Chapter 23: The Ultimate Weapon

I remember the events like it happened yesterday. I was scheming in my hidden island laboratory to destroy Sonic with the use of the legends spoken of in the Gaia Manuscripts. It had not been long since the Black Arms invasion had been foiled, and I was recovering from the loss of a ton of my ships and robots, but I was confident that my plans would succeed this time around.

The plan was simple. Force Sonic to use the Chaos Emeralds in the presence of my device so I could split the planet and awaken Dark Gaia, using his energies to power my Eggmanland and simultaneously destroy the hedgehog for good with my next creation, the Egg Dragoon.

But then something unexpected grabbed the attention of my Chaos Emerald energy radars. A force was moving across the planet at a rapid pace, collecting the Chaos Emeralds one after the other until all that remained was the one Shadow had in his possession at the time. What was odd about this event was that the person doing the collecting had a similar energy signature as the Chaos Emeralds themselves, but with a much stronger presence.

Questioning this oddity in my radar, I took a few good smacks at the device until eventually I realized that it wasn't glitching out, meaning that the findings I was witnessing were conclusive…Far too conclusive, in fact. Knowing that neither Sonic or Shadow could have output this much energy, I sent my cameras out to track down this mysterious figure, and eventually cornered him in a wasteland where he had put six of the Chaos Emeralds.

I was shocked to find that another hedgehog had collected the emeralds. He was exactly the same size as Sonic and Shadow, but had a crystal blue fur and a more antagonistic demeanor. I wanted to observe this figure from a distance, especially once I feared that he spotted my cameras. But it turns out my fears were unwarranted, for the mysterious hedgehog was instead looking at Sonic, Tails and Knuckles, who had arrived to get the Chaos Emeralds back.

The creature swiftly knocked Knuckles and Tails unconscious along with Shadow after he arrived while also putting Sonic on the ropes, causing all of the Chaos Emeralds to gather in a single location. Enraged by the pain inflicted onto his friend, Sonic ended up using the negative energy of the Chaos Emeralds to transform into a form I had never seen before…I kept this information in mind for later, and continued to observe the fight.

After Sonic calmed down, he fought the hedgehog in his Super form, but it was only with the help of Shadow that the two were able to succeed…Only for the mysterious hedgehog to take the Chaos Emeralds and warp straight to Angel Island, where Shadow, Sonic, Tails and Knuckles went to thanks to Shadow's Chaos Control. Recognizing how close Angel Island was, I left the safety of my laboratory to get a good view of what was happening, though I still used my cameras to get a closer look.

In the time it took me to get everything setup, the mysterious hedgehog had already changed his appearance. He became red and his voice became more nasally and deeper…He had undergone a transformation via the Chaos Emeralds, but his power had spiked far beyond anything Sonic and Shadow had ever produced before. The power he exuded was so great, in fact, that I had to drag my cameras far away before they were crushed in his presence.

Sonic and Shadow fought this mysterious hedgehog in their Super forms to no avail. They were swiftly decimated and buried under rubble on the island, leaving the hedgehog to his own devices for quite a few seconds. I was devastated as the fact that my long rival might be dead, frightened for my own life, and yet at the same time really merry at the thought of possibly harnessing the power this creature wielded.

But one of my concerns were swiftly lifted, as in an oddly strange moment in time the Chaos Emeralds became the famed Super Emeralds, and Sonic and Shadow emerged from the rubble in Hyper forms. But that wasn't enough…They then fused together using an odd technique involving Chaos Control whose origins I have yet to figure out. Becoming a hedgehog by the name of Shadic, the tide of the battle turned in his favor, and the mysterious hedgehog was pushed to the edge of death.

However, things changed yet again as the mysterious hedgehog took the energy from the Super Emeralds to become even more powerful than Shadic. His power was so great in fact, that my cameras were destroyed, and I was forced to watch from a distance without knowing what was going on. A clash of the two hedgehogs threatened to end the world, but an intervention by everyone in the world save for myself providing rings for Shadic's power allowed him to destroy the mysterious hedgehog for good…

Or so they assumed. I sensed an oddly small glimmer of energy coming from Angel Island in the aftermath of the battle, and once I was certain that Sonic and his pals had left save for Knuckles I traveled to the island and search for the source of the residual energy. Sure enough, the mysterious hedgehog left behind a single ring with faint traces of his life energy inside.

I took the ring back to my laboratory and examined it to the best of my abilities, leading to days upon days of research spent creating a device that would allow me to speak to the hedgehog inside of the ring. I kept the ring floating inside of a glass capsule, and utilized a conversion podium to translate the life energy residing within the capsule into words. This eventually led to the creature speaking to me for the first time…

"You are…Dr. Eggman…I…Presume?" Familiarity emerged from his lips first and foremost, which honestly left me at a loss of words at the time. I rescinded his words with a greeting to the mysterious hedgehog, a show of good faith to lure him to my side, you could say.

The hedgehog introduced himself as Nazo, and he thanked me for picking his last physical remnant up from Angel Island. He said that the battle with Shadic had destroyed the remainder of his body, and that so long as he had only that ring to sustain himself he would not return to his full strength. Before we discussed the matter of his revival, we decided to go over a little bit about ourselves.

Nazo explained that he knew of my existence by watching while he was trapped within the Chaos Emeralds, and said that he saw greatness in me. To think that a being of such a high caliber would compliment me…It was certainly a difference from the likes of Chaos and inevitably Dark Gaia. Once we were done exchanging some information, I offered Nazo a chance to come back to life by grabbing the Chaos Emeralds for him to siphon energy from.

But to my surprise he declined…He said that the Chaos Emeralds alone wouldn't be enough to bring him back to life. I then offered the Super Emeralds, but he pointed out that I wouldn't be able to do that, and that it would be impossible to force Sonic and Shadow to repeat the process.

Puzzled by what Nazo was asking for, I questioned him on what could possibly be powerful enough to restore him if neither the Chaos or Super Emeralds were an option. Nazo explained to me that there was another option, but that it was up to me to discover the truth.

At first I assumed that Dark Gaia energy was the right source, but when I presented some to Nazo he said that though he liked the idea of consuming some of that energy it wasn't strong enough to revive him. I then tried to offer him some Nega Hyper-go-on energy, seeing how it was stronger than Chaos Energy, but this time he noted that only a source of Chaos Energy would be able to revive him.

It wasn't long after that where Shadow and Sonic fought off the boy of darkness from another world, and because of his appearance the gateway to the negative chaos energy mines hidden deep within Angel Island was discovered. I then put all of my efforts into coming up with a way to deliver the ring to the mines without Sonic foiling my plans…

In the present, as Eggman lies on the ground in front of the heroes with ring grasped tightly in front of his body, he smirks widely and recalls everything he had done to reach this point in a matter of seconds in spite of the elongated narrative he imagined himself speaking to describe everything. The doctor laughs in the face of the bewildered heroes as the ring lets out a light shimmer.

Sonic makes his usual joke regarding the ring, saying "Oh come on doctor, a ring is your ultimate weapon? What, is it poisonous? Are you seriously going to try and poison me?"

Eggman doesn't respond to this, as he instead focuses on Tails, who along with Knuckles had an uneasy feeling about the ring. It was only natural that the guardian of the Master Emerald would recognize the energy residing within the ring. The doctor then looked towards the mysterious boy who had almost foiled his plans with his even more mysterious elemental powers. The boy had a cautious look on his face that pointed towards the ring, but Eggman felt as though the boy was unable to recognize just what he was holding, which was a huge advantage for him in the grand scheme of things.

The doctor looked up at the gemstone walls and raised the ring up, saying to the heroes gathered in front of him as he grunted to reach up high "You fools don't realize what I have in my hand? Well then, perhaps it's time I put the finishing touches on this little reunion I put together!"

Within that moment, the ring reacted to the negative Chaos Energy flowing throughout the mines. Sparks of inverted multicolored energy shot out and struck the ring, causing Eggman to retract his arm down against his body as the ring floated in mid-air and absorbed the energy within itself. A burst of that energy extends outward, brushing Sonic, Shadow and Riku back a few feet while Tails and Knuckles are launched into a nearby wall.

Riku in particular comments on the scene as he recognizes the energy signature coming from the ring growing in size with each passing second "T-This feels like Sonic and Shadow's Super forms…But on a much higher level than what they are capable of outputting!"

The ring shatters apart ten seconds after it rose from Eggman's hand, and from where the ring once was began to form a creature familiar to all parties involved sans Riku. The creature formed into the shape of a hedgehog whose quills all extended upward save for two that pointed downward beside his jaw. The creature had black shoes with yellow parts and white gloves past his yellow rings. He had semi-dark red fur and yellow eyes with blue irises, and a rather intimidating demeanor to him.

It was really telling that the moment this person came perfectly into sight, both Shadow and Sonic went completely silent as their bodies trembled in the presence of this red hedgehog, while Riku actually looked at the creature and thought to himself nervously "O-Ok…This is not something I expected. What's going on here, who is this guy?"

The red hedgehog looks around the area, getting a grip on reality now that he was alive again by clenching his fingers in and out of his palms. Once he felt that his muscle were operating properly and he could steadily breath from his mouth, the hedgehog grinned and clenched his fists tightly, looking up at Sonic and Shadow and saying to them with the utmost rasp and calm sounding joy in his voice "It's been a while…Sonic…Shadow…"

Sonic and Shadow tense up in the presence of this hedgehog, with Sonic in particular growling past his gritted teeth. Riku asks the two worried hedgehogs "Hey, you mind telling me who this person is?"

The red hedgehog looks at the boy and says to him in a semi-polite tone "Well well…You're a new face around here. To pique your curiosity, I will have you know that my name is Nazo." Upon hearing the identity of this hedgehog, a spark ignites within Riku's mind, and as he glances at Nazo from a distance and blinks twice he thinks to himself "Nazo…? Why does that name sound familiar?"

Nazo looks back at Sonic and Shadow and extends his hands out as he says to them "You know, I should be feeling a little more anger than I am at this moment. After all, when you became Shadic, you destroyed my physical form so thoroughly that it is a miracle that I managed to cling onto my existence through a single ring…That defeat was more humiliating than anything I had ever experienced, even when comparing it to my imprisonment in the Master Emerald."

Nazo smiles and laughs calmly, his demeanor mixing with the tense atmosphere in this cavern as Sonic and Shadow cautiously wait for the hedgehog to make his first move. But instead of engaging in a fight, Nazo said to the heroes "Perhaps I am feeling a bit nostalgic…After all, we currently reside within the place of my birth."

As Nazo let slip this information with nonchalance in his voice, Knuckles pried himself from the wall and looked at Nazo, saying to him as he landed on the ground "W-What? You were born in these mines? B-But Eggman said that this was the birthplace of-"

The red hedgehog brandishes his right hand at the echidna, saying to him before his sentence ended "The Chaos Emeralds, yes…Though he had merely theorized the notion, I have to give the doctor credit for being mostly accurate. Hmmm…Speaking of such matters though…"

Nazo creaks his head back and looks down at Eggman, who was looking at him with an absolutely ecstatic grin on his voice before he finally proclaimed "Hahahahahaahaha!" His laughter was bursting with energy the likes of which he had never unleashed before.

Once he was done laughing, Eggman looked over at Sonic and Shadow and stated "At long last I have finally won Sonic! This is truly the moment of your end! Nazo, kill them both!"

Nazo then turns away from Eggman and grins, letting his hands float beside his body as he states to the doctor as calmly as possible "I refuse."

"Excuse me?" Eggman said with an angered growl preceding his words as he slowly clenches his fists together and Nazo looked back at the heroes.

"I do not care about the two halves of the whole, they are far beneath me and unworthy of my time." Nazo states cleanly as he folds his arms in front of his chest.

"No! You will destroy the two of them now, I command you as your master!" Eggman exclaims, but Nazo merely chuckles at the mere notion suggested by the doctor and replies with a single glance behind himself "I am nobody's servant, do not delude yourself, doctor."

Eggman slammed his right fist against the ground angrily and exclaimed towards Nazo "You promised me your power if I freed you from that ring! You will obey my commands!"

Nazo counters the doctor's words by calmly stating "Last I recall, I promised that I would show you power. I have delivered on that promise, for you now gaze upon power incarnate."

Nazo then looks back at Sonic and Shadow, but Eggman growls and says to him "You think I wouldn't account for your disobedience?! You will obey me Nazo, whether you like it or not!"

The doctor taps a button attached the underside of his right arm's cuff, and suddenly the Nega-Wisp Armor uses whatever remaining energy it had to launch a series of laser arrays that quickly surround themselves above Nazo. The red hedgehog barely seems fazed by their appearance until Eggman presses down on the button again, causing a blast of raw Nega Hyper-go-on energy to emerge from all the arrays, each one striking Nazo's mind and quickly causing the red hedgehog to collapses onto his knees as his eyes widen and a painful shock echoes across his mind.

Sonic and Shadow watch in surprise as Nazo is subjected to this process for quite a good amount of time, while Eggman laughs maniacally and states "Your friends were just a preliminary test for this Sonic! Soon enough I will have the strongest creature in the universe under my control!"

But just mere seconds after he boasted this, Nazo widened his eyes further, straining himself to expunge the Nega Hyper-go-on energy outward in such a way that it recoils against the arrays and blows them up one after the other, causing Eggman to take pause in utter shock before he exclaimed "I-Impossible! There's no way that this should have failed!"

As the smoke from the multiple explosions leaves the air of the mines, Nazo stands up and slowly turns himself around to look at Eggman now that the doctor had caught his attention enough to warrant a full glance. Nazo grinned and laughed, saying as he stretched his arms out on both sides of his body "Well well…You actually had the guts to try and control me against my will. Your ambitious desire to destroy Sonic and take over the world has really left you so desperate that you would try to tamper with the mind of a god, hasn't it?"

Eggman stares blankly towards Nazo, stuttering non-stop for five seconds before Nazo goes on to mention "I should destroy you for your efforts, but you have earned an iota of respect from me for how far you pushed yourself to achieve your goals in spite of being a mere human. For that, I will let you live a little while longer."

Nazo then swings his right hand in front of his body, lowering his power just enough so that when he fires a blast of chaos energy from his hand the impact of it will launch Eggman and his pod right through the wall behind him, sending the doctor flying far towards the Egg Continent that happened to be in the distance. The red hedgehog grins and says "I was hoping he'd land in the water, but I suppose this will do…"

Nazo then turns back around and faces Sonic and Shadow, saying as he stretches his arms out beside him "Now then, if you two would be so kind as to bring me Shadic, I can take my revenge on the one who humiliated so thoroughly before!"

The two super-powered hedgehogs glance at each other and nod their heads, and Sonic in particular looks back at Riku and says "Riku, you need to protect Tails and Knuckles for me. I don't want them getting caught in the cross-fire of this battle."

The teenage Overlord states to the hedgehog "Sonic, let me back you up, together we-" In a surprising display of insistence, Sonic interrupts the boy and states "No! This guy is too much for you to handle! Just leave it to us!"

Sonic then looks forward and clenches his hands together, letting out a surge of golden aura around his body alongside Shadow as the Chaos Emeralds emerge and surround their bodies. Knuckles flinches as he feels the Master Emerald's energy coming in from afar, and within seconds the Chaos Emeralds grow bigger and are covered in a swollen pale white light. With these Super Emeralds now formed, Sonic and Shadow's auras changed to that of a flaring neon flame as their bodies' fur rapidly switched between the colors of the seven emeralds.

Then, the two hedgehogs proclaimed "Chaos Control!", and their bodies became enveloped in Chaos Energy that quickly slammed them together in the center of where they floated. The two hedgehogs combined into a singular entity that flared a bright white as energy surged throughout the mines, radiating off all the gemstone walls as Riku was forced to squint in the presence of this figure and brace himself against the ground as his body was pushed slowly back.

Eventually the energy surrounding this figure subsided, leaving only a single hedgehog where Sonic and Shadow once were. The hedgehog had light-aquamarine fur with some white highlights, with features of both hedgehogs present in his quills, gloves and shoes. The hedgehog known as Shadic looked at Nazo with a very confident smirk on his face and said in a voice that was a combination of his two halves "We meet again Nazo, I suppose your first defeat wasn't enough, was it?"

Nazo's demeanor then changed in an instant, as he became overjoyed upon looking at Shadic's presence, his grin widening while a tiny laugh came through his mouth. He followed up on this laugh by mentioning in a raspy tone of voice "Ever since you forced me into that ring I've been looking forward to this day, Shadic."

Shadic responds with a simple yet arrogant sounding "Hmph, I see we feel the opposite on this matter." While keeping his eyelids shut, he then went on to state "If you think you're going to destroy the Master Emerald this time, you're sorely mistaken."

The red hedgehog chuckles and calms himself a bit, saying in a rather nonchalant tone "Ah yes…I almost forgot about the Master Emerald. With how much precedence your demise has taken over it's destruction, you can easily see why."

Nazo then folds his arms in front of his chest and says to Shadic "Before we begin our fight, aren't you the least bit curious to know just why I called this mine my birthplace?"

Shadic nonchalantly replies with "The thought might have crossed my mind." Which leads to Nazo saying "Then I shall be quick with my origins."

"Back when the echidnas were one of the prime powers in the world thanks to the Master Emerald, they sought out a great power source buried deep within their lands that bore a similar energy to the Master Emerald itself. This led to them discovering this mine by complete accident, where they then used their mages to create me from a large gemstone chunk. I was to be their protector, not just of their lands, but of the Master Emerald itself.

I guarded the Master Emerald dutifully for quite some time, but eventually grew tired of the task for a variety of reasons. The echidnas always went on about how the Master Emerald was all-powerful, and that it's will should be obeyed…But I never quite understood why they held the Master Emerald in such high regard. It never spoke, it never showed it's power to the world, it was just a damned rock sitting atop an altar, worshipped by a bunch of insane echidnas.

I sought to show the echidnas that I was far beyond their precious Master Emerald, but word of my treachery quickly spread, and upon realizing the folly of creating a sentient force out of the negative chaos energy gemstones, the echidnas quickly put together the seven Chaos Emeralds and purified them slightly with the Master Emerald to achieve a perfect balance amongst the two forces.

With the help of the Chaos Emeralds, those accursed echidnas sealed me away deep within the Master Emerald, locking me away in that ironic prison until the day when the balance between the Chaos Emeralds was offset by it's overuse at the hands of the likes of Chaos, the doctor, and that Metallic copy of your bluer half, Shadic."

Once Nazo had finished his brief recollection of his past, he opened his eyelids and looked at Shadic, saying to him with a disappointed look in his eyes "Unfortunately, it seems as though since you defeated me before, the amount of negative energy within the Super Emeralds has decreased…Such an insufficient reservoir for someone like me."

Nazo then swings his arms out and clenches his fists, expunging an aura of pitch black Chaos Energy around his body that instantly cracks the ground around him, nearly collapsing the mine in the process as he looks at the confident Shadic and says "But though I may not be at my strongest, I've already seen all of your tricks first-hand Shadic, whether it be from your separate halves via recollections spoken of by the doctors or from our battle here long ago…Your confidence is unwarranted, for you and this miserable planet are not long for this universe."

Shadic swings his arms out and tightens his muscles, exuding a heavy aura of pure neon Chaos Energy to counteract the destructive nature of Nazo's own aura, saying to him simply "We'll see about that Nazo!" With the two forces staring each other down in the center of the mine, Tails, Knuckles and Riku could only watch as they prepared to confront each other for the second time…

Next Time: Rematch Above Angel Island