The Prison of Argus
Sonic and Shadow went at top speed towards the command bridge. Along the way, they could see Tails, Knuckles, Rouge, Omega, and Black Doom with a horde of Black Arms heading towards the bridge as well. On top of the bridge stood Dark Oak, Pale Bay Leaf, and Black Narcissus. The bridge of the huge silver flag ship began to crumble apart. All the pieces of the ship began to fall out, exposing a huge silver and purple spire with many platforms. At the top of the platform, right beneath the needle, was a huge yellow Planet Egg. Our heroes were stranded on a piece of the ship and looked on at this strange device.
"Behold the weapon we have been trying to create for centuries, the Spear of Argus!" Yelled Dark Oak. "It is the key to opening the Argus's prison, the Twilight Cage. With this weapon, we can imprison any and all species who oppose us!"
"What's he talking about?" Asked Tails.
"Argus was an ancient god who is worshipped by various species." Black Doom said. "He was a saviour of many planets and galaxies who took the most dangerous and bloodthirsty of species to a prison in the heart of time and space known as the Twilight Cage, where these species would remain forever trapped for their acts of evil. But that is all but legend. And even if it wasn't, there is no way for them to access it without making a rip in the space time continuum."
"I don't need to make one! Nature itself has given it to the Metarex." Yelled out Dark Oak.
"My sensors detect immense power in the present area." Omega said.
"Must be that Spear thing." Sonic said.
"Negative. The energy is coming from a different area to that of the Spear of Argus. My sensors do not detect any objects in those areas. The energy is coming from nowhere."
"That can only mean... Oh no..." Black Doom said, realisation hitting him. "Not this..."
"Not what?- Argh!" Said Shadow, but was cut off by an incredibly bright light coming from the middle of space.
"It's a space time rupture! You get them in certain parts of the galaxy every millennium."
"The thousand year wait ends! Reality shall now form a new rip in itself and give us the power to rule the galaxy." Said Dark Oak. "Activate the Spear of Argus!"
In a ship not too far off, Metarex technicians began typing in various commands and began to put the Spear of Argus into action. The bright light was being absorbed into the Spear of Argus. The spire then began to glow pure white and then the energy erupted from the top of the spire to pierce space itself. Gigantic, long tentacles emerged from the tear.
"Argus, god of imprisonment, creator of the Twilight Cage, I beseech you. Take the hated Zoah from their home planet to suffer for all eternity in your prison." Said Dark Oak.
The tentacles suddenly began to glow dark blue and one of them shot a beam of blue light into space. The light then began to come back to the tentacles, dragging a large chunk of land with creatures made out of energy, electric blue crystal and metal. They began to fire lasers from their crystal arms at the tentacles in the vain hope that it might save them. Ships tried to fly away from the land and escape, but the tentacles caught them with their energy. Closer and closer the chunk of planet came towards the Twilight Cage until it was finally sucked into it.
"Let that be a lesson to all who dare go against the Metarex!" Said Dark Oak. "We are indestructible, we are all powerful, and you are nothing compared to our great race!"
"We shall see about that, Dark Oak! All Black Arm ships advance! Fire on the spire and the Metarex commanders!" Black Doom ordered his troops both verbally and telepathically.
The armada of Black Comets unleashed an incredibly powerful barrage of cannon fire straight at the spire. For five minutes this continued, until Black Doom finally told them to stand down. To his amazement, the spire was still fully intact as a force field had protected it from damage.
"You cannot stop me, Black Doom! This spire is as invincible as we are." Said Dark Oak.
"You are all but cowards! You rely on nothing but your technological weapons to fight your battles for you. Let us end this battle now. One last chance to save ourselves with a physical battle of power and skill... If you think you and your commanders can defeat the Black Arm leader and six Earthlings..." Said Black Doom.
Dark Oak was seething with rage at these words. It would be risky to fight them, but his pride would not allow anyone to think him a coward by denying the battle.
"Very well, Black Doom. Let us see who is better; the mighty Metarex, soon-to-be rulers of the galaxy, or the Black Arms and these pitiful Earthlings." He said. Dark Oak then used his communicator to have his technicians open a small hole in the force field, and Black Doom levitated himself and the Mobians through it. They landed on the spire and the field closed behind them.
Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles stood opposite Pale Bay Leaf, and Shadow, Rouge, and Omega were opposite Black Narcissus, leaving Black Doom and Dark Oak to face off against each other. One alien leader against the other. Both fearsome warriors. Both bloodthirsty and eager for battle.
"There will be no escape for you, Black Doom. Today this war shall end." Said Dark Oak.
"Indeed it shall!"
And with that, the fight was on.
Bay Leaf struck first and attempted to decapitate Team Triple Threat, but they were too quick and were easily dodging his attacks. Sonic used a sudden boost of speed to ram into Bay Leaf like a hedgehog bullet, but it did nothing. Knuckles struck Bay Leaf with a devastating uppercut, but the Metarex's armour proved too thick. Bay Leaf kept bringing down slash after slash upon his enemies, desperately trying to defeat them, while all they could do was dodge all the Metarex's attacks.
Team Dark were not doing so well against Black Narcissus, either. All of Rouge's attacks were proving ineffective, so she couldn't do much to help. Shadow was too busy dodging laser blasts from Narcissus's mirror staff to attack, and all Omega's attacks bounced right off Narcissus's armour. Omega then attempted to use one of his most power weapons on Narcissus; his beam cannon. A powerful yellow laser beam shot out of Omega's arm towards Narcissus, but the Metarex used his mirror to deflect the attack back at Omega, who dodged it in the nick of time. The attack then hit the force shield, causing a rip for a few seconds before the shield repaired itself.
"Illogical. My Omega Beam attack is not powerful enough to impose more damage than the Black Arm Fleet's barrage." Omega stated.
"My mirror not only deflects attacks, robot, but it doubles their power, allowing me to strike my enemies with their own attempts to destroy me. The irony of it all amuses me." Said Narcissus.
Hearing this, Rouge got an idea. She then proceeded to use G.U.N. sign language with her hands to say "Shadow, try aiming for the face at 9 O'clock with a Chaos Spear while Omega uses his laser on Narcissus at 3 O'clock."
Both her teammates saw this, and so did Narcissus, who couldn't make heads or tails of it. He thought it must have been how the Earthlings acted in times of stress. Rouge flew into the air while waving her hands and shouting "Yoohoo" as a distraction, allowing Shadow to take the opportunity to jump to the left of Narcissus and shoot a Chaos Spear right into his face.
"You dare try to ruin my perfect face!?" Yelled Narcissus.
Omega then jumped to the right and fired his laser cannon. Seeing an opportunity, Narcissus deflected the laser with his mirror towards Shadow. Moments before the laser would have struck him, Shadow used Chaos Control to move himself out of harm's way. The laser blast then proceeded to go further forward, coming closer and closer to the unsuspecting Bay Leaf who kept slashing at Team Triple Threat. It struck the Metarex in the back, sending energy throughout his metal body, until finally he collapsed on the platform of the spire they were on.
With their enemy down and another waiting for them, Team Triple Threat went over to join Team Dark. Sonic went at maximum speed into Narcissus, causing a fairly large dent. Knuckles then proceeded to assault Narcissus in a barrage of punches while Tails and Rouge delivered kicks to his head. Omega then retracted his hands to reveal twin machine guns and unloaded them into Narcissus and then sent two missiles at him, and Shadow then finished the job with a barrage of Chaos Spears. Battered, dented, and lame, Black Narcissus fell to the floor and the heroes let out of yells of triumph, but the battle wasn't over yet.
Clang after clang sounded as Black Arm sword met Metarex katana. Both alien leaders weren't letting the other gain an inch. Every clash was another great force of will power as they put everything they had into trying to defeat their opponent. Dark Oak's strength allowed every one of his strikes to be filled with pure brute force, but Black Doom could evade Dark Oak's attacks with little effort thanks to his hovering abilities and smaller size. Just as Dark Oak attempted to decapitate Black Doom with a huge swipe, Black Doom used his hovering capabilities to duck down and pierce the side of Dark Oak with his sword. With Dark Oak too distracted with the pain to focus on anything else, Black Doom knocked Dark Oak's golden katana out of his hand with a single strike and forced him to the ground by summoning a meteor to knock him backwards. With his inevitable defeat coming closer and closer, Dark Oak used his secret weapon.
A large green laser beam came from Dark Oak's eye and struck Black Doom right in the chest. The ancient Black Arm leader fell backwards but soon regained himself and hovered back into the air to see Dark Oak running closer to the opening to the Twilight Cage. He was going to get Argus to have the Black Arms imprisoned inside there. Black Doom hovered at full speed after him, and all the Mobians who had been watching, chased after the Metarex leader, but it was too late.
"Argus, god of imprisonment, creator of the Twilight Cage, I beseech you." Said Dark Oak. "Take away this scourge among the galaxy, these creatures of evil who wish only for total conquest. Imprison the-"
"Metarex..." said a female voice from nowhere. Then, a hologram of the older blue Seedrian they had seen before, Earthia, came into view. "Please, these beings will not stop until they have conquered us all. Please, oh might Argus, you are the only one who can save us from these terrible monsters."
The tentacles began to glow blue and started pulling in all the Metarex ships into the Twilight Cage, obviously leaving the lone soldiers for later.
"emHow can this be!? Earthia is trapped on one of the lower levels so she can see my glorious revenge of our fallen brothers! How did she manage this?/em" Thought Dark Oak. Then he saw a small Metarex battle ship attempting to break through the shield, obviously unaware of its power. Dark Oak flew towards the ship and slammed right into it, causing it to explode. He then appeared back on top of the spire and threw two of the three female Seedrians on the floor, while clutching Earthia by the throat.
"For this, you shall die, Earthia." Said Dark Oak.
"Lucas, please. Can't you see what you're doing is evil?" Said Earthia. "You are not the man I once knew and loved, you're just a cold hearted machine. Please, stop this."
"NEVER! This galaxy will be lost without our perfect order. I would have controlled all of the galaxy, and no one would have stood against me if it weren't for your trickery."
"I'm sorry to hear you say that." Earthia reached down to her chest and put her hands on the red amulet she wore, identical to that of her daughter's. It began to shatter and light shone out of the cracks, sending out a wave of energy to destroy the shield and strike Dark Oak, whose leg was then caught by one of Argus's tentacles. Earthia tried to escape, but Dark Oak grabbed her ankle.
"I shall not go alone!"
"Mother!" Yelled Cosmo and Galaxina.
"GO! Save yourselves!" Yelled Earthia.
They disobeyed her and tried to run toward her to help her, but Shadow and Knuckles grabbed them from behind to make sure they didn't escape.
"Black Doom! The shield's gone get us out of here!" Yelled Shadow.
Black Doom then used Chaos Control to teleport them to the Black Asteroid, but not before Cosmo and Galaxina heard their mother say "Goodbye, my darlings..."