request…heh heh heh."
Sonic and May listened closely as his tale began…
"On that fateful day of our battle, one year ago, believe it or not I was actually defeated. I had the entire Grand Metropolis fused with me, and was still amazed that somehow, you: a little ordinary girl was able to take me down. But just like my brethren, the rest of Catalyst's spirits, our presence still remained deep inside our seven prison shards of the Cataclysmic Emerald, as did my great hatred against you!"
"However, when the Emerald was placed back together, and Catalyst himself was able to put himself back together with our energies, our awareness grew a thousand fold. We were finally reunited as what we once were millenniums ago. But yet again, that didn't stop you and your loathsome goody goodies from defeating us once more! In one final blow from you, blue one, the great Catalyst had met another defeat. Little did you or anyone else know, that was my signal to bring myself back!"
"Before that final blow was struck, I broke myself away from Catalyst's complete body, and vanished from sight before my absent presence was noticed, leaving behind a nice little illusion of the Cataclysmic Emerald in it's whole form to fool you all; especially that foolish Necronos!"
Amy's eyes widened. She couldn't believe it. Gamma had planned revenge ever since they thought it was all over. Even Necronos was tricked. Something she thought would never be possible.
Sonic grew even angrier after hearing all that.
"So you're saying that green shard placed back in the Emerald before Necro left was…"
"A FAKE, of course!" Gamma snapped. "And although a year is not too much time to regroup one's self, just look at me! Thanks to this city's mechanized fools falling for my weakened robot play, I now control the only civilized group of all Mobius Z, which will soon spread my grasp until it goes global! HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!"
"Not if we can stop you first!"
Sonic suddenly dashed forward toward Gamma Catalyst's chest; but jumped back as he saw him try to clasp him in a 'CLAP!' with his palms.
Amy jumped at his left and swung with her hammer to his head.
"HYAAA!"
But Gamma ducked just a split second before impact, and backslapped her from behind!
'SLAP!' "Aaaaaahhh!"
Sonic sprinted and caught her on the other side of the room.
"You'll have to do better than that, rodents. MUCH BETTER!"
Rouge flew high over the skyscrapers of the Collision Chaos Zone, looking far out front to see any sign of the others.
"Oh, this it taking way too long, and becoming way too boring. Why can't men ever travel in plain sight?"
Just then her eyes spotted something. A shining gleam flashed down below.
"Hello, what's this? Maybe a new little beauty of a gem for me?"
Instinct getting the better of her, she started down into a plummeting dive to the Zone's ground level.
"Here I come, my pretty!"
Unfortunately, in not finding the gleam again while diving, she lost sight of her target, and….well, I'm sure you can tell…………… 'WHAM!' Rouge crashed on the surface.
"Oooowww…that wasn't fun" she said rubbing her head.
"Well, well, well" said a familiar voice.
Rouge looked up to find Espio looking down at her, holding a gleaming shuriken in his hand.
"I should've known…" She sweatdropped.
"That's what you get for taking your mind off the mission at hand, Rouge. Now stay focused, girl!" Espio said.
"You're such a bossy boots, camouflage boy."
Just then…… 'WHAM!'
The two felt a huge force hit them and carry them off at a high speed. They opened their eyes to find Shadow holding them with Geoffrey.
"About time I found you!" Rouge complained. "What kept you?"
Shadow just smirked as he picked up speed.
"Talk later, run now!"
Meanwhile far up ahead of them. Knuckles and Tails were also moving as fast as they could to Metal City. As they dashed, Knuckles picked up a unknown sense...
"Tails. I feel some strange energy up ahead. Why don't you pull forward to check it out. I'll catch up as fast as possible!"
"You got it Knux!" he answered with a thumb's up.
Tails quickly flew ahead with a great burst of speed, and in no time at all, he spotted something in the distance...
"That's it! The Zone where Sonic and the rest are..."
Sonic and Amy continued their combat with Gamma, which unfortunately for them felt pretty one-sided. No matter what charge or attack they tried close to him, he always pushed them back with a greater strike or force, not even leaving a scratch on his thick metal body.
"Pathetic! And here I was hoping much better from you, girl! I've increased my powers greatly since last time……and yet you remain WEAK!"
Amy turned back angrily. "Sheesh! Do you EVER shut up talking about yourself?"
Sonic tried a sneak jump kick. Guess what? It didn't work. Got grabbed in midair.
"HEY! Leggo!"
"If you insist…" and was tossed right into Amy! 'BAM!'
The two of them whispered to each other on the floor.
"Not good, Sonic. We can't even touch him! He knows just what we'll before we even think it."
"Amy, now that I think about it, maybe just letting the two of us take him was a pretty stupid idea…"
Gamma took a few steps closer to them, enjoying viewing their vulnerability.
"Well, at least you get the opportunity to be the one suffering this time. I've suffered a great deal from you stepping up and destroying my perfect evolution!"
Amy had enough. "Will you just let it go???! That was a year ago for cryin' out loud!!"
Gamma's red eyes squinted at her.
"Oh, I don't mean last time, my dear. I mean your interference here and now! You pitiful worms daring to stop my Zone evolution!"
That got Sonic's attention. "What are you talking about?"
"His secret conspiracy!"
A voice broke their eye contact, as the three combatants looked up at the sudden new hole in the wall above them. A silhouette stood within the sunlight shining inward, revealing a familiar form. All eyes widened as two blue eyes glowed from within the figures hooded cloak.
Amy stared in shock. "It…..it can't be…"
As did Sonic. "I don't believe it……..NECRONOS!"
Necronos stood still in the frame of the large hole in the tower wall, holding Rotor's booster machine in his arm.
"Sorry I'm late Sonic, Amy!" he said looking at them
"LATE?" Sonic shouted. "How about 'HI. Glad to see ya again'?"
"In due time, my friend, but now's not the best."
Necronos suddenly turned an angry gaze to Gamma's piercing eyes.
"Very clever, Gamma. I must admit I am quite surprised that you were able to escape the Cataclysmic Emerald without my knowing all this time."
"Heh, heh, heh……Well, it sure took you long enough." His metallic fists tightened. "Might I ask why the sudden intrusion, my loathsome guard?"
Necronos just stared as he spoke up. "To stop your viral grasp from spreading any further, of course! It took me a while, but I finally figured it all out. The Metal Metropolis Zone's presence on Mobius Z isn't causing the dimensional imbalance……YOU ARE!"
Sonic and Amy's eyes widened once more.
"This dark tower of yours is flowing with your negative energies, isn't it? And just like a virus, it's trying to spread through the bloodstream of the entire planet. You just used this Zone as a cleaver hiding place and made it seem like Metal City was really causing the problems the whole time. And with our assumptions leading us wrong, it was giving you the time you needed to try infecting the planet's other Zones with your dark powers!"
There was along pause, until Gamma's jagged jaw grinned.
"Very impressive, old friend. Very impressive. It appears you've discovered my little secret. I believe the proper phrase is 'the cat's outta the bag?'"
Sonic pulled Amy into another whisper.
"Now I get it. Rotor's monitors traced Metal City as the newly formed Zone causing the disturbance……"
"……But actually, it was picking it up Gamma's darkness from this tower" Amy finished.
"Well isn't that nice?" Gamma began. "Now my clever little plot is out and for all to know! And it only took 11 chapters!"
Necronos raised his arm. "And it'll be foiled in no time!" He held out Rotor's booster machine for Sonic, Amy, and Gamma to see.
"HA! What do you plan to do with that?" Gamma taunted.
Necronos turned his gaze to the duo on the other side of the room.
"Sonic, Amy. You're friend Rotor has outdone himself this time" he said giving an assuring wink.
Sonic and Amy stayed quiet as they suddenly heard Necronos' telepathy communication in their heads.
'What is that thing, Necro?' Amy said with her mind.
'It's a device used to create synthetic Chaos Control. Your other friends have done their part to power it, and are on their way here now.'
Sonic gave a slight grin. 'Really? How far away are they?'
'They should be here anytime now, but this machine is more important! Once we activate it, if all goes as expected, it'll open a temporary portal to a negative empty dimension: The Zero Zone!'
'A different dimension?' Amy questioned. 'It's that powerful?'
'Powerful enough to pull in this cursed tower and Gamma for good! We just need to activate it now!'
"I see………that IS a fascinating little toy, my friend!"
Necronos' eyes widened in fear. Sonic and Amy gasped aloud.
"Oh no! He could hear us?" Sonic shouted.
Necronos quickly reached for the buttons.
"Gotta do this qui---!" 'TSWEEEEEEWWWWWW!'
"Too slow…"
"AAAAAAAAHHHH!" Amy shrieked.
Her eyes widened more with tears forming under them, as she stared with fright at the red hot laser that suddenly fired from Gamma's held up palm.
The last thing Necronos felt as he fell from the tower, his vision going black, was the burning feel of the laser's blast shooting straight through his chest……
My best cliffy yet! Now what could possibly happen next? Only I know, but so will you all eventually (if you promise to provide a few reviews, please! lol). See ya next time!