"Are you kidding me?" Shadow chuckled. "Metal Sonic? This is your ace in the hole? I will give you some credit Sonic, I did not see this one coming! How did you manage to get bucket head over here on your side?"
"What can I say Shadow?" Sonic smiled back at him. "He wanted to be on the winning team."
"Wow Sonic, Your definition of winning has changed over the years." Shadow shot back.
"Metal," Sonic whispered to his newest ally. "You ready?"
"Affirmative," he responded in his cold monotone voice.
"You really think this idea will work?" Rainbow Dash questioned.
"Negative. It merely presents the best opportunity for success," Metal answered.
"Oh, well that's certainly most reassuring thing I've heard all day," Rainbow Dash commented back sarcastically.
"Prepare to follow my lead," Metal announced as his thrusters kicked in and gently hovered him within an arm's reach of Shadow who stood with his arms crossed and cocky grin on his face as he stared back at the robot.
"So, what's your deal Metal?" Shadow taunted. "You're not fast enough to keep up with any of us while we are all powered up. You're not strong enough to do any real damage, if anything you're more of a liability than an asset!"
Metal did not respond to his idle prattle, he only stared back at him.
"Hah! You know it too! You fool, that Black Shield of yours is a one trick pony. That was all you had! Now ya got nothin'!" Shadow mocked unfolding his arms and moving into a fighting stance, looking to turn Metal to scrap.
"Your diagnosis would be correct if it were not remiss in one regard."
"Oh? What would that be?" Shadow asked with a cocked eyebrow.
"I possess a chest mounted Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation cannon."
"A what in the what now?"
"Allow me to demonstrate," Metal Sonic said coolly. Then without warning he thrust his chest forward and a focused bright red beam of light fired from his chest into the face of Shadow exploding violently on contact. The blast forced Shadow backwards a few steps before he fell to one knee as he gripped his face with his hands. Metal took advantage of this opening to spool his engines to full power and rocket off skywards leaving a bright flaming trail behind him. Sonic and Rainbow Dash wasted no time in chasing after him. Metal's ascension was quick but it took moments for the other two to catch him and join him on his trek skywards. They climbed higher and higher into the night air, far above the clouds; it wasn't long before RD noticed that she had never been so high. The air was too thin up here for a pegasus to breathe. But they climbed higher still and she felt no issues. Soon she began to see the curvature of the planet, and the far sun which had still not risen over Equestria that lay beyond its horizon. It casted its rays over the ocean and lighting her planet up like a bright blue jewel. She gazed to her other side and bared witness to the moon as well. Never had she see it like this, she saw craters and mountain regions that adorned it and then when she finally looked back down she realized she could see all of Equestria! She took in a deep breath, but realized there was no air to breathe! She faltered and her pace slowed as she fought to understand what was going on around her. Everything was so massive, and now she felt so small, and now there was no air!"
Sonic noticed her decrease speed, so he dropped back to aid her. He saw the confused worried look on her face as her fore hooves clasped at her throat in panic and her eyes darted about. He could see she wasn't choking but just didn't understand that she didn't need to breathe. He reached out and grabbed her flailing fore hooves which guided her attention to him. They locked eyes and he felt her cease to struggle as he stared at her. He had hoped the confidence he had would rub off on her and it appeared it did.
"Wha, what is this place?" she said calming down.
Sonic smiled, "Space."
Shadow rubbed his eyes and began to blink as his vision returned as he rose up to his feet and looked skywards. He glanced down at his hand which was balled into a fist.
"Light," he began as his poked out his thumb. "Amplification. Stimulated. Emission. Radiation," he continued extending each finger. "L. A. S. E. R," he grumbled as he brought them back into a clenched fist. "Chest mounted laser cannon. Not bad robot," he craned his head skyward. Then with sadistic grin and flash of light he utilized Chaos Control to warp himself from the ground instantaneously into the far reaches of space, right into the trajectory of a fast moving Metal Sonic whom he stopped dead in his tracks by clasping tightly around his neck with his hand. The sudden expected stop caused Metal's body to whip forward due to momentum. Shadow pulled him close and stared into his expressionless eyes. "Not good enough," he told him as he began to tighten his grip, denting the metal and crushing any motors and systems he had underneath. Metal swung and flailed to fight against this hold but it was hopeless as Shadow far exceeded his strength. Luckily salvation came as Sonic rushed in grabbed Shadow by his body and began to yank him away as Rainbow Dash struck at his arm with a strong karate chop forcing him to break the hold and allow Sonic to fling Shadow back and give them some distance.
"You alright?" Rainbow Dash said seeing the indentations caused by Shadow's grip around the robot's neck.
"I still function," he responded. "You two must defend while I send the signal," he spoke as a small antenna began to protrude from his shoulder and rose out a few inches and light ringing noise began to emit from him. Sonic and Rainbow Dash took up defensive positions in front of Metal not sure how long it would take for his plan to work.
"We'll buy you as much time as we ca-" Sonic began, but was cut off mid-sentence as fist lodged itself in his cheek while a knee buried itself into Rainbow Dash's gut at the same time right beside him as Shadow lashed out at them with lightning speed. The attack sent the two sailing back, but Shadow teleported behind Rainbow Dash and punched her in the spine before teleporting to Sonic and spin kicking him in the waist before teleporting again to harass Rainbow Dash. The two tried to shake off the strikes, but before they could get their bearings, Shadow would teleport and appear behind the other and attack again. Rainbow Dash felt herself get punched in the face, kicked in the stomach, and receive and elbow between the shoulder blades. Sonic fared no better as a knee crashed into his temple, he was kicked in his shin, and jabbed sharply in his jaw. However Sonic finally caught onto his rhythm and when he heard one final grunt from Rainbow Dash, he immediately spun and threw a punch into the air. It landed home as an unprepared Shadow teleported right into its path. The blow came at such a surprise Shadow had no time to react and his body resorted to muscle memory and teleported again but since Sonic was in contact, he teleported as well, right in front of a recovering Rainbow Dash. Sonic seized the moment and wrapped the recoiling Shadow tightly into a full Nelson, exposing his head and torso. Rainbow Dash needed no instruction as she immediately set to work wailing on his face, chest, and midsection. She fired her hooves off as fast as she could, jabs and crosses to the face, strong punches to the chest, reaching back and driving strikes to the waist, all at blinding pace, screaming as she went.
Rainbow Dash paused her assault to cock her right fore hoof as far back as it would go, concentrating on putting everything she had into these next punches. Her hoof began to crackle with Rainbow colored lightning as she loosed the attack and thundered a powerful haymaker to Shadow's face sending arcs of multi-colored bolts careening away. Shadow grunted as the blow landed home, but didn't have time to recover as she followed it with powerful left and then cocking her right fore hoof back below her waist and digging deep she let out a loud yell and drove a powerful uppercut right to his jaw that exploded in colorful blast of rainbow lightning that caused Sonic to lose his grip and send Shadow sailing away, tumbling through the air.
Shadow halted his spinning, brought both his hands together over his head and sent energy flowing to his palms and his eyes burned with anger as he found his target. He reached back as far as his arms could go and chucked the super powered Chaos Spear. The speed that it traveled was fast, Sonic saw it coming and nimbly avoided it, but he wasn't the intended target. Dash dived out of the way, but it wasn't meant for her either. Both of them suddenly realized that he had been aiming for Metal.
Sonic shifted into high gear instantly, and timed slowed around him, again Dash appeared frozen in space and Chaos Spear seamed to begin moving at a turtles pace. He approached the energy attack from an angle and moved to deflect it, but felt a strong right cross punch him across the face. He turned to see Shadow grinning maliciously at him. Sonic gritted his teeth and engaged him in combat.
As soon as the blast missed her, Rainbow Dash saw Sonic disappear, but didn't see where he went, well almost didn't see. There was a faint sign of him, not the golden trail she was used to, but she saw after images, several of them. They were of him turning and rushing after the blast. She saw images of Shadow bolt past her as well. She gritted her teeth and chased after them. As she neared them, she saw the after images begin to get locked into combat. It was then she noticed the Chaos Spear was moving slower than before, and realized Sonic was trying to intercept it. She watched the shadow images fighting at terrifying pace. She knew she couldn't keep up with that, but she had to help Sonic somehow. They may be moving faster that her, but she had to try!
She flew around them and positioned herself in front of the slowly approaching energy blast. She wound back a hoof to punch at it, but before she did, she looked over her shoulder to see if her plan struck pay dirt.
Sure enough the images raced towards her, she had gambled that if Shadow would try to stop Sonic, he would try and stop her too. She quickly turned and lunged forward, swinging her fore hooves looking to grab a hold of whatever came close. She felt pain sing through her jaw as Shadow's fist hit her, but she managed to latch on to him and slow him down to her speed. Instantly, Sonic was there, holding onto him tightly as well. The energy blast was almost upon them. They looked at each other and nodded. With a yell, they both flew into the energy blast carrying Shadow and at the last moment thrust him chest first into his own attack. The blast was fantastic and sent all three of them flying away.
Sonic was the first to recover from the attack, stirred by familiar voice in his head, one he had hoped to never here again.
"Are you absolutely sure Metal?" The voice of the Doctor spoke out over Metal's PA system.
"Affirmative Doctor, the quadrants are accurate."
"Not that you idiot, I built your positioning system myself, I know that's working. Are you certain the hedgehog is on that mud ball?!"
Sonic gritted his teeth, he did not have time for this, He flew towards the sound and saw Metal conversing with holographic projection of the Doctor displaying from Metal's chest. He sailed just out of vision of the hologram and nodded to Metal.
"Oh, he's certain!" Sonic snarled.
Robotnik's hologram quickly burst into a fit of rage, "Sonic! You miserable hedgehog, show yourself! Metal where is he? I'll make you pay for what you did to me!" He shouted as he pointed to his face, at what Sonic couldn't see at this angle.
"You want a piece of this Eggman? Come and get some!" Sonic taunted.
"Doctor, I must take evasive maneuvers," Metal quickly added to the charade.
"Hold him Metal!" the hologram of Eggman shouted as he balled his hand into a fist and slammed down next to him suspiciously. Almost instantly loud thunderous explosions rocked the vastness of space around them. Sonic turned his head towards the cacophony and saw bright flashes of light shoot in from the darkness of space before them before exploding in an array of light as ship after ship warped in from deep space and began to converge around them.
Rainbow Dash marveled at the sight, each one of the metal hewn ships was at least ten times the size of the Equus, some larger. They thundered into space from what appeared to be nothingness, hundreds of them. Then at last, far behind the rest of the fleet, the largest of the ships appeared in the rear. A gigantic vessel that humbled all of the others. The only thing she could compare it too was the moon and as she took in its size she noticed that the massive battle ship was fully one third the size of it. Rainbow Dash instinctively moved beside Sonic and Metal.
Shadow came had recovered from the blast and gazed about at the warped in Egg Fleet. He casually floated close to the others and moments later a solitary minuscule drone flew to them. Sonic recognized it and immediately moved to grab Metal by the throat to give the appearance of capture. Just as high definition image of the Doctor filled the space before them. He lounged back in large command chair presumably from his Flagship and took in the sight before him appearing irate at the sight before him.
"Well well, at least you lead me to that meddlesome hog Metal, looks like your luck has run out unfortunately." He mused callously to his minion in Sonic's grip. "You can consider it punishment for leading me into fight with Super Sonic and Super Shadow and…What is that? Is that a horse?" he said glancing at a data slate that appeared before him as he waived his hand. "Super Rainbow Dash? Hmph! How original!" He snarled sarcastically causing Rainbow Dash to huff angrily.
"I'm a pony you fat creep!" She shouted back.
"Whatever you are you're about to be atomized! EGG FLEET FIRE!" he shouted, and immediately powerful beams of light shot forward from all the ships near enough to find a targeting solution. Missile bays exploded open and emptied their contents sending hundreds of high explosive payload heat seeking missiles. Sonic quickly dropped Metal as he and Rainbow Dash began evading laser blasts Metal quickly took initiative and began to head towards the flagship. Shadow balled his fists tightly as a twisted grin spread across his face as a salvo of missiles screamed towards him. He quickly singled out one missile and swung upon its aft end and shoved against it directing it into one of the Egg Fleet ships, jumped on top of it and began to ride it like a skate board as dozens more pursued him. His laughter could be heard through the vastness of space as he rode the rocket right into the hull of the ship, blowing open a hole which Shadow proceeded to enter as the missiles behind him slammed into the battleship, blowing it to pieces. Shadow quickly burst through the other side as the ship exploded to bits and turned his attention to the vast fleet that began to close in around him. He began to charge into them one by one smashing through to their cores and engine rooms and bursting through the ordnance chambers erupting massive payloads that would erupt in the belly of the ships rendering them to oblivion before moving on to the next one. Laughing as he went.
Sonic shrugged as he saw Shadow make quick work of the fleet and signaled to Rainbow Dash to follow his lead to the flagship after Metal. As they dodged and weaved their way through the fleet Sonic couldn't help but rip through a few of the ships as he went, and laughed as they exploded in epic bursts of fire and flaming bits of metal.
"Hey Dash, you should give it a try!" Sonic said excitedly as he returned to her side. "Just ram your way through them and smash through anything that looks important!"
"Really?" Rainbow Dash said shocked, she had assumed Sonic had known exactly where to go from experience. "Well, okay…" She reared back and dashed forward leaving a Rainboom in her wake and plowed into a large warship. She smashed through decks and floors as she bobbed up and down. She exited the ship from the southern end of its hull, turned and drove through to its top deck before plunging back down. She exited through the rear and looked back at the ship which had tiny explosions going off throughout it. Then a large blast rocked through the hull and the ship and suddenly it burst to pieces.
"Sonic!" Rainbow Dash shouted to him with excitement. "What are these things made of?!"
"Cardboard and gasoline Dash! And a couple tons of dynamite! C'mon we need to catch up to Metal!"
"Right!" She confirmed as the two sped off, destroying more ships along the way as they quickly made their way to the massive Egg Carrier. They easily smashed their way through one of its larger hanger bays and paused briefly. "Sonic, this place is huge! Where do we go?"
Sonic concentrated for a moment then pointed in a direction. "That way!"
"How do you know?"
"You can't feel that Chaos Energy? It's massive."
Rainbow Dash was perplexed and tried to notice anything different, but didn't notice anything, but followed Sonic regardless. As they headed to closer to their destination however, Rainbow Dash did feel a growing sense of energy flowing through her. It was similar to when Sonic revived Metal, and then with a final wall smashed, they stood before the largest most radiant gemstone she had ever seen. The feeling of power flowed in the room, as the gemstone hovered in the air suspended by arcs of green lighting that flowed into large armatures that surrounded it. Metal sonic was wired into a control panel beside it.
"Metal!" Sonic began as he moved closer to him. "What's the plan?"
"I am currently transferring information stores into this escape vessels Memory banks. Once finished we will need to remove the Master Emerald and place it on board."
"What information?" he asked.
"All of it," he responded. "I am nearly finished, in a few moments would you be as so kind as to disengage the armatures?"
"How do I do that?" Sonic asked.
Metal pointed to the oversized panel that flashed bright yellow and orange colors that was above the Emerald serving as a gigantic button. Sonic face palmed at the circumstance.
"I bet a-" Metal began slowly.
"I swear on all that is holy Metal, I will run a magnet over your motherboard SO HELP ME!"
"Sonic, what if you used your homing attack to hit it?" Rainbow Dash asked innocently as she pondered how to turn it off.
Sonic ground his teeth together as he turned to the pegasus, but realized she didn't know any better and took a deep breath and exhaled the rage out. A ping came from the panel that Metal stood next to followed by him nodding that he was done. Sonic jumped into air and used his homing attack to strike the panel and the arcs quickly stopped and the Master Emerald fell freely only to be caught by Metal who held it just beyond the mechanical arms. The lights in the roomed flickered violently before they came back on as the sound of massive engines whirred to life all around them.
"Now what?" Sonic asked impatiently.
"You two hide and we play the waiting game. When the Ascended Shadow makes his move for the Emerald, hit the switch again to begin draining him," Metal responded.
Sonic and Rainbow Dash shrugged at each other and took cover behind some machinery as they waited to see if Shadow would take the bait. They heard sounds of explosions in the far distance as Shadow continued to lay waste to the Egg Fleet around them. The booms got closer and closer with each passing minute. Truth be told Sonic was glad he had a little time to recuperate. The battle had really taken a toll on him, and even though she put on a tough front, he knew Rainbow Dash was hurting pretty bad.
A loud bang echoed through the Egg Carrier and Sonic knew that it was now or never. He readied himself by crouching low and prepping to spring into the air. He cleared his mind of everything but hitting that bright glowing panel.
"Oh man…"Shadow's voice could be heard in the room now. "It must be my birthday!" He mused as he hovered closer to the giant gem that Metal held motionless just beyond the armature. Sonic held his breath as he waited for the perfect moment. Shadow floated to the Emerald with his hands out stretched, ready to siphon the energy from the precious gem. Sonic gulped hard, exhaled and sprung out of hiding just as Shadow's hand touched the surface of the rock. He yelled, ripping Shadow's attention away, rolled into a ball and shot forward with his homing attack and struck the panel.
Shadow's scream filled the entire compartment as armatures came to life and began to drain him. Bolts of golden energy surged from his body as Sonic heard the ships engines die down now that the main source of power was active again. Rainbow Dash came forward and stood next to Sonic, not sure what to make of Shadow's agony. Most of her was glad, all she had known from him was death and pain. However, a part of her knew that he used to be Sonic's friend and that it pained him to see him in such a way. She saw tears in his eyes and nudgedhis hand with her hoof which he took and held tightly as he watched on. Metal moved the Master Emerald away and opened the hatch to the escape vessel to store it. No sooner was he out of sight did another thundering clamor filled the room causing Sonic and Dash to turn around.
Standing before him now was the Doctor himself. He had donned his Egg Beater suit and its leg thrusters gently lowered him to the floor. His helmet retracted back so his face could be seen and Sonic took note of an eye patch adorning his face, his logo adorned the patch; Sonic fancied it was souvenir he received from their last fight and what he was complaining about earlier.
"What is this nonsense?" He asked idly as he gazed at Shadow supply power to his ship as he advanced on them. He then waived his hand dismissively. "No matter, I don't care how you all die, I suppose powering my ship is as good as any, but why are you standing and watching Sonic? Don't tell me you've given up on the whole friendship thing?"
"Hey Sonic," Rainbow Dash nudged. "Is this the guy? The one who-"
"Killed his friends? Burned his world to ash and rebuilt my mighty empire atop the graves of his loved ones? Sent an assassin to track him down and followed him across the stars just to make sure he dies in the most painful way possible? Yes that would me!" the Doctor chuckled.
"Rainbow Dash," Sonic snarled. "I give you Doctor Ivo Robotnik, a dead man walking if I ever saw one!"
"You think I'm afraid of your pathetic little super form Sonic? It's been a long time since the Death Egg and Angel Island. I told you before, this suit was designed to handle you, even if you are chock full of chaos energy. It's no matter; I'll just beat my Emeralds from you!"
"Hey lard butt!" Rainbow Dash said pounding the ground with her hoof. "You think I'm gonna let Sonic fight an ugly jerk like you alone?!"
"Silence Secretariat! You think I have any qualms about stringing your mane to make violin bow?"
"You can't win Doctor, not against the two of us!"
"I like my odds," he said confidently as he took a fighting stance.
There came a bright, powerful flash from the escape vessel and a golden glow began to emit from it. Super Metal Sonic slowly hovered out, his metallic blue hide was now the same color gold as Sonic. He pushed a button on the control panel, launching the escape vessel space craft from its hanger bay before landing beside Sonic and looked on at Robotnik.
"Do you like them now Doctor?" Metal asked casually.
"Wha…what is the meaning of this!" Robotnik stammered at the betrayal of his greatest creation.
"It's what I like to call a change of plans," Sonic said cockily as he saw the Doctor begin have fear in his voice, something he hadn't heard in a long time.
"Metal, how could you? The safety protocols I put in were flawless; there was no way you could break free. How is this possible?"
"Magic," Metal said flatly. It was the honest truth, but Sonic chuckled as he still managed to come off as sarcastic with his deadpan voice.
"So Doc," Sonic concluded. "You can't out run us, you can't overpower us, and you can't escape us! Your fleet is in shambles and Metal's on our side. And even if you managed to get away I got a whole pile of friends down there, waiting to help me rip you apart!"
"You're right Sonic," Robotnick said as he thought for a moment, he his fingers began to dance over his wrist pad. I don't have super speed, or super strength. I will even admit I don't make friends as easily as you do, but you know what I can do?"
There was an uneasy silence in the air, Sonic turned back to see that Shadow had ceased his writhing but had an alert and furious look on his face. Sonic marveled at how much energy Shadow must have absorbed from the Master Emerald that had led to his madness as he was still sustain the Egg Carrier. Suddenly, a beeping came from Robotnik's wrist pad drawing his attention back to his old nemesis.
"What was that?" Sonic asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Oh nothing…just my special talent," Robotnik teased.
"Sonic," Metal announced as his chest displayed a galactic hologram image of the planet and multiple red targets moving from the Egg Carrier towards it. "Scans report multiple Intercontinental ballistic missiles armed with high grade nuclear payload are en route to the planet surface targeting various locations of dense populations"
"WHAT!?" Sonic yelled, bewildered at how he could do that.
"Elementary really, Metal's memory banks are encrypted; I just overrode his firewalls using my wireless decrypting network to derive the information I required from his time on the planet. Then I targeted strategic locations based on populace as well inputting the guidance systems with a sub-routine to also seek out equine life forms based on genus and Phylum and Order of that prismatic winged saddlebred next to you." Robotnik explained.
Sonic looked at Rainbow Dash and the two shrugged at each other. "You wanna try that in English?"
"I'm really good at being evil! You understand that you incompetent dolt!? Best part, I launched them using the power from your little spark plug of a friend over there."
"YOU WANT POWER!" Shadow roared. "I'LL GIVE YOU POWER!" He tensed his muscles and suddenly the lightning arcs tripled in size and explosions from overloaded systems began to erupt out across the Egg Carrier, soon even the armatures began to melt.
"What are you doing!? You'll blow the whole thing! You'll kill us both!" Robotnik yelled out as warning sirens filled the room.
"Correction! KILL US ALL!" He laughed as he poured more power into the ship. Soon the compartment they were in began to shake and rumble as Shadow's maniacal laughter filled the room. His restraints exploded and as soon as he was freed from his bonds, he flew forward and tackled the Doctor through a nearby wall and out of sight.
"Metal!" Sonic shouted, "STOP THOSE MISSLES!"
Metal blasted off out of the ship at Sonic's command. Sonic quickly grabbed Rainbow Dash's hoof and dragged her behind him out of the ship just as it erupted into a gigantic fireball that sent a powerful shock wave burning across space as the Egg Carrier was destroyed. Once outside the blast radius the two friends saw the bright glow from the afterburners of a myriad of missiles headed for the planet.
"Dash we have GOT to stop those missiles!"
"They're…They're so many!" She said with doubt in her voice.
"You know Baltimare?! Well if just one of those missiles where to hit Baltimare, you wouldn't have a Baltimare, just a smoking hole in the ground! NOW LET'S GO!"