Here I am again. Hope you like it.
Kilatails: I tried to update soon at least
Lordoftheluis4: Yes! And I'm about to do it once again.
Molto Alesato: Wow! Rambling! Cool.
Shinju the Rabbit: I know Tails has come across a lot of misfortune. But don't worry he'll hopefully be all right.
Kitsune-awesomeness: Yes it has. It's so beautiful seeing such a small story escalate into something like this.
Kitsune-superfox: I did in fact get that from Sonic X. I glad you noticed. As for the rest you should probably just keep reading to find out.
Silver Sheilds: Video games are still awesome though.
Tails and Cream: Thanks. I'm glad it's been getting better.
Raziel777: Metal was a jerk so I had him get beat badly. I love stories with suspense and ones that don't take forever to get into the interesting stuff. I was gunning for something like this.
You'veBeenJayed: Really! That's amazing! Thanks! Here's the more you wanted.
Chapter 38: Levels of Peril
Prower Castle: Level 3
"SONIC!" Shouted Knuckles from across the acid terrain. Apparently he had made it far enough to actually catch up to Sonic and Amy.
Sonic almost lost his balance when his name was called but amazingly kept himself together. He turned around to face the person and beamed back at him with a happy smile.
"KNUCKLES! How'd you get here so quick?" Sonic shouted back almost forgetting the mission at hand.
Knuckles, being more focused than Sonic, decided not to answer and quickly made his way over to Sonic's location. Not only that but he passed by the hedgehog completely which completely confused him to no end. At least until he remembered they were on a mission.
"Hey! Wait up!" Sonic ran into the next room with Amy still basking in the glory of being in her hero's arms.
What Sonic saw when they made their way up there almost made him drop the girl in his arms.
"This castle is just straight up freaky!" Sonic eyed what was in front of him and Amy. The room was filled with tiny little volcanoes with snakes made entirely out of fire coming out of them and heading into the next one.
"EWW! Sonic I hate snakes!" Cried Amy.
"Lava snakes? COOL!" Sonic said as he was about to speed his way through.
"SHHH!" Came a certain echidna who was far ahead of them then expected.
"Huh? Oh hey Knuckles!" Sonic shouted back obviously not grasping the concept of being quiet. Knuckles angrily brought his voice to a whisper.
"Don't make a sound Sonic. If you do this place will fill to the brim with lava snakes." Knuckles said silently. Luckily Sonic was able to hear him.
"How do you know?"
"I just have this feeling. Move slowly." He warned then made his way across. Sonic set Amy down and put his finger up to his mouth.
"Shhh." Sonic warned and Amy nodded. They slowly made their way across the steam filled room with Amy barely able to keep herself from screaming out in fear from all the snakes she was seeing.
By now Knuckles had made it to the staircase. He was going to wait for Sonic but the hedgehog made a gesture with his hands that told him to keep going.
Eventually Sonic made it to the staircase and was waiting for Amy. Maybe he should've just taken her across like last time. That certainly would've been easier. Oh well. She looked like she was doing fine on her own except she was taking way to long.
Amy looked closely at her feet to make sure no snake slithered on her new boots. She didn't want slime or lava or any combination of the two on her new attire. It would simply be unsanitary.
That's when the absolute most devastating thing happened. One was coming up to her boots! No! It couldn't! She wouldn't let it damnit!
Amy raised her hammer and slammed it on to the poor lava snake hard. Nothing happened until a few seconds later when all the snakes poked their heads out of the small volcanoes and stared at Amy with angered looks.
"… What! These are new boots and he was about to mess them up!" Amy shouted back. The snakes said nothing back as every last one of them slithered out and attacked the pink hedgehog.
Amy, of course no longer decided to stick around and made a break for it. She ran past Sonic and straight upstairs to the next level. Sonic quickly followed her as he didn't want to end up lava snake food either.
Prower Castle: Level 7
Eggman was zooming across the empty room with the huge bottomless pit below them with incredible ease. He could almost smell the victory waiting for him at the end of the long room.
Prower Castle: Level 5
Knuckles had made it to a strange room with spiked explosives laid out across the ground. The strange thing was that the top of the spiked balls were shooting out flames toward the ceiling. The only problem was is that there was no ceiling! The flames were just shooting into blackness.
"Or… if there is a ceiling then it's a lot higher up then expected… and if that's the case…" Knuckles went over to one of the spiked balls and cautiously lifted it up. He then set it down on one of the other spiked balls and got on top of it. Then he waited.
'If I'm right then the fire should send both me and this explosive flying high!' Knuckles waited and waited until finally a large rumbling was heard underneath one of the spiked balls. He hoped it wasn't the one he was sitting on or his butt would get a crater full of flames.
Luckily it was the one below the one he was sitting on and the fire immediately impacted the ball Knuckles was sitting on. The strain was so hard to get by but eventually the fire shot the ball and Knuckles straight up into the air.
He was flying toward the unseen ceiling at an incredibly fast rate and he couldn't wait to see what lied ahead for him.
All of a sudden the ball he was sitting on stopped going upward and it looked about ready to fall back down. Knuckles however couldn't allow himself to go down with it. He immediately got up and jumped straight up into the air. Hopefully he'd have something to grab on when he got there.
Prower Castle: Level 7
Eggman was flying across the pit dodging flame after flame. His maneuvering skills were indeed the best. He couldn't wait to reach his prize. However something unexpected decided to make its presence known at what could possibly be the worst most possible time.
Knuckles flew up and out of the bottomless pit below him and crashed head first into the Eggmobile. This act caught Eggman, Bocoe, and Decoe off guard and their small little mobile started to rock back and forth from the friction Knuckles' impact caused.
The echidna grabbed on to the Eggmobile's long red spike that jetted out from the bottom and climbed his way to the cockpit where Eggman, Bocoe, and Decoe was.
"What the hell was that?" Eggman shouted as he looked over the edge of his mobile. What he saw wasn't pleasing to his eyes at all.
"Hello there Eggman." Knuckles climbed on top of the control panel then looked down at him with amazing anger hinting on his face.
"ARGH! KNUCKLES! How'd you get here so quick!" Eggman shouted ignoring the freaked out expressions on his two robot's faces.
"I'd outta knock that Egg head of yours clear off." Knuckles said while threateningly raising a fist.
"Now calm down Knuckles! There's no need to get nasty! We're just trying to make a living by… you know living!" Eggman yelled with his hand up as a pathetic defense.
"What level is this anyway?" Knuckles asked feeling a bit shaken.
"Level 7 and counting now would you mind getting off my Eggmobile!" Eggman shouted.
"Nope! You're taking me across this thing! If you don't I'll just punch you out of this thing and you'll fall all the way back down to level 5 and have to go through all that crap again without your precious machine! " Knuckles said as he hoped in between Bocoe and Decoe.
Eggman visualized what would become of him if he were to plummet into level 5 being the old man he is. The chances for survival were extremely slim if he were to fall. Not to mention he'd be trapped within a crazy ass castle with countless booby traps and poisonous animals.
"… Hmmm… all right fine… but no backseat driving or I'll blow your head off with my plasma canon!" Eggman said as he drove forward.
Prower Castle: Level 5
Sonic and Amy were easily able to breeze through level 4 and 5 simply because it wasn't level 4 and 5 they were worrying about. No, it was level 3 that caused them all the worry. The reason being that they're still being chased by those crazy lava snakes!
"I really wish you knew how to control that strange temper of yours Amy!" Sonic yelled sort of frazzled by all this.
"I'm sorry! Next time I'll be sure to cut out the rich girl stuff!" Amy basically screamed back as they made their way into Level 6.
Sonic quickly took notice of all the tiny little holes in the walls of the room. That didn't give off a 'good thing' vibe.
It was rightfully so as a bombardment of poison tipped arrows started to shot out at Sonic and Amy.
"Oh you've got to be kidding me!" Sonic scooped Amy up in his arms and they raced across the room with lava snakes chasing after them and annoying deadly arrows shooting across the area.
Thankfully most of the arrows eluded Sonic and Amy and they were able to make it to the staircase on the other side. The hedgehog skidded to a stop and set Amy down.
"Why'd we stop? Those snakes are still after us right?" Amy said in a confused tone of voice. Sonic shook his head and pointed back into the room.
Amy looked in and almost laughed. The arrows had successfully pierced through all the lava snakes. It looked really funny from where they were standing.
"HAHA! Come on Amy! Let's go!" Sonic said as he grabbed her hand and jetted up the stairs.
Prower Castle: Level 8
"Now I've got you! Shoui FLATURE!" The female commander shouted again while firing her signature move at Bokkun. The scared robot tried his best to dodge without setting off any of the steel presses located above. However it was very hard to do.
Shoui's attack went all over the place and started to tip off all the dangerous presses that basically haunted Bokkun's peace of mind with the unpleasant thought of being crushed, skewered with spikes, and poisoned to death.
He knew he couldn't beat her the way he is and he knew there was no way of escaping without Eggman getting mad at him for failing or chickening out.
"Guess I'll just fly all over the place until something happens!" Bokkun shouted in fear.
Prower Castle: Level 3
"Come on you guys! The acid pit isn't that far!" Rouge shouted from across the acid pit in question. She had carried Shimon across by Smokestack's order and the rest of them were just coming up on the start due to Big's lack of energy and stamina.
"You really need to lay off the... everything!" Smokestack said as he grabbed hold of the cat and used his powers to fly across the acid pit and land next to Rouge on the other side. Big's weight was so overwhelming that the commander basically dropped him on the ground when they stopped. Froggy had no problem getting across considering he was on Big's head the whole time.
Vector had to carry Charmy across while Espio used his amazing skills to hurry straight through with amazing precision. The bee was happily sucking on his thumb while he was carried across and enjoyed the scenery surrounding him. Sometimes Vector wished he was the kid's age again. It would sure be fun to act oblivious to what's going on without people yelling at you that you're too old to be that stupid.
Once they were all across they made their way to the next level. Hopefully they would be able to help with the situation before it turned out to be too late.
Prower Castle: Level 7
"I'm starting to hate this place." Eggman said as he dodged flame after jetting flame while trying to make it across the seemingly endlessly long dark pit.
"Just keep moving forward!" Knuckles shouted while holding on to the end of the seats. The fire continued to shoot up unwanted and extremely dangerous. Eggman had to dodge up, down, right, and left just to make sure his deviously handsome mustache (His words! I swear!) from getting the slightest of singes.
Eventually the eggmobile triumphed and successfully made it across the huge pit. Bocoe and Decoe's circuits nearly crashed from the intense feelings jetting from their nerves concerning this bizarre situation.
Knuckles let out a breath he didn't know he was holding but quickly remembered he was sitting in one of Eggman's transportation devices and jumped out of there seconds after realizing it.
"Thanks for the lift Eggface! Sorry I couldn't stick around and play Uno again but I know you'll just win like you did before. See ya!" Knuckles ran up stairs while chuckling to himself.
"I don't believe this!" Bocoe shouted in fuming anger in response to Knuckles' rudeness.
"I know! Can you believe him doctor!?" Decoe said as he turned to his creator.
"No … I don't … that fool still doesn't know that I cheated on that game! HAHAHAHA!" Eggman laughed, the reason for the two robots anger flying directly over his head.
In response the two robots just stared at Eggman for his amazing obliviousness then sighed. There was nothing they could really do about it.
Prower Castle: Level 4
Level 4 was a breeze.
It literally wasn't anything to be afraid of. When Rouge, Smokestack, the Chaotix and the others made it there all that was there was a huge glowing ball of light. When the others found that they were surprisingly unaffected by it Smokestack took it upon himself to approach the sphere.
"There's something written on it…" Smoke saw the words appear through the light that shown on the ball. "It says…
You've done well to pass these challenges up to level four
But press your luck if you're to seek an impasse of something more
The light that shines within this ball will lay the peace to rest
Once tainted black it consumes all malice to those under the king's crest
To all those who read this thus be their final hour
Once condemned to darkness by will of malicious Miles Prower."
Everyone except those who were in tune with the situation at hand didn't exactly know what it meant. However, to everyone there it seemed very scary. Even to Rouge, who being a bat, enjoyed the darkness very much. Hearing it in this context made her feelings for the dark somewhat questionable.
One thing was for sure, they'd all have to make sure that they survived from here on in if they wanted to make sure that such an awful thing didn't come to pass.
Prower Castle: Level 8
Shoui had just dodged another one of those annoying steel presses and was flying on her purple energy saucer around the huge spiked room trying to catch the half-robotic messenger boy.
"SHOUI FLATURE!!" She shouted again. Her patience was dimming at an extremely fast rate. She knew for a fact that she was the only G.U.N agent of her platoon left and that all this buzzing messenger boy was doing was wasting her time.
She would've left and traveled up to the next level ages ago but the room had a strict magic policy. One can only be granted access to the upper grounds if someone dies while in the room.
People traveling alone would never be able to get by this rule because that one person who had to die would be themselves and thus making it impossible to go on any further. That's why Shoui was so frustrated. She had figured this out when a disturbing and unwanted image was planted in her head about this level's rules.
The problem was that if Bokkun fled from this level she'd be at a loss of how to go on any further. She had to both keep Bokkun away from her side of the room so he couldn't escape and try to find a way to kill. In retrospect that shouldn't have been too hard but…
"THIS PESKY THING WON'T STOP MOVING!" Shoui yelled while angrily firing another dud attack.
Bokkun flew around, all over the place, and back again. He didn't have any strategy, plan of attack, or combat skills. He was basically winging it.
After dodging another steel press for what seemed like the millionth time he started to lose sight of his surroundings and his panic meter flew off the charts.
Eventually he slammed into the side of the wall and flew backward in a dizzy motion.
"I'm… not… gonna give up… long live the EGGMAN EMPIRE!" Bokkun shouted with amazing bravado shining in his voice.
This did nothing but annoy Shoui even more. She pulled back her fist and allowed it to glow a bright shady color before firing her 2nd level flature attack at Bokkun.
The little messenger kid didn't react quickly enough and almost saw the lights of his life blow out with a harsh puff of wind.
However something amazing an unexpected happened. Bokkun was saved by a fist. It was a swift spiked fist that came right at Shoui's colorful and deadly attack and broke it apart with its mighty swing.
The person responsible for this amazing punch landed on the spikes with his tough and sturdy shoes easily piercing the pointed edges. Bokkun looked up at his saver with sparkles in his eyes and Shoui just stared in confusion wondering how he was able to get by her so fast without neither of the two previous occupants noticing.
"Hey there… I like your outfit." The red echidna spoke with a hint of assured confidence in his voice.
"Who are you?" Shoui asked while once again angrily tugging on her glove.
"My name is Knuckles. You must be the last of the military trash that's been messing with me and my comrades." Knuckles said as he stood directly on the poison spikes. His shoes were a lot stronger then you're average pair. He could jump up and down on these spikes as much as he wanted and they'd probably never break through.
"Oh I see… you must be one of Sonic's friends!" Shoui shouted while the sweat that had accumulated on her face began to drip to a much larger degree.
Knuckles fumed and almost completely lost his composure when she gave him that unwanted label.
"I AM NOT SONIC'S FRIEND!" Knuckles yelled while shaking his fist in the air. His anime vein was throbbing to the max which almost made Shoui smile.
"Thanks so much for saving me mister!" Bokkun said with gleaming happiness.
"Yeah whatever. Just stay outta my way kid and you won't get hurt." Knuckles ordered to which Bokkun showed no hesitation in taking out.
"Ha! You look like a guy who won't move so much! I'll kill you nice and slow! SHOUI FLATURE!!" She sent out her huge purple beam at Knuckles to which the echidna jumped up to avoid.
The attack hit the spikes he was previously standing on which caused an unwanted re-action. The steel presses from above came down hard toward where Knuckles was. The echidna, obviously not having seen this coming, quickly managed to maneuver himself to the side to avoid being crushed and skewered at the same time.
He landed on the spikes with his shoes almost piercing them due to the added thrust that was put into Knuckles' jump. He had to be careful of that from now on. However, much thought wasn't allowed to be put into dodging anymore because another one of Shoui's deadly dragon shaped beams was headed straight for Knuckles.
The echidna tried dodging back but the attack had been lashed out too quickly and it hit directly. Knuckles flew back and slammed into a wall which in turn triggered another steel press. It came down to where he was standing but having seen it coming this time was able to jump out of the way.
When he landed his shoes still weren't damaged but Knuckles was starting to feel fatigue. He'd never stayed up and fought through so much treacherous terrain before. Usually his training was limited to his island and his island alone. It actually felt good to get out and save the world every once in a while.
"What are you smiling for echidna? You know I have the upper hand correct! Now for the sake of this marvelous play do me a favor and exit stage left!" Shoui fired her dragon on a string right at Knuckles once again. Having seen the attack he quickly jumped and sprinted his way behind Shoui. The attack hit the wall.
"HEY! Hold on!" Shoui tried her best to turn around before Knuckles could strike but it seemed too late as his fist connected with her once smooth cheek. Blood escaped from her mouth as she quickly regained her control and jumped backward. Once she landed safely on her floating energy platform she scoffed at Knuckles and tugged on her gloves once again.
"I usually don't hit girls but I make exceptions for the ones that piss me off! Now go wonder on back to the beauty shop missy." Knuckles grinned his confident grin which prompted Shoui to chuckle herself.
"Oh wait don't tell me! You think that just because you're stronger that my act is done eh? Not even close. If you wanna keep up with me you're gonna have to step it up to a whole new level of professionalism in the acting realm!" Shoui's hands lit up immediately after having said that and in no time at all two power dragons attached to energy strings from her hands emerged and flew straight out at Knuckles.
Bokkun was flying all over the place while trying to avoid them. For Knuckles it only took one swift jump. However, the pesky things just turned around and followed him. He had to twirl through the air and land as gracefully as he could in order to ensure that he stayed alive.
"Okay… I guess two is more fun then one… bring it!" Knuckles said while charged at her once more.
Prower Castle: Level 7
Sonic and Amy stared at the long dark and bottomless pit that seemed to taunt them with its massive intake on their lives. Neither of them had any idea as to how they were expected to get across this thing.
"Great! What do we do now Sonic?" Amy asked feeling pretty insecure about going any further.
Sonic didn't answer but instead just stared down at the shadowy pit with curiosity hinted in his tone of voice.
"I wonder…" The hedgehog then, without much warning, lifted Amy into his arms and faced the pit. "You ready for this Amy?" Sonic asked while making sure she was holding on tight.
"R-ready for what?" She asked obviously afraid of what the answer might be. Sonic pulled himself back then launched his body forward. This resulted in a huge mega jump from one side of the pit to hopefully the other.
Amy was screaming bloody murder as they flew higher and higher then slowly started to make a decent. Meanwhile Eggman was sitting in his Eggmobile on the same ledge Knuckles left them on pondering what his next course of action should be.
"Doctor? What are you doing?" Decoe asked for the 3rd time to which for the 3rd time he received no response.
Eventually though Eggman noticed his robots concerned faces then decided to spill the beans.
"The next level is a dose. I'm trying to figure out how we can get past it. I've heard that one can not pass that level unless another person in that same level as you dies first. After a person dies in there the passage way is said to open. Problem is that no one has ever made it this far before and usually those who have only show up alone. If they show up alone it would be there life they'd have to forfeit meaning that they could go no further and there time spent surviving all these challenges has been wasted. I must say this castle has one ingenious torture set up. I must copy it and steal the idea for myself one day when I get the chance." Eggman spoke as if he weren't finding the situation the least bit humorous this time around.
"Well… what do we do doctor?" Bocoe asked. Eggman turned to his two robots and sighed.
"Well… I never put a self destruct button in you two but if I opened up your chests and reconnected the wires together using an unstable electrical balance then the results would be the same." Eggman explained. The two robots freaked out and shook at the edge of Eggman vehicle while holding each other.
"Wait! Please don't do that doctor!" Decoe said in fear.
"Don't worry I won't… but there's got to be a way we can get by this obstacle without me having to sacrifice one of my own. What a waste that would be…"
Suddenly the three of them heard two loud shouts coming from above. Eggman, Bocoe, and Decoe looked up and saw two screaming hedgehog's flying there way.
"We're not gonna make it!" Amy yelled in tremendous fear as the velocity of Sonic's jump forced tear droplets to fly out of her eyes.
"You… might be right… but I'm still not gonna give up!" Sonic neared the ledge and was a quarter of a way there when Sonic realized there was no way he'd make it to the ledge unless he grabbed something. Luckily for him something was there sticking out for him to grab.
Sonic extended his hand as he made his decent and grabbed hold of Eggman's long mustache!
"ARRGH! HEDGEHOG!" Eggman shouted as Sonic's grip almost caused Eggman to fall out of his eggmobile and accompany Sonic and Amy at the bottom of the pit.
Sonic took advantage of the hold he had and began to climb up using Eggman's long mustache as a sturdy rope.
Eggman however couldn't stand the pain his rugged face hair was enduring having the weight of two hedgehogs on it.
"YOU GRUBBY LITTLE FIEND! LET GO OF MY MUSTACHE!" Eggman shouted while trying to force Sonic off. The hedgehog quickly maneuvered and swung over Eggman's head then landed safely on his feet.
"See. I told ya we'd make it." Sonic said while tossing away 3 little hairs that had escaped from Eggman's mustache.
"I knew you'd save us in the end!" Amy hugged Sonic while she was in his embrace.
Eggman was flaming mad and it showed as his personal anime vein looked as if it was ready to burst.
"You… ruptured my mustache!" Eggman shouted in a clearly pissed off tone.
"Relax egghead. It was just three hairs." Sonic said with a chuckle. Eggman sneered then fired out bullets at the hedgehog who easily dodged them then took his opportune moment to head on up the stairs.
"Guys! We're moving on up!" Eggman shouted angrily.
"We are? But I thought you said we'd need to figure out who to kill?" Decoe asked.
"I did! Sonic's gonna die up there! Today! HEDGEHOG!" Eggman said as he blasted up the steps.
Prower Castle: Level 8
Shoui sprung her two dragons out at Knuckles for what seemed like the longest possible time until she saw an opening she couldn't pass up.
"All right! Take this echidna!" She sent one of her flying energy dragons straight at Knuckles while he was fixated in the air. The echidna however thought quickly and shifted his body so the energy dragon would fly right by him.
He then immediately grabbed hold of the energy string that connected the dragon to Shoui's hand. With a confident smirk Knuckles tugged hard on the string and disconnected it from Shoui's hand.
The female commander was shocked by Knuckles' move but was determined not to let it hinder her. She used her other dragon to launch an attack straight at Knuckles. The echidna countered it by tossing Shoui's now disconnected dragon back at her and allowing both to crash. This unexpectedly caused them to explode on contact.
The recoil sent Knuckles crashing against the wall and tumbling toward the spikes below. The echidna quickly fixed it so his sneakers touched the spikes instead. However, this is when Knuckles began to notice something. Numerous falling spells with these spikes had caused his shoes to dent and rupture. Pretty soon the spikes will poke through and skewer his feet which in turn will poison him also.
"I've got to keep it together. If I can just reach her and end it without killing her then maybe… ARGH! How the hell is that even possible! We're in a room covered with poison spikes and there are steel presses hanging over out head every time we make one of ordinary move! Whoever designed this castle must've been a really annoying person!" Knuckles was beyond pissed off.
Shoui couldn't hold herself back anymore. She fell into a deep laughing fit. Knuckles' stupidity was just the funniest thing she's seen in a long time.
"You're very stupid. I can see how you'd be annoyed with this messed up place though. I however, know how to make it work for me." Shoui created another energy dragon and flung it at the part of the wall over Knuckles' head. The impact caused the expected aftershock which didn't at all take Knuckles by surprise.
"HA! You missed me warrior woman!" knuckles taunted feeling not the least bit skeptical.
"I guess you really haven't been paying that much attention to the stuff that happens when this place gets shaken up eh?"
Knuckles didn't know what she meant until he heard that dreadful sound of wind being split apart by the fierce drop of the steel press above his head.
Just by looking up Knuckles could tell that there was no way of dodging it. There was just one course of action. The echidna raised his hands and stopped the press as it slammed down on him. He immediately started to struggle as he was in-between this cold hard steel and poisonous spikes.
The spikes, by the way, were started to pierce their way through Knuckles' hard shoes. It wouldn't be long before something gave. He'd either be poisoned or crushed to death in a few minutes. Maybe even seconds…
"Now you've had it! You're about to be crushed, poisoned, and skewered in a few seconds! But why not add to the fun?" Shoui laughed as her hands glowed and she crossed them with amazing smug texture. No later had she done it that numerous purple energy dragons flew out of her hands in a miraculous puff of smoke.
"There's about ten in total! And guess what? They're all coming after you!" She shouted as her dragons all hoisted their heads and got ready.
Knuckles beads of sweat turned to bullets as the press pushed down on his flat palms even harder. The strain was causing his legs to weaken and almost sprain themselves. The spikes were now piercing there way through his shoes but hadn't reached his feet yet.
"Damnit! Why am I getting all this crap done to me! I fight that Igneous dud and get seriously injured! Then I barely escape from that weird Darkness guy. And finally here I am! Stuck in this freaky castle while in-between poisonous spikes, and this huge steel press, and an annoying bitch with silver hair and ten puffy magic dragons! Oh well, I guess I am the one who wanted all this adventure anyway. I might as well make the best of it!" Knuckles chuckled as the situation looked bleaker then it ever did before.
"Now GO!" Shoui shouted and sent her numerous dragons out at Knuckles at once.
"But despite all that… I'm… I'm not gonna die here! I'll win this fight! You here that you ugly bitch! Bring 'em on!" Knuckles raved as he dug his gloved hands into the cold steel with ease. The echidna struggled and struggled and the more he did the closer the spikes came to ripping through his shoe leather entirely!
'It's a stupid move… but doing nothing would be even stupider!' He thought as he began to pull the steel press downward as hard as he could. This move confused Shoui to no end. Was he deliberately trying to crush himself?
Knuckles then made his huge egotistical grin as the dragons grew closer. Immediately afterward and in no time flat Knuckles completely and successfully ripped the steel press away from it's hinges. Carrying all that weight should've immediately crushed him but it didn't!
"WHAT! That's impossible! What are you a steroid with arms and legs?!"
"Who me? Naw… I just get this really impossible burst of strength when I'm either pissed off or in an impossible to win situation!" Knuckles then did a loud battle cry as he swung the massive piece of steel at the incoming dragons. The steel hit directly and caused them all to explode on contact.
Knuckles immediately dropped the steel press and its long hinge then jumped off the spikes before they could reach his feet.
The explosions that resulted from Knuckles' swing sent Shoui flying and crashing against the wall which of course alerted not only one or two of the steel presses but basically all of them. They all came down at a fast rate, too fast for Shoui to get up or do anything about them.
She tugged at her glove and was about to hit the press away while falling back but it was too late. The press successfully slammed into her body and brought both her and it down on the poison spikes. The huge slam that resulted from all the presses hitting the spikes was indeed loud and boisterous.
Knuckles having nothing to grab on when he jumped and felt himself free falling down to where the spikes were. Fortunately for him Bokkun still had a debt to pay and grabbed his arm before Knuckles suffered the same fate as Shoui.
"Thanks kid." Knuckles said truthfully grateful to which Bokkun responded to by chuckling. They both sighed and looked down at the scene below them. All the presses were slammed against the spikes. The press that Knuckles had ripped off was partly crushed beneath some of the other ones. As for the press Shoui was under… not much was seen but a small trail of blood leaking out from under it.
It made Bokkun shiver and Knuckles shake his head. Such an unfortunate death it was.
Before Bokkun could find a safe place to set Knuckles down the room lit up with a bright light and everything that cluttered the floor was suddenly gone. The presses, the spikes, and the body were no where to be seen.
"Um… what just happened?" Bokkun asked as he gently flew to the clear and empty floor of the previously overly booby-trapped room.
"I guess… we won?" Knuckles said in a more of an interrogative sentence then intended.
Prower Castle: Level 7
Was it physically possible for all of them to get past these levels with such amazing ease? Apparently it was. Every level Smokestack and the others made their way through was either completely ruined or deactivated in a magical sense.
Level 5 was filled with tiny volcanoes that didn't harm you unless you hunched on over them and let yourself get blasted with the incredible heat. Level 6 looked like a room full of holes. However those holes were filled to the brim with arrows and dead lava snakes. No arrows shot at them as they made their way through because of the occupation. Now they were at Level 7.
"Okay, so how's this going to work?" Smokestack asked as he turned to the group.
"It looks like an incredibly long way over but we can make the trip. The heaviest I can carry is two people!" Rouge said.
"Can you take me and Vector across in a flight formation?" Espio asked.
"… I can try. Your weight might be a problem but I'm sure we'll be able to stay a float if jaws over there can supply me with a back-up fire engine in case we descend." Rouge explained pointing to Vector. The crocodile nodded knowing exactly what she meant.
"Don't worry missy. I'll work it just like people work a hot air balloon." Vector boasted.
"Are you calling me a balloon? And did you say I was full of hot air too!" Rouge shouted back.
"What! No I just-"
"Relax! I was joking." Rouge chuckled as she took flight. Espio grabbed her boots and Vector grabbed Espio's legs.
"This too much weight for ya?" The crocodile asked.
"Less talking, more flying!" Rouge struggled as she flew as quickly as she could across.
Smokestack grabbed Shimon and put him under his arm then took Big by the hand. "Don't worry. I can use my smoke to blast myself across." Smoke said while taking off. Charmy stayed behind and sucked his thumb in mindless bliss before realizing that everyone had gone ahead. He then followed suit as well.
Smoke was making a clear straight spurt across but due to Rouge's struggling fit and Vector's misguided fire blasting a certain mishap happened.
You see they took off without realizing that the volcanoes from level 5 shot all the way up where they were. That caused Rouge to get taken by surprise when one shot up in front of her. She almost fell backward but decided to keep control by ducking backward and flying around. However, she didn't know that Smoke was headed in her new direction also. So when she turned to fly around- WHAM!
Smoke crashed into Rouge which caused all of them to spiral out of control and fly ahead at an unregistered passé. The volcanoes were shooting spurt after spurt at them as the tumbled through the air but none of them hit. Eventually they crash landed on the other side in a clumped together heap feeling relieved that they all survived.
When Charmy finally caught up he saw everyone toppled over each other and decided that it looked like fun... so he jumped on the pile of people too and laughed his butt off.
"Not exactly how I planned it to work out but hey whatever works…" Smokestack grumbled as they had finally reached the staircase leading to Level 8.
Prower Castle: Level 8
Sonic zoomed up the stairs with Amy in his arms followed by the pissed off egg-shaped scientist and his two scared lackeys.
"Die hedgehog! DIE!" Eggman shouted as they all traveled farther up the stairs. Eventually Sonic crashed through the door and slid across the ground feeling proud of himself.
"I made it! WHOO HOO!!" Sonic yelled as he set Amy down.
"Sonic?" Knuckles turned to hedgehog with a shocked expression on his face. He had his hand on the door that would take them up to Level 9 when the interruption happened.
"Oh hey Knuckles! Did ya have fun making your way up this crazy thing?" Sonic smirked.
Knuckles didn't answer as he was too preoccupied with trying to figure out what the noise coming from behind Sonic was.
"Um… have you seen Dr. Eggman anywhere by any chance?" Bokkun flew up to Sonic and asked a bit worried.
"Oh yeah! You might wanna step aside guys." Sonic said as he and Amy went to the sides of the room. Bokkun and Knuckles looked confused but they did as well. It didn't take long for Sonic's reason to move showed up.
Bullets flew rapidly out of the burst open door all of a sudden. Eventually the screaming Eggman flew into the room with his thumbs repeatedly jamming down on the fire button.
"ARGH! HEDGEHOG! NOBODY PULLS ON MY MUSTACHE AND LIVES!!" He shouted.
"Doctor! Please stop!' Decoe shouted.
"Pay attention to your front view!" Bocoe screamed a bit too late as the Egg mobile skidded against the ground and slammed into the doorway. It and the door toppled over and Eggman, Bocoe, and Decoe ended up hunched together in a smoking heap.
"Doctor!" Bokkun flew over to Eggman and tried helping him up.
"HAHAHA! Nice entrance Egg face!" Sonic laughed as he sped over to the deluded and confused doctor.
"Dr. Eggman-sama have you calmed down yet?" Bocoe asked feeling a bit tired all of a sudden.
"… I… I think I might've blacked out there for a second due to my rage. A man's facial hair is one of the proudest things he's got going for himself you know." Eggman said as he stood up and dusted himself off.
"I'm just glad you're okay. I was worried that you might not have survived all that crap downstairs." Bokkun said while smiling to himself.
"Well that's all fine and dandy but we really need to keep going so if you don't mind I'd like to get by you three idiots." Knuckles said as he advanced toward Eggman.
"Idiots? I'll have you know that I'm much smarter then you when it comes to incredibly dynamic master plans and what not!" Eggman said while crossing his arms.
"Yeah, although you wouldn't know it by looking." Amy remarked as she pointed out the toppled over Egg mobile.
"Whatever. Just get out of my way." Knuckles said as he walked past Eggman and made his way upstairs.
"My, my. What a charming friend you have." Eggman said in a sarcastic voice. He sat on the ground and hunched his arms over his bent legs while he did so. "This is just my luck. I finally hook up with someone who knows what they're doing and finally am initiated in a plan that's garrented superb greatness then something messed up like this happens!" He complained.
"How troublesome." Decoe said.
"What a drag." Bocoe remarked.
"Look at us. We're even ripping off of Shikamaru's catch phrases." Bokkun stated.
"How unoriginal." Decoe whined.
"We might as well give up all hope." Eggman said in a sobbing voice. Sonic then decided to make his way over.
"Meh, that's all right. You made it this far right Egghead. I'm sure your creativeness will shine through that scrambled brain of yours some day. HAHAHAHA!" Sonic couldn't help but laugh. He was about to walk by when Eggman suddenly shot up and slapped Sonic across the face.
The hedgehog fell to the ground and grabbed at his throbbing cheek.
"HA! Bitch slapped you hedgehog!" Eggman shouted triumphantly as him and his robots scrambled to get the egg mobile up and immediately flew up the stairs before Sonic could do anything about it.
"… I guess I walked right into that one." Sonic stopped rubbing and stood up as well.
"Are you okay?" Amy asked with a small smile on her face.
"I won't be okay until I've made sure Tails is safe." Sonic said as he picked Amy up and took off up the stairs.
A short while after Sonic left Smokestack and his group made there way up to Level 8 as well. They were once again surprised to see nothing there.
"Either whoever designed this castle is pretty uncreative or that Sonic sure knows how to bust things up." Rouge remarked as the rest of them traveled toward the next round of stairs.
"It's all right. I'd rather just breeze through this stuff then have to come face to face with annoying booby traps." Smokestack said as they made it to the stairs and started to climb.
Everyone was pretty much ready to face the emanate danger that was waiting for them upstairs.
Prower Castle: Level 9
Darkness stood in front of the final double doors of the castle that lead to the ultimate power waiting for Tails up above. However, he and the fox were poised to just stand there and wait for the person who they both knew would enter through the door first arrived.
That's when the door creaked.
"As the prophecy states, the first to enter through that door will be the blue hedgehog. It's been predetermined by fate that he will be killed by your hand. I cannot allow myself to leave until I've seen him enter as insurance." Darkness stood completely focused by his fox prodigy.
On the outside Tails was his loyal and obedient servant but on the inside he was a scared little animal struggling to break free of this horrible monster's grasp.
The door creaked louder.
Darkness rubbed Tails' head then put his hands by his side. He was ready to head on up to the final level and it would be done when the person who needs to get here gets here.
The door creaked for an ever lasting time until it finally opened halfway. A foot stepped inside of the room. Darkness smiled under his hood.
"Welcome hedgehog. I trust you made it through the castle okay." Darkness chuckled as he was sure Sonic would want to know how he knew it would be him who entered first.
It's too bad that confident premonition had to take a turn for the worst as well. At least for Darkness it did.
When the figure stepped all the way in Darkness quickly realized that he wasn't blue nor was he a hedgehog. It was him again!
"Hey. Fancy seeing you here again." Knuckles said with a smirk.
"WHAT! Where's the hedgehog! He was supposed to enter first!" The deity was beyond angry. His anger didn't at all subside when Knuckles bent over in laughter.
"HAHAHAHA! I seriously wish I could see your horrid face! I bet it would be priceless!" Knuckles taunted.
"But how-?" Darkness began but the laughing echidna chuckled and stopped him.
"We heard you talking from behind the door! I can't believe you believe in all that predetermined crap! We'd thought it would be funny to send in me first so we could stomp on your oh so confident speech. HAHAHAHAHA!"
You wouldn't be able to see it but Darkness was twitching under his hood. It only got worse as Eggman, Bocoe, Decoe, and Bokkun entered as well.
"I usually hate the hedgehog's ideas but I just had to get in on this one!" Eggman said as he entered. There still was no sign of Sonic.
"AHAHAHAHA! We got you good!' Bokkun laughed.
"You've just been Punk'd!" Bocoe and Decoe shouted.
"It's even sweeter knowing that Ashton Kutcher wasn't here to annoy the hell out of me as we were pulling this off." Eggman and his three lackeys all laughed together.
Darkness found his hands shaking as his silent rage grew. Tails, void of any emotion, just stood there.
Amy entered next which on spited Darkness even more. "You're a complete loser you know that! Sonic will teach you a thing or two." She remarked as she moved out of the way along with everyone else.
That's when the hedgehog finally entered the 9th level.
"Sorry to keep you waiting. I've been having a slow day." Sonic winked and gave the deity his trademark thumbs up.
Darkness didn't know what to say but he certainly knew how to feel. He was extremely pissed. The way they took his prediction and screwed with it so easily as if his manipulation were a game pecked at his ego to no end.
"… I will… bask in the tremendous glory… when I'm informed of your dear friend's unmerciful mutilation of that slim little body of yours hedgehog." Darkness said as he creaked open the back door.
"Hey! Where are you going? We're trying to kill you and you just walk away. That's pretty rude of you ya know!"
"Hmph… Tails… kill them all. Bring me back each one of their hearts." Darkness said loud enough for them all to hear.
"Acknowledged." Tails said as he took a step forward. His body started to glow a dark purple that sent a shiver down everyone's spine except Sonic's. Eventually Tails' fur was black and that huge aurora appeared again. However, his eyes remained a glazed over light blue.
"Good boy Miles. See you at the balcony of beginnings." Darkness said as he made his way up the stairs. The fox didn't answer as he turned to his former best friend.
The way he stared at Sonic showed that there was no way he'd hold anything back from Sonic as he attacked. Sonic could tell he wouldn't hold back but no matter how much Tails punched, hit, or kicked Sonic knew there was one thing Tails would never do.
"You may be under that freaks control. And I know you have little say in the matter as to how you use your power or not. But I know one thing for sure. Despite how many times you come at me I know you won't kill me… and I won't kill you either. I won't even fight." Sonic said as he stood there with a straight face on.
No one was exactly sure about the last thing Sonic had said.
"Sonic. Are you crazy? Look at him! You'll have to fight sooner or later." Knuckles said walking up to the determined hedgehog.
"I'm not gonna fight him Knuckles. You guys go on ahead if you want but I'm staying here to make sure that Tails is set free." Sonic didn't take his eyes off of Tails for even a second while he spoke to Knuckles.
The echidna looked at Sonic's fierce emerald green eyes and immediately understood. There was something about it that he couldn't explain but it was enough for him to listen.
"Sonic! You can't actually expect us to leave can you?" Amy said with a confused and scared voice.
"We're leaving guys!" Knuckles said with a serious tone parallel to Sonic's.
"What! But why!?" Amy whined to which Knuckles responded by grabbing her arm and running toward the staircase that Darkness had previously gone up.
"Leave them be. This has nothing to do with either of us!" Knuckles and Amy left while Sonic stood facing Tails.
A long stare down commenced between the two of them before Sonic finally spoke up.
"… Come on buddy… let me help you." Sonic said as he held out his hand. The fox quickly and unexpected responded with a simple word.
"No."
Sonic stood there for a second and sighed. He put his hand by his side and continued to look at Tails. When it became evident that he wasn't going to attack Tails zoomed toward the hedgehog and punched him hard across his face which sent him flying into the wall. The resulting crash sent dust everywhere.
Sonic fell to the floor and lied there for a few seconds in an amazing amount of pain before he decided to get up.
"Pretty nice punch you've got there buddy. You've come a long way…" Sonic wheezed.
Eggman, Bocoe, Decoe, and Bokkun watched the fight with intensified interest. Their most annoying enemies were fighting it out right in front of them. It was exhilarating.
Sonic got back on his feet again only to be punched hard in the stomach by Tails once again. When Sonic reached for his stomach Tails flipped him over and through him against the wall. The hedgehog hit the ground once again.
"Don't you think we should try to leave while we can doctor?" Decoe asked feeling a bit on the uneasy side.
"No. This is too good of a thing to leave behind. Let's observe this a little while longer." Eggman had that glare in his eyes that told everyone that something was up with his brain.
Sonic continued to get pounded on and pounded on until the beat up hedgehog ended up on the ground covered in bleeding bruises. Even so the hedgehog continued to stand up. Tails still needed his help.
Eggman was enjoying witnessing this amazing splendor of pain the hedgehog was going through. His once trusted little brother was no painfully mutilating him. It did an evil genius' heart good.
What happened next however he could've done without.
"Hello Eggman." Came a voice approaching from the stairs.
"Oh… you're still alive." Eggman scoffed as he saw Smokestack and his group approach from behind. They all stopped behind Eggman and his robot lackeys feeling very tired and worn out. However, they all forgot about that when they witnessed the scene in front of them.
"Wait! What's that little fox doing! Does he know who he's fighting?" Rouge said while trying to get close.
"Hey hedgehog! Don't just stand there! Run! Move! Do something!" Vector shouted.
"Do you think he can hear us?" Espio asked a bit shaken as well. Charmy clung onto the chameleon as if for dear life.
"Hey! Stop!" Smoke tried to get close as well but Eggman blocked his way as did his robots.
"Get out of our way Eggy." Rouge said as she lifted her leg in a position that told Eggman she was ready to kick.
"Hmph! You can't interrupt this fight. Sonic choose to do this alone so I think it'd be best for all of you to just take a hike!" He shouted with the utmost seriousness in his voice.
Smokestack looked at the hedgehog who was currently being tossed across the room and sighed. "This is Darkness' doing. I need to get to him before I deal with anything else." Smoke easily slid past Eggman's pitiful defense and sprinted his way to the other side of the room barely avoiding a collision with Sonic.
The blue hedgehog in question slid across the floor with his power barely there anymore. His stamina and strength were low. He was bleeding a lot. His vision was less then perfect. But he still chose to stand up once again.
Tails suddenly stopped more then confused by Sonic's actions and stood there staring at the battered hedgehog.
"Fight. Master Darkness says fight. I will fight." Tails said in a bland and emotionless voice.
"Don't say that. Don't ever say that. Darkness isn't your master and I know you don't want him to be. You're your own master now act like it. Come on buddy! You can do it! Think hard! Push him out! Do you remember me?!" Sonic shouted feeling a bit different in the emotions department then usual.
Tails stood there for a few seconds like his body had frozen. On the outside basically nothing but his stance had changed. However, on the inside the real Tails was banging and ripping apart his prison as best he could. Despite all his best efforts he couldn't get free. Nothing was working!
'SONIC! I'M SORRY! PLEASE! HELP!'
Sonic had heard it. It was only for a small second but in that second he had heard the faint sound of his buddy calling out for him.
"Tails… c-can you hear me?" Sonic asked in a hopeful voice.
The still frozen fox didn't move until he eventually took a step forward. Then another. And then another once more. Eventually he began running. He ran even faster soon after and eventually reached Sonic.
The hedgehog was at first happy but then he realized why the fox was running. The little possessed kitsune was raising his fist and was about to deliver a powerful and fatal punch using his enormous kitsune powers.
Sonic couldn't and wouldn't allow himself to duck back. He was planning on taking it head on!
"That's it! I can't watch this anymore! Sonic! Move!" Espio shouted suddenly as he advanced toward the center of the room where Sonic was.
"Espio! Are you crazy! Get back here!" Vector yelled but it soon became evident that it was too late to turn back as Espio had all ready got in between Sonic and Tail's punch.
It connected with the chameleon and sent him crashing into Sonic. The force it caused was both unexpected and very painful to both. That blow had been enough for Sonic. Even though he wasn't hit directly he still felt the force through Espio's recoil backward. The three chaos emeralds flew out of the knee-deep area in Sonic's quills and had them sprawl across the floor.
"Ack! Chaos emeralds! Three of them!" Eggman shouted as he saw them slide across the ground.
"Hey! Didn't Strobe have that yellow one!?" Decoe pointed out.
"Why yes! And that red one belongs to Combustion!" Bocoe put his hands to his head as if in a panic.
"He's even got Metal Sonic's dark blue one!" Bokkun shouted. This little tidbit of information did not make Eggman happy. Not in the least.
"Metal… Metal Sonic was defeated?" Eggman looked at the scene in front of him. Vector and Charmy ran up to Espio and Sonic to see if they were okay while the still possessed Tails advanced on them.
"I… I must destroy you… Sonic… Sonic the Hedgehog." Tails' voice sounded held back. It sounded in pain. It was sad. And it showed as well. The fox never could learn how to hide his tears no matter what kind of façade he put on to show that he was indeed worthy of partnership to this planet's most respected hero.
That's all this was. A façade. It was just one huge messed up false body aptitude. It wasn't fair either. Why should he have to do this? Why'd he even get controlled by someone as twisted as Darkness anyway?
All these thoughts ran through his head as he finally made it to Sonic's position. The tears on his face were more than clear as he raised his hand to deliver the final blow.
"S-Sonic…" He mumbled while his hand just seemed to float there.
All the while this was happening Eggman and his three flunkies just stood there. Suddenly Eggman wasn't so sure if he wanted to see Tails kill Sonic. After discovering first hand what exactly had been happening to his faithful robots due to the proof they've been defeated lying on the black marble floor in front of them Eggman was having serious second thoughts about allowing them to continue this fight.
"Doctor… are you okay?" Bocoe asked.
"Shouldn't we get the chaos emeralds while they're destroying each other?" Bokkun asked confused by the doctor's gaze as well.
Eggman was too busy thinking about his creations to acknowledge what Bokkun had asked him. It just wasn't fair. What was happening here was what shouldn't happen.
'My creations… Sonic destroyed them all and took my emeralds…I could let go of Combustion dying… same goes for the other guys… but Metal Sonic was defidently the last straw! Sonic SHOULD die! But not by that fox's hand!' Eggman thought before looking up with an angry face.
"HE WILL BE KILLED BY ME! GRAB THOSE EMERALDS NOW!!" Eggman shouted all of a sudden which startled everyone, even Tails. The robots quickly followed the doctor's orders noticing he was angry. They ran up and snagged the emeralds as quickly as they could while Eggman reached into his pockets and took out a small mechanical cube.
"Sorry Sonic! But you're done! Today!" Eggman tossed the square into the air and it shined a bright light that hovered above everyone. Eventually it expanded and turned into a giant silver robot with incredibly long arms and legs that looked like a deadly spiked humanoid in between. It landed behind all of the other surprised people with a loud thud!
There was no question that this was bad.
Prower Castle: Level 10
Knuckles and Amy had succeeded in making it to the final level, which happened to be located outside. They didn't have to look long to find Darkness. There he stood with the wind blowing by his cloak on the rail-less balcony.
"Yeah that's right. Do the world a favor and commit suicide will ya?" Knuckles chuckled. Darkness had heard the comment and turned around slowly to face him.
"It's rare that I meet up with a person who has pissed me off before a second time in heated battle." Darkness spoke with very little emotion in his voice.
"Yeah, well, I have that effect on people. A person like me just keeps coming back." Knuckles said as he cracked his knuckles.
"Yes well I assure you… it WON'T happen again!" Darkness lit his body up in black light as he prepared for battle.
Prower Castle: Level 9
Tails saw the robot advance and continued to struggle within himself.
"I… I have to help Sonic… Master Darkness… must help…kill … S-Sonic!" Tails started to sweat. Sonic was hearing Tails' comments and couldn't help but smile as the Choatix struggled to get him on his feet. Espio had recovered quickly enough due to him not being hurt as bad as the smiling hedgehog.
"Tails… I'm proud of you buddy… keep fighting it… I know… I know you can do it!" Sonic would've spoken more but Eggman's robot immediately grabbed the blue hero out of the Chaotix's hands.
"…S-Sonic!" Tails looked up and saw Sonic in the robot's terrifying clutches.
"Do you like it!? It's the first of my new E-series robots! E-001 Cytrakron! Now then! Squeeze the life out of that hedgehog and make him suffer!" Eggman shouted and the robot complied. It squeezed hard which prompted Sonic to scream out in agony and pain.
"S-SOOOONIIIC!" Tails yelled as his brain began to hurt. The control just wouldn't leave. 'Wh-what do I do! Sonic…'
That was a long awaited chapter wasn't it? Sorry about that. I've had some business to take care of. Please remember to review. I'll see you next time.