Chapter 12: Metal Sonic's Revenge

After breaking Rouge the Bat and E-123 Omega from their mind controlled states, Shadow has reformed Team Dark and decided to take the battle straight to Eggman. At the moment, the team is grinding atop three separate rails through a lava-filled chamber that is helping to power up the entire battleship. There are waterfalls of lava pouring into the lake below the grind rails, but the heat that rises up doesn't melt the metal thanks to protected barriers placed underneath them by the quick-thinking doctor.

Shadow looks towards a couple of pods attached to the ceiling and quickly says to his robotic friend "Omega! Shoot down those pods!"

Omega obeys with as much enthusiasm as a robot could muster, as he exclaims "Affirmative" and raises his arms towards the ceiling, converting them into gatling guns that repeatedly fire against the bottom of the pods as he passes underneath them. The pods detach from the walls and crash into the lava, leaving explosions behind Team Dark as continue across the grind rails. "Well, that was exciting." The robot comments in a deadpan tone of voice as he turns his arms back to normal.

As Rouge tosses some of her hand-made heart-shaped bombs towards some more pods off to the right of her rail, she says to Shadow "You sure this is a good idea Shadow? Didn't you say the doctor threatened to activate a nuclear device if you didn't do things his way?"

Two more explosions go off behind them as the black hedgehog comments with his hands hung low on both sides of his body while he grinds "The doctor has said nothing since I freed you both. He is likely preoccupied with Sonic and the others."

"So we strike while he's distracted. That's good enough for me!" Rouge swings her body forward and focuses back on the mission as the end of the grind rails are in sight up ahead. On a platform colored in charcoal black are a few of Eggman's red and orange Egg Pawns, which are carrying miniature pistols with thick barrels. They notice Team Dark approach and quickly raise their guns, but are mowed down and turned into scrap by Omega's gatling guns.

Once on land Team Dark keeps up their momentum and runs through the explosions created by the destruction of the Egg Pawns, and they cross a long hallway of platforms set between spouts of lava that are rising into pipes in the rocky ceiling above. At the end of the platforms is a large generator that helps filter the lava through the Egg Continent. It whirred mightily with a glowing Eggman insignia on the front of it, but all it took was for Shadow to jump at it and hit it with a swift kick to shut it off.

Using the position of his kick to launch himself over the top of the rounded generator, Shadow lands between Omega and Rouge as a warning siren goes off across the entire chamber. The suction in the pipes shuts down entirely, and the excess lava is drained into the lake below their feet and causing it to rise noticeably in seconds. "Shadow, the lava will reach us in fifteen seconds." Omega comments in his analytical tone of voice as he glances at the black hedgehog.

"Then we'll just have to get out of here in ten…" Shadow calmly states as he looks at the set of platforms rising up from the lava in this state of emergency. Running and jumping in unison beside one another, Team Dark scales the platforms as their momentary presence on each one causes them to sink back down, meaning there was not a single room for error as they raced for the top.

With the iron doors engraved with Eggman's face on the central lock opening up, Team Dark lands on the lip of black metal where the door once was. But Rouge loses her balance and tumbles backwards towards the rising lava while letting out a cry of shock. Omega quickly flips around and fires off his right arm to grab onto Rouge's right leg, hanging her a few feet away from the top of the lava for a mere moment before pulling her right back up onto solid ground.

Once Omega lets go of Rouge, the bat quickly flips back onto her feet and says in an appreciative tone as her heart tries to regain its normal beat "Thanks for the save Omega."

The robot turns around and starts to walk-off with Shadow while commenting "Don't mention it." With the three members of Team Dark making their way around a curved corner soon afterwards as the door seals in the lava behind them, Rouge taps her right ear and is surprised when she hears a bit of static coming in from a tiny device she has attached.

"Oh, why now…" Rouge comments in a flustered tone of voice as the air conditioner kicks in through this crimson metal corridor. Shadow turns to face Rouge as he continues to slowly walk on ahead, asking in a puzzled tone "Is something the matter Rouge?"

The bat moves her hand away from her ear and gestures at Shadow, saying to him with the utmost honesty "Eggman must be blocking out all attempts at outside communication. My comm. Link to G.U.N. HQ isn't working."

Shadow then asks "Were you supposed to report in to them by now?" To which Rouge responds with "Actually, I was supposed to call them hours ago. They said that if neither of their contacts managed to reach them by 00:00 hours, they would mobilize a battle force for whatever Eggman was planning to unleash."

The black hedgehog notes the terminology in Rouge's sentence and says to her "Contacts? So they didn't just ask us for help then."

The bat nods her head in response and goes on to mention "Sadly, I have no idea who they hired to help. At first I thought it was Omega, but they would have told me if that was the case."

Omega interjects into the conversation by mentioning "That is correct. Before I was captured, I was pursuing Metal Sonic and the two capsules he was carrying to Eggman's base."

Shadow says in response to this "So you're starting to remember what happened Omega?" To which the robot nods with a creak and points out in a deadpan tone of voice "As I said before, this unit is capable of self-repair…That includes memories purged by outside forces."

"So that explains who knocked us both out." Rouge points out, and this line of thought is something Shadow agrees with until Omega goes on to mention "Negative. Metal Sonic was too far away from the base at the time frame of your captures according to what you have told me."

Shadow and Rouge exchange a glance at each other, and Rouge in particular comments "Then we are facing more than one enemy here. And whoever they are, they are willing to cooperate with Eggman's insane plans."

"That would explain the doctor's uncharacteristic behavior so far." Shadow brings to Rouge and Omega's attention, and he specifically turns to the robot and says to him "Omega, if Eggman were to speak again, would you be able to tell if he was the real one or not?"

Omega, speaking with full confidence in his abilities, responds to Shadow's question with "Affirmative."

The black hedgehog then turns to look at Rouge and says to her "That explains why Eggman hasn't spoken to us since I saved you both."

The robot proclaims afterwards "It doesn't matter how many allies Eggman has gathered! I will destroy them all and reign supreme!"

Rouge counters her friend's remark by mentioning "We'll deal with that eventually. Right now, I think we should try and find a way to destroy the jamming array."

"That's not a bad plan Rouge. There is a large laser field surrounding the Egg Continent, so if G.U.N. attempts to launch an attack on this there will be many casualties unless we tell them that we have safely infiltrated the ship." Shadow says.

"Will both of you quit talking." Omega states with a tone of growing impatience as he raises his right hand into the air and continues on now that he has grabbed his teammate's attention "We need to move on, deal with Eggman before he can escape, and destroy all of his allies!"

"Calm down Omega, we'll get to it eventually." Rouge says in a joking manner. The robot replies in an unamused tone of voice "Don't keep me waiting."

Omega turns around and starts to walk back down the corridor, and with nothing else Shadow and Rouge needs to say they join their robotic ally a few moments later. Team Dark eventually reaches a door with a code panel off to the right of it, and the bat stands in front of it and examines it while commenting "Hmm, I should be able to crack the code if you give me a few-"

Omega takes his right arm and transforms it into a steel hammer, walking forward and thrusting it hard against the center of the door, busting it down almost instantly and flipping his arm around as he turns it back to normal. Rouge flinches as the door goes down, and as she turns to face Omega the robot glances at her and says "I told you to not keep me waiting." He then walks into the room with his teammates following close behind.

Now inside of a dark laboratory of sorts, Shadow notices hundreds of capsules planted throughout the room in rows upon rows. They were all egg-shaped similar to the ones his teammates and himself were trapped inside of, but they from a glance at the glass windows they were filled with liquid instead of gases. There were no noises at all as Team Dark took a moment to examine the room, being guided only by the bits of light emerging from the capsules as they split up to cover more ground.

"Don't tell me Eggman is trying to create more Shadow Androids." Rouge comments as she looks up at the glass windows and notices that she isn't tall enough to peer into them. Omega follows up on Rouge's remark by commenting "I detect no mechanical life forms inside of these pods. All subject matter is organic, but not of this world."

Omega activates his X-Ray vision on the capsules while Rouge says to the robot "Wait, what do you meant by 'not of this world' Omega?" With curiosity getting the better of her, the bat uses her wings to fly up and get a better look at the capsule's contents. Upon getting a clear glimpse of what was inside however, her eyes widen in disgusted shock as she taps her right fingers against her mouth.

Inside of the capsule was an alien-creature with grey and red skin that appeared to be in a developing stage of it's life. It was slowly growing two-toed arms and two-clawed legs, but the eyes had yet to form on it's head. Rouge quickly flew in a line to check the other capsules and saw more of the same creatures, and at the end of the line she dropped to the ground and said to herself quietly "This can't be…Eggman's cloning Black Arms soldiers in here."

The bat, wondering if Shadow had yet figured out what was in the capsules, ran forward to try and find him. However, Rouge did not need to concern herself with the previous matter, as she stops a few feet away from the black hedgehog as she finds him standing still in front of a particularly large tube filled with an eerie purple liquid. Inside of the tube is a creature large enough to be considered the leader of the black aliens Rouge saw in the pods. The creature had two horns of flesh on its head on both sides along with three closed eyes, and it wore a mythical robe that obscured everything below the neck.

Rouge slowly walks up to Shadow from behind as she recognizes the creature inside of the tube, saying to him in a slow yet comforting voice "Shadow…Are you ok?"

The black hedgehog was quiet, far more than he usually was as he stared up at the creature in this tube. He had made certain that this monstrosity had been silenced in the past, even though it was thanks to his blood that he was given life. To see that Eggman was starting work on what appeared to be a clone of that monster angered Shadow immensely. But instead of letting out any of his anger, Shadow tightly clasps his fist and calmly states to Omega as the robot walks up behind him "Omega…You have my permission to destroy everything in this room."

The robot raises his arms into the air and transforms them into their gatling states, but before he gets to work on annihilating the laboratory Shadow raises his right hand and says to him "…But leave this one to me."

Omega states coldly "Affirmative" before he turns towards the capsules and fires upon them with all of his might, blowing them all up and killing the cloned Black Arms soldiers inside. Shadow says to Rouge as he holds his right hand out and starts to create a Chaos Spear in his palm "Rouge, try and find a way out of here…"

The bat decides to let Shadow and Omega deal with Eggman's horrifying experiments without saying a word, and wanders off to check for an exit nearby. In the mean time, the black hedgehog looks up at the cloned Black Doom and casually flings a Chaos Spear right through the center of the tube, impaling the monster in the chest and pinning it against the wall past the other side of the tube. The liquids within the tube pour out, but Shadow leaps away from them and lands behind Omega as the robot finishes destroying the capsules.

Letting out a relieved sigh, Shadow is called to by Rouge "I've found the way out you two! Come on, let's get back to our mission!"

Shadow and Omega share a glance at each other for a moment, the black hedgehog giving him an appreciative nod for his help before they go on ahead to join up with Rouge at a set of thick, open metal doors that will finally lead Team Dark back outside of the Egg Continent. The group walks up a short staircase onto a long metal expanse that was behind the many buildings Eggman had stacked together.

Dark storm clouds have formed overhead, but haven't spread rain across the Egg Continent as of yet. The lasers bordering this mighty vessel still exist, signifying that Sonic has done nothing to deal with them as of yet. Rouge comments as she looks upon the laser field "Huh, Eggman's really covered all the bases when it comes to his defenses."

"If the laser defense grid is still up, then Sonic must be goofing off as usual." Shadow is quick to point out in an all too displeased tone of voice. Rouge responds with a little more faith in her voice "Or he hasn't found the shut-off switch yet."

In fact, the very moment Rouge mentions this, the laser grid around the battleship shuts down, causing to state in a merry tone to the black hedgehog "See? He knows when to get the job done sometime Shadow."

"Hmph…" Shadow remarks calmly, but upon looking up towards the sky his eyes temporarily widen as he notices a gargantuan swarm of G.U.N. Beetles and Bipedal mechs swarming the Egg Continent from all directions. "Looks like G.U.N. was waiting for a chance to strike." Shadow comments afterwards.

The self-defense grid activates along the Egg-Continent, causing hundreds of turrets to take fire upon the robotic forces gathered above Eggman's ship. The sky is filled with many explosions, but the G.U.N. Troops were too busy swarming to a single location behind where Team Dark currently stood to deal with the turrets. The turrets stop firing within seconds as the forces of G.U.N. vanished from sight, causing Rouge to comment "Huh? Where are they going? Eggman's the other way!"

The bat rises up into the air to try and figure out what has grabbed G.U.N. attention, but before she gets too far she's zapped in the back with a bolt of electricity that makes her fall towards the ground. Shadow catches her before she lands on the metal floor, and though the electricity winded her for a moment Rouge is able to stand upright once the black hedgehog puts her down. Team Dark then turns forward and as a bolt of lightning flashes overhead they see Metal Sonic standing there with his right claw descending beside him as the last traces of electricity fade from the tips.

Omega immediately moves ahead of Shadow and angrily exclaims to the robotic copy of Sonic "Metal Sonic, the favored creation of Eggman! You have been given enough chances to defect from his control, and now I shall destroy you once and for all!"

Metal Sonic says nothing. Not even Eggman speaks through his robotic creation like he usual would when the robot was silent outside of his presence. Instead, Metal Sonic chillingly rises into the air as raindrops begin to patter across the Egg Continent. Far ahead of where both Team Dark and the robotic doppelganger were, the mouth of the Final Fortress opens up and releases a series of broken battleships at the two forces.

Metal Sonic shatters the battleships apart with many bolts of lightning, gathering all of the parts around him in a spherical whirlwind as he works on creating a more powerful body for use in combat. Coils and sharpened plates are fused together to create six elongated spider legs that are swiftly attached to the main body, which looks very similar to a heavily-armed mechanical dragon. The metal bits compress together to create a dark-blue hue befitting the doppelganger, and within seconds the long curved tail covered in spikes forms along with two arms consisting of a sharpened claw on the right and a hand with four elongated spikes on the left.

Metal Sonic himself began to morph into a gigantic head consisting of two crescent shaped eyes with glowing red pupils that attached itself to the top of the body and had three silver streaks glowing across each of the top quills. The final part of the transformation saw Metal Sonic growing sharp silver protrusions across his backside, and when that process was done the creature born letting out a terrifyingly gruesome roar that scattered any excess parts in all directions.

"This again?!" Shadow exclaimed in disbelief at the lengths Eggman was willing to go to ensure that he would remain untouched as he somewhat recognized the form Metal Sonic had taken.

Omega declares towards Metal Sonic as he readies his gatling guns for battle "It doesn't matter how many forms you take Metal Sonic, I will destroy them all!"

"Yeah? Well you might want a little help on this one guys!" A familiar voice calls out to Team Dark from behind, causing Rouge to briefly turn her head around and see as Team Chaotix has appeared atop the tallest building behind them. The three drop down beside Team Dark, with Rouge commenting in a surprised tone of voice "The Chaotix?! What are you three doing here?!"

Vector cocks a smile at Rouge and says to her in response "Same thing everyone else is doing…Trying to get back at Eggman for mind-controlling us all!"

Shadow glances over at the Chaotix and says to them calmly "Hmph…So for once we share a common purpose. Once we deal with Metal Sonic, then Eggman should be next."

Vector looks towards the familiar mechanical monstrosity standing before him and pounds his fists together while Espio draws out a shuriken and Charmy rapidly swings his fists around ready to battle. The crocodile comments "Then what are we waiting for? Lets show this chump Metal Sonic a thing or two, huh boys?!" Espio and Charmy respectively respond with "Right" and "Alright-y!" while Team Dark face Metal Sonic ready to take him down for good…

Next Time: Madness Commences