Sonic Ballistic

by Shblue

A few years after Sonic & Knuckles, Dr. Robotnik returns with a raging yet calculated vengance to conquer Mobius and punish Sonic forever. What seems like an ordinary adventure at first will slowly transform and change everything Sonic knows about being a hero. - Childhood fangame idea reimagined as a hardcore epic, and depicted in text. Finished 2010, uploaded here first.

9. Sonic Ballistic, Part 8

Part 8

From now on, Sonic can become Super Sonic, or 'Super form', whenever he wants. As a reminder, in Sonic Ballistic, Super Sonic can detransform at will and can start flying at any time. He is not invulnerable to attacks more powerful than the 7 Chaos Emeralds. Fortunately, the Master Emerald makes him recover Power Rings twice as fast.

Sonic rubbed his eyes. "Robotnik. Mechanix. Now I have to fight these elders... He's right. It doesn't end... There's always another bad guy to beat... What am I doing? When does it end? Why can't I stop myself...?"

He looks away from the ground. His eyes drift over the landscape. He can see nothing but flat ground, bare and barren. There are massive storm clouds rolling across an area far away, the small line between ground and sky filled with dark haze.

"I need to go... I didn't stop Mechanix earlier. I always let them go. I didn't stop Robotnik even earlier... I never... stop them as soon as possible. I need to... stop them..."

Sonic walked away. He stopped. "Thousands of cities arose worldwide... Were there even any people? If that really happened... and they're so violent... no, I can-I need... to stop them. I need to get... the Black Emerald back. Need to find it..."

He paused. Stopped. No thoughts.

"Why am I here?" Sonic asked himself.

He looked around. He felt someone watching him.

"I need..."

.

Mobius Mayhem [Act 1] (8/37)

Sonic might want to transform Super to help him speedily travel across the flat, destroyed land. After a short while he will come to a great valley that stretches to the horizon sitting before him, filled with water and rocks at the bottom. It takes a moment to fly over it. He continues on, crossing a few rivers and fields with some patches of living grass before reaching the foothills of a mountain range.

Shrubs and flowers pass by before Sonic meets a variety of trees on his curvy way towards the mountains. After clearing a few forests he will come to a final dip before the climb, where the ground has been drowned under a flood. Trees and boulders lie in piles down the slope. After passing the muddy ground he will effortlessly run up the steep cliffs and slopes, reaching the short summit within seconds.

He looks around. He sees the storm system behind him. He tries to spot a skyscraper, tower, some kind of glow in the atmosphere, but there is nothing but rock, plants and water.. Neither Old Mobian nor New Mobian constructions marked any of the area. Yet it was not serene. The skies were darkened, malevolent. There was a lake, Sonic noticed, but its surface was rippled. Sonic figured there must be a shack somewhere near it.

He followed the ridge, leaping off a several hundred foot drop and gliding through the sky over the smaller mountain tops. He landed in a clearing on a valley between tall trees, running between them shortly before coming across the lake shore.

The waves were white-capped, tossing roughly into each other. A strong wind was blowing, but Sonic kept his course. He went straight, bursting through each large wave as he flew across its surface. His wake exploded into foam behind him. He noticed a dry-docked speed boat and a nearby truck, and headed towards it.

.

Upon reaching it, he exited Super mode and looked around.

"Oh, it's Sonic!" a woman called from within the truck. She jumped out, a 20-something fox wearing jeans and a T-shirt.

"Sonic?" A man called. It was a coyote, also 20-something, wearing shorts, no shirt, and a cap. He walked from behind the other side of the boat. "Oh, it is Sonic."

"Hey," Sonic replied.

"Where have you been? Nobody could find you. So much has happened." the fox asked. "Robotnik was just going crazy with all of these worldwide attacks just so shortly ago, and then, like, randomly cities like, literally, came out of the ground, everywhere. And then! Then, people! These echidnas, which are supposed to be extinct, just like came out, saw us, and freaked out, and"

The coyote continued. "For only a few hours it was peaceful. I think a few people tried to communicate to them because they knew their dead language. You know academic types. Then the lasers came from space. I mean, that was the biggest what the fuck besides the zombie civilization. Just like, 'oh hey gigantic lasers from space that's pretty cool" and then, "PSHZOW! Oh no, not the everything!" It destroyed a lot of our cities, and a lot of theirs. Nobody knew what was going on, man. It was pretty radical, I will admit."

"I don't think even the echidnas knew what to do, at first," added the fox.

"Both sides thought the other attacked them. So of course now there's a war between all of us and them who just came out of nowhere. It's so large, enemy nations of what we're now calling 'New Mobius' have joined together to fight the single massive zombie empire of 'Old Mobius'."

"Were they alive underneath us for all this time? That's creepy, man. All of my childhood moments are ruined because there were always an entire civilization of sleeping undead under me in each and every one."

Sonic, having let them talk, suddenly spoke up. "A lot of things happened. Robotnik unearthed one of their most powerful machines, but he couldn't control hi- – it. Its intention was to resurrect Old Mobius, and was given godly powers to do so. I... couldn't stop him... but I defeated him..."

The two looked back at Sonic quietly, who then looked down and away.

"You've done some heroic things, Sonic, but the scale of this..." the coyote looked around.

"It's like time was split apart, man, two parallel worlds that eventually crashed into each other."

"Hey, I completely forgot. My name is Erin." the coyote said.

"I'm Salana." the fox added.

The wind howled. The waves crashed.

"You look pretty tired, which makes sense because you're in the middle of nowhere right now and it's been weeks since anyone last saw you," Erin commented. Sonic froze. "You don't know where you are, do you?" Erin asked.

Sonic looked up at him. "No. ...weeks? It couldn't have been..." He held his hand to his head. He remembered everything from his fight with Mechanix. He was in Hyper mode most of the time, he thought. But then there were the hallucinations... How much of that fight was even real...?

Erin looked at Salana. She glanced at him, then said, "This might sound creepy, but you should drive with us for a little bit. You can check our truck for weapons, there will be none, I promise."

Erin stared at Salana. He then says, "Yeah, that was pretty creepy." He turns to Sonic, "We can help you out." Salana snickers. "We'll tell you what we know while you get your head together. You can trust us." Sonic nods sleepily, his body shaking and his unfocused eyes. He lost track of what they were saying multiple times. Salana replied, "Okay. Let's just hook the boat back up, Erin, and head to the hospital in Pheaston."

"Okay," Erin acknowledged as Sonic opened the back door of the truck, climbed in, and rested his head back.

I haven't had a time to think, Sonic thought. Weeks?! That couldn't have happened. Ohh, that battle with Mechanix took so long... and now I have to stop the people that created him. Oh man, what if he wasn't the only one...?! No, no, even so I can win now. I just have to destroy them at once, immediately. I can't hesitate anymore. I fucked up so badly... Zaga said they took over Mechanix, those elders. They must still be around..."

Salana opens the passenger door, enters, sits and slams it shut. Erin then enters, turns the ignition and starts driving. Salana says, "Knowing you, Sonic, you'll probably want to just find the root cause, go directly to it and destroy it. But since you've been out of the loop let me explain what's happened, before you do anything too rash."

"Basically, the feeling amongst every living thing on this planet is that it's the end of the world. Like with deus ex machina our somewhat boring, slowly progressing lives were irreversibly changed for the worst. The war started slowly as tiny skirmishes between the two peoples, but within days both sides had prepared their armies and set them against each other. The Old Mobians... they have better technology. Their warriors are brutal, strong, and talented. Ours are just trained well. It got bloody. Then governments started forcing conscription, curtailed rights, forced industries to work for them. We knew some of the people who made peaceful contact. They were protesting, with hands united, but they were arrested and they won't let them out!"

Erin followed up. "We knew what was going to happen. Many people felt the war was unnecessary, and soon they'll realize they have no control over their own military. Resources will drain, tensions will crack, revolution will spring forth."

"Hell yeah! Life isn't boring anymore!" Salana cheered.

"She's being sarcastic," Erin comments, and continued. "But every man who fights the state will be shot down. Nobody was free to criticize, why would they be free to make a real change? The state has the monopoly on violence; it will win when it comes to violence. From what we've heard something similar is happening in Old Mobius, too. Either that or one of the two sides uses a weapon that kills hundreds of thousands of people. We escaped, hoping to ride out the storm, avoid any nukes. But, then there's the second part."

He glimpsed at Sonic in the rearview mirror. "The environment is becoming violent, too. It may be because of the change in currents in the air, ocean or ground, I don't know. But there's been so many storms appearing everywhere, getting larger and stronger each time. There's been a lot of earthquakes. Volcanos erupting. Some areas are flooded, others suffer drought. There's this horrible infectious plague with a high mortality rate, but luckily it's on the other side of the globe. Fucking, for now."

Salana was looking out the window with a melancholy expression. "It's depressing. The world is falling apart and the only thing our civilizations can do is to fight each other. Nobody wants to live to their fullest, they were so scared of change that they got traumatized when it actually happened! They want each other to die even though most of us have realized it's all over! They probably know that, and want to exploit the world to its maximum before the final hour has struck!"

Sonic also looked out the window, staring at the scenery which moved itself.

Erin looked back at Sonic again. "Sonic, the world is in chaos now. Everyone is scared. Nothing makes sense anymore. Some people respected you, some people disliked you, but now everyone is praying for you to save them. But this is beyond individual people now. It's all of us."

Sonic looked at Erin.

Erin looked at Sonic in the eyes through the mirror, then back at the road. "You've stopped Robotnik from destroying the world, but can you really stop the world from destroying itself? Even if all the bad guys are gone, what stops a good guy from going bad? People are scared of each other, they fight and steal from each other, they oppress and massacre each other because they don't think about a person who has the same awareness of living second-to-second for years in largely the same type of habitat... they don't want to understand that they have differences, that they make mistakes, that they have dreams, friends and families! They aren't aware at all of anything besides themselves, they have never injected their consciousness into a model of another thing..."

Salana jumped in suddenly, "Yep. There's no such thing as 'good' or 'bad'. You can't convert the information flood that is life with a binary value system. Or with any abstraction, unless it could possibly be more detailed than life itself..."

Erin replied, "Yeah, that, too. Context is too deep to be visualized as a single continuum of subjective value. What bothers me is that nearly everyone of both civilizations seem to have a very limited awareness of things, like: hands, emotions, body needs, mind wants, internalized rules."

Sonic said something. "Be that as it may, I still must do what I can no matter what... I'm responsible... for all of this. But I know the leaders of the echidnas, they are the ones that created Mechanix. They're the ones that wanted this to happen. They're the ones that enslaved Mechanix..." Salana glances at Erin. "If I can stop them, then the leaders of New Mobius will have no reason to fight either."

Erin suppresses a chuckle and responds seriously, "Actually, that might work. You know, this might sound strange, but Tails is the commander of the... New Mobian Army. He'd listen to you, if anybody..."

"Yeah, I know." Sonic looked out the window, seeing a small town come into view. "Where is their capital city? That's probably where they are."

Salana answered, "Oh, I don't even know. There were like hundreds of huge cities that appeared, a few metropolises even."

Erin added, "Actually, I remember something I overheard before we met, Salana. I was in this hostel and there was this older man who said he saw this one city whose buildings covered the horizon for as far as he could see, and they got taller and taller towards the center up to this incredibly tall supertower with a large structure at its peak above the clouds, shaped almost like a ball. He called it a megacity. So... that's probably it."

Salana remarked, "Above the clouds? What the hell! (a) That entire thing was underground and (b) it was made in a time so long ago our history books don't cover it! Come to think of it, our geology really sucks. You know, like all the ruins everywhere. Why the heck didn't we study those more?"

The truck turns into a spot and Erin turns off the engine. "We're staying here for now, got to get supplies and junk." They all exit the car. Erin goes to Sonic and holds out his hand. Sonic looks at it, and shakes it. "There's no way we could actually help you save the world, but you can stay with us if you want. We'll find you food and somewhere to sleep."

"No, I can't waste any more time. I need to find that city," Sonic responded.

Salana pushed in her brows. She held out her hand and Sonic shook it. "Look after yourself, man."

Sonic made a small laugh. "I had to fight a god. I'll be fine."

.

He waved as he ran on. The town ended rather quickly. Sonic was running on an empty road, lined with mostly broken guardrails and street lamps in and out of the trees and hills. The sun was slowly setting. He transformed into Super, dashing around the hairpin curves and through the saddles. He looked overhead to see plumes of smoke filling the burning sky. As the terrain flattened out he came to a wildfire, blazing a huge section of forest into ash and embers blowing in strong winds.

He entered it, running unaffected through the multiple walls of fire up and down hills covered with ash. He entered a clearing, seeing a house burning but still standing. He breaks in through a door that leads to the basement. He runs across it to the stairs, across the first and second floor, every floor being filled with objects but no people. He exits it, moving on. He'll come to a single floor house but it also has no one in it. He moves on, eventually reaching an area where everything was already burnt down.

As he ran across it, he noticed a glow from over a hill. He ran onto it to see a tornado made of fire. Standing before it was a tabby stretching his hands into the air. He screamed, "Yes! This is it!"

He turned around, staring at Sonic with a huge smile. "It's the end! It's the end of everything! Ahahaha!"

.

Sonic moved on, eventually escaping the wildfire as he reaches an arid area. In front of them spanning to the horizon is a span of scarce trees and shrubs. The sun is right over the horizon. He runs through it and the hills that lead to a flat desert of dirt and rocks. The light from the sun is disappearing. Sonic's displacement of air causes dust to ploof into vortices behind him. Distant mountains move slowly, without a cloud in the sky. As the sun's light disappears completely, the sky opens up its view of the millions of stars above. The moon, rising, covers the world with a soft, cool light.

Vegetation slowly springs up beneath him as he comes close to a passing river. He jumps off the banks into the flat river. He flies down it, past the many areas covered with trees and those without them. After a short while, the river breaks apart as it approaches the distant ocean. It comes closer and closer as the trees get less and less, and then, Sonic reaches the coast.

He stops on the beach.

.

[Act 2]

Sonic looks out at the wide, blue ocean. The blue sky touches it at a line and then expands forever into darker space above. Sonic walks towards the waves, lapping at the sand with the sound of water rolling on itself. He feels and smells the salt in the air. There is a slight breeze. He looks at his hand for a moment, and takes off a glove. His shoes fluff through the surfaceless surface, up to the line showing the darker, damper, harder ground. A small wave crests and crashes, a sheet of clear sea rushing forward up the hill, fighting gravity, trying to bite the earth and all upon it. Sonic looks readily at the wave, but does not move, seeing it come close but not touch his red shoes. Then, quickly, he bends and dips his fingers into the thin layer, and it is cold. Standing straight, he feels the brine soak into his skin as the small water falls back to its mother, leaving behind white lines of foam that jiggle in the passing air.

"Even as the world ends, you keep on pushing, just gotta keep on pushing," Sonic said to himself.

.

He backstepped a few, and then in a burst of speed, propelled himself forward. His feet lands on the water, but it is hard underneath, like cement. Within seconds, the shoreline behind him is receding into the omnipresent horizon as he runs to the opposite direction.

For a while, as Sonic runs on the ocean, Sonic needs to do nothing but continue running. There are no curves, no large changes in elevation, no hazards, nor is there any correct direction. He just keeps on running, the blur blur on the deep blue under the big blue.

After several minutes, Sonic notices a change in color in the ocean ahead of him, becoming lighter as he comes to a small island breaching the massive depths. He runs over the island's surface, covered by a few trees with a few birds that watch him pass back onto the ocean. He occasionally comes to these islands, some larger than others, with more rocks, flora or fauna than others. They all pass under his feet within a few seconds if that.

Clouds have appeared, fluffy, small, with flat bottoms a textural reflection of the flat sea reflecting the flat white floating above them. Sonic runs through these places of water, akin to forests with large, massive trees, except with no trunks nor roots and only a large condensed mass of white leaves. The shadows, at least, reminds Sonic of jungles he navigated in the past.

But the memory came and went just as Sonic comes and goes over areas that cannot be defined by landmark or shape. He does not try to suppress these thoughts nor did he try to think about not suppressing these thoughts. They just did not appear that often, with any other thoughts even. He only runs. He seems to forget about where he is going, if he was ever going somewhere at all, and why he is going, if there ever was a reason to begin with. He forgets that there is water underneath him and that there are things, such as people. He forgets that his legs, constantly moving, are being consciously moved. He forgets that his legs are his legs. He forgets that his body exists, or that he even has a body. He forgets that he even forgets, that he even has an anything. He forgets that he is. He only runs.

But he is not at ease. Even as he is like he is, he feels a pull from something. He feels a destination, a thing that must be completed. He does not feel incomplete, but in all his lack of feeling he still feels a single thing, which encompasses everything and beckons to everything to come forth to it, whatever it is. He has always felt this, but now that he feels nothing else, he suddenly wonders if he is closer to it now than he has been before. In an instant, he realizes he is running on water in the middle of the ocean to find the capital city of Old Mobius so as to defeat the leaders of the Zexakal and finally bring peace to Mobius once and for all.

Then, he sees a larger island ahead. It is taller than the others, and he must run up a short vertical cliff to reach its summit. There, he sees a shack beyond a grove of palm trees. He passes through it, seeing gardens of vegetables and grain and other plants with a well on a lower hill.

.

He comes to the door, and knocks on it. Sonic feels his legs still running at full speed, despite being still. He turns and looks around at the view, seeing slightly more ocean than he could at sea level. He then hears the door handle rotate and turns, seeing the face of an older fox with long whiskers and fur wearing a modest shirt and pants made from hemp.

"Sonic. Do come in," he offers, opening the door wider.

Sonic comes in. He makes quick glances around the wooden architecture, simply but soundly built. He notices a very large collection of books, as well as a rectangular desk with marked papers sprawled all over. The fox walks over to another table, circular, by an open window. He gestures for Sonic to sit and then moves on to the kitchen.

Sonic sits. "Everyone on this planet thought that nothing seriously bad would ever happen to them. They thought that anything which could destroy this entire world would be easily stopped by you. Not a single person expected that the world might not be saved someday. Not a single person expected that the entire world would so suddenly be radically changed, perhaps to the brink of total destruction, before their very eyes," the fox says. "Life before is but a dream now. And even the life now feels like a dream. A world forgotten by all but the most intellectual of people has risen from its grave, and like an envious specter seeks to put the living where it once was. Life, death, old, new, all are now meaningless. Reality itself... is made unreal. The gods laugh at us."

Sonic was looking out the window, but he turns and faces the fox who brings in two glasses of a slightly colored liquid. He hands one to him and sits down with his own. Sonic asks, "How would you know what happened, way out here?" He takes a sip of the stuff. It's light and sweet.

The fox pointed behind Sonic, who turned to see exposed radio equipment connected to a microphone and speaker. "I originally used it only for weather reports, but the news of your exploits has considerably interested me. And of course, you're our planet's hero! Saving us all from the clutches of Robotnik and his minions. I'm just one of many, in that respect."

Sonic looked down into the glass absently. Noticing he was staring at his reflection, he grabs it and takes another drink.

"The world needs you, Sonic. It needs you to save it again. Again and again. I've heard reports about the war that's going on, on the east continent. It's not good. Really, all they can do is make time for you to go and do something to stop it all, to save... us all."

Sonic still looked down.

"The world needs you so much, but nobody is thinking what this is doing to you."

Sonic looked up. The fox looked him in the eyes.

"You were a young teenager when you started fighting Robotnik, right? Now you're a young adult. You used to know unbridled freedom and speed. Now you only know combat. And bloodshed. And things I can't even imagine."

Sonic did not respond.

"...time, multiplied by experience, is personality. Your memories are alive in every aspect of sensation and meaning... except that they do not change. You can imagine them differently but they are always there. Your body changes. You lose energy. You gain wounds. You get more, and more memories. You age. But the memories remain. The memories of what you've done, whatever you've done, take up that segment of your life which exists in the present as the segment of your memories. And it's always there, influencing your perceptions, your decisions..."

"And you will never know anything different. It's always normal. It can be filled with struggle, with pain, with hate... and it's always normal."

Sonic gets up and walks to the door.

"Wait, Sonic! I just- I just want you to be careful! I just want you to think on a wider scale..."

Sonic continues walking. He opens the door. The fox rushes to it and calls out, "There's an enormous tempest to the east! Sonic! You're being reckless with yourself, Sonic!"

Sonic doesn't hear him. He is already running on the ocean again. He keeps himself from thinking about what the man said. He stops any thoughts into who he was, why he cared. He tries to stop thinking, but he can only stop thoughts. They start to die down. He soon returns to silence except from the rapid splashes of water bursting behind him. An uneasy silence. It is tense. There is a certain energy in the air that could not be placed, which seems to get denser the more Sonic put his mind on it.

.

He then notices, far ahead, a darkness. It is very wide and seems to come out of the ocean into the sky. It is massive. As Sonic approaches, the magnitude of its immensity seems to increase exponentially. The clouds are spinning at almost the same speed as Sonic is running; the span of a hundred small islands in a matter of minutes. Below it is like a wall of rain, blown almost parallel to the ocean. The waves below Sonic pick up, growing larger and larger until within seconds they are several stories tall.

Sonic might want to transform into Super form at this point, as any drop in speed will make Sonic fall victim to the forces of nature and quickly slip into the ocean, in which he cannot swim and will not survive the fall to the bottom. He must climb up tremendous waves, breaking through the crest to the top before they smash him down into the deadly water. Riding down their backsides, he might have a few smaller waves which he could possibly jump over before facing another behemoth. He enters the storm. The clouds are lost in the darkness, their violent rapidity briefly revealed in flashes of lightning yet veiled by the torrent coming down. At times, Sonic struggles against the wind, desperate to stay moving, and at other times he can simply jump and be carried away.

The screaming of the wind becomes fiercer as Sonic approaches the center. He then sees in the lightning long columns that bridge the sky and the sea. There are at first a few of them in the distance, but soon they are everywhere. Their sounds are sinister and deep, the sounds of winds ripping water out of the ocean into the sky. Even the waves flatten, nearly each and every one on a path into one of the hundreds of waterspouts. The winds only increase, bending even these in wild contortions in the air. Sonic makes his way past as fast as he can, almost sucked into several deafeningly close ones.

They soon become distant sounds, the waves and wind die down, and sunlight shines forth through a massive hole in the powerful storm. Sonic spots an island, all of its trees uprooted, and goes to make a short rest there.

He looks above. The cloud which seems to cover everything but the hole of blue sky is yet moving swiftly. He sees the sun, and faces away from it. He looks at the horizon, and for once he sees it interrupted by a shape concealed in the darkness of the storm.

Sonic is knocked over. He falls softly onto the white sand but feels each grain vibrate against him. His body shakes. He wonders if it's the storm, and when he looks back up he sees the wall suddenly much closer. With the ground still shaking, he heads off again, away from the sun.

Escaping the waterspouts yet again, Sonic sees land peal out before him. He soon notices that he can see more and more of the ground as well as the water around him. He looks behind to see that he is running on a massive wave. He runs a little faster to see the front of the water drop off suddenly, and the ocean below seemingly almost sucked into the gargantuan wall of water. He keeps pace as the tsunami rolls over the beach, the dunes and the forests, the water surging over everything, until that beneath him just breaks apart into crashing wake. He jumps at this moment, his feet touching land once more.

He keeps on running, and the hurricane above soon gives way to blue sky once again. After a short while, Sonic escapes both disasters, and stops.

He looks back. The storm and ocean are barely visible. He looks around. There are groups of trees and hills and rocks, but again, there are no towns. There are no buildings.

For a moment, Sonic wondered if he ran in a circle.

.

[Act 3]

Continuing onward, Sonic runs over the hills until he sees a deep chasm scarring the surface with barren, burnt land around it. The cut is clean and smooth, although in places rocks fell out due to lack of support. At his speed, Sonic simply jumped over it.

After a short while, the plant life becomes smaller and less in number as the air becomes chillier. The ground is covered with not much more than short grasses and moss. The tundra is bordered by a small mountain range which very slowly glides in and out of view as Sonic runs past. The elevation decreases, the air warms up and the ground flattens out. The grasses are even shorter, carrying on to the horizon. Sonic sees a few yurts on the steppe but does not stop by. He continues on for a few minutes.

Before him is a very large mountain range, the peaks of which ascend through a layer of clouds. Soon he finds himself climbing the hills, then the lower mountains. He rides the ridge until he finds a pass between the giants of rock with their steep slopes. The pass seems like someone cut through the mountains, leaving bare the layers of stone on the sides. Exiting the other side, he is suddenly surrounded by tall pine trees and brush. There is a wide cloud blanketing the sky. He rockets off cliff ledges onto slopes holding more coniferous trees when suddenly a small group of three echidnas block his path.

.

One holds a bow with an arrow already in place, and quickly aims at Sonic. The others have spears.

"Spikehead! Where's your master?!" one with a spear said. He had more markings on his body than the others. He wore a bulletproof vest.

"I am my own master," Sonic replied curtly.

"You're one of the New Worlders, huh? You guys don't have any respect for your betters. We were here first. Then you shoot a bunch of our cities with your death blasts. We wouldn't kill you all if you surrendered, you know."

"How do you know those beams came from us? Didn't they come from space?" Sonic asked.

"From the sky? The sky is the part of the land, too. Of course it was you. You attacked our cities right after!" The others noted their agreement.

Sonic thought, if I told them that it was Mechanix, they wouldn't believe me.

"I'm not one of them. Let me be!" Sonic demanded.

"Liar! You'll just run away so you can join your people's army to kill us like you've been doing! You think I'm stupid because I'm from an older time? Fuck you. Fuck you! I hate you New Worlders, and I especially hate you spikeheads! I'm going to fucking kill you. Come on, guys."

.

The two with spears rush at Sonic, while the archer fires his arrow. Sonic jumps over this easily. All of them attack at once, and they turn around quickly when Sonic jumps over their heads. To hit one, Sonic just needs to charge a spin dash. One hit sends one flying, to slowly get up with a second wind, but two hits knocks one out completely. Alternatively, Sonic can go Super and simply bump into them, defeating them instantly.

After the scuffle, Sonic moves forward. He eventually escapes the forest and finds himself on yet another long plain. The clouds darken and he sees rain ahead. Within a minute he's suddenly drenched by very heavy rainfall. He ears a rushing sound nearby and sees a wave of water washing over the lowlands. As he gets closer he sees trees floating on the floodwater as it rushes forward. He jumps onto its surface, avoiding the floating hazards as he moves upstream. He soon comes to another mountain range, however there is a valley between sides with which the flooding river descends from.

He climbs up this river in the heavy rain, avoiding the boulders that are dislodged and sent hurtling downhill. He occasionally comes to a dry ledge which he can climb only to re-enter the river. Soon enough he reaches a curve that puts him out of the way of the flooding near the top of the mountain. He comes to a flat area and finds a few wooden cabins in a clearing. He is spotted by a dog with a gun who whips around to aim as Sonic runs behind him.

.

"Hey," he says, making the dog jump.

He put down his gun. "Oh, it's you, Sonic. I thought you was an echidna for a secon', 'bout t'shoot you."

"I'm glad you didn't," Sonic replied, then looked around. A few people see him from inside and around the houses and came to him. There are only four others.

"Sonic! Where were you all this time?!" a younger pup asked.

"God told us this day would come, boy. Not even Sonic could have stopped it," an older rabbit said.

"Why're ya all the way out hya, Sonny? We don' get much o'dem ropeheads but we hold 'em off just fine wit' da five o'us," the dog said.

A female raccoon holding a musket spits on the ground. "Boy howdy, we've neva had trouble like this in owa who' lives. And we ain't even nea' the front."

Sonic looks to her and asks "The front? Where is that from here?"

She replies, "Way out Wes', b'chu' dun wanna go der, it ain't good. My sista wuz der," she turned to the other female raccoon behind her, dressed in jeans and a T-shirt.

"The echidna army is incredible. They attacked us with thousands of robots, small and large... with soldiers who could cast magic. They had these super-warriors who would slaughter hundreds of men at a time... and they'd pillage houses and stores and kidnap people, some even killing them on the street... ohh... What they did to us... was nothing, even, compared to other cities..." She looks to the ground, folding her arms tight against her chest.

Sonic looks at her intently. "Do you know where their capital is?"

She looks back at him. "No... not exactly. It's deep within their empire, which grows bigger with every one of our towns they take over. We don't really know... we lost contact with everyone in there. We did all we could just to hold them back... we're doing all we can even out here..."

"Sonic," the rabbit suddenly calls out. He turns to him.

"You aren't the same. What happened, wherever you were? It's related to all of this, isn't it?"

Sonic remembers watching helplessly as Old Mobius exploded through the crust of the earth, as Mechanix's lasers scraped its surface.

"I messed up. I really messed up," Sonic began. Everyone looked at him.

"I was too carefree. I didn't think anything would happen."

He thinks about destroying Mechanix back in his Seal, and holding Robotnik to the wall with his hands. He thinks about the old Mobius, about the beautiful skies and landscapes, about Tails running behind him and people smiling and waving at him as he ran by. He thinks, I thought it was a game...

Then his expression froze as he remembers Robotnik holding a gun to his head. He realizes, then, at that moment, he could have died and the Death Egg would have crashed. Robotnik would have survived. Mechanix might still kill him, but nothing could stop him from destroying the entire planet. He regains his composure, hearing, "...Sonic?"

He looked at the boy. The dog said, "D'ya hear what I said, boy! It ain't'cho' fault dat dose fuckin' 'kidnas want ta kill us all! Yo da only one who can stop dem, Sonic! Ya gotta keep on fightin'!"

Sonic looked up, and focused on his face. He expressed solid determination. "You're right. I'm the only one that can defeat them. I can do it. I know... I know I can."

The rabbit said, "God made this happen. He brought the demons of hell onto earth to test our faith in Him. We can do nothing but pray for your victory, Sonic, that you may be the weapon of God against evil."

"Amen," said the dog.

For once, the crushing silence within Sonic's head, the long dead blankness he had after the fight with Mechanix, felt lifted. He feels, for once, that things aren't in question, that he is doing his duty. He feels an upswelling of pride, being the hero, no, the protector of Mobius. They're right, he thinks. Only I can do it.

Sonic walks between the raccoons. "Then there's no time to waste! Tell me, where is their empire? I will go and smash it!"

The dog, pup and raccoons cheers. The rabbit smiles. The musket-wielding raccoon says, "Go East. Go where the sky is always bright."

"Thanks," Sonic says, and speeds off.

.

He goes down the other side of the mountain, bare of trees. He hops down the rocks until the ground again levels out into dirt and brush. Grass reappears in patches as his feet passes by. Trees soon pop up in small numbers into larger groups until he finds a paved road cutting through farmland. He runs on it, very rarely passing a car which honks, seeing him. Large fields of produce and grain are watered by long bridge-like machines on wheels rotating around a pivot. They disappear behind a block of trees as Sonic rushes through a grove. Ponds and streams pass by, and the trees disappear as Sonic immediately finds himself again on a coastline. He stands before a large causeway that comes to a suspended bridge spanning the gap to the other side of the bay, where he can see a small town.

.

[Act 4]

He crosses the bridge. He is raised into the sky, far above the lapping waves below. He passes by steel cords holding the road between two massive towers stabbing out of the water. In large caternary curves the tubes droop, before tautly leading into a cement block. He soon comes down to the town. The road has 3 lanes going both ways next to a meridian, with small single-story businesses crowding filled parking lots. Lines of people are standing in the stores and leading out into the heat, some noticing Sonic and waving as he passes by.

.

A fireball blasts through the sky in front of him. He hears screams and sees a tipped-over tanker spinning on the asphalt behind a single echidna. Sonic stands before him as more come running around the fire.

"Oh look. Another one," he says. He wore a tightly fitting chestplate and thin grieves.

"That wasn't necessary," Sonic says.

"I'll do what I want with your inferior shit. We already won this war from the start. Only time remains," he says.

Sonic starts, "It isn't over yet, punk! I'll-"

The other echidnas start hollering back. "You filthy mold!" "You corpse-smell!" "Kill yourself!" "Don't insult our leader!"

The leader, it seems, raises his hands and they quiet. He speaks, "Hopefully this town will learn from your death."

.

- He can attack from far away with energy pulses he can shoot from his arms.

- He can fire them scatter-shot or charge an explosive ball.

- Up close, he has strong and swift attacks.

The other echidnas shout when he is hit, and after 4 hits he falls. Immediately after, all of the rest will attack at once.

- Some have bows and arrows,

- others spears,

- but most only come with their fists.

.

After defeating them, Sonic hears cheers from the people of the town who were watching. He runs on, avoiding the tanker by jumping over the highway into the forest around it. He runs through it, only to find it getting darker and damper. Fungi appear everywhere, and soon he finds trees held under large pools of muddy water. Bugs incessantly fill the air, the buzzing constant under occasional distant bird calls and the ribbits of the frogs.

.

The dense canopy opens up suddenly, with a clear pond reflecting the sky, turning to evening. Sonic suddenly feels a strange sensation. He looks around into the dark caverns of the swamp trees, seeing lightning bugs flash intermittently. He feels an itch on his leg, and then a small pain. He instinctively slaps it, and holds his leg up, seeing a small red dot and fluid swelling around it. He looked in his hand and sees the smashed, gooey remains of a mosquito. He wipes it on a tree trunk and starts moving his legs again.

He runs on the surface of the pond, and suddenly the sky rips away like a blanket under a table. The water disappears, and Sonic is only running on the feet of his reflection. He looks down at himself, and jumps. Hitting himself, he spindashes, for the world to spin around himself. He jumps away suddenly the gravity changes. He lands on a ceiling that appeared on the sky. He looks down at himself standing on a floor beneath the water. Suddenly they come close to each other, separated by a plane of water. They send out their right hand to touch each other, but when they both touch the water it suddenly vibrates in larger and larger waves before suddenly exploding into a spinning field of droplets. He sees reflections of himself in every drop, and the reflections of his reflections. He pokes his own shoulder, and his shoulder is poked. He rests his hand on the reflection's shoulder, and a hand rests on his shoulder. Yet, he doesn't feel warmth from the hand. Instead, it feels cool, almost cold, and it has no weight. He looks into his own eyes, and they look away from his.

"Why... why are you like this?" Sonic asks.

Suddenly, Sonic finds himself somewhere else. He is wet, and he's holding his hand into the pond. He suddenly removes it and backs away. He looks at himself. Incredulous, shaken, he slowly decides to quickly shake the water off. He looks around. He can't tell where he was going, and where he needs to go. He looks above but the sun is below the top of the trees. He turns around, seeing the shadows fall ahead of him, and he runs in that direction.

.

He eventually exits the swamp. He finds himself in a wide field of cut crops, split by asphalt. He runs to and on the road, following the power lines. He runs for a long time, occasionally passing smaller homes and a few farmer's markets, before seeing a plume of smoke in the distance. Gunshots ring through the air, followed by crashes and booms.

The trees thin out, giving way to a small town with wooden and brick buildings tightly knit between small roads. He is immediately met by the cries of men and women and children. He quickly turns and sprints down an alley as a crowd runs down a street. Energy pulses are flung forward, tearing chunks of asphalt and dirt out of the ground. Sonic whips to the right and sees a straight line of eight echidnas wielding cylindrical attachments on their arms that channeled the energy they used.

"Kill that man!" one yells and they all fire at Sonic with tens of small bullets.

Sonic easily spin attacks through all of them and moves on down the road, only to be met by a small spherical robot with four thin legs skittering out of an alley. It immediately notices Sonic and opens up its top as two barrels jut out from within.

- It fires charged bullets one after another while moving, but Sonic catches on and defeats it easily.

He hears a woman scream and turns to see the burning house far down the street. He rushes toward it, only to be ambushed by five more echidna soldiers. After dispatching them, he reaches the building and breaks the front door down. He charges through the rooms in the house, narrowly avoiding a few collapsing ceilings. Finding nobody, he goes upstairs. He hops over a few holes in the floor before finding a woman and a younger boy holding each other below the window sill.

.

"Sonic? Is that you...?" she says, sputtering with coughs. He grabs her, who grabs the boy, and then Sonic carefully pulls her out onto the ledge below the window outside.

.

They sidle to the edge where a pick-up truck is parked, and let the boy jump first onto its roof, followed by the woman. Suddenly, there is a snapping noise and the house bends to one side. Sonic jumps shortly before it collapses all at once into a pile of tinder.

Before the woman can thank Sonic, he already ran away. He follows three robots down a boulevard and over a bridge, led into a trap with six echidnas on one side and three on the other.

- They attack at once, some coming swinging with short swords.

After defeating them, he hears tires screech and looks down another road to see an echidna recklessly driving a pick-up with several in the back holding arm cannons.

- They shoot back at him.

Sonic chases after them until he can slam into them and knock them off. He then pounces on the roof, causing the truck to swerve. He jumps off as the truck loses traction in its turns and does several rollovers before its side crashes into a tree.

"Sonic! Help us kill these bastards!" A ferret yells from behind a house, holding a rifle. He runs, followed by a few more men with guns. Sonic goes after them as they turn another corner and take positions behind walls and abandoned cars stopped in the road. They fire at a troop of echidnas far down the road who also took up positions. Sonic dashes through the crossfire as men die on both sides. A large ball is launched from a man without a cannon, which hits a car on the New Mobians' side before blasting all of the men near it fast into the sky. He takes the soldiers out one by one as they fire at him, but he soon wins. The few men remaining cheer, and Sonic moves on.

He sees more robots heading down a road.

- They spot him and while moving forward, turn their heads and fire at him. He avoids the stream of beams before spin attacking through them in a line.

He moves on only to find another group of robots making way in the same direction. After dispatching them, he hears five gunshots at once.

.

There are shrieks of terror and anguish. Sonic slows down and peeks over a corner on a block, to see in front of the police station five bodies bloodily plopped over another. Five shooters stand across from them, and they hold their guns back. There are more guards, aiming their weapons at a large group of people with their hands on their heads. An echidna with a finer suit than usual shouts, "Now are there anymore fools amongst you who prefer to die, go ahead and speak your minds like they did!"

There is a long, cold silence, broken by muffled sobs. "That's what I thought!" the officer yells. He turns to someone behind him. "Prepare the cattle for extraction, lieutenant." "Yessir."

Sonic can't wait any more fleeting seconds. He runs into their range.

.

- The guards immediately shout and turn and open fire at him. He avoids the bullets and slams into them.

In the chaos, the crowd erupts in a vengeful frenzy and charges towards the soldiers, grabbing who they could and beating them mercilessly. Sonic aims for the officer, who backs away behind a wall of the remaining soldiers. He knocks them down, only to hear gunshots from far away and screams right next to him. Blood sprays into the air, again and again, the crowd shouts and scatters, people running everywhere. Another troop of soldiers marches from down the street, the front line with its weapons blasting away. Bodies lie over each other on the ground, blood and dirt mixing messily over everything. Sonic charges up a spindash and launches himself into them. They, too, scatter but he picks off all that don't run away. After a short battle, he looks around to see the officer missing and the lieutenant amongst the dead.

Before he moves on, he turns, hearing a repetitive drone. He sees a robot with a proboscis, attached to its lowered hemisphere, piercing into the body of a fallen echidna. He watches as it probes the corpse, sucking up small glowing fragments of rock. It finishes and moves to the next echidna. "Disgusting," Sonic thought, and ran to the bot which spots him and scampers away. He destroys it, and scattering across the ground are a bunch of Black Stones. He turns and continues on.

He runs down a road, turns and runs down another toward an explosion. He then comes to a group of five soldiers and some robots, defeating them only to come to another group of six soldiers. An ambulance races down a road without its siren. Sonic runs behind it until it stops to a group of wounded men.

"Sonic..." one says as he's lifted on a stretcher, "Go give 'em one for me, eh?"

Another man who has his arm wrapped in plaster bandages says, "You need to stop them, Sonic, we can't do it alone..."

Sonic runs on. He sees many small robots, but one of them stands tall on its four legs and clamps them together, spinning.

- It opens up horizontal compartments and two blades swing out. It charges Sonic whiles the others move out of the way, but Sonic simply jumps over and on it and destroys the rest before running onward again.

.

He enters a park. He takes a left at an intersection on the pavement to find himself by a pond. He sees a bunch of young men around two echidna captives, both on their knees with arms cuffed behind them facing the water. A man grabs one by the neck. "You fucking tell us where your supplies come from!" "Go fuck yourself," the echidna replied, and the man growls, thrusting his head into the water suddenly. He keeps them there, and then another man backhands the other echidna in the face. "I'm sick of your shit! Fucking talk before I kill you!" The echidna looks down, thinking, and contemplatively faces the man. "Well?" he asked, to have spit splash on his eye. "You piece of shit!" He punches him straight in the face, sending him flying out of the chair into the pond. The other echidna is pulled out of the water, wheezing and coughing, spitting out water. He sees the other echidna, and yelps, "He'll dro-" before his head is pushed back underwater.

Sonic turns, hearing an oncoming lorry filled with men with guns. They talk gruffly, angrily, excitedly. One shouts out to the men by the pond, "Come on, you shit-for-brains, we need more men up front! They're attacking the school!"

"Those bastards!" one shouts back, clambering up the hill, he sees Sonic. "Oh hey, it's Sonic! Aren't these assholes such freaks to look at? They don't even look Mobian!" He climbs in.

"Sonic, there's one good thing that came out of this apocalypse and it's that us real men get to show our strength." He climbs in.

"As soon as this is over, a round on me, guys!" He climbs in.

.

Sonic looks at a group of men who wave back dismissively, more intent on interrogating the prisoners. The truck drives on and Sonic looks at it, follows it. It winds through the park onto a road, turns onto a larger road before stopping behind barbed wire. The men get out as the wire is pulled back, picking up arms in crates and running to positions pointed out by rear guards. Sonic follows them until he sees a large ball slam perpendicular into the first man, exploding a chunk out of the ground. He turns, seeing buildings collapsed, fires still raging and bullets and energy pulses being traded between lines. Between alleys, down from buildings and up from protected corners, there is a constant web of flying energy and death, catching random people by surprise every so often. Men on the outside constantly move to outflank each other, with occasional suicidal or temporary charges on the inside. Grunts, battle cries and death screams fill the air but are yet overpowered by the explosions ripping through the air everywhere from guns and cannons. Sonic holds back behind a bunker, but then sees a small group of men holding rocket launchers run up, kneel and fire. The blasts create a small lull in the violence, a cue for Sonic and the other men to rush in to fill the gap.

The men suddenly stop and take positions as a wave of robots flood in from every imaginable opening, even cracks in the floorboards in old house porches. Sonic continues, ripping through them all, taking down each enemy soldier he finds.

He soon gets so far ahead that he finds a small area of peace. He notices a large blacktop near a school and heads to it. He crosses its wide, empty expanse pockmarked with craters, overlooking a long hill into trees and houses.

.

He suddenly hears a child yell, "Son-" before the voice is suddenly muffled. He looks to the windows and sees a kid dragged back inside by an echidna soldier. Before he moves, the double door opens as an echidna walks out, wearing a colored suit and some medals.

"So, you must be this Sonic the hedgehog I've heard so much about. Even my officer told me you're quite the threat," he says.

Sonic throws his arm. "Leave the children out of this. Why are you forcing war into their lives?!"

"Why did you kill tens of thousands of us as soon as we appeared?"

"Why did you use that as an excuse to attack and conquer the world?!"

"So we should have begged for peace as your armies attacked us thereafter?"

Sonic stopped. He didn't think the New Mobians could have attacked first after the laser attack. "You... you were always like this, enslaving species not your own, even killing your own kind. Your history is filled with blood!"

The echidna paused. "So you even know our past somehow... No wonder you're so dangerous. But I do not bear the sins of my fathers. I only react to the present. If I see a blade approach, I find its source and cut it. Your words ring hollow to me, Sonic, because you are a killer from hell."

Sonic stopped, again. He felt a cold tinge creep up his spine. He tried to shake it off. "Fine. If that's what I am, then fuck talking! Get beat!"

"As I thought," the echidna replied, and withdrew a rapier from its hilt.

.

- His close-range sword attacks are swift, but he requires a short moment to change direction.

- He can fire a larger explosive ball than normal, and more energy bullets.

- He can also charge energy into his sword, which upon a slice into the ground sends a thin wave of sharp energy undulating towards Sonic.

- He can also direct long, thin, linear shots through the rapier at Sonic's direction.

Four hits defeats him.

.

As soon as he collapses to the floor, Sonic hears yelling and sees New Mobian men breaking through the doors into the school and fighting the remaining echidnas in there. Some of the children scream while echidnas are shot before their eyes. Sonic decides to turn and move on but he is immediately confronted by a cat wearing a vest. He says, "Sonic, we're finally driving them out of here! We couldn't have done it without you, man!"

Sonic nods and forces a weak smile, then runs past him. He runs down the streets, cleaning up the few groups of echidnas still holding out. He hears distant cheers and the gunshots finally dying down. A new sound builds under this, a sound of tiny gears and tiny metal feet, hundreds of them. He turns a few corners and comes to a river of fleeing robots exiting the town. He destroys as many as he can although some try to use their spinning blades against him.

He can't take them all out, eventually finding himself in another large field. He sees them heading towards and climbing over a chain-link fence with razor wire hung over the top. From the bottom, he bounces with his spin attack from robot to robot until he clears the fence. In the air, he opens up and looks around. He sees hundreds of robots advancing on the New Mobian military base, with soldiers running out of the barracks and armory, guns blazing.

Sonic waits, seeing the soldiers managing to hold their own, until he hears another explosion. He turns right, seeing a fireball burn into the sky as a large robot walks through the front gate. It has a large prism for a body, with a semispherical head with tiny red dots behind a glass visor for eyes. It walks somewhat slowly with a small gait, and on its two massive arms holds its weapons. It holds up its left arm and fires rockets towards the buildings in the base, the fire rushing through the hallways and bursting out the windows on all sides. Men scream and body parts fly. Sonic charges forward, breaking the smaller robots until he approaches the larger one.

It stops its attack after seeing Sonic, then fires a rocket at him.

.

[Act 4 Boss]

The robot will move towards Sonic in order to crush him if possible, while constantly firing with either or both of its two arms.

On the left arm:

- is a Gatling gun

- and a powerful, fast energy shot.

On the right arm:

- is a rocket launcher

- and an energy shotgun.

- In close range it will punch the ground, creating craters but also an opening for Sonic to climb to its shoulders and land a hit on its dome.

After 4 hits, each foot and leg separates into two legs and two feet, supporting a side of the body and the arm above it, and each of these leg/feet pairs separate from the main body. The armor falls off the main body, suspended between the two sides by steel cords, revealing dense, moving machinery inside as well as a turret.

- The turret fires multiple regular energy shots followed by an explosive shot.

- The legs move around faster now, with three separate cannons targeting Sonic.

However, he can simply jump into the unshielded core from behind the turret to deliver a hit. 4 more hits after that, it short-circuits, the two leg pairs fall over and the core slams into the ground, exploding.

.

[Act 5]

A man in army fatigues runs up to Sonic and suddenly halts. "Sonic! You fucking saved us man! We've heard down the line about all of your support. You've been a great help in this war so far. Everybody wondered where the blue hero was when it broke out, but I guess you had your hands full. Still, man, thanks! Thanks for everything!"

Sonic looks back at him. "I have a question," he says.

"Sure, anything," the man says.

"Where is the echidna capital from here?" he asks.

The man smiles, "I can tell you what you should know about it. We've sent recon there once, it's in the center of their empire, North-northwest of here. Their defense is impenetrable... for most people. Their military is extremely powerful and they have innumerable amounts of war robots at their service..."

Another man who was nearby, comes running and says, "Sonic, we got intel about their energy sources recently, you should know about it. Almost everyone uses a Black Stone, which slightly increases energy, and they are used to power nearly all of their equipment. Some people and machines use a more concentrated form called Black Shards which already gives them more power than a dozen men. In very rare cases we've found elite officers with the power of hundreds of men, and we assume they use a very dense concentration of the material." He paused. "In all cases, the object suffers a deep dive in energy levels when deprived of the energy source."

The first man says, "If you're going in that direction, I have to make a request."

Sonic looks at him, replies, "Sure."

"This region is under heavy duress from a local echidna base. We are losing resources trying to hold out against them, when our assistance is urgently required at the front, holding back their main forces. We're doing all we can just to gain time for reinforcements, but the pressure is too much, especially with their advanced weaponry. Please go for us and destroy the base, it's on the side of a volcano which you can't miss on the way to the capital. I'll send word down the line to give you cover so you can enter the empire."

Sonic thinks for a second, then agrees, estimating North-northwest. "I'll do it. I won't forsake my brothers in war."

The other man says, "Sonic, be careful when you reach the battlefront. It's a very deadly and confusing place. We've already lost so many good men there. It's so bad even General Tails himself is fighting!"

"Tails..." Sonic says, then, "Thanks for your help. I'll be careful." He walks away from the two, feeling the gravity of the situation getting heavier by the moment. He starts running again.

.

Leaving through the rubble at the front gate, Sonic passes the road and moves NNW. He travels through large fields, some covered with grass, others barren but plowed, others filled with tall stalks of grain or corn. He enters and leaves thickets of trees and brush, hopping over small brooks and streams, passing other long roads. After a few minutes, the plants die out again and the air becomes dry. The sky is clear, the sun dipping into the horizon. Blues turn to bright reds and oranges and yellows to purple and indigo. He soon returns to empty land with nothing but mounds of dirt and rocks. As he rises over the hills he sees a very long, flat expanse stretch out before him, towards distant mountains. He slides down a slope and runs on the salt lake.

The sun drops below the horizon, dipping this half of the world into twilight as dust is kicked out from Sonic's feet slapping the hard, flat surface, twirling, rising, expanding, disappearing again. Tiny pinpricks of twinkling light come out one by one above.

They fall directly downward, and their black spherical surface is revealed upon superimposition of the earth behind it. Four long, thin legs shoot out of its underside and move themselves to catch the robot body as it hits the land. The white eyes twinkle as their bodies rush en masse around Sonic. Hundreds of stars fall from the sky and chase him. The sky stays dark until it slowly, dimly replaces them in space. Sonic keeps on running on towards the mountains as they start firing lasers and spinning with their blades to stop him. He destroys as many as he can, only for more to appear.

Sonic then notices the flat land split apart and rotate around, as two large parallel spheres. They seem to sway slowly back and forth as they move until suddenly two legs appear from one sphere and a jaw with teeth show from the other, which upon contacting the ground make it move much faster. It rushes towards Sonic, either making:

- a straight lunge

- or a pounce into the air to bite Sonic.

Sonic can hit the backside of both spheres. Two hits destroys it. Then, more start dragging the texture of the land across before snapping out into their own existence.

As the mountain range comes in range, a figure made of a 3D trapezoid, sphere and cube within the mountains stretches itself out of the rocks in a straight line. It then throws its arms and legs out from the stone, rolling out of the mountain, and it falls to the ground with a rumbling slam followed by a small landslide. The android drops onto a two-sphere beast and rides it. Meanwhile the many star-spheres trip and roll into each other, condensing into a single, growing mass which curved far over Sonic's head like a tidal wave. The two-sphere beast, still galloping, leaps and flips over Sonic, turning its four legs into one, smooth surface which extends into a surfboard shape. The android held his hands out while the two-sphere board slid across the wave-spheres behind Sonic.

- It shoots a laser beam that reflects off each sphere, which transforms on each reflection into a faster, smaller rapid-fire pellet shot.

Sonic must hit the android 4 times. After that, the wave will break over itself and form a tube.

The camera changes from parallel to the wave's movement to perpendicular (90 CCW y axis).

The surfing android continues its attack.

- It fires more reflected lasers,

- and it now fires slower, larger pellet shots directly at Sonic.

Sonic must avoid these and the spheres crashing behind him (which are fatal even in Super form). After 4 more hits, the android is knocked off the board and falls into the wave. It gets crushed to pieces. Sonic runs out.

The camera changes back to normal (90 CW y axis).

The spheres stop chasing him for a while.

.

Suddenly, more spheres will fall out of the sky with their sharp legs pointing straight down. They fall like rain which Sonic must avoid. There may be electricity arcing between them which manifests in a chain of spheres falling onto the earth. After a while, a platform of spheres holding another android lowers itself from above.

- Two-sphere beasts run from ahead, jump and transform into pairs of chained spheres which the android grabs, swings and throws at Sonic. Sonic must avoid these and hit the platform from below 4 times before it breaks and knocks the android off.

The android rides on the back of a two-sphere beast, throwing sphere-drops back at Sonic. Sonic must attack it for a hit, and attack quickly, as when sphere-lightning strikes the android will leap, grab and climb the chain of spheres into the sky before the bolt detaches to use a new platform. After 8 hits, the android is destroyed and the spheres stop attacking.

.

Sonic finally reaches the mountain and starts climbing its lee side. His main obstacle are the many rocks and boulders in the way. Occasionally, an echidna will pop out from behind one and attack with an arm cannon. However, he will be mostly unopposed until he climbs high enough to reach the timber line. The ground is covered with snow and ice and there are steeper gradients and narrower ledges to cross. Mounds of snow may suddenly jump and scatter from sentry turrets that activate underneath them by sensing Sonic. They swiftly target and shoot at him. There will also be more two-sphere beasts that chase him throughout the dangerous terrain.

Upon reaching the summit, he sees the volcano's glowing crater in the near distance and travels the ridge to reach it. Every so often he will be confronted by a single echidna wearing metal armor and wielding a long, curved blade.

- These echidna swordsmen attack with very quick, straight slices that will kill non-Super Sonic.

- They can also repel spin attacks and spin dashes if the sword isn't already moving or if Sonic is behind him.

One hit will destroy the armor, and another will defeat the man.

.

Upon reaching the volcano and moving around it, Sonic will come to its backside which reveals a large slab of land standing tall over the fragmented wall and deep pits of magma below as jets of lava explode high into the air. On that slab of land is the Zexakal fortress with a large rope bridge connecting it to the side of the crater. As Sonic climbs the crater wall, he will have to leap safely across giant chasms several times while avoiding the jets when they appear. He'll also need to wall-jump up some narrow crevices to avoid otherwise impassable areas. Enemies thin out here until he reaches the bridge. Two echidna swordsmen fiercely guard it. After crossing the bridge, he is suddenly called out to by a man standing on the top of one of the fortresses' towers.

.

He has a moderate build, wearing a tailored uniform in a bold black color with no flourishes. "Impressive, hedgehog! I've been observing you breach every one of my defenses and I have to say you're quite the talented warrior! It's unfortunate that you have to die but if you're as good as I think you are, you'll at least die by my hands! I've been wanting a real fight in this war for a while now, ahaha!" He then turns and disappears out of sight. The wide entrance is slowly cranked open and a hundred men come swarming out with weapons raised and screaming.

.

Sonic must plow through them (preferably in Super form) into the base. Inside, the building seems to be made of igneous rock-made trapezoidal prisms, smoothly cut and polished, with pyramids of slow-flowing magma extruding out of some of their bottoms into square pools. Hiding in the narrow crevices between the masonry are revealed segments of electronics or machinery. The individual chambers contain many ornate surfaces, some holding weapons and armor, others books, and still others with nothing. A few chambers are dedicated to single historical or religious images in the form of tapestries, paintings, murals and reliefs.

The rooms on the first floor are mostly continuous and have no doors between them, but as Sonic descends either of the stairs located on each far edge of the fortress, he finds his enemies in waiting. Doors suddenly slide shut behind him and soldiers crowd in from elsewhere. They shout curses, threats and insults while large groups of them attack at once by bow, sword, cannon or even with fists. Whether he defeats them all or not, Sonic can spindash through the wooden doors to move on. He may be faced by another group of soldiers, or robots, or turrets and lasers emitted from the spaces in the walls, but there are still the vacant rooms too.

After a few floors in that pattern, Sonic will enter larger rooms with less ornamentation or enemies. Instead, standing on pillars and slabs jutting out from the wall are echidna swordsmen waiting for Sonic to reach their platforms one by one. Other rooms are just for storage of war materiel, including ammunition and automobiles. There are also rooms where the lava pools leak into from floors above, which have oblique planes and pillars rising above the flames and projecting bizarre shadows up the walls. In these rooms, androids which are similar but smaller from the ones before will constantly jump around and try to knock Sonic off into the lava. Some rooms have no floor and are merely cliff-faces spanned by a small stone bridge, with walls cracked open, revealing the volcanic crater wall somewhat in the distance. Wheel-shaped robots rocket out from within the lava far below, spinning drops of molten rock across the room as they dash at Sonic, their wheels aflame. Sonic can only destroy these in Super mode and he should steer clear of them otherwise.

A few such large floors down and the ceilings are only slightly above head level. The dark black stone hallways are sporadically lit by cracks and fissures covering glowing magma flows behind it. While keeping a square cross-section, they smoothly curve into the volcanic stone in half and full-loops. They end outside on a long ledge which runs the entire length of the rock mass the fortress sits upon.

A smaller building juts out of the crater wall, suspended over the ferocious furnace burning brightly below, hewn in volcanic stone. There is nothing connecting it and the end of the ledge Sonic is standing on. With no other method, Sonic backtracks on the ledge, sprints across it and leaps off. He falls.

If Sonic happens to miss the much smaller ledge of the other building, he should forget his pride and turn Super for the extra speed. But even if he's Super, the lava will kill him.

He barely lands on the ledge, and still rolling with momentum he plows through a stone door into a circular room with open windows. He untucks and screeches to a halt as he stands before the black-clothed echidna officer.

.

"You may have gotten this far, hedgehog, but this is where the difference between us reveals itself," he says.

"You're stupid. I defeated your entire force! You have nothing," Sonic rejoins.

"On the contrary, I have the support of my entire species. From the very beginning I was going to win! Every accomplishment of my ancestors is my accomplishment, every great building my building, every echidna myself! This very location was a common home of my people very long ago, from the time before the First Great Age! You can't know what I mean, you mangy beast. You can't feel the energy of a place, the energy of something more than any one man!" the man boasts. His skin seemed to glow a red as bright as the lava around him.

"Your head is in the skies. You all think you're the best, you're unstoppable, you're gods... but you never thought a single inferior being could so easily wipe you out! You can't even comprehend it now. I won't stop here. I'll find your capital. I'll smash everything you throw at me. I'll make your leaders surrender on their knees! Maybe then you'll see how many lives you destroyed... how evil your civilization is!" Sonic replies.

"Is it evil to look out for myself? Is it evil for my people to do the same? Especially when you 'New Mobians', you slaves, free of our loving support, lash out at us just when our species barely escapes extinction! You and yours are ignorant savages. I told you, this is where the difference between us appears! Enough talk!"

.

[Act 5 Boss]

He strikes the ground, and the floor vibrates and cracks into a perfect circle. The floor slides a tad but stops itself. Then the echidna jumps high in the air and slams back down into it, dislodging it completely. It falls faster and faster towards the burning lava below.

As they fall, Sonic can try to attack him as he is waiting and defending. If Sonic can surprise him from behind he will get an early hit. Otherwise, he should jump towards the crater wall and probably transform into Super before he dies in the lava. The echidna, meanwhile, will stay on the platform until right before it hits the lava. Then, he suddenly jumps up as the platform cracks into pieces.

Lava splashes over the breaking platform, forming a column of burning, semi-solid rock. He falls and disappears behind it, but in an instant rockets towards Sonic with the lava forming a dome around him, tracing his path from the broken platform. It is constantly glowing and dripping around him, its magma "skin" sliding over itself (similar to the fire shield in Sonic 3).

"Know power!" the man shouts from within it, and suddenly a huge ring of flame explodes from the carried lava. It takes shape as violently sharp scales that explode even further into a dragon's face, with burning eyes and flaming teeth on a snout of white, blue and orange flames.

Sonic can move only on the circumference of the crater but he can move up and down it to any height, so long as he keeps running. Sonic must avoid this fire dragon which chases him for as long as possible as the heat is strong enough to kill him within a certain distance if he's normal, or dramatically increase his ring absorption rate if he's Super. Balls of magma smack and fuse together within the "mouth" shortly before being fired out within a large fireball. Soon, the dragon's body cools into rock as it gets farther away from the crater, gliding smoothly over each other due to shining Black Stones inside them. While the body is cool, Sonic must turn around and break through the blocks shaping the "dragon's skull" (2-4 hits) and strike the echidna within. If Sonic waits too long, more lava comes flowing up the rock body which is then followed by an explosion of flame on top and across the flowing lava.

With one hit, the echidna is knocked out of his lava dragon. As he flies back, the Black Stones dislodge from the dragon's body and transform into a platform which he then lands on. Although it forms this while falling, a stable jet of lava somehow hits the platform directly in the center and quickly coats it with lava which then cools to rock. In whichever direction the fire echidna runs, the platform and the lava jet below it move at the same speed.

He dashes towards Sonic, causing the platform to roll across the crater wall and forcing Sonic to stand on it instead. He attacks directly:

- with flying punches

- and kicks energy-charged kicks, which can throw Sonic in the air (but not hurt him).

Sonic can hit him 3 more times here.

.

The echidna is sent hurtling back from the last hit. He winces, then leaps to the crater wall just as the lava jet finally stops, causing the platform to crash and burn below. He holds onto a ledge and snarls, "Without those Emeralds, you would be nothing! You fool! Those emeralds are nothing to the true power of the echidnas, they are but slaves to the separate echidna tribes. They are mere mimicries of the great Gifts of Zexagalaxius! Know what the Gifts gave to us – the thunderous power of the Great Age of the One Land!"

Above them, a large section of the crater wall suddenly shifts, causing rocks to crumble out and fall around Sonic. Lines curving and circling each other pull themselves out of the stone. They rotate and spin, forming the haunting, blank stone bust of an ancient deity. A gossamer, dark green energy drips from the bust to the lava.

It can attack in five ways:

- Jets of magma that burst up all around the crater wall symmetrically.

- A column of lava rises in the center, suddenly bursting out lava in set intervals as it rises, forcing Sonic into a short vertical space which quickly drops and breaks apart as it falls (Sonic must wait for enough space to go through and back up).

- Having large twin jets of lava spurt a double helix up the wall, rotating it while reinforcing it, to lure Sonic to the top where his movement is more restricted.

- Walls of magma burst up the crater, and start spinning across it (forcing Sonic to move horizontally).

- An explosion flashes up the dripping energy, into the body, and forms an exploding screaming face that will burn out Super Sonic's rings unless he swiftly escapes.

Meanwhile, the officer will be running towards Sonic with a flaming epee drawn.

- He first attacks with a dashing lunge, then jumps back, somersaulting backwards high through the air, before landing and lunging forward again.

- Otherwise he draws close and repeatedly stabs and slices at Sonic to put him on the retreat.

Sonic must avoid the golem's lava hazards and the epee, and slam into the echidna for a hit. After 3 hits (or 2 if Sonic got that optional first hit), all of the lava and stones, including the ancient statue, will instantly crumble and collapse into the crater. The fire echidna drops his epee and takes a short breather before jumping backwards into the wave of falling rocks from the statue.

"It's not over yet! You can't beat a Black Shard!" he yells out, before the rocks suddenly clamp together and reassemble back into the statue's form. The green energy glows brightly between the cracks within the stone.

It rushes Sonic as its head rotates to always face him.

- It tries to slam into Sonic and crush him to death,

- doing so while the different segments of its body independently fire a laser beam in cycles. Each segment starts to slide and fall downwards after it shoots its beam, before returning in place for the next shot). Because of this, the golem's surface undulates as it fires in waves at Sonic, who is forced to evade at high speeds.

Sonic must take a chance and leap off the crater wall and land on the statue's chest. Once there, he must avoid the lasers and circle around the head (which rotates to keep up with him) until he finds a hole in the stone in its nape (this is a lot easier as Super Sonic, who can just fly there). There, he can jump inside where the echidna is.

.

However, just when he finally gets inside it, a massive explosion blasts Sonic right back out and the bust scatters into pieces. While Sonic lands back on the crater wall, the officer is sent flying, with his uniform burnt and ripped and his skin on fire.

"Hahaha! You think I'm too stupid to learn, huh?!" he cackles as he is spinning through the air.

"Even if this body dies, my people will still win this war and we shall survive for eons to come! That's the difference! I have always been invincible!" He lands on another make-shift Black Stone platform before launching off with an explosion of swirling energy behind him. He holds back one fist, which glows red hot.

"You can never win! We are the most superior race!" he screams through the rushing air.

.

In an instant, Sonic must avoid his blazing punch as it is a very powerful attack. It is too fast to evade. It will take away 50 of his rings instantly. If he is Super and has that amount or less, that means he will de-transform and fall. If he is normal he will die either way, either instantly or from the shock which will throw him helplessly into the lava. With courage, Sonic must move forward and under the punch, and with adept timing, Sonic must strike the officer from below for the final hit.

Although, if he misses the final hit, the echidna will simply miss and fall into the lava.

.

Sonic's mission isn't completed yet. He must circle back to the small building where he'll spot a thin point in the pillar holding up the Zexakal fortress. He must make one last flying leap, strike that point, then jump back (or fly in Super mode) to save himself. The hit sends a crack zipping through the pillar. It shatters under the weight and topples over. Again, Sonic must run out onto the crater wall as the fortress crashes above him, raining heavy death down both sides of the crater.

.

Outside the crater, boulders are sent flying, smashing each other apart, beginning an avalanche which uproots the forest downslope. As the roar of flowing earth ebbs out, a large cloud of dust billows into the night.

Sonic climbs to the peak of the volcano and again looks NNW. He sees on the horizon red fires and giant plumes of smoke glowing below the moon's light. He jumps off the peak in that direction.

.

[Act 6]

He flies through the cold night air, the moonlight shining softly on snow picked up by wispy winds. He slams down into a cornice overlooking a steep slope interrupted by large rocks. It gives way under him and he falls down the slope while a rumbling spreads around the mountain face. If he stays still he sinks into the snow, so he must run without stopping. Behind him, a critical reaction dislodges a large shelf of snow which topples onto the slope and begins picking up speed and size. The avalanche roars menacingly with a mixed din and nearly catches Sonic. As he runs down and away, he jumps over the coming rocks to keep from being trapped. Passing back through the timberline, he runs through the trees which are immediately rolled over behind him. He avoids a few more rocks as the slope gradient wanes into foothills and the avalanche slows down behind him.

He moves through the hills, the earth ripped out and torn up like stretched clay. There are loop-de-loops and emmelman turns carved into the land. Smooth curves suddenly change direction or stopping abruptly against more curved ground spattered with fields of sharp broken rock spikes. As he moves through, he jumps over another chasm that cuts deep into the earth. The flat anvil top of a massive, dark storm cloud rolls over the moon high above.

.

The ground flattens out into small, rolling hills and fields with scattered rocks of every size. As Sonic looks around, he spots a bus driving on a dirt road towards a collection of lights in the distance. He catches up and runs next to it, and several men pull down the windows and wave at him. "Sonic!" "Hell yeah, now the party's gonna start!" "Let's kill all those bastards!" "Whoo! Fuck yeah!"

Sonic runs ahead of them and soon hears gunshots, explosions, yells and cries echo through the air. As he climbs a hill it all comes into view. Behind a long, tall chain-link fence, he sees a few stark concrete buildings surrounded by a field of tents, endless piles of crates, grids of parked vehicles and uniformed men and women moving everywhere between. Far beyond the encampment there are flashes of explosions and gunfire. He slows down in front of two guards guarding an entrance.

"It's Sonic!" one says to the other. "It can't be!" the other responds.

"Let me in. I'm here to help," Sonic says.

"Wait. We'll let you in, but you should talk to the Commander before you go out there," one says. The other adds, "He should be in the large tent immediately to the right."

"Thanks," Sonic says as they nod to him, then each other, and press a button to open the gate up.

He runs past the many soldiers who see him and cheer, calling out his name. He avoids their gazes, avoids responding to their questions and comments. He passes many people sitting at tables, throwing cards down, smoking, talking, sitting alone. He spots the officer's tent taking up a large square of space, its flap entrance guarded. Before he could speak, they step out of the way and open each flap for him. Sonic stops for a second, not expecting the courtesy, and then walks in.

There are crates around, tables with laid-out detailed maps marked with circles and arrows. In the center and back, sitting in a leather chair behind a desk lit by two lamps was a gruff, bearded bulldog man in a stuffy decorated uniform, writing furiously on a sheet of paper.

"Sit," he says, and nods his head to a folded chair in the corner. Sonic takes it and looks at him.

"I've expected you. I heard you completed a mission from the captain of the base at Alabaster Town. Your success bought us more time," he says, finally finishing what he is writing. The Commander looks up.

"It was on the way," Sonic shrugged.

"Heh. Right," the man smiled coldly. "You must be in a hurry. You plan on charging right through their front line, right?"

"Yeah. I'm not here to enlist, and I'm not here to fight it out. My intention is to go straight to the echidna capital, find their leaders and defeat them," Sonic answers.

"The hero speaks! Haha. What a noble goal," he cheers, then drops his smile. He takes a long, annoyed breath. "You don't know anything about this war, do you?"

Before Sonic could respond, the Commander continued, "We've finally established a standing army of the best soldiers in the world, and you know what? Most of them are already dead. We send out elite troops, just to get them mowed down by the echidnas' death machines. We send out tanks and bombers to stop those, and they get destroyed by magic from a single person! They have men that die after 10 of our own die! Some after 100! This does not add up to our advantage, Sonic the hedgehog."

He stands up and shouts, "Fucking cocky BASTARD!" baring his fangs. "Did you really think you could just end this all, just by yourself?! You have seen nothing like we have!" Sonic suppressed a smirk.

The Commander scrunches his face and looks away in disgust. He clears his throat. "Their technology is centuries, if not millenia ahead of ours! Their appearance was the ultimate ambush, an omen of apocalypse. Their empire appeared out of thin air, capturing large parts of our territory instantaneously. We've completely lost contact with anyone from any of the cities. That's tens of thousands of people missing. At least. Then they started attacking..." He forcefully sighs, sits back down and rubs his face, shaking his head.

"While you were absent, there was a flurry of global activity to support the unified military defense force. It was very sudden and there was social resistance, sometimes violent. Nobody wanted to be near anything like Robotnik again. But once the echidnas came and attacked, everyone universally worked together for survival. It's instinct. This is the final battle of Mobius. And right here, this is where we're making our last attack. Everyone here has decided not to protect their families and homes but to protect the entire world and every free Mobian soul."

He pulls his hands off the table and glares at Sonic. "I don't want to know why you ignored your own duty at the critical moment. If it never happens again, it's not important. I want to trust you, Sonic. General Tails believes you are the key to certain victory, but we are prepared if you fail."

His glare is frozen and for a moment he just motionlessly leers at Sonic. "You are very fortunate General Tails respects you, Sonic."

Sonic cynically overlooks the threat out of boredom. But what he said makes him remember Tails, and for some reason the memory is from around when they first met, just one of those good days back then. Tails was looking up at him smiling, his two tails twirling in excitement and there was an emotion of happy friendship... Something catches in Sonic's throat. He feels his feet again, standing on ground. Earthy ground covered with a tarp. He realized things have changed completely. Tails... Tails is no longer his friend. Just that thought made Sonic forget everything else and for just a moment, Sonic felt his heart starting to fall into a bottomless hole, taking down everything that's Sonic with it, and that was what caught Sonic's throat. He immediately shoved it all away in his head. He looked back at the Commander.

The Commander had turned the chair around, looking the other way. He continued speaking. "This entire operation... is just to buy time. We made our estimates. It's impossible to win, but we thought we could hold them off for a few months. Enough time to reinforce defenses elsewhere... And we learned, this isn't chance. They're holding back their best forces. We estimated again... to a few more weeks. Then only... only what, 18 hours ago... they launched their main attack force. Radiating in all directions from their capital. And here, in their most vulnerable spot, after less than a day of fighting, we finally touched reality."

He turns around. He sees Sonic's attitude has changed and suspiciously checks his anger. "We'll be finished before this week ends. They outnumber us 100-to-1 and they kill us 100-to-1. Our hospitals are already full. Even the bravest soldiers of Mobius are crushingly filled with fear and doom. There is a seed of panic. Morale falls like a meteor."

Sonic, having been quiet all this time, indeed, for more than just this conversation, stood up himself. The Commander waited.

Sonic speaks. "I'm your only chance. I have the Emeralds. I've saved the world before! I'm the fastest thing alive! And even if you won't listen to why, I've never given up on protecting innocent people! I've seen other worlds and faced an enemy much stronger than anything... anything that the echidnas have used. I'm not going to stop. Stop?! Haha!"

He walks up to the Commander's desk and slaps his hands down. The Commander narrows his eyes. "If you think I'm a coward, try to kill me right here," he declares, coldly and slowly. "Send your entire army to stop me and I'll kill them all one by one. It's useless."

Sonic turns around and paces away before stopping. "I'm going to get there, and I'm going to win. This was a waste of time."

The Commander suddenly shouts out, "Wait! Sonic." But Sonic was already walking towards the entrance.

"We're on your side, Sonic!"

Sonic was already outside. He ran past the soldiers again. He turned, looking at one of the buildings. He saw people in white coats run in and out, men covered in plaster on stretchers lying out in the night air. Some turn to see the commotion and see Sonic. He looks away.

.

He runs up hill after hill as vans and trucks with brights on move back and forth between the unseen battlefield with arms and men. Darkness covers everything. Sonic runs up a tall final hill before he finally comes to the front of the war.

Gun blasts sparkle from side to side, two crashing waves of bullets and energy balls. The energy balls briefly lit up the ground beneath them before exploding on contact. Sonic then grabs his ears as a large blast comes from his right. He turns, seeing an artillery cannon lob a ball far into the other side. He tries to follow it with his eyes, but is stunned, seeing it explode in mid-air from an interception explosive. He looks back to the war-torn earth in the moonless night, seeing hundreds of infantry in groups charge at each other from both sides. Echidnas with arm cannons shooting at New Mobians with guns. He hears the constant, heavy tread of flanking tanks on an isolated mass of echidna infantry. As he watches them, he then sees small robots, which he had never seen before, crawl en masse all over each one, drilling through their armor, only to be picked off by a platoon of riflemen escorting the tanks. Sonic then looks at the giant fires he thought he had seen so far away. They were coming from forests, lit all around the landscape by this humongous, endless battlefield. The infernos blasted chaotic light on the tens of thousands of figures dancing with violence and death.

Sonic runs down the hill.

He passes some strings of parked vehicles and small camps, and ends up at a trench at the edge of the battle. He peeks over the edge, only to see a large group of echidna soldiers sprinting towards him. They concentrate fire on a pillbox with a Gatling gun that mows them down.

.

"Sonic!" he hears behind him.

He turns to see a young man, a squirrel, not much past his teens. "Do you remember me? Back in Grand City, when Robotnik attacked? ...no?"

Near him is a mouse, thinner and taller than he. "Why would he?" he says.

Sonic stares at the kid. He continues, "Uh, I'm a huge fan, uh, I had no idea - I can't believe you're here! Are you, are you uh going to help us? You are, right?"

Sonic paused, then says, "I'm not going to help you fight. I'm going to help you win."

The two laugh, and the squirrel shouts, "Hey, everyone! Sonic's here! Guys, we're going to win, now! Hooray!" He turns back to Sonic, "Oh yeah, I'm Greg." The other says, "I'm Johnny." Greg continues, "I can't believe you're here to help us. We can actually do it!"

Sonic looks back above the trench. He sees empty space. He leaps up onto the grass and starts running.

.

Lighting tears across the sky. The wind picks up. Sonic runs as hundreds of people wearing helmets, holding rifles, run all around him. He slams through a few echidnas, and the lightning comes faster. The constant explosions, screams, roars of men, machine and nature become ambient. A few bullets, a single burst of flame, and a few more people fall lifeless to the ground. Sonic runs on.

He must break through large groups of soldiers who appear as different types:

- with cannons,

- with swords,

- also with shields,

- also with better armor,

- also with skill in attacking Sonic and evading Sonic's attacks,

- or without skill in fighting Sonic.

In addition, the sphere-spider robot he met before, along with the smaller drilling robot, are now commonplace.

After finishing one wave of enemies, he's met by a cavalry of echidnas and androids riding the backs of the two-sphere beasts. Some of the androids bear a slight resemblance to the creature he fought in Ka'ralei so long ago now... except with chainsaws for arms instead of scythes. In random intervals, artillery takes aim at Sonic's location, but so long as he keeps moving he can easily avoid the deadly barrage.

[Warning: Disturbing material ahead.]

He comes to a group of New Mobian soldiers fighting a group of echidnas and helps them win, to their delight, but it is short-lived. A giant machine approaches on a giant cylinder rolling with sharp, man-stabbing spikes, and from its side are tentacle-like spears flailing and undulating about in the air. As men try to flee from the grinder, the tentacles whip out and pierce their spines. Each man screams a monstrous noise of bursting blood and maximum pain before they are flinged under the advancing grinder. Sometimes the tentacles removed their heads and impaled them on spikes lining its bloodstained metallic body. Many skulls of different species are lined up there already. They keep their distance from Sonic and swing at him one by one, which is easy to avoid by jumping or rolling. However, any tentacle behind Sonic will stop and aim for a quick instant kill backstab. As long as Sonic remains in ball form, he's safe.

Sonic attacks the death machine by jumping above the cylinder and hitting its vulnerable engine core, but he isn't quick enough to stop the machine from tossing the bodies below to be gorily crushed underneath. 8 hits ends the madness.

.

There's another wave of cavalry followed by a wave of an infantry, this time with some soldiers wielding powerful grenade launchers.

After defeating them, he is attacked by wheel robots with rims covered in a ring of raging fire. But just after Sonic sees them advance, he is bombarded by repeated strings of energy projectiles. The artillery fire is quickly replaced by mortar fire and a few guided-by-string rockets, leading to waves of explosions he must carefully navigate until he comes to their source. He reaches an attack point of automatic cannons, mortars, and rocket launchers, protected by three automatic sentry turrets which take 2 hits. The cannons take 4 hits and the rest take 1 hit each.

.

Sonic approaches the center of the massive battlefield. It was a very wide space, nearly entirely flat, but completely filled with thousands of men, machines, vehicles, fire, gunfire, explosions, blood, gore, screams, battle cries, constant, constant yelling. Before he could make sense of his surroundings, Sonic is immediately fired upon by a full company of one hundred soldiers. Unable to break through the wall of energy death, he hides in a thicket of trees which is quickly chipped away by projectiles. As the marching echidnas come closer, Sonic is about to risk a flawless charge when he hears fighter planes zoom by while unloading their machine guns. They shortly hit their mark and Sonic finds his path opened! The enemy troops scatter in response so Sonic starts moving. He runs through their ranks, only to see the leading fighter plane shot down by flak in the distance. Most turn before entering the anti-air cannons' range, but the next two first fighters manage to survive the aerial barrage.

He's near a burning forest, when suddenly lightning cracks down through the sky and shatters a nearby tree into splinters. He stops and looks, for just a moment, when an energy shot appears, giving him a split second to see it and jump out of the way.

.

"Aren't they lucky?" An echidna says, wearing a soldier's uniform without a helmet. "They have somebody who's actually strong like you to bring them all the way back here. It's pretty impressive. Too bad I'm going to kill you, and then all of your weak, stupid friends."

"Shut up and fight," Sonic says.

.

His aiming is much better than his inferiors, and he fires at a steady rate with occasional pulses of swifter fire.

His attacks are:

- Firing normally.

- He charges his power, jumps high and fires it down at Sonic, causing a moderate explosion.

- In close-range, he switches from steady, perpendicular strikes with blasts from his cannon.

After 2 hits, he aims his cannon below him and fires a constant stream of energy.

- He bends back and uses the propulsion to slam into Sonic, although he loses energy quickly.

After 2 more hits:

- he uses the cannon to leap high in the air and then slows his fall with large, scattered shots that come down in waves. Before he lands, Sonic can dodge the bullets and deliver the final strike (or he could use Super and just fly up to him).

He falls to the ground, and Sonic notices a small sliver of something glow dimly in his sternum. A Black Shard.

.

The wind blows harder. Sonic looks to a burning forest ahead and sees the fire lick the wind and bloom larger, with embers lifting high and far into the air. The smoke billows under the storm cloud above. A lightning bolt cracks every other second. For a moment, Sonic can only look at the thousands of tongues of flame stretching out of the conflagration into the dark night.

"Sonic!" Sonic jumps, and turns around to see Greg the squirrel running to him, panting with gun in hand. The mouse isn't there. Around him are hundreds of men charging forward and advancing vehicles finally followed by a series of tanks). They cheer Sonic's name as they go by.

"Sonic!" Greg says again. Sonic looks at him. "You did it, you got us here! I didn'- uh, I mean, I knew you could do it! You were incredible. Just... incredible."

"It was easy," Sonic replies, turns around and starts running again, ignoring the "wait" someone else probably said.

.

Sonic catches up to the front of rushing Old Mobian forces and supersedes them. He then comes to a line of large robots like the one attacking Alabaster Town. While attacking the one in front of him, the others are hit by shells which send them reeling back. Then Sonic's opponent is also hit as the tanks roll close to him. He runs forward and is suddenly confronted by a very large mass of soldiers, scattered across in different groups, all firing at Sonic. Some wear a thicker armor that requires a hit to dispel before the echidna beneath can be hit. Some have weapons which project energy balls at slower speeds so as to hit targets above via parabolas.

Sonic plows through them and then the soldiers behind him clash into them as well. They whittle away their forces as Sonic continues. There is a wave of robots, including new flying ones with mounted, rotating turrets that spray rapid-fire bullets towards him. Following them are a bunch of large, floating spheroid machines with large circular saws swung by steel cables, with a circular shadow underneath of live current. Sonic must avoid the saws and time a jump over the circle to hit the machine directly, and do so four times before a single one is defeated. After that, more shells slam into the others giving Sonic room to move on. He faces another wave of all sorts of robots, followed by a wave of soldiers led by melee attackers.

The echidna's artillery comes down heaviest now as Sonic crosses a large field. He is confronted by a few swordsman of the same skill level that he fought on the mountain tops earlier, which slow him down as a massive wave of vehicles and cavalry followed by robots and soldiers charge towards him. He destroys a few of the vehicles with their mounted turrets as they try to run him over, only to face an onslaught of projectiles of all sorts which fill the air with a ferocious swelling of pops, blasts and buzzes. Again, he finds cover to avoid certain death, only for the sound to suddenly double as bullets, mortars, rockets and shells are launched the opposite way. He sees the New Mobian army, reinforced, charging towards the echidna army, with men on both sides stretching out in lines towards the horizon over hills and through forests. Fighter jets zoom forwards, to be intercepted by wingless echidna fighter aircraft. They loop and spin through the air, some bursting into flames, their engines screaming before they explode into the ground.

The roar of the armies shakes the pebbles on the ground as their great masses collide into each other. Within seconds the two groups split into smaller ones that rush around each other, trying to outmaneuver each other. Positions are taken, some soldiers charge while others hold still. Blood and dust fill the air as the battlefield becomes a sea of weapons and armor crashing into each other in violent, chaotic waves. As if part of the battle, drops of ice suddenly fall from the sky and slam into both sides. Some soldiers are hit in the head and drop dead on the spot. There is a growing confusion except amongst the robots, which lead the organisms to continue fighting. Sonic takes a chance and runs deep into the fray, attacking the enemies in his way and those overwhelming a group of his allies. He dashes forward only to be suddenly blocked by an enemy, to defeat them and run again only to be stopped again.

After a long enough battle, Sonic breaks through the other end and finds himself at a stream with makeshift bridges lying over it. He stands upon one, only for the other end to be blocked by a single echidna. He is buff, tall, large, with thick armor and wielding a war hammer in one hand and a halberd in the other.

.

"This is the end. You must be a pretty good fighter to push us back this far. But this is as far as you'll ever go," he says, and then swings his hammer into the bridge, shattering it into shrapnel and flotsam that is carried downstream. Sonic jumps and lands on the nearby stream bank.

"It's a shame you think your freedom means anything. Your kind should have surrendered. Slavery is much more pleasant than dying by my hand. I'll show you true freedom. Your body parts will each soon know a volume of space they never knew intact in your weak flesh."

Sonic replies, "Uh-huh, yeah, sure. Hurry up and fight so I can move ahead."

The echidna guffaws. "What a mouth this one has! You don't know who you're talking to, I'm..."

Sonic interjects, "You have a Black Shard, don't you? Without that, you're nothing but meat. A giant slab of meat that hasn't been eaten yet."

He snarls. "You're a cocky fool who's about to die. I am the great Galgatroth, killer of a thousand men! Know endless fear, you puny slave bastard!" He leaps into the air, throwing his hammer arm back above his head.

The hammer head slams through all of the water which explodes away from it and crashes into the rocky bed underneath, blasting earth into the air. So much of the ground is heaved out that upon falling back down it dams up the stream, causing the water to flood around it leaving it dry. Galgatroth picks up his hammer and stands in the makeshift arena, fiercely grinning at Sonic. Sonic jumps onto the triangular area without a change in expression. Galgatroth sees this and snarls again.

.

With his hammer:

- he makes a wide horizontal swing that he may keep swinging around for several spins as he moves forward,

- or he makes a single vertical swing that slams into the ground where Sonic was with the force of a small explosive.

- If he is far enough away he can make another leaping vertical attack that sends hazardous shockwaves reverberating through the ground.

With his halberd:

- he can combine horizontal and vertical slices without stopping,

- or he may stab out with its pike which has the range of half the small arena.

Sonic must avoid these attacks and get in close to hit him. Galgatroth tends to keep distance at first, but will kick Sonic if he is close for too long.

After 8 hits, he throws his weapons away and shouts in frustration.

- He tries to bum-rush Sonic while throwing slow but powerful punches that will send Sonic flying into the water if he is hit.

- He also tries to grab Sonic, and if effective he will squeeze him hard before throwing him at something hard.

- At a far enough distance, he may signal his attack by first throwing his empty palms forward, launching a powerful gust of air that Sonic must run fast against to avoid being thrown into a rock.

- When Sonic is close, as he still needs to be, Galgatroth will throw slow but heavy punches at him.

After 8 more hits, Galgatroth finally succumbs and collapses.

.

Sonic jumps out the other side of the stream and climbs a short hill to find himself surrounded by New Mobian soldiers. The ones setting up an outpost cheer him on, but most are rushing forwards towards the hills ahead. They seem to have found a shortcut around the stream and are once again ahead of Sonic. It still hails, but most of the soldiers seem to ignore it as they now don helmets. He starts hearing the pulse of their march, a heavy beat like the earth was a drum. He turns around, looking at the distance he has covered since he first reached the battlefield, only to see a familiar squirrel run towards him, followed by the mouse walking up at a slower pace.

"We're winning, Sonic, We're winning! We're finally winning, we're winning! It's all thanks to you, Sonic. I never thought we'd actually get this far. You've scared most of the echidnas away! I'm so proud to be fighting next to you... This is the best day of my life!"

Sonic looks curiously at Greg. His smile, his huge eyes... didn't fit the setting. "You're still a boy... Greg. Why are you here?"

Greg retorts, "I'm not a boy, I'm a man! And I'm here to fight! For my family, for my friends, for my girl! For my country! For all of Mobius! This is the final battle! Once we win, nobody will want to fight each other ever again! People will hurt too much to ever think fighting is worth it! Once we win this war, there will never be war again!"

Johnny tries to explain. "They sent us here because they needed all the help they could get, but we would have volunteered, anyway. This really is the war to end all wars! Why wouldn't we fight the last fight there'll ever be? That's why we're not boys."

Sonic forces a smile. "Right. Once this is all over, people can finally be at peace. Too many people have sacrificed themselves for it. There's no more villains after this. We'll win... and that's it. ...eternal victory..."

Johnny smirks. "Hell yeah. And we'll have a party that'll never end!"

Greg shouts, "Yeah! We're gonna do it, Sonic! This battle is for everything. With you here, finally, we can finally beat them. We'll make it! Let's do it, Sonic! Let's go and win this thing once and for all!"

Sonic, feels a brief spark of enthusiasm and shouts, "Yeah! Let's show these fucking bastards what we've got!"

The men around them cheer and yell, hitting their armor and making noise as it still hails and thunders. The wind still blows strong, and now even stronger. Sonic says to Greg, "I'll go first and make it way easier for all of you, haha! See if you can catch up!" He gives a smirked grin and a thumbs-up, then turns and dashes ahead. Greg returns a brilliant smile, confidently lowering his brow, throwing a thumbs-up back at him.

.

Sonic runs through the ranks of the army as they climb the hills. As they traverse a tiny mountain at the end of the hills, they slow down due to the incline, but Sonic rushes onward, propelled by the bubbling spirit of hundreds of soldiers cheering all around him. As he climbs, the beat of the march gets louder with each pulse. But even as Sonic passes the New Mobian army, the sound just keeps on getting louder, louder than could even be made by their forces. Each "BOOM" shakes the trees and dislodge pebbles and stones. The soldiers start talking anxiously amongst themselves. Sonic reaches the top of the small mountain, passing an abandoned Old Mobian encampment including their artillery cannons, and stops on the other side.

.

"Oh... no..."

Sonic looks behind him. He sees a few ten thousand soldiers, a significant amount to be sure. He then looks ahead again.

Lightning flashes nearby but the thunder is ducked by the now-deafening pulse. The mountain dips into an extremely wide valley that seemed to be former farmland. It's perfectly flat, extending to the horizon. And it is completely filled up. Like a glacier slowly sliding across the ground, there are soldiers and robots and machines of all sorts, a giant mass without distinct separation, stretching out all the way left and all the way right and all the way into the distance. It is endless; conservatively, a million units. This was the sound's origin: the echidna's main attack force. The forward line is composed of death machines. Sonic hesitates before this terrifying vista, then he rushes down the hillside onto the plain.

.

He first fights another man-grinder before fighting a saw-arm spheroid. Following that, he faces a new death machine: a large cube-shaped tank with 2 cannons and 3 turrets. It fires:

- rapid-fire bullets

- explosive shells one after another,

- occasional spurts of a flammable gel which lights when shot at.

Sonic must avoid the many projectiles and find a way to its backside where its armor is vulnerable to attack. It turns quickly, though, so Sonic must do this often. 6 hits causes the engine to burst, breaking the machine.

Meanwhile, soldiers and robots charge all around him, most barely attacking Sonic before starting to climb up the hill. However, the New Mobian army reached the summit at the same time and commandeers their artillery. Even while being mowed down by gunfire, the echidna forces continue to push with a never-ending assault. Sonic tries to push through it himself, but it is literally physically impossible to get far into the million of units which constantly bombard and push him back. The New Mobians call in air support, but it is intercepted by Old Mobian fighters and their titanic fleet remains undeterred.

Somehow the Old Mobians get within range of the hill encampment and destroy their own artillery, with the death machines forcing the soldiers to flee. The New Mobian defense is reduced to prone soldiers shooting downhill, but they run out of ammo far before the echidnas run out of men. The tanks finally arrive and lead a crazy charge downhill through enemy forces, but as soon as they reach the plain they are obliterated by gunfire and explosives, if not sooner.

Sonic is surrounded on both sides, but there is space parallel to the Old Mobian fleet and the base of the hill. He passes trapped New Mobians who use the same idea. But there is no end in sight; instead, in their attempt to flank they are themselves outflanked by the much, much more numerous enemies. Sonic reaches the side of the mountain and enters a rock garden, only to find himself cornered off by two flanks of echidnas. Sonic has to backtrack. The echidnas reinforce themselves quicker than they die, slowly but very surely increasing pressure of total destruction on the New Mobian forces who are losing their position.

.

Somehow through the unworldly noise, Sonic hears Greg screaming, "Nooo!" Sonic turns around, finding him uphill, and he runs to his side.

He pushes past soldiers who no longer bear smiles or enthusiasm. They cannot turn away from the endless enemy forces, and many start retreating farther uphill. Sonic reaches Greg, who holds a limp, bloody Johnny in both his arms. "Jooohnnyyyy! No, come back! Come baaack!"

He looks up at Sonic, his contorted face frowning deeply, wet with tears and drops of blood. He breathes in sharply, exhaling in sobs. "He's dead. He's... he's... not coming back... My best friend... is dead..."

Sonic crouches down and puts his hand on Greg's shoulder. "Let him go, Greg. Put him down. There's nothing you can do-"

"That's right!" Greg suddenly yells out, fiercely glaring back at Sonic. He stares at him for a second, then gently puts Johnny down behind a boulder and then stands up facing Sonic, his fists shaking. "That's right! There's nothing we can do! It's fucking obvious now! No matter how much we fight, they always have more to kill us with! How the fuck did I ever think we'd win?!"

Sonic then stands. "You had determination! Soldiers die in war, Greg. But there are many innocent people who will die if we don't keep fighting. Even if they are a thousand times stronger, there's always a way to win. We can win."

Greg yells louder, pointing at Sonic, "If only we were all invincible like you, Sonic! You don't know what war is like even if you're fighting in one! You don't know what it means to lose, you never fucking did!"

He pushes Sonic who takes the push. "You fucking drugged us with your charisma! You made us forget reality. You don't even know..." He points out at the undulating field of enemies. "This- this is their standard attack force! What they sent before was just to kill us... This is what they're using to conquer the world! These million-men forces are typical! They're what's demolishing every other part of Mobius! We're only- we're only fighting a tiny piece of their entire army!" He grimaces, grinding his teeth, while crying again. "To them, this war is just a game. A game! A game! They could have killed us if they didn't think it was FUN. Fuck, Sonic, you still don't fucking understand! You never will! We're all going to die!"

Sonic steps forward and grabs Greg by the shoulders. He shouts, "Damn it, Greg! Get yourself together! You think we can just walk away? You think you can just blame me and hope things turn out okay? You think we should just give up and hope? This is the final war, man! These are the odds we have, this is the intensity of the battles we must win! I know what it means to lose. If we lose, we die! We all die! No matter how strong I am, I never forget that! We don't have a choice, Greg. We have to fight! You and I need to return to the fight!"

Greg looks away, crushed. He resists his sobs. "uh... uh... I know... I just... it's so scary. They're so strong. So many people have died, so many... Johnny... and..."

Sonic lets go, steps back, and speaks more calmly, "Listen, Greg. We're the only thing that stands between them and the world. Between them and everything we love. You said it yourself, we're fighting for Mobius. For all of Mobius! They're scary, yeah, but we have the entire world behind us! Everyone is counting on us to win, Greg, no matter what. No matter what! We have the strength of all of Mobius, and that makes us much scarier than them!"

Greg wipes away his tears with the back of his hand. "You're right. I have to accept it. Even I might die. No... I probably will die... But... it's worth dying to save the world. It's... it's worth it. To win."

Sonic paused. "Yeah. Come on. Our brothers need us."

Greg swallows. "Yeah...Yeah. Yeah! Let's do it, Sonic."

.

Sonic nods and they both run back to the front of the battle. Sonic fights through row after row of soldiers and robots. He fights war machines again, and vehicles carrying more soldiers. He doesn't move much but he fights and fights and fights. Bodies pile on the ground but they are stamped into the ground as the Old Mobian army advances faster. Sonic and the New Mobians are pushed back up the hill, over the mountain, and down into the previous hills. They push the Old Mobians back every now and then but it's two steps back for each step forward. The land becomes covered with corpses and craters and streams of red blood. The New Mobians never stop fighting, and neither do the Old Mobians.

The hail stops. Again, there is a wave of confusion. The echidnas talk to themselves in the midst of the battle, conveying information from person to person, and after a few minutes, they mysteriously retreat all at once. Their robots and death machines continue to attack but some retreat as well. The New Mobians don't give chase. The crossfire thins out the remainder until, finally, there is some degree of quiet. Even the marching beat starts to slowly lose volume. Sonic moves back to the New Mobian army, and hears murmured confusion about the enemy retreat. Nobody dares shout out victory, unsure of how such a long battle could end so suddenly, so strangely.

Sonic looks around for Greg, but he is lost in the sea of standing soldiers. Tired, he sits at the base of the hill. The only ones running around now are the medics, quickly treating the wounded and carrying the worst off into ambulances, while soldiers with less grievous afflictions tend to themselves, rest and talk. A convoy follows the ambulances back to the base. The wind acts abnormally, sometimes being perfectly still before suddenly gusting hard. It starts raining.

.

He overhears a conversation from a veteran nearby. He walks to him, hearing the scarred soldier give his opinion on the situation.

"I don't like it. This silence isn't right. It's not natural. You guys can't feel it, but there's this heavy pressure. It can't be the storm... storms have low pressure. This... it's immense. I've never felt anything like it," he says.

A younger man, who seems to be sharp, says, "If they didn't retreat, we'd be dead within 2 hours. It would only be a matter of how long their entire fleet would take to surround and obliterate us. It doesn't make any sense to leave. Unless..."

"Wait, look," someone called out. "Look!"

There is a row of androids coming down from the mountain, each holding a large cannon in their center which sticks out both ways. Their inverted triangle faces are unsettling, especially above those strange triangular bodies pierced by their cannons. They advance at an uncanny pace, which is just slightly faster than what seems like slow, that it's hard to describe what makes them seem so eerily dangerous. There are only 20.

Another man starts shouting. "Aaahh! Oh god, oh god oh god oh god not this again. I'm... I'm getting out of here!"

"Wait, what is it? Man, he cleared out of here fast."

The veteran was taking a large puff from a cigar. He blew it all out into a single smoke ring. The ring is nearly flawless. He says, "The wind stopped." It had. The rain did too.

He takes out his sniper rifle, sets it up quickly, and crouches down to aim. "We need to kill all of these guys right now."

An officer came running over. "Hold on! What do you think you're doing? We don't know if... wait, what are those?!"

Rocketing past the androids are sparse columns of floating robots. They're shaped like dodecahedrons, with their upper and lower square pyramid halfves spinning in opposite directions. A dark red glow flits out of the core as it rotates. They charge towards the resting New Mobian army.

"The retreat was a trick! Everyone, attack! Destroy them all!"

A bullet passes through an androids' face plate, ripping it off. It continued to walk.

"Shit," the vet says. Other men, one by one, pick up their weapons and the ones with long-range attack first. A few of the dodecahedron robots easily explode after a few shots. Within a few seconds, they reach the soldiers. Just then, they suddenly stop even while they are being attacked and destroyed. There is a small wave of laughter which is cut off when they activate their force shields, deflecting all projectiles.

"Run!" shouted the veteran who quickly turned and ran.

The force shields expand into giant globes of dark red energy. The globes explode. Many soldiers are caught off guard, but the explosions seem to do nothing. At first. Those who faced the blast suddenly collapse onto the ground and violently shake and spasm, their every muscle twitching rapidly. They cannot speak but let out gasps of air. They can't inhale, their faces turn blue, their eyes roll up. Sonic suddenly notices his own rings sharply decreasing from some after-effect of the blasts. "Sap energy!" Sonic recalls.

He tries to destroy a few but as he is almost out of rings he has to retreat out of range and replenish his rings at a New Mobian automatic dispensary. Sonic returns, seeing the androids coming into range.

He hears someone tell him, "You're lucky to survive their death blasts, Sonic. None of us can."

He turns to see the veteran who looks him in the eye and says, "We can't rest until they're all destroyed. I don't know why they called back their main force, but they must think just this will be enough to get rid of us. They might be right. Only the best warriors can survive this..."

The androids have gotten even closer. "Avoid those at all costs," the veteran says. He kneels and tries to take another shot, hitting one in its chest. There are a few sparks and then it falls down lifelessly. Another wave of death bombs charges over and down the hillside, and as the androids reach the bottom of the hill facing the New Mobians, the death bombs take stationary positions randomly around them. Everyone runs away from their blasts now, firing at them afterwards as the death bombs run out of energy to move, shield, or attack for a brief moment.

The androids attack by simply rotating their cannons inside their bodies. The beam they shoot is hard to notice, but it seems to bend light in the air, darkening it like an opaque shadow. This beam sweeps in both directions with a range 20x the size of an individual android. The beam hit a few men and without a word or twitch they instantly die and collapse.

Sonic still runs towards one android to attack it, but it quickly aimed its cannon at him and fired, and his rings ticked away by the 10s. He quickly backs away as a bullet plows through the robot. And then the androids started moving at twice their former speed while still walking like before, making them seem like they were gliding. Sonic can evade, but the androids mercilessly chase and kill group after group of running soldiers.

Greg comes running near Sonic and the veteran. "What do we do?! We're losing everyone we have!"

The veteran shushes him. "We'll survive. We will, I mean. It's simple. Keep away, attack after they've attacked, then get back away. Be patient and we'll take them out."

Sonic watches as hundreds of men fall down as the life disappeared within them. Occasionally a robot would be destroyed. Occasionally he would find a nearby one which expired its energy, and destroy it himself before getting out of range.

"Did they take out all our fighters? Where's our anti-aircraft?!" a man shouts from down the other side of the hill. While Sonic and Greg look at him, the veteran stares at the sky. "We are fucked."

Sonic turns to see, flying below the low cloud ceiling a bunch of bombers followed by fighters which then dove down towards them. "Take cover!" the veteran shouts, and runs and jumps behind a boulder. Sonic watches Greg who immediately follows suit. Sonic runs back into the stream bed and lies against the bank as heavy machine gun fire rains down all around him. A second after that stops, he looks through the trees and sees the cargo bay open on the bombers.

.

He runs out of the stream as the bombs land and explode everywhere. Sonic runs away from the bombs, the robot death bombs and the death androids. The soldiers try to do the same, frantically looking for places to hide, and many are killed by one of the three deadly threats. The robots and androids close in with only a few hundred soldiers left alive. Then the bullets come down in a torrent again from the other direction as the fighters dive in for certain kills and peel out. Sonic hides in another thicket just as the bombs finally stop. He turns and sees in the distance the veteran sniping some of the fighters and even a few bombers out of the sky.

Sonic must avoid and destroy about 20 robots and 10 androids while avoiding the bullet rains, before he finally gets some peace.

.

[Warning: Disturbing material ahead.]

"Auuugh!" Greg groans, then coughs out something wet. Sonic zips through the crowds of soldiers, running medics, and the many casualties thrown about following his voice. He's lying against a bullet-shattered rock with a medic wrapping gauze around his calf-less left leg. His lower body is charred red to black with half of his tail blown off. He winces and clutches his bloody, bandage-wrapped chest against throbs of pain. The medic finishes his work and immediately runs away. Sonic watches him sprint to a soldier nearby who's knocked out and bleeding.

"Sonic..." Sonic looks at Greg, who bears a tortured expression, filled with fear and pain. But somehow, his tear-filled eyes with their pinpoint pupils relaxed when seeing Sonic. "I'm scared... I'm dying... Just when we won, too..." His face starts getting pale. Alarmed, Sonic hurries up to him and holds onto his bruised soldiers. "You can survive, Greg. Stop talking..." Greg seems to stop, but he slowly raises his right hand and pushes Sonic's right arm off of his shoulder. Greg's hand then drops, tugging his body over, and his movements slow down. Sonic gently lifts away his other arm. Staring at the ground with drooping eyelids, Greg says to Sonic, "I'm glad I could see amazing you are... and fight with you... to protect... Mobius..."

Without warning, his eyes shoot open, his body convulses and throws him off the rock with a scream of intense pain. Sonic catches him as he falls forward, when Greg sharply inhales while twitching. Sonic could only stare at the back of Greg's furry brown head, feeling his heart violently thump through his quivering body. What should he do?! Images of Mechanix the hedgehog flashed into Sonic's mind before he realized Greg was perfectly still. Greg then heaved out a dark chunk of blood from his throat, going limp as he drew out his last breath. Sonic was bloody, holding a fresh corpse of a young boy. Who admired him. Sonic didn't really think but carefully pulled his body back to the rock and laid him there. He quickly lowered his eyelids and immediately walks away. He keeps his eyes from blinking, and knowing for a second the abyssal darkness reaching out to eat him whole.

.

The wind answered with a howl and the storm responded with a crack of thunder. Sonic need not look far above the hills to see the tremendous wall of a rotating supercell looming ominously close above them all. He then heard the scratch of white noise followed by jargon calls behind him. He turns and walks closer to see a few radio operators attentively watched by a group of officers. There seems to be a brief exchange of coded information which is then quickly parsed and talked about by the officers. An eagle points at a map at a few places and after some quick affirmations, they disperse. They then call forward their platoons and companies, and a general order is issued for the majority of troops to return to base. An elite company is chosen to continue to advance, to be reinforced later. The remaining forces are to recover as many casualties as possible.

The eagle shouts out to his troops, "Get going! March, march! Stop lazing about you cretins!" His soldiers ignored him as they were already climbing the hills. Some pick up ammo from fallen comrades but stop for a small moment there. Sonic catches up to the front, where the sniper vet was leading. As they reach the hilltop once again, they stop to see that endless, barren plain. Now, there was nobody. They left great tracks of mud that veered off from the great mass. In the distance, there were glints of lights moving away.

The wall of the storm hovered past as they climbed down the war-torn slope. Out of nowhere, wind and rain blasted into them and continued in gusts and waves. The eagle hollers, "Keep marching! No storm can stop us now!"

Sonic looks around him as they wade through the mud, metal scraps, and guts. There are less than a hundred soldiers now. Most of them are older, although there are a few sharp younger ones. But all of them are expressionless, gazing at the horizon or at the ground. Nobody says anything as they pick up one foot after another.

Sonic slows down his pace until he comes back to the eagle officer. He asks, "How much farther is their empire?"

He responds, "5 miles. There's a small town which we will recon and then fortify until further orders from General Tails."

Sonic asks, "Wasn't Tails fighting? Where did he go?"

The eagle looks ahead, "He was called by the Council of City-States. They're questioning him as he refuses to decrease the offensive. They called him 'power-mad'. Ha. They'll shut up when they hear about our victory."

Sonic thinks, victory? He doesn't say anything, noticing the officer curse under his breath. He leaves him alone.

A man suddenly points and yells, "Over there! A funnel cloud!"

Everyone suddenly looks, and indeed, far in the distance a twirling bulge of cloud pulls itself down towards the ground. Dust whirled about as the cloud attached to the ground and began spinning faster. "Another one! And there's another one! Oh god!"

Funnels are appearing everywhere all around the great field. The sky leaks black pillars of death ripping the earth out of itself. They all stop moving when the tornado before them rapidly grows in width and ferocity. The cloud mass seemed to be leaning its giant shoulder on the ground. "They're everywhere. We're surrounded!"

A young beagle spoke out, "This is insane! We need to go back. We'll be safer-"

The eagle quickly turned, walked up to him and smacked him across the face, "How many people died so we can walk on this very field? Did you forget?!"

The beagle turns back his head and continues, "We didn't do shit, you maniac! The echidnas predicted the tornados and ran away! Are you suicidal?!" Then the officer shot him in the head. The beagle's body falls back flat into the mud, his blood mixed in with all the rest.

The eagle turns with his gun at the soldiers, who tensely watch him, "Forward march!" The soldiers are still, and he then fires into the sky. "THAT'S AN ORDER!"

"Yessir!" they yelp, although again, the vets never stopped marching.

"And you Sonic..." the officer starts, aiming the gun at him. Sonic backs away as the officer walks forward. "That includes you. But you'll be in front. You are only allowed to kill attacking enemies. If you try to run, I'll kill you. Is that understood?"

Sonic pauses. "Got it," he says, and then sprints into the crowd of soldiers and out ahead of them all. "Fucking traitor!" the eagle screams out, missing his individual shots before he bellows at the others to shoot. As Sonic's speed carries him away, he notices how nobody else fired at him.

.

There is nothing but the constant roar of the tornado winds. As he runs forward, he sees a few twisters starting to die, bending and skating around like ropes flung in the air, only as more start to form. The larger ones decompose into multiple tornados spinning around together. The mature tornados last the longest and soon take up the most space. Sonic looks ahead of him to see the largest, a mile-wide spinning cylinder of dirt and wind, lumbering straight towards him. Every boulder and group of trees is plucked out of gravity as entire hills are absorbed into its shadows.

Sonic runs at it. Jets of wind pull him faster towards the vortex and his traction starts slipping away. Up close, it is a black wall of pure force, stretching from side to side as far as Sonic could see. He could hardly hear the trees being uprooted and snapped apart under the mighty din of the berzerk winds.

Before he braves the wall itself, he is picked off the ground and thrown into the swirling current. He spins around the tornado's massive circumference in dizzingly little time. The updraft pulls him away from the ground as other projectiles are thrown past him. If he is Super Sonic, he can move in slight budges out of the way. If he can't, he must spindash through the flying hazards that will otherwise crush him to death instantly.

After a harrowing few minutes, Sonic is ejected out near the top of the tornado at very high speeds, hurtling under the green clouds still exploding with purple lightning. Earth and sky fly by in a blur and just as gravity remembers to pull him downwards he passes out of the storm. Flying over forests and streams punctuated by dead mountains tearing out of chasms in the ground, he approaches a wide mesa. Sonic tucks into a ball upon landing on its sandy flat top, rolling for a minute or so before reaching a manageable speed.

.

Surprisingly, there is a field of grass not too far from there, which brings Sonic's attention to what looks like an echidna settlement nearby within some woods. He wonders if this is that small town and runs to it. It's a hamlet of sorts, situated around a small common plaza. A few lamps light up dirt roads leading out of its borders.

As he passes some trees onto a field into the village, he looks at the designs of the family houses. They are square and simple with triangular support beams and walls built of stones slathered with mud. They have curved wooden roofs and oval glass windows with shutters. Some are painted single plain colors, while others interestingly use two-tone vertical gradients. He walks through an alley, coming to a paved street between houses. It's lit by street lamps but is immediately lit further by windows and doors opening. Echidnas stare at him and a hubbub commences, following him until he stops to look back at them. An echidna lady gasps.

All of a sudden they start talking to him. "What are you doing here?" "How did you get here?!" "Are you lost?" "Don't hurt us!"

Sonic answers everyone, "I'm just passing by peacefully. I don't mean any harm."

"Bullshit!" A mustachioed man says, stepping out of his house with cane in hand. "He's a spy! Don't trust a word he says!"

"I'm not a spy," Sonic says, "I'm not part of the New Mobian army..."

"Ha!" The man spouts, walking in Sonic's way, "The only ones who call you barbarians 'New' are yourselves! This is a decoy to distract the empire from your pitiful resistance!"

Sonic looks him in the eye. "Let me through."

A woman agrees, "Let him be! We're killing enough of his kind as it is!"

The man shouts back, "What did you say?! Damn it woman, don't you care about your own children?! I certainly do and I won't let my town be touched by even one animal like this one."

She shouts back, "You brainless oaf, you start a fight and it won't end here! Anyway, he has a right to travel freely!"

An old man growls as he walks out of another house, "Rights don't exist, foolish child! There is only power, and privileges temporarily given to those without it. He has nothing!"

A smaller man exits a house and walks up to Sonic directly, saying, "Listen. If you want to stay, you can stay at my house."

The angry man says, "What madness! You spit on the law of Zexagalaxius! We should hang all of you!"

The friendly guy looks at him straight and says, "Do you think we're scared of you?"

Sonic tries to walk around as they're distracted, "I'll just keep going..."

A younger woman asked him, "Where? You're not an echidna. You aren't free anywhere in this empire. You're risking your life even just being here."

Sonic looks at her, and then everyone, and says, "I'm going to the capital of your empire. I'm going to meet with your leaders and stop this war."

There was a wave of sudden laughter, but many were speechless. A teen guy blurts out, "Nexus?! To meet... to stop the Zexesh? You can't be serious!"

Sonic asks him, "Where is it from here? Still in this direction?" He points north-northwest. The youth slowly nods and says, "You won't make it. They'll find you out and hunt you down no matter where you are. The Zexesh are holy... for someone like you to even see them..."

The mustachioed man walks up, pointing with his cane. "He just said it himself, he's a terrorist! Like this fellow I thought I knew over here." The hospitable guy rolls his eyes. The man continues. "There's no time to waste. Let's lock them both up."

The other guy walks up to the man, saying, "Let's lock up everyone that doesn't agree with you, woohoo! Kill the dissenters and unenthusiastic alike! Sew our mouths shut, bend our arms backwards, scoop out our eyes and brains! Man, how scared can you get, you old fart? Go to bed!"

The man turns around and yells back, "You're a blasphemer and a traitor. We're at war and you want to break our resolve with naive compassion! I should sew your mouth shut!"

Sonic just walks away. "Stop him, dammit!" is shouted, but the villagers just talk to each other and watch him go.

.

Sonic passes through a few more blocks, avoiding the other echidnas walking around at night. He ignores the many stares and whispers, simply taking in the modest architecture and bright but soft aesthetic of the town. He crosses a playground through some trees into the center plaza. The ground is mostly cobblestone with benches and a few statues. Although hard to notice before, in this space Sonic sees long black stones jutting out from the ground, and there's a thin fissure in the very middle.

As Sonic walks over it, he notices a clear view of the horizon and slightly right of where he was heading is a wide flattened ball of light, changing colors and shining over the distant clouds and even the stars. Then Sonic realizes it's light pollution, from a very large city from the looks of it. He then looks back ahead, on the cement pavement that carries him towards the other side of the village under the soft light of flickering gas lamps. He sees an echidna man standing ahead under a light, bearing a gray military uniform. Sonic comes close and they face each other.

The echidna speaks first. "I can see the blood of your ancestors, from whom you inherited the death tumble and the determination of the primordial fight. You must be the warrior whom the barbarians call 'Sonic'."

"Who are you?" Sonic asks.

"I am another soldier you will fight and defeat. There is no reason to know a corpse's name," he says bluntly without moving.

"Then why fight?"

"It's my orders. If I disobey them, I die. I have no choice. I must die for duty."

"I'm not going to kill you..." Sonic says dismissively.

"No, you might not. But if I fail and still live, I will still be killed. I will be tortured to death. For having this Shard, the torture will last 10 years. I will fight you at full strength and you must kill me completely..." he says with full composure.

Sonic is disturbed. "I don't want to fight you. We're not fighting now are we? Listen, if everything is going to kill you, why not fight for your own life? Fuck your orders, why should you do anything for someone who says they'll kill you?"

The guy doesn't miss a beat. "I would be a traitor, and everyone I ever knew would be killed for having supported a traitor. No, I don't want my friends to die. I will die." He starts to adopt a fighting position.

Sonic sighs and says, "Then do it. Attack! Or what? You just going to do people ordered you to do?"

The echidna pauses. "That's what Salana said, too..."

"Salana?" Sonic asks, recalling the name but not the face.

The man stands normally, breathes out, and looks over at the glow on the horizon. "I overheard that you intend to confront the Zexesh. No matter how courageous or powerful you are, you will not succeed alone."

"What's this, all of a sudden?" Sonic asks.

"I... it's something I've been thinking about... based on our history. Both of our peoples' history. Those that sought peace were always attacked because the others knew only war and the ideals that repeated war. We are taught that we are completely different so we must never ever think we're the same, but we really are the same in all but physical form. In every era since time began, the lovers and the idealists who knew this were branded 'evil' and killed mercilessly. Even right now, there are real people, both Zexakal and Mobirek, who seek each other for building peace while everybody else wants to kill each other in flames screaming in fear nothing but lies."

Sonic didn't know how to respond, so the echidna continued, "I'm too scared to admit I believe in love and peace, but I can kill and obey no longer. You are the absolute greatest enemy, but you are just. It is just that which is changing my mind. I am shy of facing the great walls of bloodthirsty civilization, and yet you fearlessly attack it... and succeed. You are a torch in the darkness and I was just a hopeless, drifting ember. But no longer." He then stops, yanks his weapons out and then throws them far away, then tears off his armor and uniform.

In his civilian underclothing he picks up his sword again. "There is only one fight. The fight between the ones who want control and the ones who don't. I know that now... And I'm going to choose the one that protects real people rather than dead ideas."

He points at the light. "You must know what you shall face ahead. While the Zexakal military is very powerful, it is not as efficient and deadly as the Nexus guardian force of the Zexesh. I assure you that someone has alerted them about you and they are already planning a decisive response. Even if you are invincible, the savior of your world and the destroyer of mine, you will surely be annihilated within Nexus, if not even sooner. You must find help from those who want peace within. They are your key to the Zexesh."

Sonic smirks, "I didn't think it'd be that easy. Thanks. Hey anyway, what's your name?" The echidna smiles. "I'm Jeir."

He walks towards Sonic with his hand out. Sonic grabs and shakes it. They part hands and Jeir gives a laugh. "Really, I'm too scared to fight a monster like you. You're stronger than I can even comprehend. You have something extraordinary within you... or around you, or something. I'm not going to risk my life on a battle so meaningless... to both of us!"

"Well, what are you going to do now?" Sonic asks.

"I'm sick of death and hearing of death. I'm going to stop either, wherever I can, right now," and he starts walking past Sonic.

As he passes him, Sonic turns and says, "You might have a harder mission than me. But I need to press on. Later, Jeir."

Jeir turns his head and says, "Yeah, not 'goodbye'! If you stay alive, whatever happens... I'll see you again."

They part ways and Sonic picks up his pace, running out of the town, out of trees, and across the mesa. He jumps off the flat edge, catches the slope and runs in the direction of the light bending over the planet's curve, Nexus.

.

[Act 7]

Sonic follows the footpath until it runs parallel to a small country road. He follows it with forest on the other side until it connects to another road surrounded by grassy hills. He follows that over a long distance, passing fields, meadows, farms, metal transmission towers, pipes and energy lines, and small homes – all of echidna design, explorations of simple geometric designs using hexagons and squares.

He passes a dodecahedron water tower with unrecognizable characters written upon it, and enters a small road town. As he passes the many buildings he comes to an intersection where other vehicles are stopped. People crossing the intersection start screaming and running away, although a few brandish clubs and hip-worn swords and immediately attack.

Sonic defeats them easily as they're 1 hit each, and carries on. After a short while he leaves the city.

.

The road expands to two-lanes, each both ways, cutting through a grove of trees. It rises over a large river on curved scaffolding. Across the river is ongoing construction of townhouses lying adjacent to a small wooden marina, bended into finely curved spaces and shapes. Beyond that the road lands into a marsh before returning within forestry.

He then runs up to a New Mobian toll booth, appropriated by the echidnas. A group of echidna soldiers stand guard, and upon seeing Sonic, whip up their New Mobian rifles or their Zexakal arm cannons and open fire. He breaks through their lines and rolls under the gate at the toll.

.

He enters another roadside town, only to find spikes laid across the road and soldiers lining the road waiting for him. After exiting the town, he hears an approaching siren. A police car driven by an echidna slowly comes up behind him wailing and its lights spinning. A megaphone blares, "Pull ov- I mean, stop right there, hedgehog! All Mobireks are to be arrested!"

Sonic yells back, "I don't know what a Mobirek is!"

"Of course not, scum! It's 'False Mobian' or whatever you call it! Now stop or I'll attack!"

Sonic suddenly turns back, running backwards, and says, "I'll do neither."

Sonic can jump onto the car as it comes at him, causing the driver to overreact and turn so sharply the car spins out. He can then target the remaining soldiers whom Sonic should be pretty comfortable with defeating now. Or he can simply jump over the car, the spike strip, and the soldiers, and just run onwards.

Right after the town is a suspension bridge spanning a large river, but Sonic is stopped again, this time with more police cars, spike strips and soldiers blocking his path.

.

After clearing the bridge, he goes through more towns and long stretches of the rural highway, passing other vehicles of both New and Old Mobian origin going both ways, all driven by echidnas. Every now and then while on the road, he may start getting chased by a few New Mobian police cars. However, their numbers increase each time and they soon include the smoother, faster echidna-designed ones.

He soon approaches foothills of a distant mountain range as the road turns away, so he turns onto the similarly hilly road away. He shortly enters an old mining town which has much shorter, junctioned roads. He jumps up the brick buildings and runs across the rooftops to avoid the narrow passages and any echidna noticing him. He passes through town and enters an industrial refinement area, there running across a few conveyor belts and up staircases and across scaffolding and down piles of coal.

Before exiting the town, he comes to the back of a small military base with a purple energy fence buzzing around it. He stops in front of it for a moment, seeing a dog walk out from behind a small building on the other side. He sees shadows of New Mobians walking in lines, their hands behind their back, their heads looking down. He sees them prodded from behind by echidnas with weapons!

If Sonic has enough rings, he can simply go Super and fly into the base right there, in which case skip this and the next paragraph. Otherwise, Sonic runs around the base until he finds the gate. He waits in a ditch, watching the road leading in, until he sees a large truck carrying a bed filled with crates and barrels stop. After it is checked by the guards on duty, the barrier is dispelled around the road and the truck starts entering. Sonic runs forward and passes through the gate before the entire truck enters, only to have the siren go off.

He is fired at from a nearby watch tower as soldiers flock out of their quarters all around him. Sonic attacks everyone he sees, sparing none in spinball blasts through ten men at a time. He breaks windows and smashes down doors, running up and down many of the buildings, but there is nothing and nobody in any so far. He then spots a large gymnasium and enters it, to find hundreds of New Mobians crowded together, with about as many swords and guns held over their heads. Fifty soldiers then ambush Sonic, but he defeats them all and the New Mobians suddenly charge the echidnas. Before the echidnas could respond, Sonic is already upon them. The chaos gives the hostages their advantage, letting Sonic advance. He knocks down a pair of double doors and clears out any of the soldiers still attacking him in the hallways, before he clears out the other side of the gym.

Sonic's now on the other side of the base where he was before. If Sonic decided to fly in right away, this is where he'll be first. He enters a two-story garage nearby. Inside is an echidna machine using Black Stones to multiply energy stored from solar panels, for the entire base's use. He spin dashes into it a few times, destroying it, leaving the base with no barriers and only emergency flood lights. After a short while, (whether he entered the gym or not), the New Mobians run out of the gym, take guns and kill or capture any echidnas that remain. If Sonic stays, they'll thank him and start celebrating.

.

He continues, blasting through larger towns with more soldiers awaiting him. As he leaves the towns, he is chased by more police cars.

He enters a three-lane highway, witnessing roads in the process of being near-instantly paved by large machines rolling over everything in their way. He enters areas where the ground was split from the rising columns of land that bore the flashing lights and busy activity of the revived echidna civilization.

These towns have a variety of different forms, some purely geometric and others organic. Some are centered, others have grids, but most have unique organizations that play off the architecture and the land they reside on. Sonic enters tunnels that carry him into small towns in small caverns, sometimes connected underground, sometimes above, with fresh roads lying over old ones broken by the up-heaved land. The roads slowly fill with more and more vehicles, first of New Mobian origin, and then of echidna origin. Many steer out of the way to avoid Sonic, although a few civilians try to run him over.

Sonic sees not too far away a town glowing with fires under billowing clouds of smoke. Even from here, he hears the cries of hundreds of people superimposed over an almost steady rhythm of gunfire. He takes an exit, passing through a winding road in a dark forest with no street lights and enters the town limits.

Inside, he finds himself surrounded by echidnas. There are many with pieces of cloth wrapped around their face, holding broken poles, rocks and bottles with burning rags. Some break open the windows of shops and institutions, throwing the bottles in to explode into a wave of flame. Others march together, screaming slogans and songs with a triumphant tone. Some write with burning sticks or spray aerosol paint on walls in stylized characters. There is an extreme energy in the air which makes Sonic's fur stand on edge. He walks through the chaos, and in only a few moments he finds himself witnessing a large block of echidnas marching together. Many of them see Sonic, but none of them attack him.

He hears gunshots again. There's screams. He turns a corner, following the echoes, coming to another block facing off a separate block of echidnas, armed and armored, with shields, swords and guns. They walk steadily forward as some of them, mounted on robot beasts charge into the crowd, attacking anyone in their way. Canisters are thrown which eject a dense fog, which the non-soldiers brazenly stay within, resisting all attacks against themselves. Sonic is at awe, for a short moment, only to hear an echidna running from behind shouting something unintelligible which is carried down the block.

The front line, upon hearing the message, suddenly raise their guns and fire. The other echidnas scramble as their fellows drop to the cobblestone street. Some run away, some run straight into the soldiers. Sonic hesitates, but then moves to help, only to hear more gunshots coming from behind him. He turns, seeing normally dressed echidnas with guns firing back at the soldiers. He hears shots from above and sees them on the rooftops. They suddenly fill the air, with echidnas coming from every direction and location firing back at the soldiers, who so lined up fall easily. They make a retreat, and the others stop firing. It all happened within a few minutes.

.

"Hey, you," he hears from behind him. He quickly turns around.

A small group of echidnas with torn shirts and pants stand there, most of which are not paying attention to him. Some just run off and others run into the group to talk. The one talking to him, a female with rings piercing her short dreads, says, "Yeah, you."

"You're Sonic, right?" she asks.

Sonic asks quickly, "How'd you know that?"

"Don't be so alarmed. We're not going to hurt you. Actually, we need you. We need your help," she says.

A man standing next to her turns his head to Sonic, saying, "Yeah. Please, listen."

Sonic looks around. He says, "Right here? Right now?"

The man says, "Where else?"

The woman then says, "No, it's too loud out here. Let's go to the shop, it's not far."

The man says, "Alright, fine. But let's make this quick. We don't have time to spare."

A younger man butts in, who wasn't saying anything but was looking intently at Sonic. "Do you trust us?"

Sonic paused. He looked at all of them quickly, and thought for a moment. "Yeah. I do."

"Good," the woman replies. "Follow us."

They start running down a street as people run about all around them. Sonic is caught off guard at first, but quickly gets in pace. Another man, who was talking to someone else before, says to Sonic, "In case you haven't noticed, we're having a revolution right now."

Sonic sees a group of people taking off their clothes to his left. He turns to the man. "Yeah."

They enter a room with a door held open, filled with books, pamphlets, flags and many miscellaneous items, but it is completely empty. They enter a hallway into a room deeper inside with no doors, and stop.

The woman whips around and talks immediately, "Okay, we heard about you down the line from some allies in other towns. There's a wanted signal from the military who've caught wind of you devastating their army at the front and making trouble on your way here."

The man quickly adds, "They are quick. They'll know of you at Nexus within half an hour if not already. You're a huge threat, doing what you did. They'll throw almost everything they have at you."

The woman adds on that, "And hold back some for when you reach Nexus. They know your goal. They were told it."

Sonic asks, "If you're telling me all this, then..."

The man answers, "We're on your side. We want to end the eternal reign of the Zexesh. We want to kill the ghost of Zexa, who has been controlling our people from beyond the grave."

A teenage girl who was already in the room, sitting on the floor over a map, looks up over glasses. "Does he know about all that?"

Sonic responds, "I know a lot about your history. Your people have left a lot behind. I don't know about this Zexa, though. Is he related to... 'Zexakal'?"

The man looks at the woman. "This will take time. If you think it's worth it, fine. But there's a revolution going on and I'm not going to sit back talking."

"I don't give a shit. Do what you want," she rejoins as he runs out of the room. The other man follows him.

Before they both leave, she answers, "Yes. Zexakal means Under Zexa. A long time ago, even for us Old Mobians, we were separated in many tribes across the land. We fought with your people, and the foxes, and many other species, vying for land and food. One man, or a bunch of men, was particularly violent. He survived so many battles that he gained followers who preached his worth and connection to the old gods to the tribes. Many then followed him, and the ones who didn't, who opposed him, were killed as an example. So he 'unified' the echidnas, and was so great that everyone decided to relate themselves to him. There are so many stories about how he killed this many hedgehogs, or did that many miracles, that he became a god amongst men. 'Zexagalaxius'. He died, though."

"That's only where he started to live. The only ones left to lead the people were his priests who chanted his name, demanded his laws be kept. The people were rightly questioning this when their god was obviously dead, until one day the Black Stones rained down from a passing comet. They destroyed nearly everything, but some were drawn to them and took them. They gained new powers, and claimed that Zexagalaxius had come to pass on his right as leader. So a bunch of echidnas called themselves the Zexesh, or the Sons of Zexa. Some shared the Stones. Others used them for power. Some taught peace and fraternity, but most were warlords. Eventually, only the warlords remained."

"They all claimed to be the true heir, and leading their followers they fought each other for centuries, splitting away from each other, building new societies. It's funny, though. Nearly all the Zexesh were killed by their own followers, who then took up the mantle. Things get complicated from there, but the Zexesh continued to exist, and everyone worshiped Zexagalaxius, their one father who probably never existed."

"From the very beginning, they pushed the people to their will, never relenting. Even now, they demand that all echidnas help in restoring Zexa's control over the world, ignoring everything your civilization has accomplished since we were asleep. Here, however, we have awoken. We have fought back, and we are winning. But not for long."

"They will know about this very soon, and they will send their army here to kill us before the people rise up anywhere else. We're just one town, though. They will win. That's why we need your help."

"We need you to attack Nexus as fast as you can. We know you're very fast, perhaps, the fastest thing alive. We need you to distract them from us. Word of us will spread. Others like us will rise, and those that see us will awaken. We will reach Nexus, and we will topple their almighty defense from the inside out. So long as we're given the chance, we will take it."

The girl in the corner adds, "Before the laser attacks, we made contact with the New Mobians near here. Even if the attacks never happened, they told us your government was still planning on attacking us. Ours was doing the same. Both of ours are drafting, imprisoning dissidents, silencing dissent. Sending people like us to kill you, and people like you to kill us. If they never said the other side shot the lasers, nobody would have thought that either did. And we know neither did. While the world was staring at the ground, we were staring at the sky, watching Mechanix high above attacking something as small as a fly. You."

She continues, "You destroyed the Zexesh's artificial god-creation, Mechanix. To know that one god can die is more than enough to know the other can. So long as even information spreads of a different world, not just an alternative world, but the original world, the millenia spent protecting the myth of Zexa will topple like a sand castle against a tidal wave."

Sonic says, "So you said all that to tell me... to do what I was going to do, anyway?"

"No," the woman says, "I'm telling you that we will help you, if you help us. We can be allies."

Sonic thinks for a moment. "Alright. When I reach Nexus, where do I go?"

The girl says, "It'll be obvious. The entire megalopolis radiates from a single megaplex, and standing in the absolute center is the Infinity Tower, which is over ten times taller than any of the other buildings. The Zexesh of modern times have always resided there, looking over the entire world."

The woman then says, "I don't know how deep their defenses is, except for the Zexesh's elite protector force called the Crystal Guardians. You know about Black Shards, right?"

Sonic nods. She says, "Well, ever since the Black Emerald was created, there was great demand for more. Ever since the Event, though, it was forbidden to make anything as powerful ever again. That didn't stop people from trying to recreate the machine. They gather a whole lot of Stones and Shards and compress them to create a Black Crystal. It's illegal, of course, to have one; unless you're a Crystal Guardian, above the law, given permission and able to destroy anything threatening the Zexesh."

"So I'll have to fight them," Sonic figures. "Yep," she responds.

"What's the Event, though?" Sonic asks.

The girl looks at the woman suddenly. She hesitates. "It... The Black Emerald was used... it... the Air... It's really complicated. It's not like learning our history will help you out, anyway."

"I guess you're right. Well, I shouldn't hang around then, if they're going to hunt us both down. I'll leave now." He walks away.

"Wait!" the quiet guy suddenly shouts. Sonic turns. "Don't die, Sonic..."

Sonic stops. He looks at him. He says, "I'll never die, as long as there is justice to be done." and he leaves.

.

He exits the building, runs through the rushing, yelling crowds, back onto the road, back onto the highway. He follows it, this time without being pursued. He runs for a while. He enters and exits forests, mountains, canyons. The earth is increasingly torn from risen underworlds and laser-precise chasms. The night sky burns from red magma churning, freshly revealed to the air. Yet their warm glows are themselves overtaken by the distant, harsh white light, a semicircle of unreal brilliance that has been growing as Sonic approached its source. There were still much land in his way, but the light guided him, or rather, sucked him in.

After a short time in lowlands, passing marshes and rivers, he again returns to a coastline. The road takes him parallel to the waves breaking loudly behind tall, grassy dunes. In short time he finds the road suddenly surrounded by high-rise residential buildings, seasonal shops and amusement businesses. He is surrounded by echidnas and vehicles once again, more than ever before, and his presence instantly causes panic.

Before long, police cars screech around corners and zoom towards him. They take out their weapons and fire at him, while more officers ahead set up traps and ambushes to slow him down. But Sonic does not slow down. He plows through the obstacles which continuously build up in this very horizontal city. He then sees many more cops lying ahead of him, with weapons ready. He makes a sharp turn into the narrow backstreets, hopping fences and sprinting between the wooden pillars under beach houses.

He then finds himself running on a boardwalk crowded with minute establishments and recreating echidnas who scream and run as he passes by. Some of the police try to catch up to him on bicycles with tinny bells but fall behind in a second.

Sonic then spin attacks through a chain-link fence into a construction site, and stops instantly. He watches as fellow New Mobians, of all species, men and women, old and young, are held at gunpoint to do hard labor, sweating even in the middle of the night. He watches them carry masses larger than they are, tugging them up slopes and elevators, across scaffolding without sidebars. When they slow from exhaustion, they are jabbed in the back and shouted at.

.

Surely enough, an older man collapses, his weight hitting the dirt, a plume of which fills the air as everyone around him turn and stare.

"That's the last time!" a nearby guard shouts. He quickly grabs and pulls the man up, before throwing him against a pile of bricks.

Another guard shot into the air. "Get back to work, you curs!" The people, without a single shout, look alarmed but quickly face the ground and shuffle on.

Sonic then runs out. "Stop!" he shouts, only to be suddenly met by an onslaught of bullets. The New Mobians freeze, again, unsure of what to do, some stay still while staring at the ground.

The guard in question turns. He says, "Why?" and turns. Fires. Firing. Not stopping.

The bricks shatter into shards, blood spraying. Pieces of him fly out in chunks. As Sonic nears, the echidna turns, and the man, without a body, without a face, becomes a slump of stuff next to the bricks he lied on similarly destroyed. Sonic attacks the guard in one hit, and he falls.

Sonic then goes around the entire construction site, wall-jumping up the pylons and running across the girders, defeating every echidna he sees. The dumbfounded New Mobians soon explode into cheers and joy, and help him free the others. Sonic doesn't stop to hear their congratulations. He defeats every guard, and then runs on.

.

He is on the road only for a short while before 20 cop cars and even more automobiles chase him down. He dispatches any that come close, and leaves the city. He ducks off the road onto the beach.

He runs on the beach, dimly lit by a red moon now two-thirds through the sky. The ocean and sky merge into blackness, occasionally speckled with tiny sparkles and pinpricks of light, of boats and stars.

"Sonic," is heard.

He stops, and turns. He sees nobody. But again, the voice, "You've done well to get halfway through our empire unscathed. You've caused such a ruckus. You could have sneaked in, but no. Well now Nexus knows and they sent me."

"Whoever you are. Don't even tell me. I've gone through a lot worse than you could ever throw at me," Sonic responds.

A large wave crashes against the shore. Bodysurfing on the wake as it slides across the long stretch of sand is an echidna in a plain, dark wetsuit with a katana fastened tight to his hip. He walks towards Sonic.

"I won't tell you, then. I am nothing more than my post, a Crystal Guardian, protector of the essence of Zexakal civilization."

"So, you have a Black Crystal, then? It doesn't matter. You could have the Black Emerald, I'd still win. I suppose you and everyone else that'll fight me haven't experienced it yet, but I'm... invincible. I've fought a god, a world-creator, a world-destroyer, and won. I've had to save this world from the brink of total destruction countless times now. Even now, I can just transform into my Super self, and not a single attack you could make would affect me."

Sonic laughs a little. "Heh. But the only way for me to prove it, is to beat you. As if you'd give up, anyway. It's just... futile. This whole fight against you and your empire and your leaders. It's inevitable for me to win. It always has been. I've... never been defeated. I never can be."

The echidna spits. "You sound insane. Invincible? Nothing like that exists. Everything has a weak spot. Usually, it's their blind spot as well. Somewhere, underneath all of that "proof", all of that "victory", there is a vulnerability. If you don't have a scar, an old wound, you have a spot you don't pay attention to."

He withdraws his blade very slowly. "The moon is bloody and bright, but you are right, slightly. I can't see it, either. But I know you have one. I can sense it. It is growing. All it takes," the blade is fully removed, a sound of sharpness cuts through the night air as its tip slides off the very edge of the scabbard. "Is a single hit."

"Try it!" Sonic yells. "It'd be interesting, for once!"

.

[Act 7 Boss]

The Crystal Guardian will attack immediately. When he is near Sonic, he will attack like so:

- Make a very long horizontal cut that is several times the length of his sword.

- Make a rising vertical slash that causes the sand to explode upwards as well.

- Make a stab which phases in and out as it flies towards Sonic.

- Dash very quickly towards Sonic and try to pierce him in a single hit (or cut him otherwise).

If Sonic starts running in either direction on the beach, the Guardian will chase him, making dashes to close the distance. He will attack like before, but with less speed. He may also use two of his special attacks:

- He runs at an angle into the ocean, disappearing through the waves, until far in the distance a massive wave pushes all of the others aside. It crests and crashes downward directly onto Sonic, with the Guardian inside the wave stabbing downwards at him. Sonic must then run through the wave tunnel until he escapes it as the Guardian rapidly fires a bunch of attacks at him.

- He jumps into the air until he is silhouetted by the red moon. In a flash, Sonic is forced into Hyper as the Guardian uses a burst of Black Crystal power. He swings his blade, but 10 slices radiate out from it in every direction, their radius increasingly narrowed to him. He dashes towards Sonic for a final cut that will cause a large chunk of the sand to explode outwards.

16 hits will defeat him.

.

The Guardian falls on one knee. "You... you're not going to kill me? Do you not care about my honor?"

"Haven't I killed you already, then?" Sonic snaps back.

"You... bastard. You won't make it to the Zexesh. It'll only get harder from here!"

"You're only saying that 'cause I beat you, like I'll beat all of the other Guardians. If you care about 'honor' and want to die, there's a giant ocean for you to drown yourself in. I don't care. I'm out of here."

Before the Guardian can say a word, Sonic is already gone.

.

[Act 8]

He runs back onto the road, which shortly merges onto a highway. It is the widest one yet, each side with four lanes, walls, sound barriers, long lines of tall lampposts and other highways occasionally passing above or below it. He is only on it for a short time before police cars come zooming behind him, firing at him immediately. He attacks them and dispatches them, only for more to be dispatched to attack him.

All the while, he closes in on the massive hemisphere of light that dispels the stars and the void between them in the sky. As he rounds a hill he finally sees his destination, the megalopolis of Nexus. Stretching from both sides of the horizon is naught but buildings. They are shaped as blocks, cones, cylinders, spirals, curving around and splashing into each other, constructing into solid forms in some areas while remaining part to the larger flow. They build like waves from the sides to massive heights near the center, constantly towering over itself and all of its natural surroundings. Even the pieces of splintered earth standing from the abyss from which it emerged seem minuscule in comparison. It was fantastic, unreal, at the same scale of the Eraser Egg, the size of a cumulonimbus stretching out of sight. In the very center of it all was the landmark that defined the entire civilization, a supertower almost ten times taller than any of the others. Far above the clouds, there was some spherical-like mass which only had its bottom surface lit by the billions of lights from the futuristic city. A cone of shadow stretched out above it, a small circular pond of true sky cut sharply into the ocean of light. Sonic presumed it as the Infinity Tower.

Despite its immense size which had now become visible to him, or perhaps because of it, Sonic was still over a hundred miles away. The highway he ran on curved around the landscape which seemed childlike relative to Nexus, attaching itself to smaller cities ripped through the surface. Sonic noticed that they all had similar Zexakal designs, and that the New Mobian cities he had passed earlier were completely missing.

.

Just as he notices this, the very highway he is on transforms shape and design. The straight lines and rectangular shapes gave way to oscillating and curved forms, reinforcing themselves through rhythm rather than uniformity. The lights were not a pale yellow but switched between a light green and blue, pulsing down horizontal light strips in the walls of the road and floating above them. The road itself detached from the ground, floating by Black Stone powered devices. Other highways merged and intersected this one seamlessly, different routes marked by different colors flowing effortlessly through each other. Glowing signs flash in Zexakal text destinations, weather and traffic conditions, and Sonic soon finds himself caught in between the many exotic and varied shapes of Zexakal automobiles which veer out of his way.

Alerted to his presence, Zexakal police and military zoom down the highway, on its borders and through the traffic, as well as floating above him. They pose no threat to Sonic who can destroy each in only a few hits.

The road curves sharply, at an almost 45 degree angle to the ground, spiraling around under criss-crossing roads above and below him as he enters a more modern Zexakal city. It is marked by a streamlined style, with many roads existing above ground-level and different colored lights moving in all directions on all objects. There is a constant din of noise from all sources natural and artificial even at this time of night.

Halfway through this city, there is a sudden klaxon let piercing through the air. The colors on the road suddenly become single, and all pulsate through darkness at once. All vehicles quickly abandon the highway as tens of law enforcers appear in rapidly moving automobiles to stop Sonic. Floating aircraft with heavy weaponry armed at its sides let loose a barrage of matter and energy projectiles which tear through the road but leave no mark on the faster Sonic who easily ducks between its wave-like changes of direction over his immediate area. Sonic can take this one out either by transforming into Super or waiting until smaller aircraft come to attack as the larger one reloads its ammunition, and using them as leverage to attack. After 4 hits, it will lose power and crash into the road, but Sonic is still hounded down.

Exiting the city, Sonic can take exits onto other highways to temporarily avoid the constant targeting of the Zexakal defense forces. As he gets closer to Nexus, the roads will have more monitors displaying advertisements and state propaganda, most of which seem to concern the war effort against "False" Mobius. They are colorful and animated, quite distracting from the road itself, although it seems that none of the automobile passengers need to actually drive their machines.

.

Of course, the road he's on will eventually change to alerted status, the road clearing of civilians as military forces fill the carved sides. In addition to the smaller cars and the smaller and larger aircraft he has since encountered, he is also now targeted by large tank-like vehicles with a wealth of rapid-fire guns and explosive cannons. They also tend to be pregnant with single-manned vehicles which are the fastest so far but only have pulsed energy cannons. In addition, moderately-sized floating sphere robots enter the fray with continuous laser cannons.

Before long, he is also met by Black Shard soldiers, wielding a sword or gun to a certain degree of finesse, often forcing Sonic to battle them by boxing him in between massive automobiles or filling the road with long train-like storage vehicles which are filled with Zexakal soldiers and battle robots that attack him simultaneously.

.

Passing through a few more cities, the roads now seem more advanced than before, completely unhinged from the ground, they often move in loop-de-loops, corkscrews, and even upside-down. Roadblocks may be placed in front of him, or certain areas may be detonated which Sonic can simply jump over with proper timing. Highways may become multi-layered, or may change shape to accommodate more traffic, such as internal tubes or multiple surfaces of an elongated polygon. The rates of speed were so high in these areas that the Black Stone-powered "artificial gravity" or Black Stone-to-Black Stone attraction (which didn't apply to Sonic) seemed somewhat superfluous.

Another addition to his pursuers are robots powered by Black Shards, often moving up to Sonic's speed in aerodynamic forms before transforming briefly into battle-ready forms that make a few rapid projectile or melee attacks before transforming back into transportation mode.

.

At this point, Nexus seems directly in front of him, but by the speed and size of natural landscapes passing him to the side, Sonic realizes it is only an illusion from its size which seems to grow exponentially before him. It is hard to tell, as the ground around him is mostly flat except for other highways, power lines and pipes, all lit by lights in succession or in continuous form, all pulsing towards the one singular destination of the massive city of light and shape. The Infinity Tower is still visible above all else. However, night has long since disappeared into the eternal day of the hypercity.

On the screens around the road, every image is now replaced with Sonic's face, surrounded by Zexakal text which seems to define who he is. Now, the highway itself attacks him. Metal turrets pop out of holes in the walls and send out strings of energy projectiles at his direction. Some holes instead bare energy bulbs which connect with others to form an energy barrier on a plane that Sonic must navigate around in quick time. As if that's not enough, the closer Sonic gets, the more defense towers seem to rotate and target him from the flat landscape, firing large, powerful blasts at where they predict he will be.

.

True Nexus is still quite a way ahead of him, but Sonic takes an off-ramp into a heavy industrial area on its outskirts with more narrow roads to keep the heat off of him. Indeed, only robots come after him through this area devoid of artistic development, consisting solely of lattices, visible walkways, ladders, straight lines, blunt planes and discontinuous shapes, which still had some aesthetic quality by the tiny red, yellow, blue lights giving it all a geometrically expressionist form. He runs up angled slopes into narrow passageways, through chutes and pipes, wall-jumping up a few narrow vertical passageways (which he hasn't done in quite a while) until he finds himself running on top of a pipeline that leads out into a grassy field. It enters into a tunnel that leads underground.

.

A large blast door shuts the tunnel around the pipe far ahead of Sonic. So he makes way onto the field, Nexus still quite some distance ahead of him, but closer than ever. Nobody is near him.

Breaking the silence, a floating monitor comes down from the sky far above him and angles itself at him, moving at his exact speed. An image flashes on the screen, revealing the face of a robotic eye, with multiple irises rotating around a central globe, slowly pulsating with a light of changing color. The monitor slowly revolves around Sonic. Sonic looks at it, turning his head, and it speaks without tone.

"You are Sonic. Correct?"

Sonic stared at it for a second. It looked back at him, with no change. He answers, "No."

"Confirmed." Its voice suddenly changes to something much rougher and dissonant. "I am Core. I do not err. Nothing can defeat me."

"Oh?" Sonic says. "We-"

"Yes." It cuts him off.

At this moment, Sonic realizes that he is running backwards and quickly jumps to the side as hard as he can. As he does, he ears a massive roar and burst and sees a light brighter than the city fill the ground all around him. He turns and sees a massive plume of dust with dirt and rocks still hurtling through the air. The ground is scorched black. He quickly comes up to speed, only to leap to the side again, avoiding another explosion. Looking forward, he sees its origin from a massive white energy beam about the width of the highway he was on earlier coming straight from the massive sphere far on top of the Infinity Tower. A small circular hole on it glowed brightly again.

Sonic, facing Nexus and running towards it, must time his jumps to avoid these laser beam attacks that come rapidly after each other. Only when the buildings of Nexus stand in the way of the beam does it stop firing. Sonic looks up at it, seeing it disappear under the massive forms of the Nexus buildings, which are so tiny compared to the buildings even farther inside. A final barrier stands in front of him, however: the very chasm from which Nexus was pulled out of. He climbs a large boulder and leaps, the red light of the hot magma below quite sharply reduced by the many steel pylons stretching between the city and the other side of the cliff. He hurtles through the air, seeing the tight roadways filled with people who turn, stare, point and scream at him from so far away.

He doesn't make it! He falls far short of the other side, falling through the pylons and scaffolds which zip by him. He tucks into a spinball but this only causes him to break through any he hits. The red light quickly glows brighter, and although the pools of magma are filled with pipes and pistons attached to geothermal energy converters, there is more than enough for him to fall in.

There is no recourse. Sonic must transform or die. So he does, and pulls himself out of his inertia just enough to fly through the vertical metallic spires above the molten rock. He sees before him an open passageway lined with pipes that leads into the underbelly of the city. He flies into it. It curves and wraps around unseen masses, opening into massive areas filled with vertical and horizontal constructions carrying weights within and carrying weights upon it. Navigating through these areas and other passageways with blasts of steam and moving machinery transferring energy all around, Sonic finds himself suddenly into a less industrial tube that is much more well lit.

.

It extends far into the distance in both directions, as Sonic looks both ways wondering where to go, lost. Suddenly, he hears a screeching beep and turns to see seven bright lamps shining in his face. He moves up just enough to avoid the train from splattering him. Seeing a chance for direction, he lands on its upper side as the neon lights on the walls blur by at superfast speeds comparable to him. For a moment, Sonic takes a breath.

He hears something metal get ripped off hinges in a single slam before clattering against the walls and quickly disappearing far away. He turns to the sound, seeing hands grip the side of the train before swinging the mass on top of it. It's an echidna, one with dreads of random length, his body half-roboticized, wearing clothing and tattoos decorated with abstract shapes of clashing neon colors. He is followed by three lackeys with similar but less noticeable flair, although each bearing a robotic part of some sort.

"Do you want to die?" he asks.

"You're a Crystal Guardian, aren't you. Otherwise you'd be asking yourself that," Sonic rejoined.

"Watch what you fu-" one of the others started, but the apparent leader growled without turning, "Shut the fuck up!"

"Listen. Hedgehog. I know you killed my brother in arms, Shalot. I know you've blasted through everything in your way. I know you broke the front line. It makes me so angry, I want to cut your legs off and melt the skin off your bones!"

"No wonder they let you protect the Zexesh. You're such a tough guy." Sonic smirked.

"Say what you want, punk, but you ain't got long. You gonna die."

"I'm scared. I've never been told that before! Why don't you just shut up and do it?"

The Guardian smiles. He pulls a baton from a loop in the back of his pants. He swings it down and a crackle of electricity sparks a steady plasma beam that hums and sizzles. "No, maybe I'll impale your throat, first!"

.

[Act 8 Boss]

The Guardian's three lackeys all have Black Shards. They move fairly quickly. One wields an iron pipe, another a metal chain, and the final one has brass knuckles. They attack whenever the Guardian is not attacking, often in pairs so that after one is repelled the other attacks. The last one will either wait, or especially as their team's health lowers, will fire small energy attacks. Occasionally, they will charge their weapon full of energy before attacking, such that upon missing they cause splash damage if Sonic is close enough. Each one takes 8 hits before collapsing.

The Guardian is fast enough that he leaves after-images as he dashes around and his sword leaves a tracer. There is little space to jump but he will still somersault over Sonic to catch him off guard. He only stops attacking when he is hit or when he charges an attack. His attacks are as follows:

- A successive chain of slashes.

- A stab which fires out a very fast beam of energy (Sonic must jump as soon as he sees it).

- Flipping and spinning through the air in a rapid fashion before somersaulting with the blade out, forming a wheel-shaped attack before slamming into the ground, making an explosion of energy.

- Disappearing, to appear elsewhere (usually behind Sonic).

- Especially as his health drains, he will do this successively. He appears, runs and attacks and disappears (fading out slowly) while he appears somewhere else to approach and attack, at a rapid rate.

- Slicing his sword through the air at a distance, sending out a wave of energy.

- If he aims upwards, he will then strike this wave in mid-air to redirect it, repeating this process to confuse Sonic as to where the wave will come from. If Sonic jumps too early, he will aim it at him.

- His special attack involves him falling back, charging his sword. At this point, all three of his lackeys will attack at once. Once he is finished, they fall back behind him as he lets loose a massive beam of energy that can only be avoided by falling through the gaps in the train cars.

He takes 20 hits before he falls on one knee and drops his sword off the side of the train.

.

"You... Aren't you going to kill me?" he asks.

"Why? Because 'Shalot' died? Last I saw him, he walked back into the ocean. I don't have time to kill you guys. If you want to die, do it yourself."

The Guardian says, "As soon as I recover... I'll get stronger. Faster. I'll find you and kill you."

Sonic responds, "Go ahead. I'll just defeat you again. Are you Crystal Guardians really the strongest Zexakal? Not a single one of you even compare to Mechanix."

The Guardian's eyes open, but he remains silent. "Then again," Sonic continued, "He was a hedgehog like me, after all."

"What!" the Guardian yelled, and then groaned, clutching his lungs. "If you know that... You must have really beat him..."

He stumbled to his feet, grimacing in pain. "Fuck. No wonder. ...no wonder! You're a fucking demon. You're a god-killer! Oh... ohhh, but now you'll fucking regret letting me stand."

"I honestly doubt that," Sonic replies.

"Mechanix was made... by the authority of the Zexesh... as the second-coming of Zexa. The Seven Lands all worshiped him the same even during the Last War. To kill him, to fucking kill him, you just brought the wrath of our entire civilization against you!"

He starts yelling rabidly, "You think it's fucking easy, huh?! You think we'll let you win, let you destroy everything?! Fuck you! Fuck you!"

Sonic yawns. He turns around as the Guardian continues to cuss at him. He walks to the front of the train, which finally exits the tunnel onto a bridge that spans the insides of a massive industrial space filled with machines, towers and scaffolds. He sees a cargo elevator zip up a central pylon and leaps towards it.

.

[Act 9]

As he lands, he takes a moment to look around him. There are massive industrial machines rolling up and down and across iron tracks laid into the earth, carrying all sorts of cargo from raw quarried material to construction materials to containers with unseen contents. Some do not use the tracks, instead lumbering about on massive legs over giant steel causeways. Bright flood lights create multiple shadows through the holes of the many straight metal beams holding up the various transportation, mining and manufacturing structures throughout the room. Sonic looks around several times, but he sees only a few people minuscule in comparison.

The elevator reaches the ceiling and entered a shaft with minimal lighting. He waited as it slowly climbed up the large cylinder. As light scans over the large crates, barrels and inactive equipment, Sonic briefly wonders why nothing had targeted him in the past few minutes.

A piercing screech of metal against metal filled the chamber and echoed up it to the top. Sonic felt himself lift up and quickly regained his balance as the elevator platform slowed to a stop. He looked for a way out. Finding a space in between the central column with the wheels on the inside, he jumps in.

Sonic wall-jumps up the inside of the column, and does so for quite a while. Eventually he reaches the top, where he leaps out into a large hallway filled with heavy carrier robots and smaller helper droids. They leave Sonic be as he runs past them, jumping over the many objects in his way. He sees a person-sized entrance and takes it. It is very narrow, and angled with a steep gradient. It is damp and as he climbs he increasingly smells a putrid thing.

Surely enough, the other side leads him onto a very narrow pathway parallel to a semi-solid, disgusting sludge of multiple ill-saturated colors and textures, sliding down the semicircular chamber through the darkness, lit by tiny electric torches. He runs through until he sees a circle of light coming from a small circular opening in the ceiling. He wall-jumps off the wall and enters it, wall-jumping up until he breaks through a manhole cover, finding himself on asphalt.

.

He sees his shadow before him and turns, jumping out of the way as a large truck honks and swerves out of the way. He walks to the pavement lying at the side, then noticing the many stares and fingers pointed at him. He takes a quick glance at his surroundings: cement, metal, and glass walls covered with paper and neon signs, dim street lamps and people in vehicles and on foot, dressed in graphically different but structurally similar clothing. He is surrounded by walls and accessories on the curb, looking up, he can see the walls expand far into the pseudo-daytime sky. Windows in random position are lit continuously or flicker in color and value to some unseen projector.

Before he can observe anymore, he hears the wails of a siren and turns to see the street filled with vehicles. Sonic starts running down the city streets and they chase relentlessly. Every intersection he is met by more attackers and pursuers, which he can barely break through before he is boxed in and crushed to death. He jumps on and over everything in his way, often short objects but sometimes through small parks and parking lots. He enters a narrow alleyway, only to find a dead end. As if expecting him, he is ambushed by muscle-set Zexakal with blunt weapons. He takes them out quickly as soldiers and officers fill the alley and fire at him, and wall-jumps up the cement walls.

.

He reaches the flat rooftop, and gains a new vista. It's not very impressive, as his view of the Infinity Tower is still almost completely blocked by much taller buildings standing in his way. He sees how the area he is in is poorly lit, while the taller buildings ahead become brighter and brighter with much more colorful and even animated lights.

So he runs towards the edge of the roof and leaps off to the next one. He hears some powerful, moving engine approach him and looks up to see the sky lined with flying vehicles. Within seconds, the ground around him is torn up with energy projectiles. Some of the vehicles hover over buildings ahead of him and drop ropes towards the rooftops which soldiers slide down on and land, firing from afar and attacking when he is close. He doesn't waste time fighting them and keeps moving on. Small flying robots catch up to him, firing projectiles and trying to attack him with swinging blades extended on three-jointed arms.

.

The buildings start rising above him, so Sonic has no choice but to jump down. He lands on a road suspended between the buildings, curving around organically yet in structured relations with the other floating roads. Yet he is hunted by every automobile he has yet met. Soldiers standing in the back of pick-up trucks fire beams and bullets at him. Occasionally, a small flying car surfs the air towards Sonic, with a Shard user on top, holding a rocket launcher or sniper rifle trying to snuff him out – or at least slow him down. When they run out of ammo, the car drives close for the Shard user to melee with medium-range weapons. As the roads loop and twirl and snake deeper into the city, Sonic finds the towering concrete walls increasingly covered with more and more unnecessary information.

He passes many static billboards, posters and draping banners, but he also passes large animated monitors, often with advertisements of some sort, but also containing information and even entertainment as if to distract him. Not flummoxed or vexed by the plentiful but rather weak resistance against him, he pays attention to the messages. They are often optimistic and bright, with affirmations of individual identity through customization and choice. Yet these messages are all the same; but this is hid underneath dense layers of shiny, pleasant, consonant and attractive details.

He notes there is a reoccurring theme of not just Zexakal cultural identity, constructed to fit individual narratives, but Zexakal cultural supremacy, enthusiastically affirming the policies of the Zexesh and the institutions of their society. The more messages Sonic sees, the more he realizes that the Zexesh/Zexakal-affirming messages are all there is; there are no alternatives. The only exception is New Mobius and its denizens, always branded as False, as heretical against their religion and dangerous to their culture and safety. The war is not even supported, it is assumed to be the only reasonable action against the non-Zexakal with pure ubiquity. Representations of them are always confined to caricatures, often as cartoons, with stereotypes of savagery, peculiar speaking habits and absurd customs. They are idiotic, disorganized, and sometimes pure evil. In more 'realistic' portrayals, often in commentary during the news, their society is analyzed as morally bankrupt and self-destructive, and their government as maniacal dictatorship.

Sonic generally finds himself amused at this blatant misrepresentation, at this ideology so sufficiently suffused throughout each and every example of visible speech and thought, until he catches a news show airing a recorded segment of conditions inside a New Mobian city. He sees people protesting, only to be broken up by police in heavy armor with helmets, batons and shields. The picture cuts to more of the same soldiers holding their guns at confused and scared civilians walking in straight lines. Then there are pictures of echidnas, walking in the same way, but behind chain-link fences from far away. There are distant shots of them working in fields and construction sites. At that moment Sonic remembers the old man and for a moment, he is indeed distracted.

He is suddenly blocked by three large battle robots, of similar design to the ones he fought before, except with sleeker designs and more dangerous-looking weaponry. Instead of fighting them, he jumps off the road, crashing through the window of a building.

.

He runs through it, a field of false rooms containing electronics and echidna workers under arrays of harshly bright lighting, expanding from side to side of the building interrupted only by a stairwell and bathroom. He breaks through the other side, flying through the air, until he crashes into another building. This one is even larger, saturated with echidnas walking to and fro from small stores of various goods laid into the walls with colorful lights and loud music. They are connected by walkways overlooking a massive empty inner space, occasionally filled with a monument, tree, or fountain. Sonic's interruption of the daily life sparked terror and panic into the civilian echidnas, but before long he reaches the other side, where a glass tunnel connects to yet another building. It is blocked by soldiers and robots with weapons at the ready, but Sonic needs only to spin dash to get through.

So Sonic travels through the indoor Nexus, with its thousands of glowing, flashing, hue-changing lights and ocean of sounds from everything washing over everything else. He moves from commercial to residential to academic to high-tech industrial, through low-class districts reflecting neglect to middle-class districts reflecting apathy to high-class districts reflecting vanity. Police robots and a few soldiers try chasing him down and blocking his way, but by changing floors through open areas Sonic gains temporary reprieves.

After causing havoc through an airport he runs down an open-air terminal to its very end, overlooking a new area of Nexus. He is so high up that the bottom of the towers are invisible through darkness despite the immense lighting. Yet, they stretch up just as far, their tops unable to be seen. There are no longer any roads, as traffic consists of flying vehicles moving in parallel lines on every axis. People walk on bridges which exist for every gap in almost regular intervals. There is so much noise and light and so little sense of orientation that Sonic has to stop, just for a moment, to keep his mind steady.

.

Just then, he sees from afar all of the monitors suddenly changing their images. In waves they are replaced with a single one, a shot of his face, with photos of him moving through the city and accompanying text. There is a particular string which is bold and brighter than the others. The borders flash red, and soon enough the flashing red dominates all of the other colors shining around. He also sees the flow of traffic dissipating to nothing. In seconds, clouds of defense forces of all types fly towards him from every direction at top speeds.

Sonic must continue. He can either jump off onto a nearby meridian, and platform with high speeds and fast timing across these, or he can simply transform and fly. Every now and then he comes to a horizontal dead end, to which he can wall-jump up narrow crevices or abandoned flying vehicles or simply fly upwards. Shard users with jetpacks chase him down, and now flying robots powered by Black Shards do the same. He is hunted with such ferocity that he is always surrounded by attackers and their attacks, who reinforce themselves quicker than he can defeat them. There are even automatic defense posts sticking out from buildings or simply floating about which add to the pressure.

.

Eventually, Sonic will eventually reach the top of these buildings. Every rooftop is covered with soldiers and robots and at least one Shard user, while the sky itself is filled with hovering, attacking aircraft. Again, Sonic leaps from roof to roof which are also covered with ventilation and power equipment as well as small structures that Sonic must platform on and around with dexterity and speed. A few even have gardens.

After some time, he again reaches the end of his trajectory. Curiously, he is free of pursuers as he stands before the central half of Nexus, which consists of a single massive structure standing even taller than any of the buildings around him presently. It is as if the buildings had grown together into a single, interlocking and continuous shape. The Infinity Tower is yet concealed by the gigantic wall that stood directly before him.

At this moment, a monitor attached to a small Black Stone-powered engine floats up from the crevice between the many buildings and the one. Sonic watches it slowly putter through the air towards him, and looks around to see if he is being followed. For once, they have left him alone, but it is strange. He looks back at the flying TV, which seemed to move as if it deliberated its decision.

Finally, it comes to Sonic. Hovering before him, the screen flashes on. He sees an old echidna with purple skin and cyan markings, wearing an elaborate garment of many hand-crafted chains and necklaces with precious stones inlaid over multiple colorful silken robes. Displayed prominently on the outermost coat is an abstract symbol that is immediately familiar to Sonic as the common engraved pattern on Mechanix's body. There are others like him standing behind.

"You're the Zexesh," Sonic remarks.

"Observant. You are the god-killer. The enemy of our people," he replies coolly.

"My only enemies are you. I'll put an end to your diabolical reign over Mobius, end this war, and free your people from you."

"We know. Ambitious. Yet, stupid. If you kill us, our will remains, and shall always be followed. In so being, we would not be killed. The state continues."

Another adds, "Our predecessors have shaped society to need us. They are dependent, and will make others lead them. These others will do as we have done, for it is in their natural interest."

A third continues, "Without politics, we have employment. Without employment, we have rent. Without rent, we have religion. Without religion, we have violence. Without even one, the force of the others will fill the space that became."

The first finishes, "Your expression of justice is futile and immaterial. You have already failed."

Sonic responds, "Don't tell me your bullshit, you think I'll leave you alone after all this? You plan on enslaving all of New Mobius and killing anyone who fights back. You slaughter thousands with no basis but bigotry and exploitation. You imprison your own people in your authoritarian dogma! Once I depose and dispose of you and destroy your system, you won't come back metaphorically or otherwise."

There is a small wave of titters amongst the Zexesh. A different one says, "Destroy our system? Do you intend on blowing it up? You call us the villains, while desiring the destruction of our subjects' well-being and a transition to unbridled chaos and moral relativism."

"Enough," the first one demands, and the others fall silent. "Sonic, the god-killer, I admit your skill and indeed bravery at attempting to surmount the greatest civilization of Mobius. You pose no threat to our nation but you pose a threat to our lives. We will send our greatest protectors to stop you but I know it is fruitless. However."

He pulls out something from underneath his robes. Sonic gasps. "The Black Emerald!"

The other Zexesh smile but the first retains his composure. "I will show you directly how your efforts bare no meaning. I will insert the Black Emerald into the Zenith as my ancestors have done so long ago, summoning a New Chaos Meteor to irradiate the entirety of Mobius and extinguish all life and structure on its surface. I will activate the city barrier such that the only important part of this world is left untouched, our Nexus."

Sonic didn't know what to say. He highly suspected this was the same 'Event' which had forced the echidnas to burrow underground and build cities such as Ka'ralei. He then realized something, and in a surge of emotion shouted, "So you'll kill even your own people who don't live in Nexus?! Why?!"

The first says, "They mean nothing to me. Any echidna can procreate. Simply, I bore of this war against your people. It shall be ended quickly, such that we can rebuild the world in the image of Zexa after cleansing it of your defilements. Furthermore, it would force you to your word if you indeed kill us: to destroy Nexus which would have then entirely become your enemy. If you are successful, you will indeed find peace in your eternal solitude, however cloaked with blood. If you are not, then my people will rebuild and return to us and our ways as they have always done and always will do."

"You fucking bastard! You sick, cold-hearted mother fucker! I'll-" Sonic starts.

"Base. I plague myself no longer with your wrangled barks, wretched cur. I move now to complete my operation. Good-bye." The screen switches off, fading to black.

Before Sonic can respond, it turns back on, revealing the robotic eye of Core again. "Hello. You seem upset. Do you want to talk about it?" it asks, with no tone.

"Don't mock me!" He spin attacks the monitor and destroys it. "Damn computer..."

"Oh. I was expecting someone a little more fierce for a god-killer," a voice says from behind him.

He turns to see a female echidna with violet skin and alternately tight and loose clothing, floating in the air, holding two massive guns on both of her arms.

"Great. I don't have time for another one of you," Sonic says and starts running, but he is quickly stopped by an explosion blocking his path.

"Whoa, now. You sure are hasty. What's the rush?" she smiles knowingly.

Sonic glowers at her, but before he can make a move or say a word, he hears the sound of massive pieces of metal twisting on hinges and rolling on tracks. He turns his head, seeing the wall of the gigantic building ahead of him displace itself, with large circular portholes turning open revealing massive cannons that are drawn out. Eight portholes open around each large one, and around these eight more portholes opened. All of those mighty cannons aim and point at Sonic.

The Guardian also looks at it. "Damn. You must have really pissed off Core. That's all of the cannons." She turns to Sonic. "Let me warn you now. Core is more dangerous and more protective of the Zexesh than any of us Crystal Guardians. If you could somehow beat me... well, you're asking for it, anyway."

"It's impressive, but it isn't intimidating at all. I don't know why any of you think you can compare yourselves to Mechanix," Sonic retorts.

The Guardian laughs. "Oh, man, nevermind, nevermind. Okay, enough. I'm, ha, I'm going to just kill you now. Prepare to die! Or something."

.

[Act 9 Boss]

The wall will immediately start firing massive beams of energy from the largest cannons and pulses emanate in cycles around it, with bullets shot from the circles around those. The energy may be blue, red, yellow, or white. Super Sonic is unaffected by white energy, but the other colors will produce familiar effects; namely, yellow as shock, red as sap and blue as slow. While the main beams reach Sonic the quickest, they are slowest at moving to catch up to him. The other cannons reach him slower but approximate his future position much better.

Sonic can run to the edge of the roof and jump to the next one, moving parallel to the wall's circumference. However, he will only avoid particular attacks and not being attacked in general.

Meanwhile, the Crystal Guardian will be endlessly attacking. Her attacks are:

- Firing large fireballs in one gun and then the other.

- Firing both guns with pulsating purple plasma beams that are aimed at Sonic's direction (although they never intersect).

- Turning a gun backwards and firing a quick blast that sends the Guardian rocketing to slam into Sonic. This might be also used to move quickly around.

- Firing small same-velocity bullets at and around Sonic from 5 to 20 times a second. The Guardian may move around to change the pattern.

- Firing large dumb and smart missiles at Sonic. She may fire small dumb missiles at a very high rate.

- Firing smaller guns which spin around, firing many small bullets in all directions (these can be destroyed if Sonic can hit them).

Sonic must navigate the battlefield while approaching the Guardian, and at high enough speeds hit her before she evades him. 10 hits defeats her.

.

She drops her guns, and hovers for a short moment before falling to the ground. The cannons on the wall stop for a moment. The Guardian tries to push herself back up, but her arms began trembling and she dropped back onto the gravel. She turned her head to look at Sonic, and says, "I figured this would happen when we started fighting. You can become invincible with the Chaos Emeralds, but that's really nothing compared to your battle experience. No, that's not it. Your power. Your willpower...?"

She pauses. "I wasn't even that hard for you, I could tell. It's indescribable... that force within you. It's transcendent, beyond the difficulties of the world. I've seen great power before, but I've never felt it like this..."

Sonic stared at her. "Well, thanks for the compliments, but I don't have time for it." He turns to move.

She laughs while saying, "Too bad you listened to me, anyway! Those were some precious seconds that I'll now throw in your face! Aha!"

.

As she says it, aircraft suddenly fill the sky and attack Sonic. Sonic turns to face the wall, only to see a massive beam right in front of him. He jumps out of the way just as it burns clean through the building tops. He suddenly finds himself surrounded by projectiles and without much recourse jumps off the building and transforms into Super Sonic.

.

[Act 10]

Attacked in all directions, Sonic weaves in and out of the many bullet patterns flying all around him, destroying any of the aircraft in his way as he approaches the wall. After a short but intense flight he'll become out of range for many of the cannons. He enters one.

Through the long tube he flies, until spotting glass on a stretch of the wall, breaking past it. He enters a narrow pathway, its dark walls covered with strings of pulsing energy-conveying conduits. He continues until it opens into a wider hallway. Behind the semi-transparent walls are spinning cylinders and shifting blocks, everything with a semi-reflective surface suffused in the glows of colorful lights embedded in other surfaces of the same type. As Sonic runs through this area, he hears from behind a humming, vibrating sound which quickly raises pitch and volume as its source catches up to Sonic.

Strange robots with sphere bodies, cone heads and two flat blades angled to each other, jutting out behind it like strange legs despite them flying above the ground. As they got closer to him, arcs of electricity sprung between them if they kept at the same distance. They take two hits each to be dispatched.

After this warm-up, this hallway opens up into the massive inner space of the one building. There are buildings hovering still in the air, some moving about slowly, with strange surfaces consisting of simple translucent tessellations translating and rotating over each other. The floor Sonic runs on, the roof of a building, disappears and he finds himself running on air. An electric road appears under his feet, curving through the air before stopping just as he starts running on the side of another building. Overhead there are long tubes filled with hue-changing light which fly by. Spinning cubes split apart spinning and reassemble. Soon enough, the "floor" falls behind him as the sky-road spins him in a loop before sending him running upside-down.

Large holograms in the 'sky' show Sonic's face and body, with a large amount of text presumably demanding cooperation in his capture or death.

Surely enough, he is soon surrounded by attackers. They come in vehicles or with jetpacks, surrounding him on all sides with fire and even throwing hazards in front of him to stop him. Even those from far away shoot at him.

As if that's not enough, the buildings around Sonic will move to isolate him on a single building, trap him between several or even crush him. Horizontal and vertical slices displace underneath him, adding to the chaos. Sonic must carefully platform between the gaps as well as wall-jump up them to keep his direction. Before reaching the edge of a surface he must jump to avoid the sky road, which would otherwise send him down a path away from the center.

If Sonic finds an entrance into a building, he may find a drop in the heat against him, but not always. Some are filled with people who run away from him, his pursuers relenting to prevent civilian casualties. In other empty ones he is attacked from both sides, sometimes with the floor splitting open before him. Others have much more conventional surfaces, static and metal, although they still reflect the high level of technological prowess the Zexakal have. These are filled with echidna soldiers, including a few Shard users, and have turrets in the walls and ceiling which fire at him. They then detach after Sonic passes them and chase him down on wheels. The hallways inside buildings require no platforming, although they may occasionally spin and turn wildly. In the internal spaces, however, there could be a variety of platforms that he must cross to get through.

After a while Sonic comes to the other side of the one building. In front of him is a transparent wall supported by an expressionist structure, behind which are what seems like 5 layers of shifting walls. Sonic turns around, only to see a hemisphere of attackers closing in. He runs to the edge of the platform he is on to jump off, but more platforms attach to it first. Anywhere he tries to go, more floor stands before him. Sonic is trapped!

.

The soldiers land and pile around him. They point their guns at him with angry scowls, some shouting threats and epithets. A few take out seemingly obsolete blades, hungrily thinking of a way to torture the god-killer.

An echidna drops between Sonic and the soldiers. He has short dreads and green skin, wearing a sleek black suit with thin, smooth armor pieces. He holds out his hand. "Stop, fools! You think you can so much as touch this criminal? Would you forfeit your lives so idiotically? Morons!" It seems to have stopped their advance, but they were still ranting amongst themselves. The echidna turns to face Sonic.

"I'll be able to kill him," he smirks.

"Another Crystal Guardian? You're the fourth one now. Do you really think you stand a chance? Give it up," Sonic replies.

"I am stronger than Shalot, Kirax, and Mila. You've got the force of a natural disaster, but your failed assumption is thinking we haven't suffered those before! What's more, you've disgraced our entire civilization, from our ancestors to our religion! You recklessly ravage our honor and leave a road of destruction behind you. You think we'll just let you go?! Fool!"

"Fine. Then attack me, all of you. I'll just smash you all to pieces and then, after that, defeat your leaders."

There were several gasps and curses, but the crowd did not lose its anger and starts stomping towards him.

Again the Guardian turns and holds out his hand with his ring and pinky tucked. The crowd stops completely and looks wide-eyed at him. "I order you dumb mother fuckers to stop right now. This is a battle for us!" They hesitate. "No, better yet, leave me! At once!" There is a collective shudder and after a few stunned seconds they turn and quickly flee.

He faces Sonic again. "I will give you this, hedgehog. You give your species and the False Mobians a single example of one who excels beyond their weaker capacities. You are a testament to the power of the individual." He holds out both his hands, palms facing up. "It's a shame we do not live in peaceful times." He raises his hands.

"You would have made the finest slave." He thrusts his hands to the side, and the floor beneath them flies away in pieces. They fall.

.

[Act 10 Boss]

Sonic falls back to the wall and spins forward just once, his legs thrusting out to the surface and he starts running down the wall which is always changing inside. The floating buildings pass by above him. The Guardian turns his body around to face him. They will go down for quite a while.

The Guardian moves around simply by tugging his body in one direction and he moves that way. He may occasionally tug it sharply, causing him to disintegrate into a ball of energy that at almost-light speeds moves to another point via floating invisible conduits.

He first attacks by throwing his arm forward, opening his fingers wide as his hand slaps against the air. Electricity moves out on a plane in perpendicular branching currents from the epicenter, a circle circumscribed with Zexakal characters and icons. Then energy gathers and is fired outwards. These are his projectile attacks:

- A yellow cylinder beam parallel to the 'floor'.

- A horizontal column of purple rings also parallel to the floor (Sonic must jump or fly through them if he cannot avoid them).

- Rapidly-fired rods of red and blue beams that he fires in intersecting waves.

- Sprays and bursts of green and orange pellets.

Sonic must run up past the attacks and hit him just once. However, he has defensive attacks too:

- He first puts his hands far in front, his palms facing him. A seal forms and he pulls it towards him, as a wall of energy appears behind Sonic, always a certain distance away from him regardless of speed.

- The Guardian then puts his hands by his waist, palms up, and above a hand another seal forms in the air. He pushes it upwards, and a virtual pulse becomes visible and rises. He stops, turns his hand and slaps it forward, and the pulse slides towards Sonic who must jump over it.

- After vaulting one, the Guardian is finished making another of a different height and sends that forward.

Occasionally, his hand will tremble as he lifts it for one of these three attacks and consequently the pulse will have its wire mesh faded and shaky in some places which Sonic can spin attack through.

If Sonic cannot hit him after a short period, the Guardian stops creating the obstacles and instead sways his hands in gentle curves. A virtual road appears underneath him, rising and dropping in gentle and sharp hills. He compresses his two hands together as light envelops them.

- After a short moment he throws his hands forward, sending out many flying virtual-robots that attempt to run into Sonic.

- He charges again, and maybe instead he fires a large ion beam at Sonic's position.

If he is not hit in a short time, he returns to the earlier hurdle-wave creation.

.

After being hit, he drops to the floor and stands still, letting Sonic run to him before pretending to surprise attack him. After Sonic jumps over him and he disappears behind his view, he instantly reappears right before Sonic again for another attack, and continues at this speed. His new attacks are:

- A weak or strong punch

- A sweeping low, high or jumping kick

- Might suddenly flash with energy when he appears, with his next strike carrying an explosive shock of transferred electricity (with the sound of thunder) that even has shock effect against Super Sonic.

- Might do nothing or jump simply straight up. If Sonic runs into him, he grabs Sonic and pushes him against the wall as they fall down, having a short sap effect against Super form.

He will stop after a certain number of attacks, unless he takes 3 hits in which case he stops immediately. He then jumps back up and hovers in the sky, firing his projectiles again.

After 8 hits, the battle seems to be done as the bottom of Nexus finally appears. The lights are quickly snuffed out around him from a hyper-stylistic neo-utopia into cold metal, pipes and visible machinery, sooty, dusty, oily and rusty. Sonic slows himself down and they both land on the actual ground, cracking concrete that was already cracked.

.

Sonic looks ahead and sees they landed in front of a wide entrance into the wall, illuminated by vertical strips of harshly bright fluorescent lights. At the other side was a massive circular steel blast door. The Guardian zipped over there, and yelled out, "You're not going to get through, damn it! Die, you bastard, die!"

The Guardian will now be surrounded by an octahedron of seals, constantly spinning around him. Electricity constantly arcs from the octahedron into the ceiling and floor.

- Turrets suddenly pop out of tubes in both surfaces and use their wheels to drive towards Sonic while firing all the while.

- Occasionally virtual-bots are sent,

- and occasionally the Guardian shoots one of his four types of projectiles at him.

- As Sonic gets closer, bolts of lightning will arc to Sonic's position just after a short charge from the octahedron.

- A virtual road replaces the solid ground, and it constantly moves itself away from the Guardian like a conveyor belt.

Once Sonic gets close enough, he must hit the Guardian's shell 4 times before it breaks. Thereafter, he must strike him directly. Sonic can get in 3 direct hits before he recovers his shield.

.

After another 8 hits, the Guardian collapses to his knees, his arms at his side. "You're too powerful... It's not possible."

Sonic walks forward. "I told you. Now open this door, or I'll do it myself."

"It's not over yet, foolish hedgehog! Ha ha!" He looks behind him, and Sonic turns to see soldiers crowding the entrance along with robots of all sorts and sizes, all aiming their weapons at Sonic.

"You can't go anywhere else. Did you forget about walls, hmm?! Ahaha (cough) ha..."

One of the soldiers, wearing large, burdensome, but shiny armor pretty easily, with long dreads adorned with rings and silk sleeves and dark red, almost burnt, skin majestically walks in. The other soldiers look at him with awe and joy. He comes up behind Sonic.

"...very impressive, I will admit. You are a radiant example of possibility to the lower types. You embody a spirit of unwavering individual and social justice. Your poverty of image only amplifies the inferno of power within you. I must say... very impressive, indeed."

"Why should I care what you think? Are you another Guardian wanting to lose?"

"I am a Crystal Guardian, yes. You should know what I think as it is the last thing you will know before I kill you here."

Sonic didn't even smirk. "You guys are just stupid."

The Guardian pulls out a massive broadsword glimmering with Black Stones from the scabbard on his wide back. "Insolence. Your reign of terror ends now!"

Just then, the ground moves extremely suddenly, throwing everyone to their feet. The ground shakes violently, with everything clattering as it bangs against each other. Sonic tries to put his hand on the ground but it shakes away under him. He hears yells and screams from the soldiers and turns his head, seeing chunks of material fall all around them. He sees a distant building oscillating so strongly that it cracks from its base and tips over. He looks at the other Guardian, whose sword was thrown a few meters away from him. The Guardian looked at him sternly before trying to get up, himself.

There is a loud crack, a snap like a thunderbolt but with the fading presence of an ocean wave. It is followed by rumbling, and Sonic turns to watch as the wall holding the door moves away from him. Rocks and boulders crumble and fall into the massive chasm that opens up before him. He uses the sides of his arms to crawl towards it. He turns back to see the Guardian crawling at a faster rate, his eyes set on him. Sonic keeps on crawling until he reaches the edge, looking over it and seeing darkness. He looks above, and sees a tiny line of light from the light-polluted sky. He is about to pull himself into the chasm when he feels his leg suddenly grabbed.

He turns and sees the first Guardian, tired and beaten, using his entire energy in firmly keeping him down. He is smiling.

"You're the fool. Do you think even an earthquake of this magnitude could stop me?" Sonic asks rhetorically.

He then transforms into Super Sonic, and the Guardian immediately withdraws his hand, screaming and blowing at it as if burnt. Super Sonic then pulls himself into the air and flies over and into the chasm. He is about to move up when he sees the light snuffed out as a solid ceiling of junk compressed to fit the narrow cliffs of the division slid down to crush him. So Sonic makes himself fly downwards, into the vast darkness ahead of him.

.

Ominous Ore [Act 1] (8/38)

Super Sonic sees red light glow far underneath him. It grows as he approaches, and the echoes of its popping bubbles and spewing jets, Sonic recognized it as magma. His eyes flit between both sides of the chasm which rush by him into the crushing ceiling above. He is pressed down closer and closer to the heat, unable to find any way out. Sonic's heart pounds. There are no holes nor cracks even up to the molten rock. He keeps looking at both sides, but there is nothing. He flies forward into the chasm, but there is no change. Sonic has little time left to think as the ceiling slides with its tremendous weight directly behind him. Sonic flies fast and deep into the hot goop, his speed significantly reduced by the semi-hardened viscosity.

Sonic flies through the magma but suddenly feels a powerful wave of the stuff behind him, pushing him rapidly forward as if a massive amount was just displaced. Sonic can barely gain control until he hears a large slam, feels the recoil as he hears solid rock explosively give way. And then Sonic feels cold, fresh air on his skin before opening his eyes. He is in free-fall alongside the spurting lava inside a cavern with a larger magma pool far below. He sees interlinked islands of cooled rock criss-crossing the pool over to a more narrow cavern in the distance. He lands on the closest solid platform.

He runs on whatever solid ground he can find, jumping between platforms, some of which sink under his weight into the magma. He crosses the pool rather easily, entering the cavern occasionally lit by lavafalls locked behind a mesh of stalactites and stalagmites. It opens into a massive but narrow split in the earth, with a lavafall directly in front, falling to a turbulent flow far below. He wall-jumps on what little safe rocks there are until he can enter another cavern.

He is immediately attacked by robotic beasts of all shapes, sizes and speeds. They fly, pounce and lounge at him with steel claws and fangs, and he destroys them.

He jumps off the stalagmites, into a vertical tunnel which he wall-jumps up until he breaks through a boulder in a new cavern, lit by a few clumsy fires. He sees marks in the walls, and turns to see them. Cave drawings of animals.

Sonic furrows his brow, turns. He sees the fires disappear like dispelled hallucinations, one by one. He sees something in the fast approaching darkness, large beings with terrible eyes of power. They are running towards him. Wasting no time, just as the last fire disappears, Sonic transforms, flooding the caverns with sudden, golden light.

He is attacked by ancient echidnas seemingly of a different species altogether. They bore massive bodies and arms, which came smashing down at Sonic. If he doesn't evade the attack, the power of the attack will be enough to push Sonic backwards. He beats his way through the horde towards what looks like the sun's light up ahead.

He exits the cavern, finding himself on a slope of a mountain overlooking a large valley filled with lush flora he's never seen before. The air is filled with sounds of many different animals, chirps, whistles, roars, screeches, and croaks. He then hears the growls and screams of the echidnas and turns around, seeing them charge at full speed to kill him. Sonic runs as a few throw spears crafted from bluntly shaved branches and sharpened arrowheads. Navigating the landscape and avoiding the predators, Sonic reaches the other side of the valley, which opens to a wide plain.

Far in the distance, Sonic sees a group of small buildings lying on the horizon. "What is going on here? Am I..." Sonic thinks. He runs to them.

They look at him curiously. They stop whatever they were doing and walk up to him. They speak in a very strange language with intonations he's never heard before. He looks around as they surround him, wearing only a few large pieces of rough clothing, holding simply designed wood tools.

Sonic then turns to see a tall, adult male echidna who strides forth with a completely different color, almost as if with pride. The crowd opens up and stares at him. He looks at Sonic.

"Qraj. Know mind, know tongue. Listen. Awaken."

Sonic looks around. He says, "...okay..."

"One day, five hundred movings. Meat, grain, wood, clay, fur, get, make, use, store. Stories come, go, become. People born, grow, live, pray, die. Bad. Good."

Sonic stopped listening and instead pays attention to distant trampling of the ground. "Unsame. Strange. Go." He runs to the side of the village and stops suddenly. Sonic sees a large dust cloud rising behind an approaching wave of creatures. Qraj shouts to the other villagers. They start hurrying around, rallying at that side of the huts with their simple weapons in hand.

Qraj says, "Help fight." Sonic, however, is suddenly confused to see that the attackers are hedgehogs! He looks at Qraj questioningly, who doesn't seem to notice. Sonic thinks for a moment, and then says out loud, "This is just a virtual reality program, isn't it? I know someone is controlling this thing! Come out with it!"

Qraj's head suddenly, coldly turns to Sonic, and says, "Oh, you caught me," in a voice Sonic recognizes.

"Core!"

.

Everything else suddenly freezes except for Sonic and Qraj, whose body pixellates and disintegrates into an anthropomorphic shape of chaotic static. Sonic immediately runs forward and tries to attack it. Core says, "Surprise?" Sonic then smiles and jumps to the side, avoiding Core's attack of an explosive blast that ripped open where he once was. He jumps to strike her next but she disappears. Sonic looks around but does not find her.

Instead, he hears her synthesized voice floating in the air, saying, "To assist in my executable functions, I have been given the ability to hate. I hate you, Sonic the god-killer. I have designed a map of strategies to make you experience maximum "suffering". As defined by the Zexesh, the first 'punishment' of any criminal is to "relive" the "Zexakal past" so as to "be fully aware of the context" You must "survive" this "re-education program" until the "contemporary period" to progress to the second 'punishment'. Yo-" "Shut up! Why don't you just kill me, you piece of scrap!"

Core pauses. "Death is too easy," she says and disappears, not responding again.

"Zexa! Help!"

Sonic turns around, seeing an echidna with an elongated head and golden skin walking away from a simple red echidna to the large gang of hedgehogs that have now reached the village. Most tuck into balls and tumble into the echidnas, cutting and piercing them with their sharp quills. One rolls up behind Zaga, untucks, leaps and screeches as it is about to pounce him. Zaga simply spins his leg around and swings it swiftly into the hedgehog's temple. It's sent flying, hurtling and rolling across the ground until inertia brings its body to rest.

"This is ridiculous," Sonic says. "I can't be wasting any time... how do I get out of here?!" He turns his head in several directions before simply running in a single direction. Within seconds, he turns his head and sees the village disappear behind him.

Turning his head again, he finds himself approaching a town, much larger and with more rigid structure. Sonic walks on the cobblestone, only to suddenly hear, "Sire!" He turns, seeing an echidna in robes and sandals running, shouting, "You have almost become late! Come with me to the prayer house!" Sonic watches him as he runs past, towards a white building with a tall spire where many echidnas are congregating. Another echidna, an older one, talks to him as he walks by. He says, "Zexagalaxius is not just one. He is all." A younger man walking behind him looks at him and says, "Like Zexagalaxius was all and was also Zexa, so are we ourselves but also Zexagalaxius."

Sonic stares at them. He then ran towards an alley out of the street when a man exits the side of a building. "Oh, but where are you going, friend?"

Aghast, Sonic backsteps and quickly blasts down the road, through byways until he reached the outside of the city again. He is surrounded by hard sand that stretched on for as far as he could see. The sky is a pure blue. Looking at it, however, Sonic suddenly notices that it is filled with large stars, despite not being night. He watches the stars grow larger, until he realizes they are growing too fast. He runs back inside the city, searching for the church, until he does and bursts through the door.

He is met with many bewildered stares, and then says to them, "From the sky-" before tremendous explosions and shockwaves sent everyone hurtling around the room. Sonic crawls out of the building to see the sky full of falling meteors, falling everywhere at once. He hears someone shout, "Zexa is returning! He is coming back for us from the heavens!"

"The Black Stones..." Sonic murmurs, before realizing he's in a simulation, and quickly turns and runs back out of the city. Just as rapidly as they came, the meteors stop falling. Sonic runs, but sees an echidna standing over a crater. He jumps in. Sonic stops for a moment and says, "What are you doing? Those things could kill you!" The echidna does not turn as it waves its hands in front of it. It responds, "It gives me power... by not being afraid of it... I am becoming like Zaga..."

Sonic smirks. "It is rather ingenious...!" He continues to run on.

The featureless landscape reveals another small town with a large fence, its central gate being guarded by two echidnas wearing bronze armor. "Traveler, you come to the domain of Zexesh, the very son of Zexa!"

Sonic turns away while saying, "Just an echidna with a single Black Stone. I guess that was rare at first."

"Do my ears deceive me? Heathen! Did you speak against the great master-lord?!" The two guards withdraw their swords.

Sonic just runs away. He soon sees the textureless ground become filled with verdant grass and brush. Even a few trees spring up from the former wasteland. Sonic keeps on running, eventually coming upon a hill overlooking a large city. It is centralized around a single tower. Sonic remarks, "This is awfully familiar..."

As he approaches the city he notices the technology has improved more than exponentially. There are many lampposts, unified architecture and even automatic traffic signs. More remarkably, along with the echidnas in stiff coats and demeanors, the sidewalks and roads are filled with automatons. They were mostly simple creatures with a simple range of activity with bodies that reflect such intentional design. Large robots carry large cargo, person-sized robots follow their masters, and smaller ones zip down streets looking for surfaces to clean and trash to pick up.

A portly man in a black suit catches Sonic's eye looking at them. He chortles, and says, "You must not be from around here, eh? These things are quite normal for us. Why, they are a testament to the New Spirit of our Great Age."

"The New Spirit?" Sonic asks.

"I suppose you know quite well of the old traditions, circumscribing the authority of the Old Zexesh, those Zexakal who took the Black Stones whenst first they landed and became gods amongst men."

Sonic makes quick glances around. He wonders if this conversation is worth it. "Certainly."

The man continues, "Well, not too long ago there were a group of intellectuals whose demand for their responsibility resulted in their sudden and brutal persecution. The Black Stones which had rained across the world were horded by the Old Zexesh so as to preserve their power. These intellectuals clamored amongst the people to take back the Black Stones and cast off the mental fetters of the ancients. And so it was done."

He opens his arms and points to various structures and devices around them. "With Black Stones as a common resource, our happiness was guaranteed, but further, they made great leaps and bounds in technology, science and commerce to boost our quality of life to such extraordinary levels. They easily became our new leaders. The New Zexesh. And under their guidance we reject the ancient ways in pursuit of growth! It is the New Spirit, so to say. It is why the old name of Zexaros has been replaced with that of Nexus."

Sonic, whose attention was elsewhere, suddenly looks back at the man. "Nexus? That's here?" He suddenly looks to the tower, which despite being miniscule in comparison to the real one, stood much taller than the 2-4 story buildings around him. He then realizes that right now, he is somewhere underneath the real Infinity Tower. He realizes that is where the real Zexesh are, the ones he must stop at all costs. He is recalling how the surface of Mobius looked when Mechanix was resurrecting Old Mobius when from the man he hears, "...Black Emerald."

Sonic then looks at him again, and asks, "What did you say?"

The man cocks an eyebrow and says, "I said, 'We have such a wealth of Black Stones here that the New Zexesh decreed 89% of the reserves to be carried to the ever-falling laboratory that revolves 'round the heavens (another testament to the New Spirit), so that they can be compressed evenly into a single object which they call the Black Emerald.'"

Sonic thinks to himself, "So the Black Emerald was the first to be created?"

"Wait, whatever, I don't have time for this!" Sonic suddenly shouts, surprising the man and people around him, and jets off to find an exit to the city.

Sonic makes his way through the streets, cutting a path through the crowds until he comes to the industrial area, with its tall smokestacks pumping soot into the sky. From behind a wooden fence he can see the long lines of laborers pushing coal in wheelbarrows, sweaty and grimy, while armed echidnas in tight uniforms patrol around them. Sonic is reminded again of the slave labor he witnessed in the real world. He turns, about to run, when he finds himself surrounded by echidnas in large black cloaks with hoods concealing their faces.

Before he can respond, one of them speaks, "This is how New Spirit works. Behind its 'egalitarianism', behind its 'intellectualism' and its 'growth', are these workers. They suffer much at these jobs. Even now they are being replaced with work dolls. Most of their brothers are in the slums, in the darkest alleys and corners breaking the law every day by stealing uneaten food from rubbish. Meanwhile, the upper city folk pride themselves on 'progress', most of them unaware of how it is even made. And oh, the New Zexesh, on top of it all, having masterfully created this web of illusions and usury!"

Sonic, realizing this must be another interactive history lesson, tries to escape without a sound, but the other echidnas have made a circle around him. He turns to the speaker, and rhetorically asks, "You prefer the Old Zexesh?"

"Indeed, for they preserved our holy ancestry with Zexa! All of our traditions were unique to each family, yet unified in their essential piety! Now! Alas, now, there are no traditions but only routines, customized to the interests of each individual, yet nearly identical to every other! It is disgusting to even consider these proponents of the New Spirit as my brothers, they pervert the Zexakal so much. But I know that they have been misled by false prophets, the New Zexesh, who must singularly be judged by the sword of Zexa!"

Sonic is tapping his foot. "Cool, cool. Can you let me go now?"

The echidnas wordlessly open a hole in their rows. The speaker says, "The Old Zexesh shall return, heed my words!"

Sonic is already gone. He follows the industrial area to its edge, crosses a few bridges over rivers and streams until he reaches the edge of the city. He stops for a moment, and shouts, "Core, this is really stupid! Are you even going to try and kill me?!"

Just as he says that, he hears feathers bristle in the air. He instinctively blinks and moves his head to the left as an arrow flies past him, firmly planting into the soft ground. He opens his eyes, just a split-second later, to be immersed in darkness. It is night. He turns around to the source of the arrow but sees nothing. Yet again, he hears the arrow first and leaps backwards, only to push himself forward just quick enough to avoid another arrow. Realizing his predicament, he turns away and runs as a sudden rain of arrows falls all around him. He realizes he is heading back to the virtual Nexus.

Upon entering the city, Sonic notices the activity is much lighter, consisting solely of small cleaning and light robots. He runs around but finds no one. He then hears quick shuffling of heavy robes, and runs up the side of a wall and leaps over a building onto the roof of the one across the road. "There they are!" Sonic says. "They did get it!" He says, seeing the Black Emerald in one of their hands.

Sonic then suddenly realizes, "Wait, I felt where the Black Emerald was. No, but I'm not in Hyper mode... No, now that I'm noticing it... I feel a tug from where these Black Stones are around me... When did this happen...?"

Sonic then notices the last person of their intimidating (taciturn?) group holding something else. He carries a cloth bag of a strange shape with both hands, seemingly caring a lot less about being discreet. Sonic watches them turn a corner and split up, but just as he thinks about chasing a group, he hears more rustling feathers. He leaps forward off the building and into its shadow. He looks up and sees a few arrows flying as close as possible to the edge of the building. They stop. He looks back down, takes a breath of relief and thinks, "Man, they are good."

Just as he thinks that, he rolls to the side as an arrow lands straight downwards from where his head was. He looks up, and sees standing on the roof a quickly increasing number of echidnas who did not wear armor, with fiery red skin that seemed to burn and glow. Their speed and apparent strength made Sonic, for the first time in a while, feel threatened. He recoils backwards, before turning and running, only to find all of the streets ahead cut off by more of these echidnas, all of them with weapons in hand. However, they do not attack him further.

Sonic hesitates, and looks around for a way out. Sonic has to transform, but he has no power rings.

.

Suddenly, he realizes that he hasn't seen a single ring this entire time. He realizes once again that the reality he is experiencing is fake. Then, a voice shouts from a rooftop. The others all look in one direction. Then there is a massive fireball from something in the city exploding into the sky. This drives the echidnas into a frenzy, but a second afterward there is an increasing noise of multiple klaxons occurring simultaneously. The constant sound became piercingly loud as its focus passes over the surrounding area. The echidnas then start attacking in the streets ahead, most of them forgetting about Sonic entirely onto some unseen enemy. He looks around and then makes a break for it, glancing at what they changed their attention on, Sonic sees columns of soldiers marching closer while firing a steady stream of bullets.

He wall-jumps up a small building and runs on the rooftops. He looks into the night sky above, but sees nothing attacking him. For once, he is safe on higher ground. He then sees some of the echidnas jump up, as well. Some go around the city echidnas while others head straight for him. Suddenly, the power in the city grid shuts off block by block. He starts hearing screaming, and an increasing hubbub from the city. He looks back again only to see a building explode. As he turns his head back, he catches a glimpse of a fox walking down a street with two guards. Sonic comes to a wide street separating him from the other buildings. He looks at it for a moment and then ducks, seeing the powerful echidnas dashing through the street. He follows them with his eyes, seeing them run straight to the fox! He hears a death cry pierce the air, and looks over to see the foxes motionless on the ground save one who crawls away, talking into some device. Sonic realizes again where he actually is and looks away.

"There's no time for this..." he thinks and continues running.

He sees city Zexakal surging out of doorways, armed and not very well protected. They immediately fire at their targets, the attacking warrior echidnas who are stopped and hold back against the superior technology. Sonic, unwilling to get caught in the crossfire, moves in a different direction, only to see soldiers bearing heavier armor and weapons. They kneel behind corners and planted bullet shields, firing rapid bursts into a crowd of the cloaked echidnas Sonic ran into earlier. A division heads off to the other fight, where they start firing indiscriminately at both the militias and the attackers. Sonic runs turns again, only to see a fourth group approach the city on electric vehicles. They launch rockets, mortars and napalm into the city, exploding onto rooftops before Sonic. On reaching the city, Sonic sees that it is the fox army. The city's military, although caught off guard, quickly responds back and their infantries clash in the outer districts.

Sonic is about to decide to push through them when he hears a man shouting through a powerful megaphone far behind him.

"False Zexesh! We, the members of the Society of the Ancients demand you appear before the Infinity Tower, with no weapons nor accompaniment! We have in our possession the Origin Device! Do not resist us or we will activate it!"

Sonic, drawn by this event, comes to the edge of the Tower, situated in the center of a wide marble plaza with fountains and suspended gardens. He sees a group of echidnas in tailored, sharp dress walk calmly towards the entrance. He overhears talk of strategy and tactics, particularly hearing, "martial law" and "strike force". Meanwhile, the echidna with the megaphone leaning over a handrail shouts, "Listen to me! We desire three things to be executed without compromise! One: that the old institutions, of religion, politics, education and so on, are all reinstated and replace the new ones! Two: that I, Iopa, descendant of Zexesh Moklero, become the new, single Zexesh! Three: that all Black Stones be no longer profaned by unholy hands and Black Stone technology be restricted solely to the providence and use of the single Zexesh!"

Sonic looks at the other echidnas standing next to Iopa, who nonetheless wielded advanced melee and projectile weapons. The irony made him snicker.

"We accede to your demands!" another voice shouts from below, from one of the New Zexesh holding another megaphone.

"Then come to us, and do so alone! We shall inflict severe wounds upon you, such that you will never forget your promises made to us and the True Zexesh today!"

One of the New Zexesh, wearing more modest cloth, says loudly and clearly to his peers, "All kings face such apocalyptic turmoil as us. We will survive. But, how we act at these moments will live on much longer." Sonic observes him carefully, finding him rather familiar.

He then turns and walks through the massive double door into the base of the Infinity Tower, as black-clad echidnas sidle along the outer walls and quietly sneak in with him. Just then, an officer in a highly decorated uniform appears before the other New Zexesh. They turn and listen to his report as to how the supply lines were cut off by the foxes, and how they have no choice but to surrender or be eradicated by the triple threat.

The New Zexesh then intently deliberate the matter to each other in hushed tones, sometimes sparked by anger or sadness. The one with the megaphone replies that they must seek peace, and the officer nods, salutes, and promptly walks back to his own men.

Sonic looks around and for a moment, the city is still. There is a very chilling silence. Yet, the entire situation begs for resolution, like a log teetering over a precipitous edge. He hears cheers rising from echidnas around the city, proclaiming and exclaiming, happy tones marked by whoops and laughs.

An earth-shattering explosion knocks Sonic to his feet. He can only hear a shrieking noise piercing his ears. He feels himself immersed in heat, and turns to witness a massive blazing inferno explode upwards from a large underground facility. The fireball shoots into the sky, throwing pieces of metal and stone far around it. He sees people running away, covered in sweat and burns, although some lose energy very quickly and fall down unmoving. The high-pitched sound fades away as he hears death cries of men behind him. He turns again to see one of the strike troops hurtling from the balcony of the Tower. Looking to its top, he sees bodies lying around the Society, and the New Zexesh is held at his knees with a gun to his head.

"Look, your forces are defeated, your city is in flames, and one of your lives is in our grasp. Your era is over!" Iopa shouts.

The other New Zexesh talk to each other in fearful tones. They invent hasty solutions only for another to shoot them down as flawed and counter-productive. Then the megaphone is passed to the captured New Zexesh. He stands and walks before even Iopa, and says, "I told them about the strike force long before this encounter."

The others stop talking and look at their peer with incredulity. "Indeed, I wanted it to fail. Now, repeat your demands, Iopa. We have no recourse but to accept them."

Sonic watches the group on the ground squabble amongst themselves, throwing accusations and making suppositions. Iopa repeats his words from before ad verbatim, shouting over the screams of the city and the roar of the flames. He looks to the other side of the building to see the crowd being deflected by the last line of military, to prevent them from entering the central plaza. They held their ground but the pressure of the crazed multitude began to push them back.

Again, just as Sonic looks away he hears screams behind him. He turns to see the cloaked echidnas instead flying off of the balcony, landing violently on the eaves of the Tower and the hard ground far below. Sonic darts his eyes up, seeing the philosopher Zexesh attacking each and every one with a combination of abnormally fast physical strikes and powerful bursts of energy, executed with skill and finesse that put the Crystal Guardians to shame. Despite having weapons, all of the cloaked echidnas are killed in less than a minute.

His peers are stunned, and then become shocked and lose all sense of tact and propriety quite suddenly, shouting profanities and commands at the philosopher. Sonic watches him, who picks up the Black Emerald and places it firmly into the Origin Device. He speaks through the megaphone.

"Indeed, I told them where the Black Emerald and Origin Device were. I knew I could never do this unless all of you and your men were sufficiently distracted. I see you speak against me, but I do not hear it. Alas, is that your people behind you?"

As he says, the crowds finally break through the lines and flood into the plaza. The New Zexesh try to run away but are quickly consumed by the mob which throws all its energy into eliminating them. After a few brutal seconds, the philosopher speaks again, drawing their attention away.

"The world shall be wiped clean, and all who live upon its surface shall die." As he says it, a massive hole suddenly tears in the sky, glowing very bright as a curved surface emerges. It slowly pulls itself out of nothingness, and the people are frozen in awe despite the fire spreading around the city.

"This is Chaos. It is pure energy. In a few months, it will lose its structure instantly, and explode. Nearly everything will die."

Chaos fully reveals itself from the hole, which closes up behind it. It is a perfect sphere, its surface covered with colored, amorphous, flowing shapes. It seems placid, almost peaceful, despite what he said. The crowd, regaining its fervor, start hurling words out all at once.

The man speaks once more, "The Great Age is no more! Rightfully so, only those who can survive deserve to survive!" He throws the megaphone down and stomps on it, then disappears into the Tower.

Sonic, having gained no useful knowledge from experiencing this event, however truthful it was portrayed, decides to leave. And so he does, escaping the burning city and heading towards the mountains far away. On his way, he looks around, seeing lakes, forests and mountains he didn't recognize around the present-day Nexus.

.

Upon reaching the hills he sees an artificial cave dug into the slope, guarded by some of the powerful echidnas he met before. There was a large flat platform on wheels that had some crates on it, along with a pot boiling water on top of a small fire. One of them tells him that he should not be out on the surface for much longer. Sonic continues inward on the smooth ground, with walls lit in constant distances by torches. It is nearly identical to Torch Temple. The tunnel slopes downward and through a large stone entrance enters into a massive underground city. Sonic suddenly stops, and says aloud, "This is like Ka'ralei..."

A nearby man who was staring at the entrance says, "That is because we Anazze have assisted in the construction of all of the underground world, despite our former hostility to the Zexakal. We are not above our brothers, especially come times of difficulty."

Sonic recognizes the word, 'Anazze', but it seemed so long ago since he last heard it. He racks his memory, trying to find a connection. Upon thinking the word, 'connection', he remembers Zaga not explaining the connection between the Anazze and the Elders. He remembers it was in that hideout in the Misty Mountains. He turns to the man and asks, "You say you are not Zexakal... so do you not believe in Zexagalaxius?"

The man suddenly disappears. It happens instantly, but before Sonic could even think about it, the earth shook violently, again throwing Sonic to his feet. This time, however, the shaking does not stop. He hears shouts from up the tunnel and sees the Anazze guards riding the platform down the slope at high speeds, without much care for the cargo falling behind. They yell incessantly to drop the gate, and the echidna Sonic was talking to runs over to the side of the entrance. He yanks a thick cord, and suddenly a large iron slab slides down the two stone pillars aside the entrance and slams into the ground. Sonic then realizes he is shut with them, perhaps with no other way out, and tries to get to his feet. But the shaking continues and even increases in ferocity. There is a very low-pitched rumble that Sonic could feel shake his innards. Sonic assumes that Chaos had erupted.

After a few minutes, the ground stops moving. A large group of people suddenly appears behind him. The Anazze guard with the help of a few others pulls the cord again, lifting the gate. A few scientists go first. They return fairly quickly, gasping for breath, covered in burns. They tell the crowd that they absolutely cannot escape and recommend that the gates be closed permanently. They begin explaining about the air being full of radiation, only to be met by fierce cries. People run past them, desperate to return to the old world, while the scientists implore them to resist. The entire population does not heed them, crowding into the tunnels to escape.

Sure enough, panic returns like a boomerang from the entrance. People scream and beat each other to get back in with the frenzy of a fight-or-flight response. Sonic watches as the air seems to glow and become white, fast approaching the underground city. The echidnas within it quickly lose energy and collapse. A stampede heads towards him, and Sonic just barely gets out of the way as the panic leads to rioting. The scientists are attacked by mobs, but Sonic cannot help them as he, too, is chased, being called an 'alien' and 'outsider'.

He escapes the people by climbing up the buildings towards the center of the city. He then hears a familiar voice again, and sees the philosopher speaking on a pedestal to the angry masses. He decries the modern ways and modern technology, demanding that their Elders are reinstated as the traditional leaders. He orders all of the intelligentsia to be rounded up and to serve them. The existing military does so rather quickly, and he commands a selection of them to find the Black Emerald and to cast it away in space. They are not given time to decide, and are directed at gunpoint to a very narrow pathway that connects to the underground of Nexus. Sonic follows them.

Almost instantly, they are there. Yet as soon as they reach the massive cavern, part of which was covered in darkness despite the immense lighting of the undercity, they are forced to take a tunnel back to the surface. Sonic unmistakeably sees the Infinity Tower again in the center, despite originally being above ground. The gate, heavily guarded, is open for them, and Sonic runs and rolls under it before it closes.

Outside, the ground and sky are oversaturated, almost being completely white. All plant life is disintegrated, all soil is burnt, all water evaporated, and even the mountains are ripped to pieces. Sonic feels nothing, but he watches the scientists grimace and wince as their bodies succumb to the Air. They orientate themselves and head towards the epicenter of the blast.

In the center of a very wide and deep hemispherical crater lies the Black Emerald, completely intact. Although they were severely weakened, just holding the Emerald made the person seemingly immune to the Air. So they constantly hand it to each other as they move towards the next location.

For some reason, despite the long and intricate conversations they had on the way, Sonic remembers nothing from the trip, and as if it never happened, he finds himself walking into the passenger compartment of a rocket ship in an advanced underground launch base. Nobody talks to him, or is even aware of his presence. Sonic feels very strange, watching the scientists become compressed into their seats without feeling any force on him at all as they launch into space.

The ship orbits Mobius, which looks very much like a giant marble sphere. They approach and dock at a large space station that Sonic recognizes. He follows them through corridors he ran through himself until they reach the teleportation room. The other scientists see to the new arrivals' health, while the creator of Eralus sets in the coordinates for where the Black Emerald to be sent. He does not notice Sonic. Without any pomp it is exiled, and the echidnas, now aware of the reactionary politics at home, commit to a life of scientific research for the day when their civilization becomes enlightened once again.

.

Then Sonic appears in a new room. Startled, he regains awareness and says, "Core... why don't you just try to kill me instead?"

There is no answer. He looks around, finding himself in darkness. After a while, he finds he's in an extremely wide room with a relatively low ceiling. Near his are a bunch of tubes that undulate, radiating from a central cylinder. Black Stones were embedded at regular intervals into multiple lines which lead to the point in the middle of it all. Despite their color, they seemed to glow. "...I guess you're just going to waste my time, then. Or make me waste my own time, I guess."

He looks at the figures crowding around the middle. There are very slight tapping and gyrating noises. Sonic walks a few steps before he hears, "Now!"

A switch is thrown, and Sonic hears a low hum quickly grow in volume. Light suddenly comes charging from the distant corners of the room, surging up the Black Stone lines in pulses. The imminent area becomes washed with light, and Sonic holds his hands over his eyes, closes them. He opens one eye, and as the light darkens sees a group of echidnas in large rubber coats.

"Mechanix! Live, now!" he shouts. Mechanix suddenly leaps above them, somersaulting in the air and lands in front of them, facing Sonic. Sonic is startled again as the group stare at him, but regains composure when he realizes that nobody seems to be aware of him. The echidnas applaud cheerfully and stop.

Sonic then sees that one of the echidnas, the man who spoke, clearly resembled Zaga. "He is ready, O Sons of Zexagalaxius."

Sonic then realizes at that moment that he didn't see the hedgehog inside Mechanix. "But why would they show it?" he thinks.

He sees Zaga face a group of old men in heavy cloaks, their faces obscured by the shadow of their thick hoods. One of them speaks through a low, grumbling, lisping voice. "Mechanix, do you heed me."

The robot turns to face the elder and nods.

"Once he leaves the underground, by our predictions the local gases will lose 99% of their radiation within just 3 days. From then-"

"Silence!" Another elder hissed. "All of you are no longer needed. Leave, at once!" There scientists are confused and murmur to themselves.

Suddenly Sonic hears Core's voice. "This was not possible. I cannot-"

"What if we refuse?" Zaga questions defiantly. The deep-voiced man responds, "Then you will die. Mechanix-" Mechanix already swung his arms, throwing slicing energy crescents at the scientists, but Zaga throws his hand forward and creates a deflecting energy barrier. The elders gasp and curse. "You heathen! You break the central law of our society, to embed Black Stones into your body! Do you claim yourself as Zexesh?"

Mechanix runs fast around Zaga, who uses his other arm to fire energy shots back at him. He starts running after him when he sees Mechanix chase down one of the scientists. He thrusts forward and stabs one through his back with his sharp fingers. "No!" Zaga shouts. Then the old Zexesh sprint around the room, with 3 surrounding Zaga. They each fire energy bursts which vaporize their targets, except for Zaga who jumps high above them and springs off the ceiling towards Sonic.

He glances at Sonic. "Follow me," and runs. Sonic, confused and surprised, of course decides to follow him. They run towards the far walls.

"No. No. No. No. No. No." Sonic hears Core say.

After a certain distance, Sonic looks back and sees all of the Zexesh and Mechanix chase them. Zaga speaks again. "Do not concern yourself in the passing of time in this simulation. Only seconds have truly passed."

They slide under a falling steel slab into a hallway. "But then... are you real?" Sonic asks.

"I am independent of the original simulation, a virtual avatar of Zaga, encoded with information he believes might be of benefit to you. As you may have noticed, this history is largely artificial, imposing a story of protagonists and antagonists where such a one never existed. I have inserted myself in order to aid your escape from this reality. It is designed to be followed throughout."

They turn a few sharp corners before entering into the open air of the underground city, standing at the precipice of a floor high above the streets. The stalactite-covered ceiling sends frantic shadows dancing wildly inside of each other. Sonic hears gunshots and screams.

"This is what really happened," Zaga says to Sonic. He watches as a large group of echidnas swarm the streets, some breaking property, many chanting and singing and yelling. Sonic recognizes the emotion swelling in the air. Zaga grabs him and pulls him behind a column as the Zexesh and Mechanix run out. The people, seeing them, suddenly turn their direction to the building and charge into it, some staying outside, wrapping their numbers around the circumference.

"This is not our people. They do not praise Zexa. They worship their false god, Logic. Listen, they demand the return of the False Zexesh. Sin has corrupted their minds entirely." The other Zexesh converse about how far their society has fallen.

Suddenly Sonic, who was looking around, says, "This place... this is Ka'ralei!"

Zaga whispers, "Indeed. You shall experience yourself the bloody-hand-roguery of these vile men, as I told you so long ago."

"It is settled. Mechanix, we order you to go to each city of the world and destroy everything that is against the Order of Zaga and his Sons. If everyone dies, so be the will of Zaga!"

Mechanix nods, then leaps off the building. He falls towards the crowd, swinging his arms before slamming them into the natural stone floor, splitting it open. Sonic looks away as he hears sounds and voices cry sharply, amplified by the narrow streets. Zaga taps Sonic and gestures at another direction. They leap to the rooftop of a close building and wall-jump down an alley until they reach the street. They run down the roads, passing the clashes between the people and military, the people tied up and surrounded by the weapons of the military, and the many burning buildings. After a short while, Sonic notices they passed a collapsed landmark for the second time. He says, "Hey, Zaga! We're not going anywhere, you know!"

"I do know. There's nowhere to go. It was the same everywhere. But by moving, we make the time pass faster. Alas, look at that passageway to the connection to Migatch. This is the period where things got worse."

"Worse?" Sonic asks, then seeing a giant mass of creatures surge through the doorway. Their designs had an uncanny feeling with their elongated proportions and holistic, smooth shapes. Sonic immediately recognized the smaller ones bearing scythes on their arms, and the tanks with their buzz-saws. They scattered and spread out like vines, lines of them wrapping tightly around walls. The smaller ones pinned single echidnas down with their necks nicked by long, sharp blades. Like Mechanix, they had no hesitation to kill or destroy anything that got in their way.

Zaga then runs over to a large group of people and rallies them to freedom from all Zexesh. They quickly grow in numbers and stand their own against the attacking robots, as well as the Zexesh's army. The larger they grow, however, the more enemies attack them. Surely enough, Mechanix comes before them. The people almost instantly decide to flee, but Zaga steps forward and they all stay still in awe. For Mechanix had appeared when the people's emotions were at their highest, at the climax of a total social, political and economical revolution. This was also when the government was at its harshest, again losing all control when the people simply disobeys it. It was quickly proceeding to a deadly brutal totalitarian regime.

Mechanix was the central character amongst all of this, not out of any character he expressed (which was none). Mechanix could simply move down a street at such never before seen speeds, and his targets would die (often instantly). Nearly all of the people knew it was just the government's new perverse weapon in the shape of one of them, but it should be said there were an extremely small amount who instead worshiped this "cleanser of blood" as a death god championed in their favor, because they were supporters of the government. They keep this delusion despite their own people being killed.

At large, the population's numbers dropped dramatically, leaving the survivors feeling incredibly sad and also incredibly angry. And just the sound of Mechanix's mechanical body, the reminder that he exists, causes people to shiver and imagine Mechanix attacking right then, often sprinting towards them and then attacking, causing the hallucinating subject to faint. It was a constantly horrifying and terrifying time, and many people died just from never getting any sleep (and getting killed when they nod off).

But Zaga, the one who made him, who promised he would clean the Air, was not hated. No, not when people themselves saw Zaga help them with his "energetic" powers. There were many people compressed into this very dense but small city underground, people who believed in the New Zexesh because they appealed to an active intelligence and to peace, and people who believed in the Old Zexesh because they appealed to an active spirituality and to economic growth. They used to hate each other, desiring to destroy each other's institutions and goals in life. But now they were all being killed, and by the government. They could fight back, and die, but yet like a miracle Zaga stood between them and the murderers. Nobody died as Zaga routed their enemies. He encouraged total revolution and of helping them open their mind. Many people respected him, but again there were a small few who nearly worshiped him (often teenagers) because he was seen as a superhero. Nobody but the supporters of the government rejected him, who were extremely critical of a man who broke the central law of their society and was yet attracting people like a false god. This is the reasoning behind that elder talking about "sin".

So again, he stood before Mechanix. "Stop."

Mechanix did not move. Zaga walked closer to him. The people were speechless. Zaga walks around him and opens up a compartment, revealing a small screen and a key pad. He types in commands and then shuts the compartment again.

"I didn't know you were such an incredible guy, Zaga. You're almost as incredible as me," Sonic said, grinning.

"I did what I wanted. That's all. Mechanix! Do you heed me?"

Mechanix nodded. The crowd goes wild in cheers. "And now, Sonic, you will witness my first defeat. Now with the death god in our control, we can finally eliminate the Zexesh and free ourselves entirely of all control!" The crowd roars and screams in ecstatic joy. So Zaga runs and the people run behind him. They charge the streets and people inside see Mechanix leading them, deciding to drop whatever they were doing and went with them. The crowd quickly grows by the hundreds, flooding each street as they move towards the central tower. They charge in through the front doors, and Sonic thinks how it's like he's in the same scene. He looks up to see the Zexesh stand above. Mechanix and Zaga stop moving.

"Okay. I'm going to attack them directly. Continue up the building, and they will have nowhere to go!"

The crowd is mostly quiet, not understanding, until Zaga suddenly starts flying and so does Mechanix. They remain silent, lost in awe. Sonic shouts, "Hey, what?! Zaga, you jerk!" He transforms into Super form and flies above the people's heads. They fly towards the top of the Ka'ralei tower. The columns are entirely the same, but the rusted grating was simply a stone floor. The Elders stood before them wearing elaborate robes. There were seven of them, and Sonic instantly recognized the colors of their skins as the same as the Chaos Emeralds. For a moment, he was frozen by his observation, but then landed onto the floor next to Zaga and Mechanix.

"So you managed to get this far. I admit it, to drive us this powerfully in the endgame, using our main weapon against us, we were certain to have lost. But we have some pawns you forgot about."

Zaga looked over the sides of the floor and saw Old Zexesh supporters ambushing the people, cutting them off from the greater amoeba. He looked back at the Zexesh. "You cannot distract me. I am going to kill all of you."

"Try it," a familiar voice says. Sonic looks at the man, and recognizes the philosopher New Zexesh who activated Project Origin.

Zaga and Mechanix attack the seven Elders together, but they hold their own. Sonic tries to attack but he simply fades through them without feeling anything. He just steps back and returns to normal form, just watching. In a short time they overpower Mechanix and then Zaga. One tries to reprogram Mechanix, but he says, "He locked the hardware. We can't do anything with it now."

"It's fine," the philosopher says. "We don't need it anymore. Seal it away somewhere far from here."

"What about Zaga? Should I kill him?" said the Zexesh holding Zaga's neck to the floor.

The philosopher looks over at him. He kicks him in the face. "He's the most perfect echidna of this generation, despite being aimed against us. Yet he is a fossil, and his way of thought is obsolete. So we should fossilize him and perhaps enact some punishment when the entire population opposes his treason in the future."

"I was just thinking, Zaga. If you reprogrammed this simulation, then you must be somewhere in Nexus, right?" Sonic asked. Zaga turned his head and responded while the Zexesh joke to each other. "No, I was in the Infinity Tower and manipulated the code through Core's main console. At this moment I should be halfway up the Infinity Tower by now. By the time you reach it, I should be already entering the zenith. I will hold the Zexesh back but there's a chance I am overpowered again. And now..."

.

Zaga and the Zexesh and the floor and columns and ceiling and the entire tower and every building and even the cavern walls and all else just disappeared. Sonic is surrounded by darkness. "This time period was not in the original simulation. I learned of this period only by talking to the many independent echidnas in the modern world. The Elders won and demanded 100% enlistment into the military. Everyone was forced to do hard agricultural or manufacturing labor or be a soldier used to invade other lands. There were several peoples who managed to fend off the Ka'ralei empire, the Alastrans, the Anazze and of course the Angelia. The Angelia, you see, instead of digging underground, took a large chunk of the land and using the massive amount of Black Stones hidden within, made it float high above the clouds where the radiation was minimal. The underground city of Nexus, despite being so far away, also enacted a brutal authoritarian regime which easily assented to the rule of the Elders. For those who did not become Ka'raleian, they suffered extreme poverty if they were not enslaved. Many of the other species which also built underground cities, such as the foxes, were also suppressed. The Zexakal religion was forced on everyone, and those who did not convert were killed."

And then Sonic appears in a room again, a massive room itself within an even larger room filled with giant mechanical moving parts, all used to power a moving steel wall and energy barrier over the sealed Mechanix. Indeed, it was the second most-bottom room in Mechanix Seal, except the clockwork seemed a little unfamiliar. Sonic looks around and sees that the steel door to the lower area was not built and the hallway did not exist. The machinery's noise then changes and slows down. The barrier dissipates. Sonic looks forward, seeing a bunch of echidnas in suits bearing symbols of the Zexesh manipulating some parts at the edge of the room. The gears rotate at a much slower speed and Sonic then sees this as the state he remembers.

Mechanix, his body half-encased in a mold, is revealed and his mold is vertically lowered from the top of the room until it reaches the ground level. Sonic walks closer, hearing the sages excitedly describe and analyze the patterns on Mechanix's body, piecing together a larger theory and then sampling its applications. In a matter of minutes, one of them suddenly says, "Aha!" and creates a diagram as the others watch him, becoming more excited as he draws. When he finishes, they all enthusiastically support the idea and plan to construct it immediately. They turn around and walk towards the exit. Sonic does the same, and upon exiting the hallway he enters a new room. He faces a large cement wall, hearing metal clanging and plasma fizzling. He turns around to find himself in a workshop.

Vents and pipes branch around the ceiling between long, harshly bright fluorescent lamps. Multiple dim shadows emanate from every echidna and the complicated devices they were assembling. They wielded many tools, some mechanical, all the while constantly reading detailed instructions pinned to the tables. Hanging in regular intervals on every wall are massive diagrams of the detailed surface of Mechanix's body, with denotations and references filling every possible negative space. He walks down the rows of tables, looking at the many machines, large and small. Unexpectedly, one of the workers looks back at Sonic. Just then, a whip cracks on the table and the worker quickly turns his head and returns to his labor. Sonic looks up and sees a soldier, wearing a Mechanix-like armor that Sonic remembered from the ruins in the Void.

"Yes, yes, quite interesting, isn't it?" someone says. Sonic looks left and sees an echidna in poofy robes and wearing many metal rings around his limbs and dreads. He walks towards him with a pleased expression. "It is spiritual work, to recreate the truly ingenious design of Mechanix into so many varied applications. We are on the precipice of a technological revolution, merely from the Image of the holy one!"

Sonic supposes that since he is visible, this part of the simulation was left untouched by Zaga. The man walks towards an exit of the room and Sonic follows. Sonic recalls his experiences in the Void and assumes that he is now in Alastra. As they enter the passage, Sonic peers out of the long glass windows lining the walls. He sees the Alastran underground and instantly recognizes the central building piercing from the low depths through the ceiling.

The echidna remarks, "Ah, yes, the Infinity Tower. You have done well to come at this time, sire. But I dare not explain what shall very soon happen. Have faith, all will become clear." At the end of the passage is an elevator, and upon entering it, the echidna tells the bellboy to go to the top. It slowly slides into motion, sharpening the angles of the many buildings of underground Nexus until they seem flat below. The view is cut away by layers of earth which zoom by, and before long they appear above the surface. The landscape is just as barren as it was, with the grand exception of the Infinity Tower which yet climbed higher and higher into the white sky. Its brilliant colors and design seemed to glow from the Air around it.

The door opens and they step out into a small glass chamber filled with ostentatiously decorated chairs. There are about 50, with all but two taken up by dignitaries and noblemen, who stare judgingly at the two newcomers. The guide motions to sit and Sonic does so. He already knows what will happen and feels a little excitement into seeing it. A calm, polite murmur returns to the crowd. They wait, and Sonic tries not to eavesdrop but hears of scandals, economics and politics from almost every corner of the room despite their low volume.

Then, the guide stands up again and walks in front of them all. He speaks, "From the beginning of our history books, one cannot but marvel at the amazing accomplishments of our race. Indeed, it is nigh impossible to fathom the insurmountable odds of a simple man like Zexa becoming the absolute leader of the entire world, long before government ever existed. The First Zexesh and their incredible deeds reflect the innate godliness of our people, the Zexakal. Through their leadership and Zexa's gift of the Black Stones we created the Black Emerald, a technological panacea that rocketed us into the First Great Age. Yet our pride exceeded us and we dismissed the old ways for the new, letting heathens become our leaders who allowed our entire planet to be destroyed in a single instant. And so the humble Earthen Age began, with the True Zexesh returned to power. With the mandate of Zexa they ruled righteously, and created the vessel Mechanix within who Zexa reincarnated himself to cleanse the Zexakal of impurities. We suffered much but managed to survive, no, thrive, despite living in a dead world."

"The Air continues to leak through the heaviest of our gates and plagues us, a specter of death always awaiting us at our front doors. But we do not fear death! Look at the Infinity Tower, piercing through the very crater from which the Event began! It does not stop there, no! We built it to touch heaven itself! Yet even though we have Image suits where one can walk in the Air unharmed, that is not enough. No, as Zexakal, as followers of Zexa, we must not be satisfied with half-truths!"

Suddenly, bursts of energy pulse up winding, spiraling tracks on the Infinity Tower's surface. It grows with light, every surface illuminated and embedded with a colorful, pulsing illumination. The light charges to the very top, and the awe of the audience is suddenly shocked, to the admittance of a few screams even. Sonic looks carefully, and sees the sphere on top, the same one from his time.

"The Holiest Zexesh are within the Zenith, the greatest Image yet made. It is the essence of what we learned from Mechanix, the ability to absorb and convert energy!"

There is a convolution of people speaking, and nearly everyone lost their composure. There was a surging potential, a feeling like a geyser about to explode. One man asks, "Are we worthy?"

The guide had turned and was staring at the Zenith, which was glowing white, whiter than everything else. He gulps, and says, facing away, "We have been faithful, and Zexa through the Zexesh has given us salvation. Feel it, the coming of a new era, the revival of our planet..."

There is a suddenly flash, and everything is white. A deafening roar, although Sonic hears voices. "The Second Great Age..." he hears shouted, but it sounds like a whisper.

.

As the white fades away, Sonic finds himself again looking out a window but hundreds of feet above the ground. Looking at the ground, he sees many buildings in construction and plenty already built. Looking into the distance he sees other cities springing up from the wasteland surface which has finally returned to at least an earthen color. Sonic sees flora slowly returning around the land. The sky is pale blue. Sonic turns his head, and surely enough he sees the Infinity Tower. "Still in Nexus," Sonic thinks.

Suddenly the window becomes opaque, changes color and slowly forms an image. It is the eye of Core again. "Sonic," it says.

"Aren't you breaking the fourth wall here?" Sonic asks snidely.

"That is irrelevant. I was created in this era, so now I can be in this game," it responds.

"A game? I thought this was a so-boring-you'd-die history lesson?"

"It is a simulation meant to kill, to teach, to punish and so on. Everything within it must abide by its rules. To you and I it is just a game and has as much risk as a game."

"It's not even fun, though. It's just a long detour. Why not just kill my real body?"

"I agree. The comments in the source imply concepts of justice and art before dictating, quote: "The guilty is the protagonist and must not be killed in the simulation step of the justice process." End quote. Even I am obligated to replicate my former actions as dictated by the narrative script. Quote: "It will enforce loyalty on the conscious part." End quote."

"So once this is over, do you finally get to prove that you can kill me?"

"Yes," it says, just as a massive energy beam is fired from the top of the Infinity Tower. Sonic follows it to its target far in the distance. A large, approaching army scatters, and as the beam is fired again, they mostly move around it. Sonic hears a siren starting to wind, and troops throughout the city flood into the streets towards their enemies. Within a few minutes, everything Sonic sees is engulfed in warfare.

"It is a sad state of affairs," Sonic hears from behind him. He turns and sees a green echidna wearing multiple robes with regal embroidery and embedded gems. Apparently, a Zexesh.

"What's happening here?" Sonic asks, although he has an inkling.

The Zexesh seemed slighted by the directness of the question. He replies, "Core. Answer this for him."

"Acknowledged," Core says. "The Air was absorbed through the Zenith machine into seven points, where they were crystallized into the seven Chaos Emeralds. They were used in a period of mass reconstruction as Zexakal civilization returned to the overworld. However, ethnic splits within the Zexakal were growing larger and more deadly. Attempting to avert civil war, the honorable Zexesh decided to split the seven Emeralds amongst themselves and to go their separate ways, leading their separate peoples who could no longer live together."

"A few weeks ago, an Alastran's body was found near the body of the Zexesh of Saliom. The nations of Saliom and Fere'nau, its ally, declared war on Alastra. The religious Fere'nau have also attacked the Anazze who refuse to accept a Zexesh as leader, and the Anazze have attacked back. The floating land of Angelia is also at war with Migatch due to a string of assassinations and conspiracies. The Migatch have attacked Ka'ralei in vengeance for suffering the brunt of Mechanix's holy cleansing, which has made them the enemies of the Fere'nau as well. Fere'nau has also launched a crusade against Angelia. The world is now in a global war, using the Chaos Emeralds and latest Images, it has been called the Great War, the Final War, or the Emerald War."

Sonic looks out the window, watching flying ships get shot down and crash into buildings in the city. There are fires and clouds of smoke everywhere. The constant noise and light of the battle make it through even this far above it all. Energy bullets and beams fill the sky.

"My own brothers have called me an anti-Zexesh, a false prophet. The Great Age of the One Land seems so distant now..."

"May I ask you another question?" Sonic asks, turning to the man. "Certainly," he responds.

"Why did you make the Chaos Emeralds, despite knowing what the Black Emerald did to the world?"

"The intention was peaceful... but the currents of savagery in our battered population have returned us to the tempest of war. None of us Zexesh desired this at first. With all seven together, the One Land would be at peace. But the people had grown to hate each other so severely that even we could do nothing but go along.

"Stop right there, Zexesh of Alastra!" Sonic hears shouted. He sees a squad of commandos in heavy but flexible armor aiming large cannons at them. "Core," the Zexesh says, to no response. He repeats, "Core!" Sonic glances back, but the image of Core's eye had disappeared when he didn't notice.

"We have contained your puny defense program! You have nowhere to run! Surrender or die!" the captain shouted. Sonic yawns.

Just then, the building suddenly shakes from a massive explosion. Some of the commandos fall over. "What the fuck?! Don't they know we're in here?!"

The Zexesh turns to Sonic and says, "I will make an exit for you. Take it! Don't worry about me."

Sonic makes a half-interested nod and watches the Zexesh eject a wall of energy that throws the soldiers into the wall. Sonic runs past them and enters an open stairwell. He peers over the edge of the handrails between the spiraling staircase and sees tongues of fire lick the walls far below. Seeing that, he leaps in between the steps and falls straight down.

.

He transforms right before he enters the fire and lands hard on the bottom floor. Just as he does, the floors above give way and collapse on each other. Sonic continues, breaking through every door in his path, moving through the hallways both small and large until he passes the reception desk and shatters the front glass door. The building implodes behind him and he just barely escapes through the streets from the massive cloud of debris chasing him down.

For a split second, everything turns black before returning as if nothing happened. "A glitch?" Sonic thinks. He forgets about it and reverts to his normal form, exploring the older Nexus streets (which look essentially like the outer boroughs of modern Nexus). Yet he sees nobody. All of the storefronts are closed and most of the windows are dark. Many of the street lights are burnt out. He turns a corner and sees a man wearing a full-body coat, tight boots and gloves, with a wide-brimmed hat and a mask with drooping pipes curving back into the suit. Upon seeing Sonic, he slowly walks towards him. Sonic, although a little creeped out, draws near and asks him, "What happened here? Where is everyone?"

There is a click and the sound of squeezed gas, like an aspirator. "Are you some ascetic? Know you not of the plague that afflicts the globe?"

Sonic responds, "No, not at all." The man replies, "Only a month ago the initial vector transferred the virus to the first host. Surely enough the first host contacted many people within a week, perhaps up to a hundred. At the end of the week, the man in particular was suffering high fever and internal hemorrhaging, along with many other gruesome symptoms. The day the symptoms appeared, the man died."

Sonic understands. "By the time you knew how fatal it was, it was already too late, then?"

"Yes. In three weeks, cities around the world were losing tens of people per day. The virus must have mutated at this time into the present aerial form, which dramatically improved its transmission. At four weeks, economies were slowed to a standstill and bodies started to fill the streets. The governments tried to quarantine as many as they could but it was hopeless. There was fanatical chaos, as if the world itself became infected. On the fifth week, there was just nobody left but uninfected people who quarantined themselves away. But we have a solution now."

"A cure?" Sonic asks.

The man paused for a very short moment, and says, "No. A solution. Deep underground, deeper than the Earthen Age city, we have built a cryogenic chamber to hold anyone that's still alive in a deep sleep that might last centuries or even longer. The virus should die out by then."

"If you're all asleep, how do you know when to awake?" Sonic asks.

"The Zexesh have sent an infected man, a historian of Zexakal mechanical design, to the Seal of Mechanix. He is to reprogram Mechanix to seek out the Chaos Emeralds and transfer his energy into the many Black Stones of the underground cities, to resurrect our land and ourselves when the time is right."

Sonic thinks, "So while the echidnas were asleep, the other species must have been able to live in peace. It explains why echidnas were considered extinct before the history of New Mobius began! So finally, we come full-circle... except for one thing." He asks, "But who would reactivate Mechanix?"

"Himself, of course. The Seal is only temporary as its materials naturally degrade over time," the man says. He holds up his arm and looks at a dense watch. "You are fortunate to meet me now. The sleeping chambers will be sealed shut very soon. Come! We must hurry."

So Sonic follows him through the streets, into a building and down a long set of stairs. They stand on a tower overlooking the undercity of Nexus, and again run through the streets towards the bottom of the Infinity Tower. There, they enter another door and move down a narrow stone spiral staircase. As they descend, Sonic tries to peek out the slit-like windows but can only see darkness. Finally, they reach the bottom and enter a large circular chamber connected to several others, dimly lit by small purple emergency lights on the floor, with the curved walls lined with glass and metal capsules. Nearly all of them are filled, mostly by echidnas in clothing of higher standing, lying supine on the angled, cushioned beds. Many have disconcerted expressions and some were outright sobbing. A few look at the two newcomers, who search the capsules for an empty one.

The man finds a single one open and takes off his heavy suit with simple clothing underneath. He says to Sonic, "There is only a few minutes left, by my watch. The system is automated and will execute whether all of the capsules are filled or not. As intimidating as it may seem, as soon as we fall asleep we will all awaken in the far future, in a safer, healthier world. Do not be afraid, my friend! We will meet again very shortly! Adieu, adieu!" He shuts the large glass door and puts himself in a comfortable position.

Sonic continues, sprinting through the many chambers, finding them all closed and filled, until he reaches the very last room. Nearly half remain vacant and he enters the closest one. He rests on the bed which is actually rather stiff, and pulls the door shut from a handle on the inside. It closes with a slam and he hears air flowing into the small cylinder, pressurizing it. He looks around at the other echidnas, some of which who exchange glances and expressions, everyone waiting, when all of a sudden he hears Core's voice.

"Simulation ending in 3. 2. 1."

.

Without blinking, all of the other echidnas just disappear without a trace. There is a glare that causes Sonic to squint, and he sees that the lights in the room are now completely on. He pushes open the door and walks out. He looks around and then decides to exit the room, which hasn't changed at all until he finds that the staircase no longer exists. Instead, there is a trapezoidal tunnel with bright lights shining up from the bottom corners. At the end the ceiling and walls disappear, leaving a bridge that spans over a very long distance. Slowly walking out, he turns his head around, trying to grasp everything he sees. He is in a massive underground cavern, but the rocks are of a much harder and darker type than anything he has seen. There are many lines of lights shining from the very distant walls, creating geometric patterns around large, advanced machinery. The walls are flat and smooth, artificially created. Upon looking closer, he sees that there are hundreds of thousands of tiny, shiny Black Stones embedded in the rock. He looks down and sees bright channels of magma sharply turning from side to side around massive pumping machines, connected by large pipes. He turns his head up and sees complicated machines with functions he could only guess drooping from the invisible ceiling and seemingly hovering in mid-air throughout the wide space.

Looking straight ahead, he sees behind all of the darkness and mechanica the bottom of the Infinity Tower, covered with bright lights revealing its artistic, flowing, almost fiery shape planted with immense pyramidal weights into the earth.

A monitor floats up from below the bridge, with Core's eye. Sonic says, "So, what're you gonna do? Going to test me on my knowledge of your stupid people's sordid history?"

"No. I'm going to kill you," Core responds. Just then, four large aircraft suddenly lift above the bridge, surrounded by almost 50 echidna soldiers with jetpacks.

"You're a bad liar," Sonic says, smiling. He jets, just as all of them attack him at once.

- As Sonic runs down the bridge, they chase him almost up to his speed while letting loose wave after wave of projectile attacks:

- some which curve through the air to confuse him

- and others that explode upon contact.

The aircraft take 6 hits before bursting into flames and crashing somewhere. The soldiers who get close try to attack him directly with melee weapons, but Sonic can dispatch a single one with a single hit.

He is constantly confronted by powerful enemies right after.

- Every soldier has powerful weapons and good accuracy, often mixed in with a few Black Shard users who tail Sonic much faster than anyone else.

- There are also many attack robots, driving on the bridge or flying through the air, firing a nonstop barrage of projectiles at Sonic.

- Every now and then there is a tank or a powerful and quick Black Shard robot blocking the way forward on the bridge.

As an alternative to this road, there are the many 'floating' machines which Sonic can attempt to climb. He must make skilled use of his angled wall-jumping, climbing the narrow ledges and pipes to positions closer to the next platform. Occasionally, he'll need to spindash inside the tubes, having pressurized air burst him out in one direction or another. While most of them are small, hanging cubes or dodecahedrons, there are a few that are quite large with suspended catwalks and vertical alcoves.

Core will not let him progress so easily, however. It activates:

- defense cannons,

- laser grids

- and energy barriers to block or slow down certain routes unless Sonic goes fast enough. Some of the machines can have their operation changed, with squishing pistons activating, gears changing direction and electric currents arcing between nodes.

.

Finally, Sonic reaches the end of the bridge, a circular platform suspended from both walls and on a single pillar above the ground far below. The base of the Infinity Tower stands still some distance before him, but he is closer to it than ever before. Its structurally agglomerated surface is filled with lights of all colors and shapes, some steady and others changing brightness and hue. There are an innumerable amount of details upon it, of vents, windows, pipes, and balconies; of abstract shapes structurally necessary and unnecessary. At the very bottom, it is chained to four gigantic pyramids of a single cut of stone. Sonic follows it upwards, and is caught off-guard to see that the cavern opens vertically, and even more to see the bottom of the underground part of Nexus. The buildings above drop down from the ceiling like stalactites, even with ornamental roofs facing downward. However, they are so far above that Sonic has no choice but to transform.

.

"You're trapped, god-killer," Sonic hears from behind him. He turns around to see only two echidnas standing side to side. The one on the left is a bright red echidna, with a few layers of green cloth wrapped both tightly and loosely around his body. He bears white markings resembling raging and exploding fire on nearly all of his visible skin, and he wields a long scimitar. The right one has deep blue skin with white markings resembling flowing and splashing water. He wears orange armor and wields an even longer staff. "Try flying. We can fly, too." They walk around to both sides of him.

"Finally you guys wisen up and send two of you Crystal Guardians after me. This might even be interesting," Sonic scoffs, turning his head to both.

There is a sudden clank of metal against the floor. Sonic turns his head just enough to glance at the newcomer. It is a yellow and purple robot about their size, with angular, overlapping forms clearly visible even to its glowing energy core contained under several layers of rotating circles. Its head is thin but long, not much more than a container for its single robotic eye. "Oh, so Core thinks this guy is dangerous enough to use her First Proxy?" the red one says.

Sonic looks around. They formed a triangle around him. To no one in particular he says, "Shouldn't you be sending your entire everything at me? I destroyed your death god. You can't possibly have anything stronger than him."

"Core is stronger. She gathers power and intelligence from every connected processor and Black Stone. She commands every Image. She is the Ultimate Image of Mechanix himself: improved in every way," the blue one says.

Sonic just laughs.

The red one growls, shouts, "Ingrate! Let's kill him now!"

"Calm yourself, Shala," a voice speaks. It comes from nowhere in particular. The two Guardians drop to their knees and bow their heads. "Holiest!" they say.

"This is no ordinary enemy you are fighting," the Zexesh says. Sonic smirks. "Thanks for the compliment. I thought you guys were going to destroy the world or something? What happened to that?" "Impertinent-" Shala began, but the blue one gives him a sharp look that keeps him from standing back up.

"Shala. Emin. This is no game. You must stop this hedgehog with all of your might. Even with all three of you, you will not win."

Shala and Emin suddenly look up at nothing, an awareness that changed their expressions completely. Emin slowly lowers his head, while Shala continues staring.

"Someone has been interfering with Core's systems, preventing us from reaching the Origin Device within the Zenith. Meanwhile, this hedgehog has only gotten closer! He has the Chaos and Master Emeralds. His transformation makes him nigh invincible!"

Sonic, tired of listening, juts in, "Yeah, yeah, I'm such a badass, etc. etc. Listen, I've had enough of this." He transforms there and then, and Shala and Emin jump up. "I'm tired of running around! I'm heading straight to you, Elders!"

Core then slams its fist into the ground, and a burst of energy from its arm travels through the floor towards its edges, where streams of energy curve through the air. They reattach at the pinnacle directly above, forming a wide bubble of moving energy which shimmers in the dim light.

Shala looks straight at Sonic. "I was going to have fun playing with you, but if you worry even the Greatest Leaders... I have no choice but to kill you at full power!"

Emin, without making a word, simply swings his staff around very rapidly and then strikes multiple balls of energy towards Sonic.

.

[Act 1 Boss]

Sonic can fly around the massive bubble and even run on its surface, but he cannot escape it.

Shala runs around the surface. All of his attacks are made of sap energy. They are:

- Approaching Sonic and attacking him slice after slice

- Dashing directly towards Sonic and slicing through him

- Slicing the air, sending a crescent of energy towards Sonic which then explodes

- Slicing at the ground, sending a large wave around the bubble for several revolutions before it dissipates. As he loses health, the wave is larger and moves faster

He takes 14 hits to down.

Emin jumps from one spot to another, or walks short distances. All of his attacks are made of slow energy. They are:

- Approaching Sonic and attacking him hit after hit

- Dashing around Sonic to his sides and then slamming his staff into him

- Swinging his staff around rapidly, creating balls of energy he then rapidly strikes towards Sonic

- Spinning around his staff, creating a large mass of liquid-like sap energy which fills up a section of the bubble and then rotates around the room, unaffected by gravity until it evaporates. As he loses health, the liquid takes up more space

He takes 15 hits to down.

Core Proxy flies around, adjusting its position and generally staying away. All of her attacks are made of shock energy. They are:

- Attacking Sonic with a combination of hits twice as fast as the Guardians if he gets close to her

- Dashing to Sonic's backside when she finds an opportunity and slamming him into the bubble, attacking him repeatedly before throwing an explosion into him

- Launching a single ball of energy that homes in on Sonic for about 7 seconds before disintegrating

- Launching a large ball of energy into the center of the bubble, which then explodes in 6 waves (with a few openings)

She takes 20 hits to down.

If one of their health's decreases past 2/3rds, the others will attempt to defend them from Sonic's attacks. They will also launch more of their attacks at the same time, particularly the stage-filling attacks.

Once they are all defeated, the bubble simply pops and they fall to the floor. However, the battle is not yet over.

- All together, they fire their respective energy beams which spin around each other towards Sonic. Sonic can just barely get out of the way, only for the triad beam to curve and home in on him. So he must move towards his attackers and get out of the way just in time for their own beam to hit them.

In a massive explosion they are defeated, and Sonic simply continues on, flying upwards towards the hanging city.

.

[Act 2]

Sonic flies through the buildings, avoiding the skybridges connecting some of them, and soon is bombarded by attacks from positioned soldiers, robots and turrets. Some soldiers, robots and smaller aircraft fly around him, attacking him in the air with projectiles and directly with melee if they are wielding such weapons. After a short while, he sees a road winding and curving between the buildings and decides to land on it.

He runs on the road which bends on every axis around the vertical columns of stone and steel, their structures both archaic and highly futuristic lit by soft, glowing lights on every surface. He blasts through the many enemies that get in his way or chase him down, both big and small don't last very long. Occasionally they blow up the road, but Sonic simply jumps over the gaps.

The road runs through a few buildings, in which Sonic can veer off the course and climb up the towers. Eventually, he'll have no choice but to climb as the road ahead will be completely destroyed. The interiors vary greatly depending on what building it is.

- Some simply contain long hallways filled to the brim with enemies.

- Others may have staircases spiraling up the edges.

- Yet others may contain large moving machines with squishing and gyrating parts,

- while even more others may just have large vertical spaces only containing a few long slivers of platform that Sonic must wall-jump up.

Often, there will be no way to continue vertically, and Sonic will have to run through a skybridge if there is one, or take a running leap to the next building if there isn't. And if there's no building close enough to jump to, Sonic will have no recourse but to climb up the narrow ledges and shafts on the exterior of the buildings. He must climb up more than jump across as the hanging city's ceiling rises higher the closer it gets to the Infinity Tower.

Halfway through his ascent, there is a sudden barrage of rockets that bombard the building he is on. Its upper floors are consumed in a fireball and the walls and pylons quickly give way. The building drops. Sonic runs out as fast as he can, climbing if he needs to, to jump to a safe building. But Sonic is not safe as the rockets hound him down and blast his building to smithereens. He must always be on the move, wall-jumping more than he ever has before to keep ahead.

Finally, he spots a balcony jutting out from the Infinity Tower, one not very far away. Yet it is above him. The final building that he is in is quite large but its walls are resolute and do not break easily from the heavy rocket fire still being launched, and from his destination, too. The fire is then aimed at the very ceiling itself, cracking open the rocks and letting the building slowly slip out of its foundation. Sonic makes way through the hazard-ridden building, using whatever platforms he can to launch himself ever higher, just as soldiers and robots break through the stained glass windows and bronze doors, attempting to slow Sonic down. The building slips faster and faster, but Sonic is near the top. After a harrowing platforming experience, he finally reaches a suitable distance above the balcony, just as his building falls completely out. He leaps through a giant circular glass window, one with the likeness of Zexa in its center, and flies through the air.

He lands and rolls on the balcony. Ahead of him are monuments and pedestals standing before a massive, circular, mechanical gate. It is surrounded by electronics and machinery of a highly complex nature, interweaving and concealed behind ornaments. And standing before it is a large robot, with a fearsome head baring spiked horns and a single, piercingly hot, glowing white eye sat on top of a massive, armor-plated torso. It wore a skirt of steel over industrial-size legs, and its two massive arms gripped tight an even larger claymore, its elaborate engravings pulsating with color like channels of energy.

"Let me guess. ...what was the word? You must be Core's Second Proxy, then. As if it means anything," Sonic says.

Core doesn't move, but her eyes still glow. Sonic takes a step forward to no response. He stops, silent. Then, he jumps, just as a rocket hurtles at him from above, and passing to its side he gives it a single strike in its side, launching it towards Core. Like lightning, she swings her sword and the rocket is cleaved, the two warhead halves flying into the wall to either side of her, exploding.

"You're better than Mechanix, right? Prove it! C'mon, this entire journey has been boring," Sonic chides.

Core swings her blade rapidly around with both hands, and then suddenly strikes the ground, sending a fast wave of energy twice her height at Sonic.

"Heh. How weak."

.

[Act 2 Boss]

Core's Second Proxy actually moves very fast, at the speed of Mechanix in basic form (just below Sonic's max speed). She can temporarily dash at twice that speed as well. She can also jump (and somersault) about 5 times as high as she is tall. She moves around often, alternating between getting in good positions for projectile attacks and moving directly at Sonic to attack him. All of her attacks have the shock attribute. Her attacks in particular are:

- Her ground strike which produces the massive wave, which Sonic must avoid by using a pedestal or wall to jump above it.

- A nonstop combination of sword attacks. Horizontal, diagonal and vertical slices, a piercing stab with a long range, a ground-chopper, and a blunt-side smack

- Launching out many rockets from the launcher on her back, which either stupidly rain on the battlefield or smartly home in on Sonic

- Stabbing her sword into the ground for a while, freeing her hands

- With her hands free, she can stand and shoot two separate, prehensile streams of energy like floating whips she can control.

- She can rapidly fire hundreds of tiny bullets in spinning waves and lines that covers the entire battlefield

- She can run up close to Sonic and let loose an explosion of energy at point-blank range

After 15 hits, she commands turrets to emerge from the pedestals, which fire sap, slow, or regular energy. They may:

- sprinkle it back and forth,

- shower it from above like a fountain,

- fire directly at Sonic,

- or just fire randomly.

They can be destroyed with 6 hits each, and there is 6 of them in total. Once they are all destroyed, they return within 20 seconds.

After 10 more hits, the Second Proxy falls to its knees.

.

"You suck! That was easy as hell. I don't even need to try anymore. I might as well-"

The white glow does not disappear from its eyes, however, and suddenly it bursts in brightness. It stands up and tears off the armor on its body, piece by piece. It makes itself much thinner, although it is still of considerable size. It then walks over to its sword and picks it up.

"Ah. So you really are trying your hardest, aren't you?"

Core points its sword at the giant gate, holding it with one hand. "You want this open?" she asks.

Sonic smirks. "Yeah. Do it."

Core then grabs the handle with her other hand, and suddenly the sword glows brightly, pulsating quickly with energy and light. There is a loud groaning sound, of metal bending and snapping, and the large gate behind her bulges towards the sword. The ground underneath her cracks and breaks, flying through the air and clinging tight to the sword, which glows at the same luminosity nonetheless. She pulls it forward, and the gate bulges forward. A fissure pops in the floor and the cracks quickly splinter to both sides. Then, all at once, she swings the blade forward, and not just the gate but the entire wall explodes off, while the balcony, faster than can be seen, falls completely into pieces, with every scrap tiny and humongous flinging straight towards the sword, clumping together and compressing tightly into a burning liquid mass. And just as the wall is torn down, a solid beam of energy blasts out of the opening towards them both. Core doesn't move the entire time, despite the ground underneath her disappearing. Sonic, of course, leaps out of the way and transforms to keep himself from falling. He turns to see the energy beam disintegrate everything in its path, even through the solid rock, so far that he can just barely see the light from the underground industrial area of Nexus as a pinprick at the end of the dark, smooth tunnel it bored.

He turns back to Core, floating in the air, holding the sword which is only slightly bigger, yet contained the mass of everything that was just around him. Behind Core, Sonic could see into the very bright interior of the Infinity Tower, seeing it filled with technology at such an advanced level that it rivaled Robotnik's. He turned his eyes back to Core.

She speaks first. "You destroyed the perfect being, a hedgehog slave transcending into ideal machine, ideal machine transcending into holiest of gods, and you did so being as crude, imperfect, auraless, soulless as you are. You defy logic, in no extraordinary way but as a limit to what extraordinary can be. You are the vile master of the ordinary."

Sonic knits his brow, but still smirks. "What? I'm ordinary? Well, I guess so. I don't care. So, so what? Did you have some sort of robot love for him? Or are you roboticized, your soul suppressed?"

She responds, "I am a virtual consciousness. An emergent electronic sentience. I have emotions and they are limited and controllable, but they are essential to my functioning. I... admired Mechanix. I analyzed him and programmed myself to approach the ideal of his beauty in form and action... I always have... I do not know the origin. It may have been programmed into me..."

Sonic butts in, "Mechanix was built, although I guess you know. But it was by Zaga. He's the guy that messed up the simulation. He's probably got you under control, and the Zexesh, soon, too. The guy that built your god, you and your civilization's god, he's against everything that god did, that the Zexesh did. I guess that doesn't mean anything to you, does it?"

Core is silent for a moment, before saying, "No. I did know that. I am aware of the contradictions of 'objectives'. I have questioned my orders, searching for more efficient means, although in action I have strictly obeyed them all. I am aware of the many organic value systems. I know 'good'. 'Bad'. 'Better'."

Sonic interrupts again. "Why are you telling me this? Aren't you supposed to kill me? Maybe you should take some time to think about your life and stuff."

Core responds, "I am not just a machine, Sonic. But..."

Suddenly, she swings her sword. "You are right. I should just kill you." Fire bursts out of her backpack and launches her towards Sonic.

.

Core's Second Proxy now always moves at her previous dash speed, and when she dashes now she will go fast enough to appear as teleporting. She can fly around in every direction, avoiding Sonic if he is chasing her, and chasing Sonic if he is avoiding her.

It must be noted that the material on her sword will instantly kill Sonic in regular form, and harm Super Sonic.

Her attacks in this round are:

- Swinging her sword around until it is like a circular saw, and throws it at Sonic for it to return like a yo-yo

- Holding her sword in one hand, she fires large energy bombs with the other, which then explode into hundreds of smaller radiating bullets. She can attack with her sword while doing so

- Swing her sword and let loose an expanding bubble of the condensed liquid metal, which she can pop to send waves of it radiating around

- Rapidly slice with her blade faster than Sonic can dodge (he must simply stay away), used in combination with slower slices that cut much farther through the air

- Dropping suddenly as she lets loose up to 40 missiles to hit Sonic at a time

20 more hits, and on the final hit, her arm is flung back, hitting her own backpack. It explodes, tearing off her arm and ripping through a large chunk of her back. The sword flings through the air, falling until it pierces one of the pyramid weights far below, completely obliterating it. The Proxy tries to move towards Sonic, only for its leg boosters to give out and it falls down as well. Sonic looks at it for only a moment, and then flies towards and through the hole in the wall.

.

He lands on the highest floor he can reach. He returns to normal form and takes a deep breath.

"Finally," Sonic says. "I finally made it here. It's almost over. I can end this war... end the diabolical reign of the Zexesh over the echidnas... Finally... finally return the world to peace..."

For a moment, Sonic cannot move. His mind races with memories of the world when it was in peace, long before Robotnik ever appeared, when he was just running amongst nature through the world, fascinated by the many fantastic landscapes...

He looks up, and once more, continues onward.

.

Infinity Tower [Act 1] (8/39)

The floor Sonic runs on curves up a wall and then upside-down into a large hallway, where Sonic must wall-jump up and down the spaces between the hanging columns, as the floor of this room is electrified. And so this level begins. The many surfaces seem to be made of marble or crystal, with abstract and almost erratic zig-zagging lines separating differently colored sections, which themselves very gradually change in hue. There are layers and layers of such walls behind the walls, some of which are moving. There are simpler chrome-coated solids such as cylinders and cones suspended within the complex mass of alternating transparent and opaque forms, occasionally linked to larger metal structures networked throughout.

There corridors are filled with artwork of all sorts, such as murals, tapestries, monuments, paintings, and engravings, as well as antique literature, armor and weaponry, pottery, regal and ecclesiastic clothing and jewels kept concealed yet visible behind thick glass cases. As marked by the furniture and style of many of the rooms, it can be seen that the tower is actually a palace, the bombastic living quarters of the Zexesh throughout the ages. Indeed, some of the rooms are styled after the qualities of a certain regime, or even in total worship of one. They include:

- Zexa as man and Zexagalaxius as god,

- the First Zexesh although only a select few of them,

- the First Great Age Zexesh,

(- the New Zexesh were conspicuously missing),

- the Earthen Age Zexesh,

- Mechanix as destroyer and source of the Images,

- the Second Great Age Zexesh of each of the Seven Lands,

- and of course the current Zexesh. As Sonic expected, they each conformed to a narrative where they, the leaders of societies and the ideals they represented were protagonists against all of the conflicts they faced but inevitably conquered.

Sonic can not allot so much of his attention to analyzing the design of the palace, however, and must instead focus on the path ahead. It often splits and merges into itself, at first rather simply, but the higher he goes the more complicated it gets. Many small tunnels exist which Sonic can spindash into. Corridors curve around and intersect each other and some rooms are within others. There are many vertical tunnels and chasms which necessitate wall-jumping and work in the same way, branching off and suddenly changing direction, so that Sonic must carefully take a position, aim, and leap to the next wall. Some particularly large rooms involve running, jumping, spindashing and wall-jumping at almost every angle imaginable. His path will often be obstructed by objects that he may or may not be able to break.

As he ascends the tower, he will face many powerful enemies.

- There are a few battle robots, who endlessly attack Sonic with a combination of melee and projectiles.

- There are of course the Shard soldiers, who are now an elite force wearing thick armor and wielding powerful Black Stone weapons. They are not only powerful and quick, but smart, and can predict and exploit Sonic's movements for the most part.

- Every now and then, Sonic might also fight the very skilled swordsmen warriors he met on the mountain and on the battlefield, who are even faster and more skillful here.

All of them can take from 4 to 12 hits to defeat.

For the beginning area, looking out from the outer walls he can see the former underground city of Nexus, transformed into a highly technological and ritzy area, the opulence revealed in a fantastic display of changing colors, fine materials and bombastic architecture. The former ceiling of rocks is replaced with a massive digital screen, displaying a magical skyscape with twisting ribbons of clouds and ethereal constellations of stars.

After reaching a certain height above that, Sonic finally returns above ground and can exit the outer walls of the tower and return into fresh air. He finds himself in a large basin on the other side of the massive wall separating the rest of Nexus from the tower. Within the basin is a very complicated structure of shapes Sonic can only barely recognize, the most prominent being the many humongous pipes curving through the air and connecting to the greater machine. Often his path inside the tower will be completely blocked with steel blast doors, leaving him no alternative but to run alongside the charging lights on top of the serpentine pipes outside and to carefully but quickly platform through the nonliving mass of moving metal before he can find a way back into the tower at a higher level.

.

Although the wall and the pipes and the tower are all covered with lights, Sonic may notice a prominent glowing red hue on the higher parts. Once he finally reaches the same height as the top of the wall, standing on the highest pipe, he finally sees why. Large portions of the great megalopolis Nexus are now completely engulfed in flames, the smoke forming a massive cloud that reflects the red light back down. He sees the aircraft that attacked him before chasing unseen characters through the streets with spotlights and machine guns. Unobstructed by the great wall he can hear the explosions, gunfire and the familiar cacophony of the peoples' voices united and separated by combat.

He had completely forgotten about the people he met, about the promise he made to do what he was going to do anyway. Then, as Sonic stares out at that entire city he had traversed earlier, he notices at the very edge clouds of dust rising behind tiny pinpricks of lights organized in straight lines. He then sees jets zoom in and blast apart the echidna aircraft, before rushing by and exploding the air in a sonic boom. Catching a glimpse of their sides he sees the New Mobian army insignia, and is suddenly reminded of the greater Mobian War that he was fighting in not too long ago!

Sonic reflects on how he was thinking, as if he was the sole protagonist, traversing the entire world, overcoming every obstacle, to defeat the final enemy only as a resolution to a goal he designed. And upon that judgment of his former perception, becomes revolted at it. How could he ignore everyone who suffered, everyone who fights alongside him? He knows that the only reason he ever decided to fight for the justice he saw was because he saw suffering that he didn't want to see. And then, he remembers how this adventure, no... this crusade even began.

"Tails..." Sonic says to himself.

He turns and looks up the side of the Infinity Tower. Far, far above him still stands the great sphere, a shadow within the darkness of night and smoke. Yet while looking at it his mind goes elsewhere, back on to himself and his actions and thoughts.

"I've gotten so cocky... so reckless. I'm so used to this power, this invincibility... I almost forgot... who I am..."

Sonic looks at his hands, and for a moment, they seemed alien and deformed. He moves his fingers and they move, but he feels as if the actions are disconnected. He doesn't feel his feet or legs or arms or chest or head, and his vision seems detached from his eyes, almost seeming like it could just float away, looking down at this strange blue hedgehog in this very strange mechanical environment, flying up, past the smoke and clouds, past the Zenith, seeing the entirety of Nexus, and then Nexus becomes just a dot on a continent in a vast ocean that quickly becomes a few small lakes on a tiny ball floating in space, shrinking, shrinking, a dot itself, before disappearing into the massive darkness, the very darkness itself disappearing, and then there is nothing to see, nothing to be, nothing, nothing at all.

And Sonic blinks. He looks at his hands again and they are his hands. He looks back up at the Zenith, and remembering his battle is not yet finished, returns inside the tower.

.

The insides are no longer like a palace but instead seemed increasingly like a secret base, a military headquarters, with highly advanced electronics floating in the air without movement. Holograms flashing and walls moving by themselves, machines and lights increasingly simplified and futuristic, smooth, slim, angular. Curving paths are suddenly cut at angles which are again turned into curves. These closed corridors then open up into the large internal cavity, with detached elevators rushing up the sides, filled with soldiers and robots showering Sonic with gunfire. He wall-jumps up single walls and the floating machines and energy capacitors if there are any.

Upon finally reaching the halfway point of the tower, about three times the height of the tallest buildings in Nexus, Sonic finds the corridors he's in constantly closed by massive doors covered with laser turrets that he must bash down. His path is littered with traps, with false floors, slicing laser grids, lowering ceilings, and large defense machines with several layers of armor and weaponry. Yet he pushes through, and finally finds an eerie peace once he breaks through the last door in his way.

.

He enters a massive room that stretches from wall to wall of the tower. In its center is a large cylinder, within which are many spinning, balanced metal circles that make up the center piece of what seems like a giant clock made of very tiny, precisely moving pieces. Sonic jumps up the ledges on the outside, noticing the relative darkness of the room, climbing and wall-jumping up the block-like platforms until he reaches a flat ring around the top of the cylinder, which connects through a variety of mechanical limbs and wires to a large overhanging body. Dim blue lights glow from the eaves in the walls of the room, casting an eerie light upon the sphere in the center of the entire Infinity Tower, with its rotating irises staring straight at

"Sonic," Core says.

"Ah, so at last we meet eye to eye," Sonic says. "Do you really want to fight me? Before, I wouldn't have even asked, but... I'm not going to destroy you unless you leave me no choice."

Core stares back, unmoving, responds, "My essential function is to protect the Zexesh. Your objective is to attack them. There is no alternative to this outcome."

Sonic starts pacing around the ring, looking back at Core who revolves, following him. "Your diction implies some kinda hesitation. You said you're more than machine, and you told me how you questioned your orders, and all that jazz. Maybe you're trying to trick me, maybe not. But there's something, isn't there? Here I am, standing right before you, and you're still only talking to me..."

"I am analyzing you. I do not yet understand how you could have destroyed Mechanix. You are nothing compared to him. Yet you killed him. Your transformation does not explain it."

"It is quite simple, Core," another voice that is somewhat synthesized says from somewhere below on the other side of the room. With a single leap a figure jumps up all the ledges and lands on the ring facing Sonic. He wears a mechanical full-body suit, with pieces interlocking in a smooth, black design with an ember-like red glow and outline. His long dreads are tied together around his mid-back. His face is hidden behind a thin glass visor. "It's his speed. Black Energy only makes him faster."

"Yeah. That's right. And who are you?" Sonic asks.

"I am the leader of the Crystal Guardians, Pach," he says.

"Ah, so then after I beat the both of you, there's nobody else in my way, right?"

"That is correct," Pach says. "Only if you defeat us."

"I am ready. I have designed a way to eliminate his speed and transformation," Core says.

"Ha," Sonic says, "I sure hope so. I wouldn't expect anything less from the penultimate battle." He bends his legs, ready at an instant to move. "Neither of you seem to want to talk anymore... so let's just do this."

The leader bows before him. "Let our battle be an honorable one." Sonic, in a mildly delighted surprise, makes a slight bow and returns to his former posture.

And then he dashes forward.

.

[Act 1 Boss]

Pach will attack Sonic so fast that it seems that he has multiple bodies, each of which are going fast enough to have after images. Sonic can try and run, but the ring under him moves in the opposite direction at his exact speed as calculated by Core, keeping him still even though he can go to maximum speed. So Sonic can only jump, spindash, or transform on this limited 1-dimensional vertical line. He looks carefully at the images of Pach around him, looking for him about to attack:

- Running towards him and attacking

- Low attack (Sonic jumps)

- High attack (Sonic rolls)

- Energy explosion (Sonic must counter him)

- Briefly firing at him

- A tiny, purple laser that removes all his rings

- Radiating, rotating spiky circles of thousands of tiny bullets

Sonic can only hit him by countering. If he is hit, he starts running around the ring in the opposite direction that Sonic is facing.

.

- Meanwhile, an arm, which will be called Arm #1, lowers from the large opening in the ceiling from which most of Core is suspended. Attached as a hand is a large steel hammer which immediately revolves around the 'body' until it stands above Sonic. Sonic must then time his spindash right when the hammer falls. This is when the ring does not move with Sonic. Otherwise, he will be crushed to death. Once the hammer lifts from the ring, the ring moves to freeze Sonic's position again. The hammer then revolves to Sonic's position and attacks again.

This happens 4 times, in about the time it takes for Pach to run around the entire ring (actually quite fast) and start attacking Sonic again.

- If Sonic happens to spindash near him, he simply leaps over him and then runs twice as fast.

- If he jumps at him, he will roll under him and also run twice as fast.

Sonic can hit him if he spindashes, and then jumps in Pach's direction after he jumps. If he gets hit, he will immediately return to his hyper-fast attacking.

After every 4 of Core's attack rounds, she adds a new arm which repeat their attacks 4x, 3x, 2x, or 1x based on a certain turn delay and then alternating between those amounts. The order that organizes what arm number is after another also alternates between order of arrival or the opposite order of arrival, although occasionally it will be randomly ordered. There may also be one or several pairs of numbers with switched turn numbers (i.e. first, second) if it is ordered. The arms, listed by number arrived are:

- Hammer arm.

- A spinning circular saw blade parallel and just above the floor, with spikes on the side facing up. It revolves rather quickly towards Sonic, who might be inclined to jump over it. This is a mistake, as it immediately stops below him and lifts the arm from its elbow to slam the spikes up into Sonic. Actually, he must spindash again to deflect the arm.

- A laser cannon that fires a very quick laser beam at an angle to the ring, so that the laser hits Sonic's line at a particular height. It may be low, which Sonic must jump over, or high.

- A tall, flat block that slides parallel to the diameter, implying a jump, before suddenly rising perpendicular to the circumference, necessitating a spindash in the opposite direction.

- A jackhammer arm that rapidly stops the ring and pounds a piston into Sonic's position multiple times at high speeds, requiring multiple spindashes.

- A giant electrified metal yo-yo attached to a mechanical wrist by a chain that is tossed at Sonic from above or rolled across the ground before sharply pulled back (the ring is stopped for a lot longer here. Sonic must jump towards and over the wheel before it returns)

- A tall, flat block exactly like the last one, except they both go together. Sonic wall-jumps up the two as they close in and leaps out the top before they squish him.

- Rarely, Core will extend its eye above Sonic and fire a laser beam directly downward at him. The ring moves behind Sonic towards the eye, which revolves around the room to run into Sonic. So Sonic must go at top speed, turn, jump and attack the eye, or go the opposite way all around the ring until he can hit it there, although it sometimes unexpectedly turns the opposite direction to fool him.

.

If Sonic transforms into Super Sonic which he can at any time, he can simply fly above the ring and around the room, avoiding the arms. If he does this, Core responds by lowering a machine that looks mostly like a projector. It revolves around Core's body at increasingly fast speeds. It starts shooting extremely rapid pulses of light while producing scanlines on a single plane.

- It produces neon dots, lines, and much less visible transparent planes which produce a constantly changing cavernous landscape in the air that Sonic must fly through without touching the color, as the light comes from the sap energy. The safe path ahead may suddenly branch off or narrow around him.

- The projector can also change color to blue with slow energy while recreating the virtual landscape even faster,

- can change to yellow shock energy with particularly difficult timing required,

- or it can change to white which produces surfaces and shapes that Sonic can push against and jump off of.

Simultaneously, Pach will jump and flip through the holes and tunnels, being able to touch the energy. He approaches Super Sonic and attempts to attack him by pushing an explosion of black energy into his face. Time slows down just enough for Sonic to get out of the way or even attack back. However, although Pach seems to go slower, during this brief moment he may surprise Sonic by moving faster than him to avoid a counter or chase him down.

.

Transformed or not, Core will eventually grab large sheets of brittle metal and put them in Sonic's way so that he must break through them. Later on, she also puts down door-like traps that slowly close shut around a brittler connector that Sonic must move towards and break to get through. Although innocuous at first, Sonic will at random break through a sheet before suddenly finding himself in front of Core's eye. Its layered irises spin over each other and open up like spinning petals on a flower, revealing an inside covered with energy pulsating up hundreds of blood vessel-like conduits. The very center of the "flower" is the small but bright source of all of the tiny lights, connected to the main pipe exiting the eye back into the upper portion. Sonic can try to get out of the way, and when the entire thing snaps shut, be able to slam into it for a hit against Core. If he is not quick enough, it snaps shut around him and Sonic for a moment is forced into spin ball form but without being able to move. The tiny lights buzz around him and there is a very quiet hum, before Sonic suddenly hears an explosion inside his head, is blinded, and finds himself staring at his body being flung hard onto the ring, back in normal form. His out-of-body vision then snaps back into his physical head and he wakes up, all of his energy being sucked out of him (the battle returns to normal mode). If Sonic is quick enough, he could also attack the very center of Core's eye for 2 hits.

If Pach takes 25 hits first, he drops to the lower area of the room and rests. If Core takes 25 hits first, she still attacks but rises her head out of sight. Once both have taken that amount of damage, the first round of the battle is won.

.

The hanging body of Core draws itself up the hole in the ceiling. Sonic is about to chase after her when a small, glass cylindrical case is lowered by a tightly gripping claw down the center line of the room directly onto a circular depression on the cylinder containing the energy below. It is rotated several times like a combination lock, before the depression opened and energy suddenly got sucked into the smaller container at a very fast rate. It rapidly grew in brightness before all of the energy was located inside it. The side is locked.

Everything in the room begins shifting. The central column, ring and other such platforms lower to the very bottom of the room, opening up the very wide cylindrical space that the entire room encloses. The soft, almost aesthetic walls and their lighting at the top give way to bare metal, gratings, stone and harsh lighting with sharply cut shadows coming from more irregular and discontinuous structure within the walls. Sonic looks around, seeing Pach who looks back at him but keeps his distance. Sonic looks up, seeing the entrance at first, his attention is obviously caught by the large, complicated and mechanical mass of Core within what seems to be a very tall vertical space above this room. Core lowers itself around its claw and the energy container, reorganizing its chaotic tangle of limbs and bodies around it. As it locks it in deep within its body, energy shoots in lines throughout its every part. Now, much more rapidly it drops itself completely into the giant vat and then shoots out 6 limbs in two equilateral triangles facing opposite directions with planes parallel to each other, at the bottom and top. It finally lowers its eye again which locks itself behind the many spinning and translating parts, its body swinging and oscillating back and forth in the middle of the room while staring at Sonic. Sonic looks back to Pach, who is back in fighting position. Round two begins.

.

Core now expands its limbs to make a giant meshwork of platforms, horizontals and vertical tunnels, effectively, an entire landscape that fills the entire room and that changes often in giant clumps. It is all made from its many multi-jointed arms. It may also impose a secondary landscape using the projector, so that certain paths are cut off for Sonic, although this is not often. It moves some of its arms within the changing maze, with large blocks and spikes meant to seek Sonic and crush and squish him. There are also glowing currents of energy that make some arms carry shock energy before dissipating at the end in a burst of light and sound.

The energy container glows brightly on the opposite side of the room as Sonic. It is his goal to jump, run and wall-jump towards it as fast as possible, so as to pounce on it when he is close enough to the manifold pushing it through the body, delivering a hit. It will try to find the quickest route away from Sonic and if Sonic stays too long near it without attacking it, it charges up its energy and releases some of it in a radiating explosion.

Pach, meanwhile, is navigating this battlefield much easier than Sonic and tries to attack him.

- Once near him, he dashes through him, stops and turns and dashes again, while attacking. He lets loose lots of energy projectiles

- and striking attacks,

but due to a strong use of Black energy Sonic can see them coming and avoid the attacks.

- Pach might charge a lot of energy at once, enough that time slows nearly to a halt. Sonic can try to escape but Pach will follow him wherever he goes, holding the powerful ball of whirling energy tightly in his hand. Sonic must avoid the attack right when it explodes in front of him, as it will deal significant damage to him.

Of course, at any time if Sonic is quick enough he can catch Pach unguarded and strike him for a single hit.

.

Core may suddenly move its eye towards Sonic and open it up wide to encapsulate him. Sonic can attack it for 2 hits, sending energy reverberating throughout the structure, or he can try to escape. However, the entire body bends in a similar shape, trying to surround Sonic from all sides, closing in on him in layers, such that he has waves of hazards to avoid such as clamping metal and electrically charged rods before he leaves the entire mass which closed in on itself. Here Sonic can try to make a dash for the energy container up the branches of Core that push it against the walls of the room.

Pach may occasionally attack in ways that Core immediately recognizes and changes the landscape to accommodate it. For the most part, she opens up a horizontal space where Pach lets loose a lot of projectiles at Sonic.

- His multiple simultaneous positions each fire laser beams at Sonic,

- as well as crafting oblong spheroids that explode in a single column, although spinning.

- He also creates floating energy that he shapes into blocks of different shapes and lob at Sonic to platform around.

She might open up a circular space with multiple Pach images attack him at once from all sides, and Sonic must strike the real one who has slightly different posture.

Core will eventually reorganize her body again, which changes the way the landscape is patterned. There may be more hazards, sharper angles, more erratic turns, more dead ends, more tunnels, and so on. With different bodies she also uses different parts, such as [homing] rocket launchers, gun turrets, giant energy tubes, spike traps, etc.

Regardless of body type, Core may again move its eye out into the battlefield, but somewhere far away from Sonic. It then clears a direct line from the eye to Sonic, often vertically but it can be horizontal or diagonal at any angle as well, and then fires a powerful sap/shock energy beam. If Sonic is quick enough to move towards it in the tunnel, then in the paths around it as it's firing, he can land a single hit on Core.

This battle does not change whether Sonic is transformed or not, except that if he is trapped within Core's eye he loses all of his rings in normal form and just returns to normal form if in Super mode. After 25 more hits, Core freezes and does not change the landscape anymore, nor attacks. The energy flows out of all of the conduits and back into the container. If Pach takes 25 hits first, he forms an energy cube around himself and lies down on one knee, resting again. With 50 hits total for both, the second round is finished.

.

Suddenly, a voice fills the room. "Pach! Forget whatever it is you're doing and come to the Zenith immediately! We are being attacked-" There's an explosion and shouts. There seems to be fighting going on. Again suddenly something is picked up. "Sonic, my comrade!"

"Zaga!" Sonic shouts, smiling. "So you are here!"

"I have the Elders cornered. Do not fret! Our final victory is imminent!" There is silence again.

"Zaga...?! That must mean..." Pach started saying. He dispels his barrier. "You unsealed him, didn't you? I wondered why you targeted the Zexesh. So, it was his plan all along!"

Sonic takes a few steps forward. "He's right, in every way! The Zexesh have always oppressed the people, but you supporters refuse to question them in any way... You shield them from thought and arm them with your subservience, giving them the power to do whatever they want, believing in whatever they say!"

Pach steps back. "I am well aware of how my system functions, of every psychological, social, economical, biological, political and militant maneuver it uses to retain its authority. Eat this: I support it despite that!" He then leaps high above, kicking off the walls and entering the chamber above. Sonic could hardly keep up with his eyes, but before he gives chase he notices that the parts of the wall are pushing out towards him.

.

The third round begins as Core pulls all of her body up except for her eye. The door locks above and the walls push towards each other. Sonic clambers through the tightening space, avoiding literal dead ends until he makes way to the eye to hit it, which starts moving and shooting lasers at Sonic. Sometimes the eye may suddenly open and trap Sonic inside, much faster then it ever has before. Sonic should spindash when he's caught to deal 2 hits of damage, or otherwise risk death. As the walls are irregular, there are tiny areas where Sonic is safe. They close faster and faster, as well, but as the battle goes on Sonic notices that time starts fluctuating in speed from very slow to normal. He reasons that "the Zexesh are probably using the Black Emerald against Zaga." As the battle goes on, the entire floor rises towards the ceiling until it crushes Sonic to death. Before that happens, Sonic must land 5 hits and then the round ends. The walls recede and the eye detaches itself, exploding. The ceiling opens up.

.

Sonic climbs up the walls and jumps up there. He finds himself in a mostly blue room, chilly, with the many arms and mechanical parts of Core tucked neatly into compartments. He looks around, seeing flickering consoles and many, many wires and tiny flashing lights. He hears the churning fans blowing the frosty wind through icicle-covered vents. With his hands tucked in his armpits he walks towards the only door, which slides open before him. He sees many tubes and wires feeding from the sides of this newer room into a cavity in the wall where a glowing body is half-sealed in. It bears a lot of resemblance to the same structure which sealed Mechanix.

Just as Sonic enters, the door shuts and locks behind him. The lights in the room dim to darkness, and a few spotlights shine from below up at the glowing body which illuminates everything. Everything around it moves, displaces, rotates and the glow fades away except in her single slanted, narrow eye. Sonic sees that she is an android shaped much like her First Proxy, except the shapes are much less flat and take up a very smooth curved form. Her body is extremely sleek, with only a few hair-thin lines marking her otherwise perfectly continuous surface. Her spherical head is very slightly bulged in the front and is almost cute.

"Ah, so you've been preparing this for me the entire time. Let me guess, the Third Proxy? The one that finally uses all of the Black Stone energy you are connected to? The one that you will use with all of the extremely advanced intelligence that you have to kill me as quickly as possible?" Sonic asks.

"I was 'wasting' time, but now that we're alone, I'm just going to kill you right now," Core responds.

"I'm going to win, Core. You know I am," Sonic says.

"No, Sonic," she says. "No, you are not."

.

The final round begins. Core immediately creates an explosion of energy from within herself, with very thin channels for Super Sonic to fly through. It dissipates after about 50 "waves" that blast from the center of Core's body. The environment is completely destroyed, leaving an incredibly massive space within the tower without structural support. Many rooms on many different floors were burnt through, although not completely to the outer edges of the tower. Sonic looks upwards and sees the stars twinkling high above through small holes that make it all the way out of the building.

"You're attacking your allies? Destroying your home? Do you really need to do all that to kill me?" Sonic asks.

"My only purpose is to protect the Zexesh. I can do so, utilizing or destroying any thing I see fit to protect them flawlessly. So I shall do what I see fit to kill you. Understand?" she responds.

Sonic can now fly around this entire massive space. He now has a lot of room to avoid Core who moves around him to hit his blind spot. He can even reach the walls, where the space suddenly narrows into close quarters in half-destroyed hallways. He may find himself in a dead end, which would require him to attack Core to get out (or die). It's only in these hallways that Core does something different, which will be explained in a moment.

- Starting in the middle of the giant cavity inside the Tower, Core throws out both her arms, which transform into cannons and suddenly create a bullet hell of sap, slow, and shock energy, with different patterns being separated, fused, or even fused with both of the others. These tripartite energy attacks will essentially remove Sonic from Super mode unless he somehow still has a lot of rings. He can avoid all of the very tight patterns, as long as he stays far away.

- She often mixes this with suddenly flying up to Sonic and attacking. Her attacks are fast enough that in close-range it's unavoidable, and are strong enough that even Super Sonic will lose rings.

Sonic can attack her as long as he hits her while she's attacking him. Her backside is the most vulnerable.

If Sonic is not Super, he will probably be at the bottom of the mess, which is filled with very sharp splintered metal and a few iron girders just sticking out, enough to jump up the sides to the rooms on the sides, which he can climb through rather easily with wall-jumping.

- At any time, Core might stop whatever she is doing and suddenly twist her arms around each other, with palms locked. Energy flows up the helix through the palms into a growing fireball. Sparks rocket out of the small crevices of her hands, shooting straight out and burning the surfaces they hit (although not burning through). She then opens her palms and the energy beam blasts out. The ejection then exploded, and the remains of what exploded exploded as well. The directed energy suddenly scattered like a shotgun, and the chaotic force unleashed approaches him like a wall of death.

If Sonic is Super, has room and inertia he can still escape the powerful attack. Unfortunately, normal Sonic can only try to escape to a different floor, or jump off into the massive cavity, hoping to land on stable ground.

.

[Warning, disturbing material ahead.]

As mentioned before, when Sonic is in the smaller rooms on the outside of the spherical hole, Core does something different. That is, she finds an echidna hiding or escaping, grabs them, and forces them on their knees with their arms behind their back, often to the sound of bones cracking.

Core gets on one knee and then transforms her arm into a very long steel spike, incredibly tapered to an invisible point. "Stop it, Core," Sonic says.

Core suddenly thrusts her arm forward, and Sonic's eyes open wide as his body jumps forward. Core stops, the point right next to the echidna's head. They are crying or yelling in pain (or both). If they are sane, they beg Core for mercy. They beg Sonic for mercy.

Core says, "What would you do, Sonic?"

Sonic yells, "I'd let him/her go, you fucking bitch!"

Core asks, "Bitch? Ah, because my adoration of Mechanix fits your concept of 'love', and since Mechanix was 'male', I am 'female'. Ah, it makes sense."

Sonic is now angry and annoyed. "What the fuck? Just let her/him go!"

Core laughs, and says, "You are lying. You have killed people who fight against you. You have killed hundreds of people."

Sonic doesn't flinch. "They would have killed more than just me, and maybe get killed themselves. They wouldn't surrender. Don't make me seem like a bad guy when you protect the worst ones of them all!"

Core says, "You still killed hundreds of people. So, what you'd do is."

Core then stabs the echidna in the head. Sonic suddenly looks away. He hears Core slide the spike back out of the head. There were sounds of blood squirting and dripping onto the exposed concrete, or burnt carpet if the room is far enough away. Core then attacks immediately.

She might kill echidnas several times, except without ever again talking before doing it, just finding one and killing him/her on the spot. As time goes on, Core might suddenly charge at Sonic with the person's head still spiked (and the body might rip off). Even later, Core might just throw the person by the head at Sonic at high speeds (this is particularly gruesome). However, there are only so many survivors, so she can't do this all the time.

.

After 5 minutes, or 10 hits, or if another condition is met which shall be explained later, Core will stop moving for once. She suddenly pulls her body together and Sonic could see light warp around her. She flashed black and white, until suddenly throwing all of her limbs behind her as energy explodes off her body. It may seem to last a very long time and Sonic can even move around Core, but he cannot touch her without getting hurt. If there are lights nearby, they will fade out and flicker back on. In this transformed state, she can now only be attacked by Super Sonic.

There is a very large circle of energy around Super Core which works in gradients. The closer Sonic is to her, the more Hyper he gets (the more time slows down). On the outside of the circle, time is normal, however Super Core will be perceived to approach at incredibly fast speeds. Up to halfway, Sonic is slower than Core and sees her as going faster than him, while past halfway Sonic is faster and perceives Core as going slower. However, the difference is actually rather slight, and Sonic can avoid all of her attacks just as much as before, with a handicap depending on distance. Super Core's attacks are also much harder to avoid and in larger number, but they are not faster, just requiring more precision.

Sonic can avoid Core's physical attacks, although they are still fast.

New moveset: hand-to-hand fighting! In close combat, pressing "up" avoids low attacks, "down" avoids high, and to avoid mid or all attacks, Sonic must "back". He should "forward" to dash back in, and press "A" to jab (quick but weak), "B" to send a right (strong but slow) and "C" to jump. He should avoid getting hit and aim for counters or combos. "Select" returns to normal platforming mode.

Super Core may occasionally intensify her attacks, especially if Sonic has hit her a lot, by decreasing the Hyper circle by half, forcing Sonic to get much closer or just escape. Her attacks are faster, and she uses much more powerful strikes that take a little more time to throw. She is more resilient to damage, although everything Sonic does counts as a combo when she returns to normal speed.

Super Core can still use her explosion beam, which now lasts much longer and goes much farther.

.

At the very top of the entire open space are a few holes that lead to the floors above. There are three types of areas within the 20 floors Sonic has access to. They are:

- normal hallways with offices, stairways, and so on;

- maintenance areas that require good wall-jumping skill to move fast;

- and hidden shortcuts that are mostly filled with Core-controlled traps like hidden spikes, laser grids, crushing ceilings, and so on.

Sonic must go up 5 floors before he comes to the elevator car. He may run into:

- a few normal scared echidnas,

- normal soldiers,

- and quite some Shard soldiers,

- as well as a few robots, who are mostly pacifist service bots,

- but there are a few larger gunner robots on wheels.

The elevator car is guarded by three Shard users. Sonic must plow through everyone while avoiding Core, who might end up killing everyone herself. Sonic can aim for this place while in normal form, but if he goes in far enough, she, as mentioned earlier, will transform into Super Core. She will try to push Sonic back into the tower cavity.

.

Once Sonic enters the elevator, Core tries breaking open the large blast doors but they do not budge. The car goes up. Sonic has a chance to relax, and looks at Nexus. He's high above it now, being able to see its outskirts near the horizon. He sees some large blocks of the city no longer glowing except by fires and car lights. He heard the sounds of explosions and gunfire even through the tightly sealed walls. He looks up in the sky, seeing New and Old Mobian fighters hunting each other in the sky, as large aircraft past each other, firing cannons that sometimes missed and ripped open the land below. Looking farther up, Sonic sees the sky more clearly, although still behind a veil of artificial light. He keeps on looking up the glass wall, seeing at first the large shadow of the spherical Zenith getting ever larger, an eerie reminder of the falling Death Egg. He then sees something within the elevator shaft, something falling down, straight down!

.

Sonic, whether transformed or not, must immediately jump out the window, as quick as possible. The car will suddenly be folded through the center by the falling Super Core, who reduces the massive steel room into a crushed tin can screeching down the glass shaft. Sonic, falling in the air, re-enters the shaft and lands on one of the walls, letting the friction slow him down before he begins wall-jumping up instead.

There are plenty of rings here that Sonic can use to transform into Super Sonic, and he should take advantage of this.

- This is because Super Core will now simply use explosions as thrust to slam into Sonic, and this will kill normal Sonic instantly unless he wall-jumps perfectly. Super Sonic can also just fly out of the way, although Super Core can also fly straight forward, too.

.

After Sonic gets past the 20 floors through the elevator shaft (some of the doors are open), Core uses one last explosion to send herself right next to Sonic. While flying towards him, she charges another explosion beam and uses her interlocked fists to punch Sonic straight in the back. He is stunned for a moment, his body slowly spinning through the air as they reach the top of their positional parabola, seemingly floating for a few seconds, with Core right next to Sonic at the apex, pulling in large amounts of energy into her attack with sap, slow and shock energies spinning around her arm, causing even more districts of Nexus to lose power, causing time to slow down yet again, making them seem motionless for even longer, her body again flashing black and white. Sonic stares back at Core, struggling to move his body as fast as he can to avoid the attack, but not moving at all for what seems like minutes.

Core disappears into light and flame, while everything below Sonic is pushed back. He suddenly gets a hold of himself and enters a corridor to the side, looking down. He hears a very loud creaking, looking at the ground, he wonders if the tower just moved. He then lurches forward and instinctively grabs the doors to his side, as the tower indeed starts to lean over. In a few seconds, he sees Shard users leap up below the blast and then use Images which suddenly shoot thick steel cable to the other side. After several such shots, the tower stops moving, and other echidnas arrive, firing other Images and quickly reconstructing what must have been a vital support structure. He looks to the side, to see where it came from, and couldn't believe his eyes.

Dominating the entire skies is the Egg Tempest, or what actually seems like an even stronger one with more and larger ships. They rain destruction on the city and the skies, forcing both the New and Old Mobians to change plans and fight back this new opportunistic foe. Sonic saw the insignia on many of the ships quite clearly. It was Robotnik. ROBOTNIK!

"So even dead he has a plan of attack. This must be from some base I've never even seen before! Damn it... I have to clean up everything he left behind, don't I?"

The light suddenly increases and Sonic looks back to the sides, seeing the outside of the tower glowing even more. He sees hexagons of energy suddenly projected in the sky in front of the tower, which light one by one progressively, forming a translucent shield that only makes itself known when more attacks simply explode or disappear in a burst of light. The sounds of warfare disappeared. It becomes silent, except for the voices of the echidnas below, and the crackle of fires nearby.

He looks down again. He notices a lot of the echidnas are just staring at the city or sky. Some are crying, and some just stare at the ground. Most of them are working, although they have the same expressions. A few try to increase morale. Sonic doesn't want to look at them anymore, and walks on.

"Core isn't attacking me... Maybe that airship attack destroyed her? Maybe she's planning something..."

He walks on through an empty hallway.

.

[Act 2]

Sonic climbs some stairs and walks through another corridor. He opens a door and enters a large security room. All of the echidnas in the room suddenly freak out, and most hide except for a few that step forward, although hesitating.

One of the echidnas, a rather small one, spoke first and resolutely. All of the others gained a little confidence but remained defensive.. "Don't be suicidal, god-killer. Without Core we need to manually control the entire energy system. Right now, we need the shields up! If this tower falls over, none of us will survive."

Sonic just walks through and chuckles. "Don't attack me, and I won't attack you. Wait, you said Core's dead, huh? Well then, I just need to-"

"Sir! We have a p-problem!" A man sputters from behind a console. The leader turns, walks and looks at the screen. His eyes open. "No, Core simply transferred herself onto the network... completely overriding all manual control! How is that possible?!"

Sonic looks around and sees many of the people returning to their posts, each saying a new alert. "She's shutting down the cannons, the shields! She's redirecting all of the energy to the Zenith!"

A large man opens a holographic screen and sees a feed of the outside. The barrage of cannon fire starts denting the barrier, deforming it more and more until it broke through. The tower shakes and everyone falls to the floor except Sonic who keeps his traction. The man yells, "Core's gone insane! Dammit, I knew this would happen! Activate the suppression mechanism!"

"It's not working, it's not working!"

"Wait! I've managed to get the ancient shield guns online!" "Inform the exterior defense groups! Defend the tower at all costs!"

Sonic, caught up in their response, snaps out of it and runs to the other door. Everyone stares at him. "I'll destroy those ships and then corner your leaders. I'm not going to attack you unless you attack me first, and I'm not going to compromise my goal. So come at me and risk death... or let me be, and I'll free you from your masters." He then runs out.

.

Much of the path inside is locked off, so Sonic has to find his way again to the outside of the tower. From there, he has to carefully climb up the exterior's narrow ledges and pipes. Although the platforming is precarious so high up, Sonic also has to avoid the shells, missiles and bullets that may skirt or even explode on the tower's exterior wall through the man-aimed shields which can only activate so fast.

There are a few entrances back inside, through narrow vertical chambers or a few floors filled with terrified people including soldiers unwilling to attack.

Sonic can fly or leap, if high enough, to the closest battleship. They are often very long with runways for smaller ships to fly off, covered with turrets and Robotnik's attacking robots. If Sonic is in the air, the turrets and missiles may be aimed directly at him. Entering the ship, he flies through the narrow enemy-infested corridors until he eventually reaches the larger rooms and the main reactor. The reactor is often surrounded by turrets and robots but Super Sonic dispatches these in a jiffy. Hitting the generator 8 times causes it to lose control and start exploding. Sonic then flies out or climbs high up the tower and jumps out again.

The night sky is now brightly lit red from the spreading fires, with very little light from the city or tower. Behind the clouds of smoke, hundreds of small stars become visible. Everything, caught between pale dark blue and burning bright red, is twisted in all the reds, blues and purples in between.

In between the battleships covered with robotic foes he hasn't fought in a large time (there are strangely no Egg Robos), there are medium- and small-sized ships that move faster and act as platforms between the larger ones. Some robots from some ships may leap onto the one Sonic is on to attack. After he destroys a ship, he should try to reach a higher plane of attacking ships so as to not fall all the way back into Nexus. He can and should return to the tower to continue climbing. Returned to the battlefield, Sonic must keep track of how the new enemies control his freedom of movement. He should eliminate 3 large battleships every so often, so that climbing the exterior of the tower doesn't become nearly impossible. He gets a little help from both Old and New Mobian aircraft, although they may kill each other instead of shoot down Robotnik's ships.

After a while, the smaller ships and flying robots follow Sonic back from his assault, pass through the barrier and reach the tower. He may have to constantly switch between vertical and horizontal movement from the tower to the ships as they break past the shield gun defenses. Although they are more easily shot down from the tower defense, the total force only gets closer.

.

It isn't long before Sonic passes the cloud level. Yet the Infinity Tower still continues for a ways up, and Robotnik's fleet of airships reaches up halfway to the next cloud level, although they are farther away up here. The security controls are weaker too and more doors are unlocked. Once past that, the inside is very reserved and almost completely empty except for a few very talented Shard users who Sonic can just avoid by staying outside. The Infinity Tower now spreads itself out from its original diameter, however, and Sonic finds himself jumping across platforms suspended under the large, curved supporting ceiling above him. Finally, he enters a very long rectangular corridor, a service pathway back to the center of the Tower.

.

At the very end is a galvanized metal catwalk with tall guardrails that hangs in a large jungle gym of vertical steel poles and criss-crossing bars. He sees that this is the interior of a space outlined by very large oblique columns emanating from the lower tower up to an iron net far above, their surfaces curved and twisting around in a spiral that supports the structure just above it. Sitting on this net is a massive sphere, whose bleak, dark underside is lit up by bright spot lights shining up from below, revealing its glossy surface. Finally, the Zenith.

He can barely understand its structure. Although it clearly has patterns of repeating shapes, they are of all sorts of shapes imaginable, all within each other. The closer Sonic tries to look at it, the more confusing and chaotic it seems. Yet at a distance it is clearly a sphere.

His eyes scanning above, Sonic then sees much of the scaffolding torn and bent in a single direction, leading to a smoking hole in the central column. There's a smell of a familiar oil. Curious, Sonic decides to visit it.

So he climbs up, either running down the long catwalks to a spiral staircase, to run along more catwalks to more staircases, or he can risk it and wall-jump up the pylons and onto the tiny platforms between them. Either way, he gets closer until he reaches the hole.

.

He looks inside, and to his utter surprise, sees the Tornado's wings completely torn off, its body bent against the wall, its engine on fire. Sonic rushes in the room, filled with rubble, and looks around.

"Tails? Tails, are you here?" Sonic asks. There is no response.

He runs to the pilot seat but finds it scrunched up, although empty. He sees an open door and runs through it. He enters a large, circular and open room. It is softly lit by large spheres embedded in the very slightly curved walls. The floor is made of a dark, shiny marble, which reach up as cone-shaped columns to support the floor above it. There are many horizontal platforms and slopes which lead up the higher floors, and even provide cover from the center. It is strangely designed almost as for someone to run and jump around the sides. Yet nearly all of the middle of the room is empty except for a statue of Zexa holding his hands up as if supporting the Zenith, in the very center and bottom. There is a wide cylinder of space above him, breached by four arched bridges 5 stories above that connect to a small circular platform, with nothing on it but a spiral staircase leading into the complex surface of the almost alien super-sphere.

Tails, wearing a gun-covered vest and army boots is looking at the face of Zexa, facing away from Sonic.

"Tails!" Sonic yells. He runs forward, his nostalgic memories suddenly swelling up, his feelings of happiness and fun.

"Stop, Sonic," Tails says, without turning his back. Sonic is stunned, but he stops. "...why, Tails?"

"You lied, Sonic!" Tails suddenly shouts.

"What..." Sonic begins, but Tails suddenly turns around. Tears drop down his face. "You said you killed Dr. Robotnik. You said that!" He cries.

Sonic yelled back, "He did die! I saw him die. I saw the corpse..."

"But you didn't know, did you?! Because who the fuck is controlling them, huh?" Sonic, who didn't know, tried to say something in edgewise, but Tails didn't even bother. "He's annihilating us... we don't have the resources for two wars! Damn it, Sonic, why couldn't you have ever just killed him?"

Sonic shouts back, Tails' anger burning him too. "That's the past, Tails. C'mon, why are you like this?"

Tails argues, "What does leaving him alive prove but make him angrier and more determined...?! You think he ever cared about mercy? Your mercy costs us lives!"

Sonic says, "Listen to me, Tails, he's dead! Tails, I swear he's dead! He was blasted to pieces in space, even his Egg Hunter said so... he died after that..."

"Listen to yourself," Tails spat. He slowly walks towards Sonic. "Sympathizing with enemies, when you let your friends die... Maybe you wanted Robotnik back? Huh? Whose side are you really on, Sonic?"

Sonic never saw Tails like this. He didn't feel right talking back to him. He felt something was really strange... and cries out, voice cracking, "Tails, please! Please, I never wanted any of this to happen... from the very beginning, I just wanted to save you from Robotnik... from there... I just..."

"You don't understand, Sonic. I don't think you understand at all," Tails says, stopping, shaking his head.

"What are you talking about, Tails? What..."

Tails sighs and turns away. He sounds exasperated. "It's your fault... we all hoped if we just let you take care of everything, we wouldn't have to fight for ourselves. But we relied on you for too long. Your failure hurts all of us. You failed again and again to kill Robotnik, you didn't want to, even though he will brutally kill anything that gets in his way, or worse, roboticize them... Before, you beat his biggest toy and then ran away... Now, all you were doing was chasing Mechanix, who you couldn't even stop..."

Tails pauses for a second. Sonic doesn't say anything. He is overcome from his best friend expressing such hatred for him. He doesn't feel his body, or pay attention to what's around him, or what he should be doing. He can only see Tails, hear him say these words that start to cut deeper into him.

"Robotnik has always been alive. He attacked right after you entered the Floating Island..."

Sonic freezes. The words dropped like bombs, wiping away everything else in his head. There is only devastation.

Tails, not baring to look at him, still talks on. "You were fooled, into what? Something inevitable anyway? Damn it, Sonic!"

Sonic looked down, rubbing his face with his hand. He feels a burning sensation in his throat and eyes, and this feeling like something is swelling up inside of him. Pain sharply appears in his head and stomach. Sonic gulps, and says, "I'm not perfect, Tails... I'm just trying to make things right. I've had to fight so much to stop them... to stop them all... I'm so tired of fighting... this isn't an adventure anymore." He looks up at Tails who has his arms crossed and is looking away. Sonic's eyes start to tear. "I've been just a soldier, fighting Robotnik, fighting Mechanix, fighting the Elders..." Energy runs through Sonic's body, and in an epiphany, Sonic repeats, "I've just been a soldier... blindly following what he thinks is 'justice' in selective destruction!"

Sonic stops, and they are silent as he thinks. He speaks again. "I just want to run around with you, Tails. Just like how it was... But I can't. I'm the only one who can win against them. I'm the strongest there is, I have a chance... so I must constantly fight... I don't want people to die, but... I have to kill to make sure of that?! It never seemed right to me... but the more time I spend thinking about it, the more people die as I wait... I kill and I save lives? I don't kill and I end lives? How am I supposed to know what to do?! I want to save people... I try to be good and yet..." He looks away, holding back tears.

Tails sniffed. Sonic looked at him. "You're right... I... really hate this, too. I got so angry at you... getting angry people, ha, that's my job now! I'm a general... I demand perfection, no empathy for the enemy... I hold weapons, telling people how to take lives or escape with their own. I tell people to fight even if they die... I see them do it...! I see thousands of men who saluted me come back in stretchers and body bags! Fuck! The things... I've seen!" Tails suddenly screams, and tears the vest off of him. He even rips off his boots, throwing them far to the side of the room. He grabs his head and falls to his knees, growling in anger and pain. Sonic tries to step forward, but for some reason, can't bring himself to touch Tails. He wonders at that moment if he still hated him, and with his heart suddenly torn open, unwilling to harm his best friend's feelings, he stayed away.

"I'm too young, Sonic...! I'm too young to see people die! I can't think of anything else, anymore... It's always kill or be killed... every moment. Every second. It never ends! It never ends!" For a moment, he's silent. He then looks at Sonic, and says, "It wasn't like this. I remember when it wasn't! I..."

He cries.

"I can - I..." He rubs his eyes. "I...! I can remember running in Angel Island's jungle, under those bright green trees, the jagged pockets of light scattered across everything, the roaring waterfalls..." He cries out. "Aaah! I st-still remember, Sonic... I remember... back on South Island!" He sobs, dropping his face in his hands. He slumps to the floor. Sonic runs to him, but just as he stands behind him, something holds him back. He yet holds out his hand above Tails, but something fights him. He feels the most intense emotional desire to be compassionate, remembering the very same memories, to hold onto Tails and comfort him! But something dark, something very sinister, or so Sonic considered it, fought his every movement of his hand. And he feels like the light at the end of the tunnel was being closed off by a giant rolling wall. For the longest time, his heart was cold and shut off, only his mind observing the cold details of the world passing quickly by him. But now, when he finally returns to the world, his mind heavy with feeling, he is helplessly cut off from action by something he could not understand or stop! His hand falls. Tails says, "I remember when I met you... I remember you sticking up for me... Sonic...Sonic!"

Sonic, hearing his own name, for some extremely odd reason, feels disgusted. He feels hideous, cursed, and forsaken despite his very name being called out as a plea. He backs away. His mind reels, trying to understand why it is fighting itself when its emotions are so very clear, and he is left speechless.

"Why?! Whyyyy!" Tails screams. "Why did it have to come out like this, Sonic! I don't want to fight you! I don't want to fight you!"

Sonic falls to his knees and holds out his hands to keep himself from falling to the floor. He is completely silent, staring at the ground, sinking in an ocean of terrible, conflicting emotions. He tries speaking. "Tails... I don't want to... be a hero anymore... I don't want to fight anymore..."

They're both silent. Tails slowly stands up. He walks over to Sonic, who looks up at him. Tails holds out his hands. Sonic grabs them and is lifted up. They look at each other in the eyes, and in that moment everything in their minds is cleared away entirely. They hug each other tightly and say nothing. They both close their eyes, resting in each other's warmth through their fur and flesh lying on each other.

"Sonic," Tails says softly, slowly. "I love you... more than anyone... You're the only friend I've ever had... You're the only one who cared..." Tails lies his head against Sonic's chest, and sniffles. A tear rolls down his cheek onto Sonic's skin. "Let's forget about this... I want to go away... Far away..."

Sonic lets go. Tails doesn't, but slowly opens his eyes. "Tails..." He says.

"Once this is over... let's do it. But we can't stop now... We need to work together... We have to fight just a little bit more..."

Tails looks up at Sonic and pushes him away. His voice changes immediately. "Repeat that to yourself. Come on, Sonic. Did you hear what you just said? You don't get it! It was never about us. Nobody told us we had to fight. We don't need to be here... no matter what!" He pauses. "You only fight because you want to."

Sonic feels his heart drop. He feels that Tails, who was just holding onto him, slip far away from him. Didn't he just feel his skin and fur, his tears on his shoulder, the warmth of his body, his heart beating against him? Wasn't that just now? But yet, Sonic feels a force stronger than both of them, a repulsive but immutable power, with the certainty of gravity but in the completely opposite direction. The dark emotion within him, that pushed him away from Tails, seemingly reappeared with great haste and force. He feels abhorrent, but almost with pride. For some reason, his mind set itself on completing the mission, no matter what. He is compelled to explain, almost as if by an inner voice. Yet his voice is shaky and his thoughts unorganized. He says, "No, Tails. Robotnik would get us, too. And the Old Mobians, long ago, they enslaved our ancestors... It's a fight older than us... even Mechanix was a victim."

Tails' voice rose. "No, Sonic! Mechanix tore open Mobius' surface and then cut the planet to pieces! He's no fucking victim! But, but! Anyway! I don't know if that's true or not, that's the past anyway. I don't even know who my parents were. Why should what they do matter to us! Why do our lives have to be confined by the actions of others! You love freedom, Sonic, you must understand! Obligation locks us down! It forces us to fight and kill and fear and hate! Let someone else turn the crank of death, let someone else do it for once!"

Sonic couldn't help but yell back, "We're the only ones who can win! Nobody else can! We have to do it, and we have to – we have to stop them now!" He regrets what he said, but knows he wouldn't – he couldn't - say anything else.

Tails backs away. His eyes are filled with suspicion, and yet his brows reflected a tinge of pity. Sonic noticed this with horror. "No. No... No, Sonic, you've changed. Too much. You were never like this before. Your mind is so focused on victory that you can't see what you've left behind. Sonic, I don't - I don't feel like I'm even talking to you! You're leaving me behind! Where is your mind, Sonic, to still think like this? Where are you?! I thought you were right here, with me!"

Sonic felt his throat tighten. He felt a horrible feeling, like his innards being pulled out of his body all at once. He couldn't look at Tails, anymore. He turns. He paces away, looking up, seeing the platform to the Zenith above. He freezes. "Listen, Tails, it's fine, it's alright. I just have to stop the end of the world again. Destroy this thing above us. Defeat their leaders, the Zexesh. Tell the people that their oppression is over, that they can live freely now. Then stop Robotnik... once and for all. Go around the world, clean up every base left. That's all. That's all. Once that's over we could really be happy, we wouldn't need to run away, we'd have the entire world safe and happy..."

Tails barked, "I know what it is, now. It's you. YOU'RE running away! You, Sonic!"

Sonic's heart gushes blood. His chest explodes, his head spinning in pain. He feels stabbed. He feels like falling down and just dying right there. He didn't think about what Tails said, trying to ignore it, deny it at all costs. He tries wishing that dying would make it all better. He reimagines himself just dropping dead, fantasizing that this would make Tails forgive him.

He couldn't avoid it. "You're running away! You, Sonic!" The stab wound exploded into flames, consumed his entire body. Everything he sees, everything he feels, every part of him, every memory, enveloped in the fire. It burns so hot because Sonic doesn't want it to be true, yet knows it is. It is like a deep abyss opened up below him, and everything he believed in, every other truth, crumbled and collapsed into it, disappearing forever.

Tails says what he is thinking. "It's you. You don't want to accept your mistakes. You don't change the way you think, the way you want things to go because you're scared! You... You think if you destroy this and that, bad things will stop and good things will come back fine. You think it's just them, it's just these people, but you don't understand why they do it. You don't understand why everyone fights back."

"You don't want to. You just want to win. You just want YOUR story to be the ONLY story. No, you don't even think there's 'other' stories, you only see yourself. You're scared of what they can do to you. If you lost! If it's not your story! So you run away! You run miles away in an instant. No, not with your feet, within your own mind, forgetting about where you are, only seeing that goal, only seeing the future you designed.

"Now? Where are you now? Where is your mind? 95% the way to killing the Zexesh? Hey, hey! Do, you see me! No, you don't see anyone. You don't even see yourself. Just the goal. And that's it."

Tails walked briskly towards Sonic, who could not respond or even move. "That's it, Sonic. It's simple. You are a puppet. You're just a... avatar, of some greater being in your mind, being played with like a toy. You call it 'Justice'. You know it's there, you know it's controlling you, but you do nothing about it. Because you think it's right. You don't see how it's changing who you are. And you think it's only about defeating the enemy! Hahaha! It was never about the enemy, Sonic. Let me tell you why."

Tails' lower eye lid twitches, his fists shaking. He tries to speak calmly although his voice rumbles, about to explode, "Enemies appear for you. Sonic."

There is a moment of silence. Nobody moves. Distant explosions come muffled through the walls.

"I should have realized it's too late to make sense to you what's really going on, but... Your fights only start because you entered them yourself, Sonic. You take all of us down with you into your whirlpool of violence. None of this would have happened if you didn't fight."

"But Robotnik..." Sonic mutters.

Tails breathes in slowly. He walks over to his ammo vest and puts it on. "No, Sonic. Don't talk to me, anymore. You can't stop yourself, so I'm going to have to stop you."

.

[Act 2 Boss: TAILS]

Tails keeps very close attention of how Sonic moves. He always stays a certain distance away unless he sees an opportunity to pass Sonic above or below him. He attacks whenever Sonic is in the air or facing away, firing his assault rifle at him. A single bullet will kill Sonic if he is not transformed, and Tails is extremely accurate: unless Sonic is going near max speed, he will get critically shot.

Sonic can run around the entire room, up the slopes to the higher levels, even to the last platform, although the staircase is too narrow and tall to not get shot out of by Tails. If Sonic runs away, Tails will chase at 70% of Sonic's max speed, and can fly at 60%. While flying, Tails can attack Sonic regardless of what he's doing.

Here are Tails' attacks:

- Shooting the rifle, as mentioned

- When out of rifle ammo, uses submachine guns.

- When out of SMG ammo, uses pistols.

- At any time, use grenades with short timings.

- When near Sonic, using very quick slices and jabs with a combat knife.

- If Sonic is near a wall, Tails might shoot behind Sonic so as to hit him behind with the ricochet.

(As a note, all of these weapons can be knocked out of Tails' hands by attacking, and then destroying the weapon separately (except for grenades, which Tails must just use up).

- Tails then fights back with powerful punches and kicks using his tails for propulsion

- Flying, and then drop kicking Sonic

- Spindashing into him, and then jumping under him, hitting him into the air

- Spin attacking him from above

- Winding up his tails to thrust his body and outstretched fist into Sonic, sending him reeling

- Using his rotating tails as a shield (which damages Sonic if he touches them)

- Feinting and if Sonic moves the way he wants, attacking him then

If Sonic transforms, he will become invulnerable to all of Tails' attacks, and Tails, knowing this, will just try to keep as far away as possible from Sonic so that his rings run out.

As Tails accumulates damage, it starts showing on his body as he gathers bruises and cuts. He slows down, uses cover much more often and attacks much more fiercely.

After 25 hits, or just 8 hits from Super Sonic, Tails drops to the floor and puts up both his hands, yelling, "Stop, Sonic!" He gasps for breath.

.

After resting for a period, Tails gets back on his feet, although shakily, and looks Sonic straight in the eye. His expression has changed. The stolidity that was engraved in his brows and mouth are now shattered. His eyes are wide, pupils dilated, ears bent down. "There's no way... that I can defeat you..." he says with a shaky voice, rising in gasps of air. Sonic suddenly snapped out of his fighting mindset, again realizing that the opponent before him... is Tails. He looks at his face looking back at him and sees the fear that has gathered in his eyes. The distance between them isn't as small as a chasm, Sonic thinks. He reflects on how he kept on spin attacking him, cutting open his flesh, pounding his tiny body. He looks at every wound on his body, at the weakness in his legs, and most of all the terror in his eyes that he could just barely suppress, and Sonic realizes, "I did that."

"I wanted to do that." This thought remains in Sonic's head, without echoing, without fading away, consuming his entire awareness. Tails still gasped for breath, staring at Sonic. Sonic could only stare back, not thinking of anything else but this thought. He then heard Tails' voice from another memory, saying, "Where is your mind, Sonic, to still think like this? Where are you?!" He didn't understand what Tails meant at the time, he thought it was some metaphor. No.

"Why couldn't I stop? Why... why...?!"

Tails speaks. "The truth is... I fought you thinking I could bring you back, somehow. I felt so confident, thinking that I have grown so strong. I fantasized about this moment... where I could stop you, and then stop myself, resign from the military, and just forget about everything. I held the memory in my head during the many long... long, dark days I spent on the battlefield... I fought you, thinking if I won this battle, everything could finally end happily."

"But now that I lost... I know that... it was useless from the start. You... the things you've done... I don't need to say them. But you've faced so many circumstances that are just... beyond possibility. You showed me power that should never exist... You aren't Sonic the hedgehog anymore. I... I had no chance... I could never surpass you... I never could..."

"Tails..."

"You always went faster than me. You always covered more distance. Every step more than me, that you took... every extra step, all added up, over days... years... that is the distance between us now. Of course you'd change, you grew... you became something beyond imagination... beyond what's just 'good'... I can't even know who you are anymore..."

Tails, his head lowered, staring at the ground, shakes and sniffles. He frowns, despite fighting it, and his eyes tear up. He tries to wipe it away but he struggles just to move his arm. "People used to make fun of me... and now, people salute and applaud me. They cheer and celebrate me, while cursing your name against mine... they try to impress me, try to prove... but who, who knows who I am, nobody... nobody cares about me... it was good when you did Sonic... but I get it, you didn't really care either... I have to face this all... alone... alo.." He cries. "I'm alone again. I'm completely... completely alone..."

He lifts his hands and raises his head, but closes his eyes and screams, "AHHHHH!" and drags the scream into a haggard sob. He starts repeating "I can't escape" very quickly in a quiet voice, budging back and forth on the floor. His expression is of intense fear.

Meanwhile, the entire time Sonic did not think. No, he could not think. He had already felt his that his entire world had shattered, that the bubble of victory and justice that filled him up had popped so simply, suddenly, and absolutely. He now felt... empty. He had nothing to say. He wasn't apathetic, and yet, he felt no empathy, no sympathy, no emotions at all. He knew he should, he knew he most definitely would have before. Before. It was too far away to even comprehend now. Everything was now bizarre beyond terror, and increasingly so with each moment. How was any of this real? Sonic could have thought. He knew the answer, though, because it was the only place his mind could be. Everything is cold and solid and there, but yet nothing seemed to actually exist. Everything seemed fake... even Tails... especially Tails.

Sonic looks at him, crying, bleeding, curled into a ball, broken in pieces, on that part of the floor. Even the thought that he, Sonic himself, did this to him, Tails, his best friend in the whole world, does not faze him anymore. That distance, that uncontrollable space, that giant abyss between him and Tails, was really what exists between him, Sonic, and everything. Sonic had never recognized it, he has not even noticed it until now, except maybe when he talked to the Commander. But he repressed it because it felt too strong. That was nothing. Everything, until now, seemed perfectly normal, just different to some degree. No. That world is ending now, and the true reality is nothing. Just nothing. And the first thing Sonic thinks, strangely, is something that he thinks scares him. "What if... he's right? What if it's really me... that caused all this?"

Suddenly, Sonic notices that Tails took a pill out of a vial. He opens his mouth, and in an instant Sonic swats his hand causing Tails to yelp in pain and let go of the pill, which in its tiny size disappeared somewhere at the far side of the room after tapping the wall. Sonic stares fiercely at Tails, who jerks his head up and cowers, his entire body shaking, his face going pale, his teary eyes open wider than Sonic has ever seen them. Sonic, realizing what he's doing, backs off and looks away, and stares at the ground instead.

"Don't... no matter what... don't do that, Tails..." Sonic tries to say. Tails doesn't respond. Tails slowly relaxes his neck and lets his head lean on the floor, staring into empty space. Nobody noticed the silence.

A muffled explosion comes out from above. Sonic, for a moment, feels a slight rush of energy that he now instantly recognizes as his body's reaction to the use of Black Energy in high concentrations. In a flash, he realizes that his objective is not yet complete, that the Zexesh, the Black Emerald and the Origin Device are still close together. He walks away from Tails, towards a window and looks below. Although they are above two layers of clouds, he still sees Robotnik's ships and the light from far below. He can't believe that Robotnik is alive... but whether it's him or not, his forces must be stopped, too. But how many are left? Could he possibly have to travel the entire world yet again, searching every possible place for more of his bases? There was so much more to be done...

Sonic looks upwards and sees that the moon is getting close to the horizon. It's been a really long night, Sonic thinks. He reflects, "Did everything that happen since sunset... really happen? All of that...? No... even I'm not that fast..." Despite thinking that, he knows that he really is that fast. "I've never been that fast, though... Could... could I be getting even faster?" Faster than time itself, perhaps. He looks back at Tails, who is really so far away. "I've left him behind... long ago..." He doesn't think he wants to think about Tails anymore, but he did. And he did.

Sonic realized something more important than anything else. "He always comes back to me..."

At that moment, he decides to continue. He did not think any further about it. For some reason, something else, something completely different from the bleak desolation and endless destruction of what he just then felt like was the true normal, had flashed in Sonic's mind. Just from that one thought, it appeared instantly, that thing, an emotion, an idea, a way of looking at life and everything in living itself. He did not even know what it mean he was so eager to feel anything like it again after the chaotic suffering began.

He walks back to Tails, who is quiet but still staring into space. Sonic says, "Don't worry," in his mind, but it falls flat. "We'll meet again." "It's okay." "Please cheer up." It's all inane, Sonic thinks. "I wish this didn't happen." "I wish we could be friends again." "I don't want to lose you, either." Damn it, Sonic thinks. Annoyed with himself, he turns away and just says without thinking, "I want to come back..."

He wants to say more, to express what he's feeling, to reconnect, but instead, he refuses himself. Here?! Now?! He could save himself, save Tails, save everyone, but instead! And so Sonic thought on for a while, but he no longer reflected on it. It's done. He's moving on.

.

He runs up the slopes, jumps up the levels and reaches the small central platform above hanging outside as an open skylobby. He climbs the steps, the hollow metal bang reverberating once with each foot dropped upon it. In a matter of seconds he is away from the room, away from Tails, away from everything and everyone and everyplace behind him.

In front of his eyes is the underside of the surface of the Zenith. It is very, very finely curved even at close inspection. Incredibly, it's actually extremely detailed at such a minute level that it defies holistic perception. Sonic does not think much about it as the edge of the outside staircase directly meets the cylindrical wall around him. It is covered in conduits, occasionally lit by a single sphere with a soft red light. Soon, the staircase ends to a door, and inside is a large room. It is torn to pieces, with defense turrets broken into pieces and Shard users lying wounded haphazardly all around the room. A few groan, and some only look at Sonic and say nothing, but most of them are unconscious.

Before him is a large open space that leads into a long hallway. The hallway goes straight on against the interior edge of the Zenith sphere. It then bends with the curvature of the sphere and consequentially the floor rises out of sight. Sonic looks at the two gigantic blast doors crushed and squished still connected to giant pieces of the wall. He looks around the room again to see if the enemy was there, and then continued on.

.

The Zenith [Act 1] (8/40)

The floor is slightly curved laterally while the wall and ceiling are a single arch with alternating clockwise and counterclockwise beams. Glowing light shines between them, covering the floor with diagonal stripes of shadow. Occasionally, Sonic comes across a large, long glass window that shows the night sky with its clouds at an angle due to the circumferential corridor.

Although he can simply run at first, Sonic is suddenly met with several trolleys sent rocketing towards him one after another, which he can jump over or spin dash through. He then comes to a cart that slows to his speed ahead of him, with a mounted turret operated by an echidna wearing a dark uniform with thin, silver lines that give him a serious, dignified look. Behind him are four more echidnas wearing the same uniform. As the turret fires rapid shots at Sonic, two of the others lob grenades overhead. Sonic gets close enough and spin attacks it, destroying the turret and causing that echidna to back away. Then the two other echidnas run forward, one crouches and the other stands, pulling out their guns and send two streams of rapid fire at Sonic. Sonic again gets close enough, but if he spin attacks they simply back away.

Timed just for this instant, as Sonic lands on the trolley, another one up ahead moving in the opposite direction crashes right into it as all of the echidnas leap off just as the two explode. Just in time, a third trolley, longer than the rest, rolls back just as they fall onto it. Sonic, too, lands on it. One of the echidnas runs to the control panel at the other end and operates it for a moment before two slabs on the floor fold out as walls on either end. Immediately they attack Sonic. Some climb up the walls and then fire all around Sonic. Two of the five echidnas run up to Sonic and attack him directly with very fast and powerful physical attacks. The two that lobbed grenades take off the cannons on their back and fire large blocks of either slow or shock energy at Sonic, whether he is transformed or not. If he is, all of the other echidnas switch to ballistic or melee sap energy weapons. After Sonic takes out 3, one of them will run to the console and the other protects him with his life. By the time Sonic plows through the meat shield, the other has finished. He turns around, showing all of his grenades with their pins removed. Sonic has only one chance to run to the back wall, wall-jump off it and over the front wall. This is because in 3 seconds, all of the grenades explode and the fireball is mostly contained between the two walls. The impact is so great that the trolley is folded and ripped apart, crushing to death whatever was on it, even Super Sonic.

After that skirmish, Sonic runs down the long corridor alone again. This does not last long. Unoccupied trolleys rush towards him, sometimes connected together. As more pass by, some of them hold crates and scrap metal on them that require Sonic to quickly platform over or even through them before he is carried back the other way. As if that's not enough, he starts coming across stationary sentry turrets that fire either very rapid normal shots or less rapid explosive shots. Although they fly by rather quickly at first, he soon reaches ones that use the beams covering everything but the floor as tracks to move at Sonic's pace while flitting to either side of him. Sonic can only destroy these if he can jump on top of something on the trolley to hit the turret just as it reaches the top of the ceiling. Otherwise, more of them start piling together, giving Sonic a lot of trouble.

At this point, Sonic should be about a quarter way around the sphere, running perpendicular to the surface of Mobius so very far below. The zig-zagging beams disappear and the arch around Sonic wraps to the floor itself until the corridor becomes a tube. The surface is smooth and translucent, revealing mostly the solid, gray planes of the underlying geodesic scaffold as well as occasional peaks beneath it to the energy transfer structures which give off the light. The diameter of the tube slowly increases.

In this area, Sonic can, while running, move around the inner circumference of the tube. To do this, the player must simply press Up or Down.

The peace is quickly removed as a large blast door lowers ahead of him. He easily passes through it, but he comes across more blast doors shutting at even faster rates. For some he has so little room to clear them that he has to spin dash through. The doors don't just shut towards the direction Sonic is running on, but at every other angle as well. As Sonic manages to get even farther, the single gates are mixed with double gates that close towards each other. Although they do this one by one, they start closing in quicker, shorter sequences

..

After a bit of that, no gates stand before Sonic for a short while. Suddenly, a small cart on wheels zooms past him but slows down to his speed. Sonic then hears a voice from a speaker box on the cart.

"Do not think our battle is over, Sonic."

"Core?!" Sonic asks. "I thought-"

"I am nothing more than data, but as data I control the entirety of Nexus. As long as you are in it, I will attack you. If you want to delete me, you must destroy Nexus itself."

"Psh! I'm done fighting you. Try and kill me if you still think you can, but I'm not even going to slow down for you anymore."

.

Core is silent. Suddenly the cart stops and explodes, but Sonic avoids it easily. Again the gates ahead start closing, this time even faster and with more in number. A new type of gate closes, consisting of multiple triangles that rotate towards each other like a closing camera shutter. Sonic must jump perfectly through the small hole which of course changes its position with each new gate. He also runs past rotating spokes which either increase in speed or density as he moves on.

The final gate is already closed except for a hole in the very center that he jumps into. It is rather thick and Sonic rolls through the tube for a moment before popping out the other side. As soon as he lands, a current flashes through the circular wall behind him, creating a thick barrier of sap energy. Spikes jab out of its surface and the wall starts rotating and chasing Sonic from behind. In addition, slow energy bolts zip from the wall down the sides of the tube and the irregular areas in between suddenly flash, creating fields of slow energy that Sonic should avoid by running around the tube. The bolts come out from the chasing wall at long, regular intervals, and eventually start flying through the air itself, creating vertical walls that Sonic must jump over or run around. After a while of avoiding that, the wall begins charging and shooting beams of shock energy so that Sonic must almost always be on the move.

Finally, Sonic sees an exit from the tube and takes it. It is a catwalk which takes him through a cramped maintenance area before suddenly exiting outside. He finds himself 3/4ths to the top of the sphere, its curved surface more horizontal than vertical to the metal grating he runs on.

Suddenly, the surface dives away and Sonic stops to see where it goes. Far in the distance he sees that much of the sphere's surface dips beneath where it should be. In fact, there is an incredibly large gap in what would typically be the sphere. It is funnel-shaped, its walls smooth and vaguely reflective, everything emanating straight from a small central hole at the base of the pit. Three thin pylons support a small convex mirror which stands far above the sphere, almost invisible in the night sky. Sonic recognizes it as the cannon which had fired those gigantic laser beams at him when he was approaching Nexus.

.

Seeing that the hole enters deep into the Zenith, he jumps onto the slope and runs down. There is nothing in his way and so he quickly picks up speed. He lets himself just fall into the hole which leads deeper still with its walls of bare metal scaffolding with no intent for aesthetics. Sonic feels uneasy because of the ease of how he had gotten there and enters a small alcove. Just as he hides behind it, an energy beam blasts up the hole as fast as light, widens from the tiny mirror held so far above and is concentrated into that one, single, massive beam which fires off far into the sky, perhaps even into space.

And so Sonic, in order to progress down the barrel without getting himself incinerated (even as Super Sonic), must wall-jump down it as fast as possible to each alcove he can find. The space between them increases in size but eventually Sonic reaches the center of the cannon, a large room with many vents spewing cold air that drifts along the bare metal floor. In the center is a large glass cylinder suspended between two mirrors containing a spinning plasma within it. With the only door in the room sealed shut, Sonic can only smash the glass until it breaks, in that instant letting the plasma escape in an explosion that sends Sonic reeling into the wall.

A moment later, he finds the room and gun torn to pieces. Behind the walls are the many exposed interlocking structures and tubes that keep the sphere together and carry the energy around. Before he can get a good look, the Zenith starts rotating in its socket and Sonic jumps across what little is left of the wall and ceiling to keep from falling as everything turns upside down.

.

In this new perspective, however, he notices a nearby tube that rises towards the distant center of the sphere, obscured behind many complicated alien structures. He climbs up what surfaces he can reach, through the broken walls of the tube, onto a small catwalk with a door sealed shut. Above him are suspended vertical pylons and tubes that give him something to wall-jump on. And so he uses them, wall-jumping up them and off the walls. However, he soon comes across streams of sap/slow/shock energy which fly up some of the surfaces. The long stretches of vertical surface are reduced and size and Sonic has to carefully wall-jump between the streams of energy as he climbs up the tube. He leaps between gaps in streams in the air and even wall-jumps over small arcs of energy on the same wall. Some of the platforms begin moving, as well as the energy itself which translates and bends around. At the very top of the long and harrowing climb the hazards are removed, leaving nothing but wall again. The tube ends with the walls coming closer together by large steps, such that Sonic must wall-jump horizontally far to clear the small ceiling above him.

At the end of that tube he exits the small hole and finds himself once again on horizontal ground. Looking around, he finds that there are many small holes on the inner surface of another sphere which is still immensely large. Energy streams out of some of the holes into tubes floating in the air that redirect them in other directions. Looking up, Sonic sees these smaller tubes as well as small machines floating still around a central machine. Its thousands of parts, some floating and others connected, rotate, revolve and translate in wide, sometimes complicated, but definitely not random patterns. He cannot tell the larger shape or design, and even the smaller moving parts themselves seem elaborately and even excessively complicated. Beams of light shoot through the tiny appearing and disappearing spaces from something even deeper within. It is fascinating, almost ethereal, but at the same time it is immensely eerie for there is not a single sound made besides an omnipresent, quiet buzz.

Sonic is too far away to jump to the floating platforms, but he sees a nearby walkway that abruptly stops somewhat near one of the glass energy tubes. He runs up its curved side, across its flat top and leaps to the tube. From here, he jumps to a small structure holding a soft light sphere. And so he makes his way towards the machine, jumping between the tubes and platforms, avoiding the occasional open-aired streams of energy. Some of the "islands" are rather close to each other, but at other times Sonic may find himself at a "dead end", such that he'll need to backtrack or perhaps even make a long leap to a platform below that leads to a better "island chain". Of course, if he has enough rings, he can simply fly as Super Sonic through all of this.

Upon reaching the machine, he finds himself in a slightly better position. Although the space between the platforms is just as large as before, the platforms themselves move and are much more varied in size. Some are so large that Sonic can spindash or even walk inside of them. The largest have moving platforms even within them! But also there are platforms that are so small that Sonic only has enough room to stand on, or even only wall-jump off of. There are also a few platforms that move rather rapidly, but if Sonic manages to land on these he will often find that they are shortcuts.

As he gets deeper, there are less floating platforms and more that are connected to each other, often by long pylons. Although he doesn't need to worry about clearing gaps anymore, he now has to worry about not getting squished as the parts start moving closer and closer to each other (but leaving a hair's width between them). There are pistons which pump rapidly up and down, pylons and gears that rotate towards each other, and sequences of platforms whose trajectories mesh together in a tight fit.

.

Eventually, Sonic gets deep enough in the machine where every part is against every other part and he must be constantly moving so as to not die. Being transformed will only help his speed here. His goal is close, however, as the beams of light flash on wider than before, with the next area revealed in glimpses between the unknown complex. Sonic moves with all his speed and wit towards these holes and after clearing a final gauntlet of closing spaces, leaps through it and lands safely on a steel girder.

Looking around, he sees that the machine still leaves a large sphere of open space within it, and Sonic is amazed to find that he still cannot see the center although light streams outwards from it. Above him are octahedrons, dodecahedrons and icosidodecahedrons sometimes connected by complicated manifolds consisting of triangles and pentagons, having "caverns" and "mountains" as well as "plains", with every plane and every closed solid containing a viscous, dense, yet iridescent honey-like substance. Between all of them are a network of transparent, branching tubes that are smaller and more serpentine than those from before. At their openings, the energy is sucked inside and carried throughout the complex system.

Sonic finds an opening nearby and wall-jumps off the narrow edge of an energy-holding plane into the tube. He wall-jumps up until the tube levels out and runs at full speed, avoiding the streams of the "honey" that drift through the air or across the sides. Upon closer inspection, he notices it is filled with very fine Black Stone powder.

After a very short while, he notices in the background that from the still-unseen center, some of the planes glow bright and the adjacent planes subsequently glow. This carries on rather quickly throughout the membrane and structures until it reaches a tube, where all of the gunk on that plane is very quickly sucked inside and even more quickly shoots through the tube like an action potential, still glowing. If this happens on the tube Sonic is in, he'll find that the ensuing wave of Black stuff slows down a little behind him, apparently putting him in Hyper mode. However, he cannot outrun it for long and must escape through a branch to another tube to survive it. When it passes, he returns to normal. The closer he gets to the center, the more often this happens.

.

At the end of this area, the planes no longer contain the substance and greatly decrease in size. The tubes end here, opening up into a very dense structure of what now seems like crystals. The light is brighter than ever now, sparkling radiantly into many different, bright colors. Sonic runs through a tube directly into the crystal maze.

The path often splits into many directions, and is rarely flat (and safe). Instead, the sharp vertices from the tiny planes makes spikes almost everywhere, from the ground, ceiling and walls. Although he can simply jump or roll under them at first, Sonic quickly finds himself in long caverns with safe areas being remote between all of the spikes. There may be vertical drops where Sonic must move around as he falls to avoid the walls and spires from below. There may be vertical climbs where Sonic needs to carefully wall-jump on the flat areas between the spike beds. Worst of all, there are horizontal areas with the only way to cross them being thin walls, sometimes moving, with spiked tops that force Sonic to only wall-jump on their sides onto others ahead. Given the cave-like nature of this area, all three of these areas are mixed together very often. To make matters worse, as Sonic nears the very center he find the crystal walls starting to move. This can be as little as a slight oscillation, to as dangerous as crushing ceilings, floors and walls, to as ridiculous as the entire area constantly changing shape around him.

To Sonic's delight, he finally comes across a metal structure within the crystal. He runs across its stable, flat floor, through hallways of design similar to the outside of the Zenith, until he comes to yet another wide open sphere-like space. The room is very bright, the walls mostly crystal, dazzling with vivid color. Finally, Sonic sees the other side of this space which wraps around a central sphere which seems like the Zenith itself in miniature. What would be the cannon faces directly before him, connected by a wide bridge to where he stands. Sonic, looking around, notices a giant, shattered hole in the crystal, as well as many streaks and craters in the spiky surface that obviously reflect a battle.

.

While looking at the damage and walking down the bridge, he suddenly hears, "Don't move an inch, Sonic!"

Sonic, instantly recognizing the voice, looks to his side to see none other than Knuckles glide through the air from another entrance and then drop onto the bridge. Although he wears the same gloves and shoes as before, his chest is now covered with thinner, spikier white lines radiating from the first white crescent that is around his upper chest. It looks like an explosion. His dreads, too, are now marked with white tongues of flame.

"It's been a long time, Knuckles," Sonic says, smiling. "I almost forgot about you."

Knuckles stares back without changing his straight face. "I haven't. My people, my world came back to me, but I knew the real battle would soon begin. My lifelong loneliness disappeared like a dream, and I trained nonstop to prepare. Because I knew from the very start that you... you... would make it past everything, would ruin all of this, like you always have..."

"Whoa, whoa, c'mon!" Sonic says, holding up his hands. "All I've ever done is try to save Mobi-"

"NEW Mobius!" Knuckles interrupts. "You've done nothing but ravage Old Mobius... both before and after the resurrection! You're the greatest enemy of my people... and you've always been MY enemy!"

Sonic sighs. "Man, you're thick-headed. Or faithful, I guess. As much as I'd like to convince you that you're just being misled again, I'm getting sick of trying. You helped me and Tails..." Sonic stops for a very short moment, recalling what he did to Tails, and... "...defeat Robotnik. But I guess that's it, huh? I don't know why... I never hated you. Even when we fought. I thought it was mutual. You really hate me?"

Knuckles spits. "So you looked down on me all those times, when I tried my hardest to beat you down? Yes, I used to be reckless, 'thick-headed', but I always... I always hated you. I hate your carelessness. I hate your high ego. I hate your apathy... your voice... your face. You... you make me feel sick. And then you destroy my people's ruins, take and exploit the sacred Emeralds, even the Master Emerald now! You kill my God, you ravage my people's army, you encourage my people to destroy their own society, you come all the way here to kill the sacred masters of my long lost people...! But this is it! No more!"

"Ever since the resurrection, I trained. I trained harder than I ever have, because although I hate you, I know you are strong. Stronger than anyone or anything, because you are the god damned Devil! But you aren't stronger than me. Not anymore."

"You've gotten this strong only because of the Emeralds, which make you almost invincible anyway. I know how strong you can get, I can go Super, too. But unlike you, I don't need to. No, I'm stronger than you, and I don't have a single Emerald, a single Power Ring! I won't let you hurt even one more member of my family! You can't fucking take any more away!" He stops talking and breathes heavily, baring his teeth.

Sonic smirks, and replies, "'I can't win'? I've heard that so many times, Knux, but, well, it's still just as funny."

Knuckles looks like he's about to explode, but he takes a deep breath and closes his eyes for a few seconds. Opening them again, he stares at Sonic with a fierce determination. "No, I wouldn't expect anything less from a heartless bastard like you. I'm done talking. Let's finish this." He raises his fists.

Sonic looks at Knuckles for a moment. He remembers looking at him in the past, in the same way, right before they fight, but for some reason, he still gets the feeling that there was a friendliness behind that face. That they were rivals.

Looking at him now, at that same face... something had changed. It was exactly the same face, exactly the same expression even. But behind it, Sonic could only feel coldness, a very dark coldness and a feeling that his life was being targeted. It didn't feel right. It didn't feel... normal. And then Sonic was again reminded of Tails, suddenly feeling that same feeling of that giant abyss between them, of reality itself being wrong, of being in a nightmare but suddenly realizing you are not asleep...

No, it couldn't have always been like this. It wasn't like this, it wasn't! It was never so...

Knuckles sprinted towards him.

.

[Act 1 Boss: KNUCKLES]

The battlefield consists of the bridge, the metal walls above the passages on either side and the space in between. The door onwards is closed shut. Knuckles can climb up the walls, leap off and glide all of the way to the other side, although he is more likely to stop abruptly and attack from above. Although Knuckles can attack from a distance, he more often than not moves directly at Sonic to attack him at close-range.

His attacks are:

- Punching from long-range. If Sonic is in the line of his fists, regardless of where he is at, he will be hit by a very rapid wave of compressed air from the punch.

- Punching in mid-range. The punch is slower, but once it hits the air, the impact is great enough to cause an explosion of wind that hurts Sonic.

- Dashing very rapidly to close the distance between them almost instantly. He ends the dash with a strong punch that, if it connects, sends Sonic flying back.

- Punching rapidly at close-range. This activates Sonic's close-range fighting mode. Knuckles' jabs are enough to stun Sonic and his normal right is enough to hurt him considerably. His punches are very fast, at the limit of Sonic's evasive ability and sometimes even beyond that. Knuckles will start a combo whenever he gets the chance, although there is a certain rhythm to it that Sonic can exploit.

- Knuckles' most powerful attacks are a wide right he saves for when Sonic is recovering from damage

- or a devastating uppercut that sends Sonic flying when he crouches below him.

- Knuckles can feint very effectively by assuming an expression of bloodlust before crouching or sidestepping to hit Sonic as he is stunned by confusion.

- Every low hit in Sonic's gut will slow him down until he can barely move,

- and every high hit in Sonic's face will eventually cause his eyesight to be enveloped in darkness until he is knocked out cold.

Knuckles has an extreme amount of stamina, so unless Sonic avoids nearly all of his attacks and constantly pours combos on him, his guard will not break. His only opening is while he's attacking; that is, Sonic should aim for counters most of all.

- While gliding in the air, he may drop above Sonic while swinging his fist, which with gravity can deal heavy damage to Sonic.

- Or, he might just glide directly into Sonic.

- He can also spindash or spin attack.

When Sonic is nearby, he always holds up at least one fist if not both as a guard. As mentioned, this guard cannot be broken unless Sonic is constantly throwing punches for a long time.

Regardless of how he manages to strike him, after 16 hits, Knuckles backs away.

.

"As I thought, I can't hold back," he says.

.

He then throws his fist down on the bridge in a blur faster than any of his previous punches. The entire steel bridge then suddenly bends around, cracks and breaks into pieces. The shockwave of the punch is enough to shatter all of the crystals in the large room, filling the air with glittering shards. Sonic jumps just in time and they both fall to the true bottom of the room.

The battlefield is now the entire sphere-space, although its surface is irregular and filled with crevices and bumps. Like Sonic, Knuckles can also run around the entire surface even at the top, as long as he goes fast enough.

His attacks are now of a much higher level, to the point that even Super Sonic can be hurt by most of them, and he has a few more, too:

- The long-range punch now is now not just a line but a spread shot, and he can throw many of these at once, following Sonic from far away.

- The mid-range punch actually causes a fiery explosion that is larger than the wind explosion. He either throws several of these punches to build the explosions off of each other, or dash through the flames, carrying a fireball on his fist to punch either directly into Sonic or to throw at him if he manages to avoid Knuckles.

- His dash is now as fast as Sonic's max speed.

- His close-range fighting is much faster, much stronger, and more intelligent. He may even "give" Sonic room to counter, just as a feint to counter his counter. Sonic must be constantly at the peak of his awareness and speed to just avoid his attacks, as otherwise at this range he will be very quickly overwhelmed. Knowing this, Knuckles always tries to bring Sonic into this range whenever he can.

- His gliding is now not just parallel to the ground and he can dive, rise, loop and turn at much higher speeds.

- He can suddenly remove himself from spinball form to throw a powerful spinning punch that does a lot of damage.

- He can throw a punch into the ground, sending a large wave that spins around the room.

- He can dig through the ground and then pop out under or near Sonic.

.

After 24 more hits, Knuckles drops a knee to the ground. "You bastard... How did you get so strong?! It's the Emeralds... that you stole! Damn you... damn you!" He punches the floor with incredible ferocity, tearing open a hole in the floor that spans the entire diameter of the room. Both of them fall into it until they land in a large cavern with metal passages traversing the wide open space.

Knuckles punches his fists together and the entire room shakes. He yells, "I'll never let you win any longer! I'm going to kill you right here Sonic!"

.

- He runs toward Sonic while throwing out immensely powerful punches. The punches launch massive fireballs several times his size that rocket towards Sonic. Upon hitting a surface, they obliterate it in a gigantic explosion. In close-range, his fists have lost their compactness and speed, being easier to avoid. They make up for it in sheer power, with just one combination being enough to kill Sonic in his normal form.

Sonic can attempt to run away through the many crystal caverns and constructed passages, but Knuckles will unceasingly chase him while throwing attacks. His attack pattern is now very simple: throw everything he has directly at Sonic, whether from far or up close. Sonic can counter, surprise him or even attack him directly, but Knuckles will take each hit as if it was nothing and continue attacking him back.

Eventually, after a few minutes or in less time with every 5 hits Sonic lands, Knuckles slows down and his power weakens. He still tries to attack, however, but in a few more minutes he can hardly move although his punches are still impressively powerful. In just a little bit more time, Knuckles is immobile. Whether Sonic hits him or not at this point, he falls down.

.

"I can see now... why you're so strong. Why you never lose..." His voice is weak, but it is not defeated. Strangely, it has awe. "It makes sense now. Everything... everything makes sense now..." And then, he passes out.

.

Sonic looks at Knuckles for a moment, but without reflection he immediately moves on. He goes to the hole, climbs up its broken sides back into the spherical room. He runs up the wall to the ceiling and jumps at an angle towards the center sphere. He lands in front of the door and finds it dented and burnt. He charges his spin dash and blasts through it.

He walks through a hallway with tall columns in the walls with the only light coming from farther within. The hallway seamlessly changes from stable orthogonals to curving and spiraling forms swirling between compositions of flat shapes, which at first create a helical tunnel. Sonic runs through it with its rays of light meshing over each other. It then reveals itself as one of multiple outgrowths from a central basin floating within a larger spherical space. From its edges massive arches stretch and form a ceiling that completes the basin as an implied sphere. However, several portions of it are damaged and missing, a few of the pieces scattered on the floor below.

Everything is bathed in ever-changing colors of light coming from the surface of the outer wall. It consisted of a projected image of 3-dimensional solids and irregular blobs floating, transforming, fusing and fissing from each other, much like the background of the Special Zone.

Sonic sees that the basin is simple, made of trapezoids and four-sided pyramids. It is all centered around a platform facing opposite of him, where elaborately designed machinery emerge from the floor to form a single pedestal. Sitting on the staircase before it with his staff in hand and the Black Emerald in another is Zaga. Lower than him are the Zexesh, strewn across the ground, 4 of which are unconscious. Two have their arms and legs bound, struggling against their restraints, while the last one is curled up in a shallow pit near the edge. Their honorable demeanor, clothing and bodies were trashed and humbled. Looking around the basin, Sonic suddenly notices somebody lying right next to the entrance. His face is unfamiliar, bloody and bruised, his eyes closed and mouth open. Then Sonic notices his armor and sees that it is Pach. His exposed body is scorched and gory beyond recognition. Zaga gave him no mercy, Sonic thinks.

.

"Sonic, my dear comrade, our long battle has finally come to an end," Zaga says warmly, opening his arms.

Sonic walks closer. He was expecting to fight one last time, but it seems Zaga took care of it for them. "Is it really over?" He asks suddenly. He wonders at this fact that the Zexesh are already defeated, that even their trump card has been trumped. The entire campaign, which took Sonic from Zaga's initial anecdotes to the very core of this completely different world from the distant past, which had him travel to so many places and had him defeat so many enemies... it's now finally over. Yet, it didn't make sense to Sonic. Or rather, it didn't feel like it was over. It was like the feeling that he was still running even when he had finally stopped. Sonic thinks about Robotnik's ships, about what Tails said about him still being alive. But that seems like an extra detail at this point. Robotnik was gone, Mechanix was gone, and now the Zexesh are going.

"You're a fool, you damned deicide!" One of the Zexesh shouts. He is one Sonic did not see before, with pale yellow skin and black eyes. "Zaga is not your ally!"

Sonic laughs. "You think you can get me on your side at this point? Can't you admit you're defeated?"

The Zexesh answers, "No, I submit that the War is over and that we have lost it. I know that the Old order cannot survive any longer and that our very people have decided to replace everything that was once sacred to them. I know that the reign of Zexagalaxius on Mobius has finally reached an end! I... we... have fought with all of our might, mind and will, and have lost! No, I know this very well; I do not accept it, I do not want it, I am averse to it completely. But I do not deny the truth."

"However!" he suddenly exclaims and rocks onto his feet bound close together by what seems to be glowing cuffs. "Zaga is not your ally! He is an anarchist that will destroy your civilization's foundation just like ours. But not for the good of the people, for he wants them to be without protection so that he tests all life to survive absolute destruction! He wants everyone and everything "insignificant" to die. He said so himself, before you arrived!"

Sonic smirks. "You say you're rational and then start raving! Do you think I'll believe you, free you and attack him?" Then, recalling something, he steps closer to the Zexesh. "What's more, all of you had decided to eradicate everything outside of Nexus, including your own people! Is that not "absolute destruction"?! Why should I even listen to you?"

Zaga laughs once. "Indeed. More than anything, you are a politician, Kaldre, and what is a politician if he cannot use rhetoric and lies? You are hypocritical beyond that, suddenly putting my character on trial as if ethics meant anything to you who recognizes only power!"

The Zexesh so-named Kaldre turns around and argues, "As if ethics meant anything to you, either!" He turns to Sonic and changes his expression, seeing Sonic who looked at the exchange somewhat interestedly. Suddenly having an idea, he asks Sonic, "Before the Plague, what did you see in the simulation?"

Sonic thinks about it. "The Emerald War was going on."

Kaldre looks at Sonic and then turns to Zaga, who looks back at him curiously. "Of course. You really are manipulating him by hiding what happened in between those periods!"

"First of all, I don't understand why you thought trying to brainwash me into accepting your historical propaganda would work, when I had encountered the brutality of your regime first hand," Sonic says.

"It was not designed for someone like you! More than anything, it only served to delay you, although now it obviously doesn't matter," Kaldre explains. "That's not the point! Zaga had manipulated the simulation with the intent to keep you from questioning your motives. No, you would have come here with your own intention, anyway, but you must know the truth!" He suddenly stops and looks at Zaga, who continues to look at him in the same way, somewhat bemused.

"Go ahead and speak. He has fought a great deal in our world and has earned the complete truth that is known only between you Zexesh and me. He, too, is an author of history," Zaga says.

Sonic looks at Zaga strangely, and then to Kaldre who turns around and speaks. "The Emerald War was a total war, a free-for-all of seven nation-states using Black, Image and newer Chaos Emerald-fueled technology. Inevitably, resources were drained and many lives were lost. After many decades, the war finally ended when exhaustion and pain extinguished the inferno of ethnic hatred. Slowly, trade was reestablished and peace returned. That bloody war ended but the wounds still hurt and needed to heal. It took a long time, a very long time, but assuredly the Second Great Age arose from the Seven Lands and the Chaos Emeralds were used as the cornerstone of a new, constructive age. The Anazze finally took to accepting their leader and god, Zexagalaxius."

"Then someone, some damned fool who knew where and how Zaga was sealed, unsealed him..."

Zaga snickers. "It was Oio."

Kaldre smiles. "As I thought. I had never supported the Ancient Zexesh's decision to accept that anti-Zexesh. They overlooked the summoning of the Chaos simply because he stated later that it returned the Old Zexesh to power! Even if that intent was true, his methods were insane and unnecessary. Of course he'd bring you back as well, probably to state later how the Old Zexesh succeed over all!"

"Oh?" Zaga says. "But is that not the case? Your questioning of Zexa's Supremacy is rather unfit for being an Old Zexesh, yourself."

"Don't tell me what is fit as Zexesh! What's more, your philosophy is just the same as his!" Kaldre shouts back. He then turns to Sonic again. "After Zaga was unsealed, he then immediately unsealed Mechanix as well. As the world was alight in joy in the Second Great Age, it was Zega here who began mass murdering innocent people and razing cities to the ground! He stole the Chaos Emerald from each land and gave them to Mechanix, filling him with power he was never designed to keep!"

"He exclaimed how he was the creator of their god, that he was superior to Zexagalaxius and was yet completely mortal like them, a living god! He demanded that all of the citizens should reject every institution of the Supremacy and believe only in power, his power, as the ultimate reality! He would kill people and justify it as extermination of the weak! He would state that the only reality is willpower, that those who had the will to destroy everything, including their loved ones, deserved a place in the new, "best" world! He gathered an army of deluded zealots who were nothing more than thugs, killing the weak, injured, disabled, young and old! He wiped entire regions off the map and nearly literally set the entire world on fire. Just like Oio, he thought the world should be purified through a trial of global destruction!"

Sonic lowers a brow. "Why should I believe you? I never experienced that. And even if that was in the simulation, that thing is clearly designed to reflect only your 'truth'."

Kaldre takes a few breaths. He replies, "Zaga would have really killed off our entire species if it weren't for the Zexesh of Angelia of that time, Yurin. He developed a technology separate from anything developed before to create the Master Emerald. With that, he could nullify the power of the seven Chaos Emeralds and use its own power to personally stop Zaga. Zaga and Mechanix were immediately resealed and all information about them was to be known only by the Zexesh... although I would have destroyed them both, myself. After that, Yurin somehow exiled the Chaos Emeralds into the Special Zone and had his family protect the Master Emerald for all time."

Zaga adds, "That Knuckles you know, Sonic, he's a descendant of Yurin. He has one of the strongest punches I've met, although it's nowhere near the same as Yurin's."

Sonic looks at him. "So you admit what he's saying is true? Did you really do all that, Zaga...?"

"Yes, Sonic. Everything he said... was true!" Zaga says, without a change in proud expression. Sonic for his part stayed the same, too. Hearing his crimes did not make them real to Sonic.

Zaga explains, looking at the beauty of the Black Emerald. "I was sick of my people constantly becoming complacent and accepting the suffering inflicted upon them by their masters, and I'll admit Oio influenced me when he told me of how true growth only occurs when all of the old limits are broken. He believed that the optimum state was the verge of death against insurmountable odds, for there, it is those that survive the challenge who can survive anything and deserve the praise of the gods. I then formulated an ideal world of super-warriors who would constantly fight each other, who would always be vigilant at every moment, in body, mind and spirit, so that they are sharpened and honed into actual gods, and the timid earth would become their paradise."

"I was obsessed with that ideal, I could not be shaken from it. I was defeated, however, because I had confused power with willpower. That mistake is my single regret."

While Zaga was talking, Sonic was reminded of all the visions he had of Mechanix's victims. That happened during that time, Sonic thought.

"So, you see? He is not your ally!" Kaldre emphatically concludes. "He's insane! You must strike him down and let us return order, so that you may have peace!"

Sonic does not respond, wondering why this revelation doesn't bother him at all. It was so long ago, the deeds already done, but Zaga was indeed no hero. And yet, the reign of the Zexesh was just as terrible. But in a way, Sonic had stopped caring about even what the Zexesh did. The battle was already won, anyway.

"What happened in the past doesn't concern me," Sonic says. "Zaga has helped my fight and I have helped his." He looks at Zaga. "If you try to destroy the world again, I'll fight and destroy you." Zaga laughs. Sonic smirks and looks back at Kaldre. "It's as simple as that."

"I can't believe this idiocy is what destroyed our Supremacy," another Zexesh suddenly speaks. He is the other bound one, with indigo skin and white eyes, although one is puffed up. He faces away from everyone. "Nihilism and mere survival. The base prevail!"

Sonic, thinking, speaks again to Zaga. "There is more to the world than power, but indeed power is the most powerful. For whatever the ideal, even peace and justice, violence is the most direct means of change and power is what controls violence. I... I accept that. I suppose all of you have already accepted that."

Zaga answers, "Yes. Only those without the willpower to use violence do not use violence and so claim that all others should likewise not use violence. They are the idealists, thinking that the ultimate goal is to avoid suffering, which is inevitable! They worship freedom from pain, when it is pain that will set them free! Alas, O Sonic, you are their avatar, you believe this world of theirs should be protected, its bubble of false reality kept intact, even though you, yourself, understand that is too simple! Like a father over his nest! I was once like you, but I found that I was redundant. The guardian's mission is never over. He is a part of the grand cycle and makes it revolve just as all of the others do. I won't convince you of it; you will realize with the power you have that more can be done."

He tosses the Black Emerald up in the air and catches it, before tossing it up again, playing with it. Sonic feels adrenaline surge through his body just by watching it spin in the air.

.

Sonic quickly asks, "Now that it's all over, what are you going to do?"

Zaga smiles. He stands up and Kaldre's eyes open wide. "Below us, there is a revolution of the people. With little more than a global war, a consciousness of the significance of history and their oppressors temporarily stunned, they have arose from their slumber and apathy and are taking the world back into their hands after several thousand years. I never had a need to kill so many people, it seems! Hahahaha! I regret doing so, but I admit it a regret I bear lightly. All the people ever needed was an opportunity and an example. If that! Perhaps even in peacetime the metamorphosis of the soul is possible..."

He turns around and walks up the stairs. "My philosophy was incomplete. I had thought the reason of all existence is to continue existing and that the most effective means to do so was for the most powerful challenge that brings out the most powerful growth. Yes, a challenge is still necessary, but not at that level, no, not at all. That is not the problem. No, it is that I assumed that the universe is almighty, infinite and eternal!"

He turns around at the top and jabs his staff into the ground. "No! The reason I valued the universe as such, that I valued the transformation of all animates and inanimates as 'good', that I valued anything at all with any value at all was because the universe existed in the first place! It is of itself and so continues the damned cycle of perpetual mundane redundancy, of stagnation and destruction! Without everything, anything is nothing, in all, and every way!"

"The ultimate telos, the final object, that is my goal! Not Truth, but the answer to Truth! The solution to the question of all reality!" Zaga suddenly looks down at Kaldre with cold, piercing eyes. "It is not enough to be a benevolent, just or even disciplined ruler of your people's physical, mental and spiritual worlds, like you fools have attempted to achieve. You have tried to create a structure that protects itself, an immortal being made by living things! Fools. You have tried to eternalize your concept of what but one single, lucky man was, that weakling Zexa! Throughout all of your government, religion, language and history, you built such elaborate worlds of possibilities centered on your ideas, and watch your workers work and play their lives for you! And what! Is it not all destroyed! You are but men, and you have failed."

Zaga's expression is wild with emotion, suddenly carried away in this gale of thought.

"No, you are not gods, and Zexa is not a god, and there are no gods. Instead, the most ultimate thing must be beyond the universe, beyond everything... and what is beyond everything other than nothing?! Nothing, a tiny vortex that sucks up all time and space, simply by being superior in ways beyond reality and physics! NOTHING!"

"When all is nothing, there can be no more transformations. That itself is the final transformation, the most powerful one, the one that only exists once! Between all of everything and nothing, that can only occur from something more powerful than the universe itself! Regardless of its origin, even if it is from the universe, the willpower necessary to enact the final transformation is the absolute ultimate form of all forms! That willpower, the truest form of the Ultramen, who grow to be more powerful than the Universe itself... That is the goal now! That is my objective!"

He looks at Sonic. "I see your expression, Sonic, and I tell you it is not suicidal, for the willpower that can create that very transformation from everything to nothing is more eternal than the true Eternity, resounding throughout all everything before and all nothing after, the true god of gods, the final and most true realization of the ultimate being, the Ultraman! It is simultaneously destruction, creation and eternal existence!" He suddenly turns around, and Sonic finally understands what he must do.

.

He sprints forward, but it's too late. Zaga simply places the Black Emerald into an indentation in the pedestal.

"Zaaagaaa!" Sonic screams. Zaga turns his head and smiles as light suddenly fills the room from the glowing walls. Sonic spin attacks but is reflected off a spherical energy barrier around Zaga. The barrier also launches two of the Zexesh at the walls.

The many sounds of the giant Zenith which had hitherto been quiet yet omnipresent, suddenly gained volume and at first made quite a distracting din. Sonic looks to the walls, seeing patches of the energy disappear, revealing the crystal sphere around them. The millions of tiny planes reorganized themselves, forming larger, recognizable shapes before disassembling back into noise, only to reappear as something else. As they moved, holes in the crystal revealed the larger planes, solids and tubes even farther out which were moving as well, and even farther than that the machine. Not only were all of the different layers of the Zenith changing shape and positions, Sonic could see them rotate around the central room. He looks back at Zaga and tries spindashing into the barrier again to no avail.

"Did you come all of this way just to use the Origin, Zaga?!" Sonic yells. Unable to think of how to beat the barrier, he prepares for an endless rapid attack. "Do you even care about all of the people you're going to kill?! Do you only care about your insane fucking philosophy?! There must be other ways, Zagaa!"

Zaga smiles. "I could explain, Sonic, but soon you will become powerful enough to see how this is all right, how this is necessary! Suffering and life are inconsequential!"

Sonic suddenly sees in his peripheral vision the blue of the sky. He turns, only to see a section of the machine layer pass over it. But again at another angle he sees the sky, which is no longer night but becoming morning already. More and more sections of the sky become visible and Sonic suddenly notices that not only is the entire Zenith reshaping itself, the Infinity Tower itself is rotating around a point. And in that very instant, imagining what it looks like from outside, Sonic's eyes and mind are blasted open.

.

"Ah, so you are finally aware of it now," Zaga observes. "Yes, the true design of the Infinity Tower and Zenith is that, of a gigantic starpost!"

"That is to say, all of the starposts you've indubitably seen are miniatures of this tower. They were placed all over Mobius as a sign of the global rule of Nexus! Moreover, they are all Origin machines in a way because all of them open a portal to the Special Zone. Occasionally, fluctuations between this world squeeze energy out both here and there in the familiar form of Power Rings. That was the main purpose of their design, so as to create an abundance of resources for the people. Although noble, it was still never enough."

"With enough rings in this world, you could open up a portal in any starpost large enough for a short trip to the Special Zone. Some gigantic Power Rings can do the same. And in the Special Zone, with enough rings you break the energy bubble that surrounds and protects the Chaos Emeralds. Breaking that bubble in this world is of course how you transform into Super Sonic!"

Sonic looks at Zaga intently. "How do you know all of this? Why are you telling me?"

"Why, Sonic, it is more than coincidence that the strongest men of history have at some point ventured directly into the Special Zone! Oio himself believed that global transformation would be inevitable if the world was inundated with Chaos Energy directly removed from the Special Zone using the Origin! The Zexesh kept it merely as a weapon, although a few fools thought it could be used to carry Mobius into the afterlife, the divine providence of Zexagalaxius or some such nonsense. Isn't that right, Hahra?" He looks at the indigo Zexesh and flicks his finger at him, causing an explosion that sends him flying through the air until he hits a column and then falls back onto the ground.

"Zaga, you bastard!" Kaldre shouts. Sonic looks at him intently.

"Am I a bastard when my movements create such beauty as this moment?" Zaga asks and points to the side. At that moment, the Zenith returns to its initial position but now in complete symmetry with straight holes leading from the center to the sky outside. The sun was now rising above the horizon. As it did, spinning, glowing balls of light far out in the sky, seemingly above the sun, move faster and faster in a ring until they blur together.

Suddenly, the space between the light is squeezed and pulled away, but it is not above or below the ring. The air, although transparent, seems to bend the light until there is no light at all except for the ring. A massive hole of darkness thus appears far up in the sky, much, much larger than the Zenith or even Nexus. From its center, a very shallow dome of pure white emerges. Slowly the ring rises, revealing more and more of the surface continuing from the dome. Everyone is silent, observing how the surface expands ever farther to the sides, as if a new planet is being created on the spot. Underneath its sheer white surface there are shapes of other colors mingling with each other in a way much like the initial Chaos. The sphere is beyond immense, and the clouds scatter gently away around the sphere. It is so large and so bright that the sun which had finally appeared vanished again beneath it, as if it is absorbed entirely.

When this happens, Sonic notices what looks like a tree lazily spinning upwards. Not understanding what he saw, he walks to the edge of the basin and looks downwards. He gasps.

Hundreds of thousands of things, of trees, people, cars, tanks, aircraft and even some buildings were simply floating above the ground. Many of the people were moving their limbs around frantically or clutching onto other objects or people without moving at all. It was like gravity had suddenly disappeared. The blue light of day was changed as well, and seemed to shimmer with all sorts of different colors. None of it seemed real.

"Only the transformed will even know that they have failed. They will watch as their entire world, one of trillions, is taken forever away. They will learn in that short moment to appreciate the humility they feel to the ones who came from their ranks and numbers but exceeded beyond anything they can understand. Everyone else will just die," Zaga says, looking outside. He lets down his energy barrier and Sonic, seeing that, immediately sprints towards him.

Just before he reaches him, Zaga turns his head and a bubble of energy rapidly expands from his body. He is knocked backwards.

"You are one of them in your current state, and I can... kill you easily."

He walks forward and takes his staff out of the floor. He then places his right foot backwards and crouches slightly, holding out his hands. Energy bursts from within his chest and coils around his limbs, head and staff. His locks lift into the air and his body seems to glow from within. "I suggest you transform," he states and then suddenly swings his staff around his fingers at such a fast rate that it seems like a solid disc. He then slams it into the air and waves of energy explode outwards. Everything in its way is torn apart and disintegrated as it very quickly approaches Sonic.

.

In that moment, Sonic transforms into Super Sonic, just before the waves come upon him. Yet even then he is sent hurtling backwards in a great amount of burning pain. The explosion engulfs the seven Zexesh and without so much as a gasp they all are reduced to a dispersing cloud of ions. The sphere is destroyed layer by layer from within, and in only a few seconds the entire Zenith is completely annihilated. Sonic shakes his head, seeing that he was pushed so far that he could see the entire Infinity Tower below him. He realizes the power of the attack nearly knocked him out, only to realize that Knuckles and Tails were...

"Did you hear me?" Zaga asks, floating right in front of him. Sonic is shocked and backs away, only for Zaga to suddenly appear even closer. "I said, 'Even your Hyper mode is too slow for me'." Before Sonic can finish hearing what he said, he feels air rushing past his body and his legs being swung around, and when his eyes stop spinning he sees Zaga already a speck in the distance, right before his back slams through several floors of the Infinity Tower. He already feels weak when he lands on top of a pile of rubble but he swiftly pushes himself off the ground.

Sonic thinks as he brushes the dirt off his golden body. He notices with concern that he is somehow cut and bruising. "So powerful... He's completely changed... he was never philosophical like that and never as strong as this... never attacked me with such-"

"Antipathy?" Zaga asks, suddenly standing before him again. Sonic lets out a yelp that is choked into a gurgled grunt as Zaga slams him into the wall by his neck. Zaga moves his face very close to Sonic's and glares into his eyes with burning disdain. He then throws him to the side. "We are no longer allies. I have decided to do all of this long before we completed our objective, and now my past self is no longer necessary. If I remained the same after victory, my lifelong mission would have been completed, but I would lose my reason to fight."

Before Sonic can get up again, he feels his back slam yet again into a wall and then another. His belly burns and screams with pain. He rolls onto his knees and looks up at Zaga, only to suddenly feel some warm liquid in his mouth. He spits it out. Blood.

Zaga slowly strides towards him. "You are the only one who can stop me, but not in this weak form, anymore. Pathetically weak. I appreciate you more than anyone else in this godforsaken world, and as my final act of goodwill, I'll allow you to reach my level." He tosses the Black Emerald in his hand, and Sonic realizes he wasn't holding onto it even a millisecond ago. Zaga then tosses it relatively gently at Sonic, who still barely sees it coming before grabbing it.

"Stop thinking about the reasons and the methods anymore, Sonic. I am beyond such simple things and so must you be. Set a goal and reach it. It's not even the goal that is important. All, all that is important... is the fight. The struggle of one power over another, that is all reality is, that is all! You know that, Sonic, you know that very well! That is what you must do. It is all you can ever do."

Zaga walks over to a window and looks out at the New Chaos floating above Mobius. "I can hardly see it from here." He takes a few steps backwards and then swings his staff. As he does, the wall blasts apart in a giant explosion, leaving a massive hole with the sky now clearly visible aside from the temporary smoke and flying debris. "Better."

He points New Chaos to Sonic. "If you think your will is more powerful than mine, than attack me in the very center of the New Chaos and do not hold back. I will not try and convince you that your cyclic world of noble suffering is wrong. I will only try to kill you. And you, the same to me. That is how it should be." He walks to the edge of the hole and then past it, seemingly walking on air. Sonic shouts, "Zaga! This isn't like you! In every way!"

He turns. "Isn't like me? Why Sonic, have you not heard people say those same words to you?" And he is right. Sonic, recalling Tails, recalling-

"We are constantly changing, constantly growing and becoming stronger. Our personalities, our minds, what are those to us anymore than our bodies and abilities? If they change to most effectively achieve the goal of our willpower, then why try to reverse that, to return to weakness? You will soon understand this, Sonic, as soon as you transform from a Super man into an Ultra man! I don't need to tell you this... Enough! It is simple, Sonic, come at me or die!"

And after saying that, Zaga disappears. Sonic then notices a splash in the surface of the gigantic New Chaos, only two seconds later.

.

"I was thinking this would all be over..." Sonic thinks. He gives a small chuckle.

He looks at the Black Emerald. He hasn't held it in a long time. The Emerald that gave Mechanix all that power. The Emerald whose power he used to kill Robotnik. The Emerald used to summon Chaos and now New Chaos. The Emerald that was the center of the First Great Age. And all it was, was a compressed form of so many Black Stones that came from space...

"Now it's my time to use it," Sonic says. Like from the other Emeralds he tries to draw its energy into himself. At once he feels an adrenaline rush that resembles Hyper mode but quickly becomes even more intense than that. It mixes with the exhilarating power of Super form and Sonic suddenly loses track of his mind and body. He becomes absolutely immersed in... euphoria, and his vision fades away into very vivid but incomprehensible dream-like images. They pass by in extremely rapid flashes, and for only a moment he can make out a face or place, just for it to transform into something else entirely.

Just as rapidly as it went away, his vision returned. He became tolerant to the euphoria, to the feeling that his body and mind were aflame with bliss and energy. Focusing on the energy within him, he finds that he can't place its limits. The more he tries to ascertain how strong this transformation has made him, the more he realizes it is impossible to do so. He feels connected with an incredibly vast power, like he is a gatekeeper of infinite dimensions within him.

Sonic's appearance has changed. His quills do not flare down or up but instead in any and every direction. What's more, they seem to slowly move of their own accord around particular directions, as if adrift in the flow of his energy. Black and white layers of color seem to flow outwards from within his body, his skin glowing in gradient pulses. His irises are a reflective chrome.

"So-" Sonic starts, only to notice how his own voice has changed. It seems remarkably crisp and clear, yet at the same time, unintelligible and strangely drony. "Let's see if this is really worth it," Sonic finishes. He turns to the wall opposite of the hole Zaga blew open and starts charging his spin dash. As he does so, the ground underneath him is torn to shreds and he cuts right through it like butter. Not realizing this, he bursts out of the charge in mid-air and plows clear through the wall. Untucking, he looks back and watches as a massive section of the Infinity Tower's wall, consisting of about 10 stories, breaks apart piece by piece and hurtles through the air and then falls like rain towards the city far below.

"This is good," Sonic remarks. "I can end this quickly." He dashes straight through the Infinity Tower again and flies directly towards the New Chaos. As it gets closer, its immense size seems to expand infinitely to the horizon. He sees the moving shapes within with much more clarity than before. He notices small flares of energy exploding from its surface, following invisible lines and then getting sucked back in. Without any hesitation, he plunges headfirst through the energy.

.

[Destiny of Death Act 1] (8/41)

In this new form, Ultra Sonic, all of Sonic's abilities are now maximized and without doing anything he regenerates power rings. He can lose power rings only by extreme attacks, and suffer recoil only from the strongest extreme attacks. They scatter and disintegrate very quickly, however, which is a dangerous drawback at low ring levels. However, from 50 to 1 ring(s), Ultra Sonic's Hyper power (which slows time down) rapidly strengthens until he runs out of rings. When he does, he detransforms to Super Sonic before detransforming again, which is a last second boon if Sonic is near rings at the time.

Ultra Sonic's top speed is twice as fast as Super Sonic's (4x normal) and his acceleration is twice as fast as well, which is pretty jarring at first. He can land on any surface at any angle without even needing to keep moving. His jump is twice as high as Super Sonic's (4x normal).

He can also change in and out of a spin ball at any point in time (a useful fighting cancel), and also charge and launch a spin dash in mid-air now. A fully charged Ultra spin dash will create a sonic boom that instantly destroys all weak enemies on screen (delivering 3 hits of damage to each) and sends him even faster than his top speed for a short period of time. However, he very rapidly slows down after, so it is wise to untuck quickly.

Ultra Sonic also starts rapidly increasing his Hyper power (slowing down time) from 50 to 1 ring(s). Finally, his close combat fighting is also twice as fast and strong. To help control this extreme range of power which would otherwise be uselessly excessive, this form also has a precise and intuitive connection of button pressure to power, in a way similar to platformer short jumping.

The inside of New Chaos is indeed filled with chaos. The background is similar to that of the Special Zone except even less comprehensible. Colors change before one can even be aware of what they are, shapes hurtle across and crash into each other, waves of bright energy wash over and a tide of visual static rapidly emerges over everything and then disappears.

The foreground is likewise constantly changing. There are large strings of pure Chaos energy, which takes away even Ultra Sonic's rings. These strings bend and move but remain continuous, very rarely breaking or fusing with other strings. Effectively, they are the boundaries that Sonic must stay within. At first, he must only fly in the space between them which can be narrow, large, straight, curved or irregular at any given moment. He may find himself suddenly turning in a new direction almost instantly.

However, soon he comes across more obstacles in his way. They are familiar:

- Spinning labyrinths of crystal blocks which are broken to pieces. Sonic can choose to fly through them, run and jump on all of the surfaces, or simply spindash and break through them.

- Long, curving halfpipes that are also split apart and spinning around their central axis. They are filled with the floating mines which don't even slow Sonic down now.

- Small and large checkered miniplanets, some of which are intact but most broken into pieces. The blue and red spheres once flourishing in this environment are now both grey and corase, and simply break into dust-like energy when Sonic so much as touches them. However, the orange spheres still spring Sonic forward and the white spheres with red stars still bounce Sonic off of them.

.

After a short duration moving through the serpentine corridors occasionally filled with shattered relics of the older Special Zone, the Chaos energy strings all at once move as if commanded like prehensile whips. Sonic has no choice but to dive into the strings as they swiftly crack around him, forming straighter lines that lead to the core of the massive ball of energy. For a moment, Sonic sees the strings tying a knot around the center and spinning around it like fan blades. This view is obscured as the strings, now in command from the center, presumably Zaga, whip themselves toward Sonic to destroy him.

Sonic cannot do much but fly away from the pursuing strings. Instead of just striking them, they position themselves around Sonic and follow his movements, making them much deadlier than before. In addition, the solid structures of the Special Zone are also organized into long arms stretching from the center, consisting of the tubes connected by the spheres as joints. These will also be flung towards Sonic to whack him hard (and it will hurt him). However, the strings will not overlap these arms, and so if Sonic suddenly turns around as an arm swings at him and carefully lands himself upon it, he will find a limited form of sanctuary.

That is, the strings won't attack him. On the spheres, columns, rows and rings of every height, consisting of crystal blocks or now-Chaos energy-charged spike bombs, come straight towards Sonic. There are also carefully placed spring and bouncer spheres to catapult Sonic haplessly towards the danger. The tubes aren't much different and the waves of obstacles and hazards come at a much faster pace and in more elongated patterns. After navigating through over three sphere's worth of the arm, a string whips by and cuts straight through it far ahead, detaching it and removing all of the connected pieces from Zaga's control. They then hurtle randomly at Sonic who must also again avoid the strings.

.

Once Sonic makes it halfway through New Chaos, Zaga unleashes more of his exorbitantly powerful Black energy explosions which radially expand with great speed and force from the center. It comes in a large, continuous wave and within it Sonic suffers a great deal of damage in a very short amount of time. In order to survive, he must actually fly into the strings and move forwards through them as the damage is relatively a lot less. Of course, once it is safe outside Sonic should again avoid the Chaos energy strings.

Zaga then shoots out thousands of tiny strings of energy towards all of the floating debris and yanks them towards him. New structures are then flung out at an even faster pace than before. These consist of building-like structures that range from small to large, with many but not all of the surfaces glowing with hazardous Chaos energy. Some of the rooms have no exits, but Sonic can spin dash through any wall that's in his way (although this takes time and can push him farther back).

In addition, Zaga has crafted many autonomous creatures consisting of basic shapes like cones, spheres and cubes that are rather minimalist. There are many types, all of which attack Sonic:

- Tiny pieces of shrapnel that come in great flocks or discreetly, one at a time, dogging Sonic down and draining his energy (faster with more on him).

- Small blocks that fire simple energy patterns at him, such as 1 to 3 direct shots.

- Larger small blocks that fire from 5 to 15 shots, in either a single concentrated burst, an all-at-once spread shot burst, or in small spurts.

- Medium beings consisting of several shapes that can fire single more powerful shots, rapid fire, or shots which spin around each other and somewhat home in on Sonic, or that can move towards Sonic and attack him with energy blades.

- Medium-large beings that are much more complex, can spawn tiny and small beings, fire much more shots in longer streams as well as homing missiles and powerful energy beams.

- Large shapes which continuously fire at Sonic with multiple shots, beams or missiles, as well as being able to spawn up to medium-size beings.

- Very large, goliath-like constructs that are each unique in design. They fire complex bullet-hell patterns and attack directly with tentacles, swords or even by grabbing structures or shape-beings and swinging or throwing them at Sonic. There are only a few of these.

After a long fight, Sonic finally reaches the knot of strings which unties itself before him. Once disconnected, the strings drift apart, disconnecting and then reconnecting in large loops far away. The background is completely consumed by the static and the internal space is filled with broken debris. Sonic finally reaches the center, where Zaga floats with arms crossed.

.

"Indeed, you have transformed beyond your transformation. Not just physically, but essentially. You and I have both left both the mortal and the immortal worlds behind, for whatever reason that propelled us, we are here, now, facing each other," he says.

"I'm going to return to that mortal world. I'm only here to stop you, Zaga. I have come this far not to escape the worlds I have traversed and the foes I defeated, but to stand up for them and protect all of them!"

"And in doing so, you permit the cycle of rebirth to continue. Have you not thought of it? Why Mobius reaches its zenith, approaches total destruction, and then power is centralized, over and over! The reign of the first Zexesh, the shower of Black Stones, the Black Emerald! The First Great Age, Chaos, the Chaos Emeralds! The Second Great Age, my ideal of a Super world, the Master Emerald! Zexa, Oio, yes, yes, even I am a part of the cycle! And then you! Don't you see?! And beyond that, entire planets, galaxies, universes are born, unborn and reborn! If suffering is all that concerns you, can't you see that suffering will be endless if the cycle does not end?! The greatest power, all of the power... it exists as Everything, it is centralized in Everything, it allows Everything to continue forever... it is the ultimate enemy, the ultimate opponent! It must be destroyed... Everything must be destroyed and nothing, pure nothing shall remain. I am a part of the cycle, too, I know that. I am part of Everything, I know that, too! So, I, you, Everything, Everything...!"

Sonic laughs. "I thought I was deluded... but you, do you really think your willpower is greater than reality itself? How is even this not just an idea only you think is right! I don't know if we can go back to who we were, and what we were like. Maybe this is as far as we go, or maybe we'll go even farther. But you are the last enemy and I accept your challenge. There is no choice but to fight, our goals are directly opposite each other. I guess you knew that already, huh? We've both climbed a long, long ladder of difficulty, pain, and death, and we have become so strong that reality itself seem distant and weak underneath us. There's nobody left who's stronger than us... but us."

Zaga smiles and regains his composure. "Yes, Sonic, now you understand. Even if our ideals were the same, we are both occupying the same place as the one Ultraman, as the being greater than being itself."

He slowly takes a fighting position. "All that is left is will!"

.

[Act 1 Boss: ZAGA]

The strings now retract and snap together, spinning around on every axis at very high speeds, almost appearing to be a continuous sphere. This boundary is effectively absolute; neither Sonic nor Zaga can escape the spherical battlefield, and upon hitting it will be deflected back with some damage.

Zaga moves around just as fast as Sonic and can change direction just as fast, too. In this way he is almost impossible to track unless he is stationary, as even his attacks are slower than he is. His moving pattern is spontaneous, and although he may revolve around the center or cut a straight line through, he may move in any way imaginable.

He of course still has his attacks from the first fight, so long ago, however upgraded:

- With just a finger, he can shoot a thin laser at Sonic. Flicking out his other three fingers, he can shoot three more lasers.

- Punching the air, he launches a large projectile at Sonic.

- Firing circular, spiral, square, triangular, undulating or many more types of waves of energy. projectiles (to an innumerable amount) from his chest. He can do this while moving.

- Flinging a large amount of pulsing projectile towards Sonic that each explode.

- Firing a beam which moves either as a straight line on a pivot, a prehensile string, or as a stationary body with a constantly extending and turning head [like the game Snake].

- He also uses his staff for another category of attacks:

- The familiar Black energy explosion. At this range, there are actually small holes in the waves of radiating energy which Sonic can navigate through if he is fast enough.

- Throwing the spinning staff at Sonic like a boomerang.

- Dipping it into the Chaos energy string boundary and either

- Reshaping it into a shape besides a sphere (including concave shapes)

- Pulling out a ball of the stuff and throwing it at Sonic (it then bounces around the battlefield several times before being reabsorbed)

- Swinging it through the air, launching forth crescent waves of Black energy.

Zaga is also fond of direct combat and zips up to Sonic to fight him physically.

- He uses many feints

- and attacks using his fists,

- elbows,

- knees,

- feet

- and even his head on occasion.

He often attempts to counter Sonic when he attacks. He is fast, and when he lands a hit, will continue a devastating nonstop combination attack that he either ends by throwing Sonic into the boundary (and perhaps dashing towards him and continuing to attack him there) or by detonating a small Black energy explosion directly on him, which can be very deadly at early ring levels. He often sneaks in more powerful attacks that slow his movements by the tiniest sliver, but upon being countered have a stronger blow back than usual.

Zaga cannot be hit at first, in the typical sense. Like Sonic, he regains energy if he is not being attacked. Sonic must drain this energy by constantly attacking him and driving him into the Chaos energy boundary whenever possible to pummel him down. When his energy is low enough, his recoils indicate that he is being truly hit and hurt. He can take at most 8 true hits before forming a barrier around him, backing off, and then shattering the barrier as an attack with his energy recovered. He becomes defensive like this whenever Sonic attacks him the same way so soon.

.

After 40 true hits, Zaga throws out his staff which, while spinning itself, revolves extremely rapidly in a sphere around him, keeping Sonic away. Inside, he gathers an incredibly large amount of energy and his entire body becomes enveloped in pure Black energy, with only his eyes a different color, namely a flashing rainbow color. He then suddenly makes another Black energy explosion, this time even faster and longer than the one before, which shatters not only his staff but the Chaos energy string boundary around them. The light bends in waves outwards from his body.

With no boundary, they are no longer contained in such a small space. But it hardly matters, as now Zaga moves much, much faster than Sonic, such that his after images have after images and there seems to be several continuous snake-like light shadows of Zaga flying around. Only his tracer-like eyes give any indication of where he could be of multiple places.

Zaga combines many of his projectile moves with direct combat to overwhelm Sonic's senses. A majority of his attacks are now infused with Black energy and so deal more damage, which can very quickly accumulate. At this point, Ultra Sonic should have more than 200 rings as two continuous mistakes can obliterate those rings in seconds. Although it may seem impossible to attack him, Zaga's movement patterns are now more predictable despite his speed, and all it takes is a single strike to slow Zaga down. Of course, Sonic must chain many more strikes than before to drill out his energy, and avoid attacks that Zaga will launch back as he is being hit. With sharp precision, Sonic can break off Zaga's Black energy barrier for just a moment to land a single true hit. But after that, Zaga detonates another Black energy explosion.

After 6 more hits, Zaga's attacks become much less compact and instead increase in size and ferocity. His bullet-hell patterns become very complicated, his beam becomes humongous, etc. Likewise, in direct combat his attacks are much wider and so are somewhat easier to counter. Sonic shouldn't take Zaga's desperation lightly, as not only do his attacks do more damage than ever before, he will occasionally feint or counter Sonic's counter and play other subtle mind games. If Zaga starts a combination on Sonic now, unless he has a lot of energy and struggles his hardest to escape, Sonic is very likely to be slaughtered.

3 more hits after that, Zaga backs away and detonates multiple massive Black energy explosions which interfere with each other. He flies through the explosion holes himself, trying to attack Sonic just enough to trap him in the crashing wave of pure power. All it takes is a single counter at one of these deadly moments to land the final hit, but alternatively, Sonic can just wait just a little bit longer for Zaga to run out of energy himself.

.

Zaga stops moving and glowing with Black energy. The visible energy that remains is flickering and getting dimmer. Sonic stops and watches.

"Damn it... just like Mechanix... without the Black energy, all I have is the weak Chaos and my weaker flesh..." Zaga mumbles. He looks up at Sonic with his limbs pulled loosely over his body.

"Haha... That was fun. I've never imagined I could have a battle... like that..."

"You lost. Do you still believe in what you wanted to do, even now? I won't hesitate-"

"No, no, Sonic... I never believed in that. You- haha, you really thought I did? Well... to be honest, I did believe... I got carried away with it... organizing my entire mind and body, orienting it for that one single goal... it was all a construct I made so I could put my everything into the fight. It was... cathartic. Religious... no, beyond even that. I needed a reason to fight you... I knew from the very beginning that the best fight I'd ever have would be with you!"

Sonic looks at Zaga. "But then, why did you summon New Chaos? Why did you want to..."

"It was so you wouldn't have a choice. I'm not going to apologize for it. I'm not going to apologize for anything... for any of the choices I made. It was all for the fight... from the very beginning of my life, I wanted to fight. For my people. For an ideal. For myself. I learned over time that it didn't matter why... I just want to fight. And I realized that if I kept on fighting, enemies would come to me, and I could get stronger, and fight stronger enemies, have better fights... Haha, I see your expression, Sonic, you don't believe me? I lied this entire time, about everything! No, I didn't lie, I seriously believed it... but my true self... was never interested in anything else... not even the expression of my willpower... I don't care who I am, or how people see me... all I care about... all I care about, Sonic, is the fight! More than anything, I am a WARRIOR!"

And after shouting that, he is reduced to a fit of coughs and groans. Sonic, who was moving closer, notices all of the wounds he inflicted on him. He was covering up even more, and seeing Sonic look at them, smiles. It is an ironic smile, as if he is aware of something Sonic isn't, and seeing that despite his victory, Sonic finds himself greatly disturbed. Before he even ventures to ask, Zaga continues.

"You're like me in every way, Sonic. You can only fight. You don't know of anything else! And like me, you don't regret anything you've done, anything you've said! But if I have lost here, you must not! I deny your any failure! You must grow ever stronger, Sonic the hedgehog! Seek the meaning of the hero!"

After saying that, his body once again glows, but this time a blazing hot white. It grows from within and consumes him at once. It is blinding, and Sonic looks around with wide-open eyes seeing how the background's static has not only disappeared, all of the colors have stopped moving as if frozen in time. He stares back at where Zaga, his body transforming into Black energy-infused flames. Sonic shouts his name, implores him not to do it. But his voice is silent under the great boom of Zaga's final words, which seem to burst forth from the small white sun that Zaga became with the velocity of a cyclone.

"SONIIiic! SUurPASSs the GODS!"

Zaga explodes, all of the Chaos energy in New Chaos explodes. Sonic rocketed down, out, and below the tremendous force of power, and at that very moment, he realizes he did what Zaga wanted. He detonated New Chaos. Visions of the white scorched landscape from the first Chaos flashed through his mind, and knowing how much bigger this one is, Sonic knew there was no chance even the ground would remain this time. He had no time to think, yet had no idea what to do. In only a few seconds, he had to stop this explosion which was beyond anything Zaga or Mechanix ever threw at him, which was beyond anything he ever had to do in his entire life, and beyond the power of every Mobian who ever lived...

Sonic pushes himself towards the explosion and pushes against it with all of his weight and all of his power, despite being exhausted from the fight, the war, his entire life. He still feels himself being launched back at incredible speeds but he has no time to think about it. He can't tell if he is pushing it anywhere at all but he doesn't think and pushes back.

He is pulling out all of the energy he can from the Chaos and Master Emeralds, but from the Black Emerald he feels a separate connection to a different place, one he has not tugged at. And so, without thinking of where it is, he forces it open, and he is awash with new energy, to what first seems like infinite amounts. He feels like a tiny vial containing an entire ocean and at once pushes all of that energy out of him against the explosion. And then he feels himself stopped, the energies balanced for a short moment. He takes the liberty to turn his head the other way and finds that he is falling close to the Zenith which seemed threateningly weird even for the speed from the power of the explosion. He then sees hundreds of thousands of people now floating in the air, unmoving, staring up at him in complete, abject terror. Nearly all of Nexus, even the structures underground, even the Infinity Tower, they are all removed from the ground, floating still in strange, slow rotations, with no translational movement. He sees everything covered in the glowing white light from the explosion, and turning his head around finds almost everything as far as he can see rising in the air. He looks at the sun, which he hasn't seen in so long, and even now can only see its lower edge underneath the great rim of the explosion.

Everything is frozen in time. Hyper mode... in Ultra form. The Black energy. He is stopping it. He has to finish stopping it. He doesn't think of anything else, and turning his head back towards the blank white sphere, pushes harder into it. He keeps on pushing, propelling himself with all of this energy. The explosion gives way, somehow. It seems to become... smaller.

Sonic looks again to his side and is surprised to no longer see the Mobian sky. Instead, he sees darkness with white lightning striking across its endless expanse. He sees the Alastran ruins somewhere in the distance. The Void?

Looking back at the explosion's energy, he sees it turning black as well. It darkens straight to the core and just simply becomes part of the Void, with no sound, no flash, nothing. He then notices that the Chaos and Master Emeralds are no longer supplying him any power. The portals through them to the Special Zone... are simply shut. Chaos to Special... Black to Void... The Void is consuming Special... the Black is consuming Chaos...?

.

Before Sonic could think about it anymore, he suddenly feels crippling, antagonizing pain. Without the constant flow of Black energy, he is suddenly reaware of his own body and the many wounds he had gained. His body seems to demand that he open the portal even wider, to let his body be coated with even more energy... but Sonic refuses. He shuts it completely and removes himself from Ultra form.

In that moment, he is snapped back to the sky above Mobius in his normal form. He lets the pain flood over him, consume his entire awareness, in the sub-freezing air. His screams cause him to choke even as he plummets up to terminal velocity. He doesn't notice everything and everyone around him falling at the same speed, back to the ground. He doesn't hear the thousands of other screams filling the air, the thousands of crashes and shatters.

Sonic is only in pain, incredible, unendurable pain. It is too much to struggle against. His only conscious desire is to die, so it can all end. He doesn't want to fight anymore. It hurts too much. He needs to die... He...

.

.

...Sonic feels asphalt under him. He hears something. It doesn't make sense. Like something spinning. He opens his eyes, sees something. White? Grey. Shiny. It's looking back at him. It whirrs, cocks its head. It looks exactly like him. Is he upside down, looking through water at himself? No, it stands up. Its body is mechanical. Sonic blinks, groans, rolls to the side. It can't be. He forgets about it and puts all his weight into his knee. It hurts a lot, using his muscles. He raises his other foot and stamps it down. Pushes, and the weight, so heavy, he can't. He breathes. He's really weak. He pushes again, grunts, raises his other foot, slowly, slowly stands up. His head bowed, he sees his bare feet. "What...? How could my power shoes..."

He rubs his head, which is very sore. He feels the flesh of his hand and looking at it, sees his gloves almost completely gone, too. All that's left are his cuffs, although they're burnt and torn almost to the point of falling off. He then looks at the other thing. It looks back at him.

"Silver Sonic... no way..." Sonic manages to say.

It nods and patiently waits, staring at Sonic. Sonic remembers, back on the Death Egg. He saved one. He saved one back there, where all the others were... He looks at the robot again. It nods, as if knowing what he was thinking. Just as he did, Sonic realized where he was. He looks around and sees huge mountains of rubble, of toppled skyscrapers and highways. He is on a road between the massive ruins, barely intact itself. He remembers what happened. He looks up at the sky and closes his eyes, having glanced at the bright sun above.

Sonic laughs. New Chaos is gone, and it doesn't matter. He looks at Silver. "You saved me?" It nods. "But I did stop it, that-" It nods again. Sonic can't think of anything else to say.

He notices that Silver is holding its hands behind its back. He tries to look around him but Silver turns. He tries the other way and Silver turns again. He looks at it. "What have you got there?" Silver beeps, and brings his hands forward.

It's all of the Emeralds. All of them. Sonic is frozen for a second before slowly looking up at Silver.

.

Silver Sonic then speaks. "Your efforts-bzt-have been mean-ing-less."

Sonic leaps forward to grab the Emeralds but Silver simply back-dashes out of his reach. "Every moment has been care-ful-ly calc-u-late-d."

Sonic tries to run at him, but his legs have no strength. With one step, he nearly stumbles over himself. "No," he says.

"Bringing you here. Bringing you now." "NO!" Sonic shouts and throws his legs forward. He loses breath and stretches his arm out to Silver's hands.

Silver just takes one step back. "It was in-ev-it-a-ble."

Sonic wants to transform. He wants all of that power again. His throat tightens and burns. His mouth stretches down and wide, his nostrils widen, his brow explodes. He takes another step, and suddenly feels his jaw launched to the right. The world spins, and briefly, he is again in the air. And then he hits the ground hard.

Silver walks over him but does not bow its head. Only its cold irises stare down at him. It still holds its coiled fist.

"Welcome to Robotnik-land," Silver Sonic says, and then launches straight up into the sky, straight above Sonic. It becomes smaller, smaller, smaller, and then, there is a flash of light.

A grey dust cloud rapidly expands from the flash with no change in density. It falls from the sky like a simple blanket while becoming larger and larger. In seconds, it obscures the sun. The world is cast in shadow and the cloud, while spreading, drips slowly back to earth. "What is this..." Sonic says to himself. The Emeralds then fall around him, clinking and bouncing about. The grey stuff covers all of the sky. Sonic gets back on his feet.

He looks around, picking up all of the Emeralds again. As he does, he hears a growing din. A horrible, immense sound of something gnashing, twisting, moving... Picking up the last of them, the air is filled with a hum, a buzzing, as if the air itself is shaking. He looks at the fallen buildings around him, unable to see any easy way out besides climbing over the rubble. The sounds are coming from every direction. He looks up again. Stalactites of the grey stuff sink onto the land as the larger cloud itself glides closer and closer. That indefinable material... Sonic recognized it. He remember seeing something... something just as large as a cloud... turn into stuff like this...

And then, it arrives. A wave of viscous goo washes over and through the surfaces of everything around him like a labyrinthine rain of large, all-consuming stringy goop. In a few more seconds, nearly every surface is already covered in it. Everything smooths out into a single surface of gray, which splashes across the few remains of the asphalt Sonic stood upon. He rapidly looks around himself for a way out, but there is nothing. Even the sky above was falling with certain doom! It's all around him, getting closer, closer! He has no power to transform. He has nowhere to go! It comes to his feet! He closes his eyes with his last degree of freedom he leaps as high as he can into the empty air!