We're getting really close to the end. Just a couple more chapters.
Also, about my mindless rambling about the Sherlock Holmes-based fic, I really don't think I'll be able to write it. As much as I love detective stories, I suck at writing them. That and the fact that I'm writing a new story now. I'm truly sorry ShinyShiny9, but hey, you know what Toni Morrison said, "If there's a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it" (Quite literally in this case).
Well, that's all. Here's the new chapter. Less rival-to-rival quarreling and more hedgehog-on-robots violence.
Chapter 8: War
Inside the Egg Citadel's control room…
Eggman heard the alarm go off and took a break from his work to look at the security footage. To his dismay and charging, he learned that Sonic and Knuckles had accomplished the feat that he himself deemed impossible, escaping his special maze.
"How…How did that pesky pin cushion and that red mutt escape? Impossible." shouted Eggman angrily. The mad scientist looked to another screen and grunted irritably, having found exactly out how the heroes had managed to escape, before hitting a series of buttons on the keyboard furiously.
"Attention all forces! Go to Sector 8 and destroy Sonic and Knuckles immediately. Use every means necessary. That's an order."
After giving the command, the doctor sank back into his chair and looked at the screen showing the outside of the Egg Citadel.
"Curse you, you meddling brat. You and your annoying inventions have gotten on my nerves long enough." muttered the doctor.
Eggman quickly shook his head and stood up from where he was sitting.
"I need to deal with these pests first before I escape this soon-to-be-destroyed world. This time, I will finish you once and for all, Sonic." Eggman walked into his lab to begin preparations for the inevitable arrival of his most hated enemies.
Meanwhile…
After leaving the maze, Sonic and Knuckles made for the exit. The door was shut tight, so the hot-headed echidna decided to demolish it. Fortunately, whatever material Eggman had used to build the maze and the cell wasn't used to make this giant door, possibly due to his confidence, so Knuckles' fists easily tore it apart upon impact.
"You might need to take a chill pill, knucklehead." said Sonic jokingly as he watched his friend work, "All the anger you're feeling right now, not exactly good for your health."
"Oh, I'll chill alright…once I punch that Eggman to outer space for ruining my holiday." Knuckles grumpily retorted, still holding a grudge for the hedgehog. Sonic, knowing how the guardian acted when he had anger issues, shrugged and followed Knuckles.
After they passed the through the door, the heroes were met with a spiral stair, a really big and long spiral stair, that seemed to lead all the way to the top of the Egg Citadel.
"He had all the metal to build a ridiculously huge spiral stair and yet he didn't have the decency to at least put an elevator down here. I'm giving the design a zero out of ten." said Sonic as he feigned disappointment. The echidna just shook his head and began to walk up the stair, clearly not in the mood to suffer Sonic's lame attempts at jokes.
"Who cares about the stupid design, let's move already. Knowing Eggman, there are bound to be some tricks here."
As soon as Knuckles, a bunch of security guns popped out from the staircase and started shooting. Further ahead, a bunch of Egg Pawns ran down with all kinds of weapons in hand and started throwing them at the heroes. Their weapons of choice included (but not limited to) spears, grenades, swords, knives, silverware, plates, buckets of water, and more random things they had gotten their hands on, mostly due to the Eggman's surprise order.
"Ya just have to open your mouth and say something bad, huh, Knuckles?" said Sonic as he dodged the incoming barrage of...incoming stuff.
Knuckles didn't even bother to reply. He instead grabbed some of the spears and knives being thrown and threw them right back at the robots with deadly precision, taking out more than ten of them in an instant. While Knuckles was having his target practice session, Sonic used his trademark spin dash to bounce around the staircase and took out any security guns that popped out from their holes.
"Horrible design, but one hell of a place to play Whack-a-mole." exclaimed the excited hedgehog as he continued bouncing around.
With their combined efforts, Sonic and Knuckles made short work of the mad scientist's security, but more came and soon, they were greatly outnumbered. The attacks increased in intensity and frequency as the ascended the staircases.
After a really long time and a lot of explosions, the simple-minded robots finally decided to pull out the big guns, really big guns, in the forms of bazookas and grenade launchers in an attempt to vaporize the heroes. After all, Eggman had given them orders to use 'every means necessary'.
Knuckles used some of the still functioning security guns they had just disabled and opened fire on the robots. Once again, his deadly accuracy made his targets explode almost instantly. The unstoppable guardian dodged all of the coming missiles and approached the Egg Pawns, stole their empty bazookas before they reloaded and used them as baseball bats. The guardian swung the bazookas around and whacked anything and everything he laid eyes on, including a very familiar shade of blue.
"Home run!" yelled Knuckles as he hit an Egg Pawn so hard that it flew to who-knows-where.
"Easy there knucklehead, you could have killed me with that thing." said Sonic as he tried to dodge the rampaging guardian's relentless attacks, some of which would have definitely given him a concussion if it hadn't been for his lightning-quick reflexes.
"Collateral damage." replied the ticked-off guardian. Apparently, he had yet to forget the stunt Sonic had pulled to get him out of the maze.
After that, the echidna continued to make his way up while swinging the bazookas around. On the other hand, Sonic was behind Knuckles most of the time, for fear of getting a hit by his dangerous swinging during his rampage. While the echidna took charge of clearing a path for the both of them, the hedgehog provided cover for his friend and dealt with the pesky security guns and the Egg Pawns with the grenade launchers.
Sonic, being the daredevil he was, actually treated the deadly grenades as soccer balls and kicked them back at the Egg Pawns before they exploded. Needless to say, the robots were reduced to scrap when the grenades exploded in their faces.
Despite being greatly outnumbered, Sonic and Knuckles remained unfazed as they continued to ascend the stair and head for the top floor. After running for a while, they were stopped in their track by a ridiculously huge laser cannon in the middle of the staircase, which completely blocked the path. The laser cannon began to charge up. Due to the size of the stair and the cannon, Sonic and Knuckles could tell that the its shot would be a sure-kill, so they had to destroy it before it opened fire.
"Knux, hit me with the bat." yelled Sonic to his hot-headed companion.
"I don't see Rouge here, do you?" replied the echidna sarcastically.
"Ha ha, very funny, knucklehead."
"Now you see how annoying you really are, Sonic?"
Sonic was about to say something, but quickly decided against it. They really didn't have the luxury of time when the death cannon was ready to go off at any given moment. Besides, being turned into grilled hedgehog wasn't on his list of things to do for the day, or ever. He had another task after this, and he was not about to forget it.
Without further ado, Sonic leaped into the air, curled up into a ball and began to spin. When the hedgehog's ball form was in sight, Knuckles swung the remaining bazooka he was holding with all his might, hitting Sonic and sending the blue blur crashing straight into the menacing cannon.
The force of the attack was so strong that a huge hole was punctured on the said cannon, and Sonic went through it as if it were butter. The weapon was split in half shortly after and went offline. Said hedgehog uncurled himself and gingerly touched his back, where Knuckles had hit him (hard).
"No way I'm ever doing that with you again, Knuckles." said Sonic.
"Now we're even." the echidna snickered as he actually found amusement in the situation.
"Yeah, whatever. Let's get a move on and wrap this up. I have somewhere else I'd rather be right now."
With that, Sonic and Knuckles continued to run up the stair. The rest of the trip after the laser cannon was rather smooth and peaceful (if you don't count the amount of explosions and pieces of scrap metal flying everywhere).
After about an hour or two of running without a break, Sonic and Knuckles finally arrived at a giant steel door. Like before, Knuckles threw a mighty punch at it and the door flung open immediately upon contact.
"Does it hurt to knock every once in a while, Knux?" asked Sonic jokingly.
"That's how I knock." replied the powerhouse guardian.
"Then remind me to give you a cell phone and call me down to open the door for you every time you come by. I seriously don't want to spend a fortune on fixing the door, or the house. Unless you text messages by puncturing holes on it."
With that, Sonic and Knuckles walked through the door.
Inside, it was another empty corridor. The two heroes walked along it and finally reached another steel door with Eggman's logo on it. Just like before, Knuckles got ready to break the door down, but before his fist was thrown, it opened on its own, seemingly inviting Sonic and Knuckles in.
Knowing that they had reached their final destination, Sonic and Knuckles looked at each other briefly before entering the room, expecting to face Dr. Eggman himself as the opponent.
How was the chapter? Please give me your honest opinions. Next time: Boss battle.