Final Chapter: Live and Learn
Atop the arena far above the Egg Continent, we find most of the heroes overlooking the finale of the battle between Riku and Nazo, where the power-mad hedgehog was stripped of his powers and sealed away. Amy was kneeled down beside the currently unconscious Sonic as she looked out towards the bright sky and smiled, proclaiming cheerfully afterwards "He did it! That boy saved us all from Nazo!"
"D-Did he now?" Sonic weakly comments on, causing Amy to turn her head and watch as the blue hedgehog lifts his head up as she pulls her hands away from his body and gasps joyfully in surprise. "Sonic, you're awake!"
As Sonic sits upright and grins, he jokingly replies while wagging his right pointer finger "Like I could ever be kept down for long, Amy." The blue hedgehog immediately kick-flips onto his feet, nearly tumbling back onto his feet due to a moment of dizziness he feels in the process. Once he's standing upright though, he looks out towards the sky and smiles.
"Heh, so you actually did it." Sonic comments quietly before turning to the left upon hearing Shadow groaning as he wakes up. The black hedgehog holds the side of his head, leading to Sonic saying in a jovial tone "Feeling a little roughed up there Shadow?"
"I'm no worse for the wear than you are Sonic…" Shadow calmly replies with as he lets go of his head and slowly rises back to his feet, while Sonic smirks at Shadow's response to his comment.
It was at that point that Omega and Silver flew back up onto the platform, and Sonic turned his attention towards the telekinetic hedgehog as he remembered something rather important right away "Hey Silver, nice to see you're feeling better now. I know this might be asking a lot of ya, but could you fly over to Angel Island and pick up Tails and Knuckles?"
Silver, who had just finished flying a great distance in spite of being weakened, takes a few pants to catch his breath before mentioning to Sonic "I-I can do that for you in a bit…Just let me rest first."
Sonic snaps his fingers and says with a smile "Ok. No problem Silver." The blue hedgehog then stands around for a few more seconds before Shadow points out to him "Sonic, aren't you forgetting something?"
The blue hedgehog glances back at Shadow and thinks about what he said for a moment, and then snaps his fingers and states urgently "Oh yeah! I forgot all about Eggman and Eggman Nega! Where did those two slip off to now?!"
Deep inside the Egg Continent, we find Eggman and his equally notorious grandson standing around in front of a highly detailed set of controls. Above them flows the Nega Hyper-go-on/Dark Gaia mixture in liquid form through a solid clear pipe, and as Eggman backs away from the center of the control panel he grins and says to his grandson "Hehehe…Looks like I managed to salvage something from this failed mission after all."
Eggman lifts his head up to continue glaring at the pipe as the last of the liquid is deposited into an out of sight compartment in the room behind this one. Nega waves a hand at him and says "I can't believe you're considering holding on to that substance after all this."
"Why not?" Eggman smiles with his reply as he brushes the side of his mustache with his left fingers and folds his right arm behind his back. "After all, with that much energy at his disposal, Nazo was able to overpower both Shadic and that accursed boy."
"And nearly made him the new ruler of our Earth! You've made a big enough deal about not letting anyone but yourself conquer the planet grandfather, so why are you going to risk another idea of yours backfiring because of this ridiculous energy source?!" Nega's response is swiftly met by Eggman turning around and holding his hands in front of his body with a brilliantly maddened smile on his face.
"You aren't capable of seeing the bigger picture here my naïve grandson. This was just a fluke, a one-time mistake…Once I learned to refine the energy and ensure that nothing can harm the mind-control ray, the next thing I send after Sonic and Shadow will for sure be the last, and I will be the end-all conqueror of this world!" Eggman is about ready to break into laughter, but it only takes a second for something to stop him from doing so.
The front of this room is busted right through with a single burst of single, and Riku crashes down from the center of the ensuing downfall of debris and smoke and lands on the ground in front of Eggman. His impact leads to him kneeling down out of recoil from the pain and using his knuckles briefly as support, but he makes sure to lift his head up and glare at the doctor with as much strength as he can muster before he stands upright and quickly draws his katana out to brandish it at Eggman while holding another hand out and creating a sphere of darkness to prevent Nega from making even a single move against him.
Riku says to Eggman "Just what do you think you're doing?"
The doctor doesn't seem worried by the boy's presence, and calmly said to him "Shouldn't it be obvious? I'm celebrating the fact that Nazo is defeated. I must admit, for all the problems I had with your presence, I now have to thank you for holding off and sealing that monster away once I drained him of his powers."
The teenage Overlord raises an eyebrow and says "Yeah, drained him…See, I have a big problem with that." The boy then points his sword towards the pipe in the ceiling and nudges his head in that direction to grab Eggman's attention.
The doctor smiles and replies with "Hehe, I have no idea what you're talking about." The sly tone does not fool Riku, who says to Eggman calmly "You think you were just going to escape with that energy mixture?"
"Of course I was, boy." Eggman looks at Riku and nudges his glasses upward. "You don't scare me. Nazo has greatly weakened you, and you already showed enough hesitation to kill me earlier when you had the perfect chance."
The teenage Overlord nods his head and says in response to that "Yeah…There always has to be an Eggman around to fight Sonic the Hedgehog. It's an old rule I heard about long ago. Even if that didn't exist, I can recognize that there is sometimes such a thing as a necessary evil in a world."
"And yet you still threaten me?" Eggman confidently grins at the boy as he asks this question.
"Yeah, it's true that I don't have any way of threatening you…But let me remind you Eggman, you currently have 11 guys onboard your ship, and you mind-controlled all but one of them. Now that Nazo is dealt with, they are going to remember what you did and come down here to get you. Personally, I'm not expecting much mercy from them." Riku smiles slightly at the end of his sentence, and Eggman grimaces as he comes to realize that the boy had a point.
"Hmmm…So you aren't threatening me, you plan to bargain, don't you?" Eggman asks, to which the boy nods his head in response.
Riku says afterwards "I'm not planning on making a habit out of this, but this will be beneficial for both us. If you let me destroy your energy mixture for good along with the entire Egg Continent…Then you can escape out of here in your pod and try another plan out, start over from the very beginning if you have to."
Eggman takes the bargain into consideration, but then glances over to his grandson and asks Riku "And what about him?"
"He's not supposed to be here. The deal doesn't extend to him. I'll let Silver and Blaze do whatever they want to him." Riku says, causing Eggman Nega to flinch in surprise and proclaim while still keeping his hands held beside his body "What?! You can't possibly be serious! Grandfather, you can't accept this offer, you must surely have another plan in mind to take this brat down!"
Eggman glances at his pleading grandson, then back at Riku, and looks up as he feels as though Sonic and his friends were fast approaching this room. Taking all options into consideration, there was only one thing the doctor could do…
A minute later, Eggman has disappeared from the control room of the large vacuum, and Riku is left alone with Eggman Nega. The grandson of Eggman growls and quietly says "I can't believe he took your offer…"
Riku sheathes his katana and dispels his darkness sphere, reverting back to his normal clothes just a moment later as he turns to face Eggman Nega and says "That shouldn't have surprised you. Your grandfather is always looking out for himself."
It takes only three seconds after that for Sonic and his friends to drop down into the room, with Sonic and Shadow taking the forefront. The blue hedgehog looks immediately at Eggman Nega and then turns to face Riku, exclaiming curiously "Where's Eggman?!"
The teenage Overlord gestures his left pointer finger at Eggman Nega, saying to Sonic "Eggman bailed out of here before I could catch him. Nega stuck around to try and take advantage of the energy mixture his grandfather had siphoned from Nazo."
Silver immediately leaps forward and holds his hands out, using his telekinetic powers to grab Eggman Nega around his entire body, saying in a satisfied enough tone of voice "When I get back to the future Nega, I'll make sure to put you in the most uncomfortable jail cell I can think of!"
Nega cannot hold back his sarcastic joy as he immediately replies with "Oh goodie…I am so looking forward to that….Grrr, this day truly could not get any worse for me."
Sonic walks up to Riku and gestures with his right hand, saying to him happily "Hey Riku, glad you had our backs against Nazo. If it wasn't for you, the planet would be toast!"
"Oh come on Sonic, we both did it. But hey, now that we're done with Nazo and Eggman has abandoned this hunk of metal, you know what we need to do now?" Riku asks with a smile on his face in spite of the pain flowing through his body.
Sonic kneels down and stretches his legs, looking up at the boy and saying to him "You really want to get right back to that race of ours, don't ya? Ok, I'm ready to go if you are!"
Riku chuckles nervously, for as much as he loved the blue hedgehog remembering that race and showing enthusiasm to start it again he knew there was something more important to take care of first. "I was going to suggest that we get rid of the Egg Continent, actually."
Sonic stands upright and says "Oh right, guess we can't just leave this floating around. We shouldn't really bust it up over the ocean though."
"Of course not. Don't worry Sonic, I got an idea to get rid of this without causing too much damage." Riku says in a confident tone of voice.
The blue hedgehog smiles and says "Knowing you, I'm expecting something crazy. Alright, I guess the rest of us can bail out of here and get back to the mainland."
"I'd appreciate it Sonic." Riku says, and after leaving the blue hedgehog and his friends to their devices the boy walks a few steps and leaps out of the hole he made in the front of the Egg Continent.
Once he was far enough out, the teenage Overlord mentally connected with Takashi and asked of him "Hey, think you can drag a gigantic battleship through that realm of yours and deposit it close to the sun?"
"Ha, I'd be more challenged if you asked me to pull the moon out of orbit! If you can create a wide enough gap in front of the battleship, then it shouldn't take me too long to get the job done." Takashi replies, causing Riku to grin and say "I knew I could count on you."
Though he was weakened a lot in the battle again Nazo, creating a rift large enough to encompass the front of the Egg Continent wouldn't expend too much of Riku's energy. He went into his Chaos Form and immediately pulled out his dagger, going to the far left of the battleship and stabbing the dagger against the air to puncture it. He then takes the dagger and drags it across the width of the Egg Continent, creating a gap that grows larger and larger with every inch he moves until eventually it grows wide and tall enough to cover the front of the massive battleship.
Takashi then reaches out through the center of the portal and latches both of his claws into the metal of the Egg Continent and immediately starts tugging on it. Riku can feel the Egg Continent budge beside him and thus he flies out of the way while the black dragon mentally says to him "It'll probably take me a week to get it to the sun, and about two hours to get it out of sight on the planet."
"I'll be sticking around the coastline for a while anyways to rest up. I got a race to settle with Sonic, after all." Riku says with a grin on his face while Takashi replies "Hehehe…I think he's going to be one opponent you won't be able to defeat. Even so, I wish you the best of luck."
"Same to you." Riku replies with the utmost confidence in his thoughts before he flies away from the Egg Continent, heading for the sandy coastline down below it where he conveniently finds Sonic and friends gathered near a series of debris scattered by the landings of a good number of egg-shaped pods.
Sonic waves his hand up as the boy lands on the ground in front of them and converts back to his regular form, entrusting Takashi with the sealing of the rift once his job was done. The blue hedgehog whispers and says to Riku "Wow, pretty sweet rift you created there! Glad you performed clean-up duty for us, I'd hate to imagine what would've happened if we had just blown it up."
Riku folds his arms against his chest and points out to Sonic "You mean we performed a raid on the ship without any plan to safely get rid of it?"
The blue hedgehog snaps his fingers and gestures his hand forward with a smile, saying jokingly in response "It's not like we had any time to come up with a plan."
"Fair enough." Riku replies with, before looking around and noticing that most of the guys have left. Only Silver, Blaze, Amy and Cream remain.
Sonic comments on this before Riku asks "Hehe, a G.U.N. copter came by and picked the Chaotix and Shadow's merry group up. And as for why everyone else is here…"
The blue hedgehog turns to the left and glances at Amy, who is looking at him with a lovestruck glare while Cream shakes her head and sighs. Silver and Blaze are busy deciding on who deserves the right to take Eggman Nega back home with them. Sonic sighs and says "Well, they have their own business to take care of."
Sonic then asks "So, you ready to continue our race?" Riku replies by sitting down on the sandy coastline and saying "Could you give me an hour or two to rest up? Not a fair race if your opponent is tired, right?"
The blue hedgehog nods his head and swiftly says "Suit yourself. I'll be back here in a bit! And Silver, don't forget to get Tails and Knuckles before you leave!" Swinging his arms off to the side, Sonic takes off in a blur.
A couple hours later, the Egg Continent has been fully pulled through the darkness rift, and Amy and Cream have gone back home. Silver went off to Angel Island and picked up Tails and Knuckles, and then him and Blaze went off somewhere else to discuss what to do with Eggman Nega some more. Sonic speeds by as those three took off, and stops in place as Riku rises to his feet looking mostly renewed appearance-wise.
"Alright, I'm back!" Sonic exclaims excitedly before turning to look at Tails and Knuckles, saying to them merrily "Hey, you made it back safely!"
Tails walks up to Sonic and jabs him in the right shoulder with his fist, smirking at him and saying "I should have said that to you first! You had us both worried there Sonic!"
Sonic gives his yellow buddy a thumbs-up and mentions "Like Nazo could have kept me down for long."
The blue hedgehog glances over to Knuckles, who glances at him with his arms folded and gives him an appreciative nod, which Sonic chuckles at before turning to look at Tails and saying "Hey Tails, we got a lot to talk about later, but can I ask you to stick around for a bit while I take care of one last bit of unfinished business."
Sonic then turns towards Riku and pumps his fists in the air, saying merrily "Lets do it Riku!" The teenage Overlord nods his head and replies with "On your mark…Get set…"
The blue hedgehog grinned at the boy's enthusiasm, and he said at the same time as Riku after he turns around "Go!" Both Riku and Sonic then sprint off for a five-lap run around the world, leaving a powerful gust in their initial wake.
Sonic and Riku quickly end up side-by-side as they sprint across the planet's surface, and the blue hedgehog smirks and says to the boy "You know, I know you let Eggman go."
The teenage Overlord flinches in surprise and glances over at Sonic, who proceeds to say to him "Hehe, I'd have done the same thing honestly."
Riku replies in turn after letting out a sigh of relief "That's good to hear…It was a tough decision to make considering what happened today."
"I don't ever want to stop messing around with ol' Egghead. It's always my favorite time of the month." After Sonic happily points this out he proceeds to state "Now, lets kick this up a notch!"
The blue blur increases his speed right away, with Riku doing the same a moment later while he scoffed at Sonic's remark. The two raced for just under ten minutes, going around the planet five times harmlessly at top speed before ending back where they started. Unsurprisingly, the victor of this grand race was Sonic.
Both racers were barely exhausted by the effort, and thus Sonic immediately turned himself around and faced Riku while giving him a thumbs-up and saying "That was tight! You were so close there!"
The teenage Overlord, not being a sore sport in the slightest, jokingly replied to the blue hedgehog with "Heheh…Being close is the same as being very far away when you're racing the fastest thing alive…But yeah that was a lot of fun."
Sonic states afterwards "Say Riku, I know you're traveling around space and all, but if you wanted to crash around here for a while you're more than welcome to!" He was being completely honest in his offer too.
Riku chuckles in response, but says to the blue hedgehog quickly afterwards "Hehe…Sorry Sonic, but I got a mission to uphold. I guess Nazo was the problem I needed to help out with here, so I probably should head off to another planet. But hey…"
The teenage Overlord walks over to Sonic and swings his right arm out with the hedgehog doing the same so the two can clasp hands together and do a single shake, leading to Riku finishing his earlier sentence off with "I really enjoyed our time together. I'll definitely return here again sometime."
Sonic grins and simply says as he lets go of his hand "Of course! Don't be a stranger Riku, and have a safe trip out there!" With the blue hedgehog saying a swift farewell characteristic of himself, Riku then turns towards Tails and Knuckles and gives them a two-finger gesture of farewell before he kicks himself up off the sand, leaving a ringed plume around where his feet were as he rockets off into space once more with Sonic lifting his head up and smiling at how fun the whole adventure with the boy was.
Once Riku pierced the atmosphere of the planet, he took one moment to look back at the blue and green Earth, where he found that glancing at it for just a few moments reminded him of the place of his birth and made him slightly long to return there again.
Shifting from a solemn expression to a more neutral one, Riku said to himself while his shield of air surrounded him "I still have a job to do…Maybe someday I'll make a stop by my Earth, but now there's still a lot I need to get done." With that single remark, the teenage Overlord then turns around and flies off to parts unknown, ready for his next mission…
Part 4 Story 4: Messenger from Nega.
The End…?