a/n: As I always have been, on this shared stage of ours. To mine own self, true.
Light, shining down from heaven into the abyss.
The spark of the third rail, still active.
A fashionable shoe slamming a body through the wood covering, following with a harsh pistol blast. Sparking and short circuiting.
He followed in a flash, severing the head and dragging his blade across the rail in a shower of sparks. He felt the rush of electricity and ignored it, pulling the blade until it lit up in flames. A satisfaction registered in his smoking limbs as he swung the burning sword through his next target.
Her shining knife touched his sword in mid air and borrowed the flickering flames. They fed off of the blood and flesh present and she stabbed ahead then ripped the blade to one side. The staggering corpse was beheaded in a flash of flame a moment later.
"The goddamn Dynamic Duo. Who the hell needs Superman?"
"Nineteen minutes remaining."
"Don't go letting off too early, hon. You've got a reputation to keep," Rouge quipped as she pulled out her second pistol. She twirled in a show of grace, allowing herself a bit of whimsy as she fired her guns at will. The bullets landed true, ripping through the remaining grey matter in those diseased skulls. They were slow to fall, and she saw the heads come off in a stream of fire as Sonic ripped past her. He slid to a stop and then violently accelerated, drawing with his familiar lightning speed and cutting away several heads at once. The light gleamed from his sword as blood danced away from it. Rouge aimed over his shoulder with the utmost confidence and hit another target. He reversed his grip and slashed with a practiced flourish to take off another head.
Rouge felt a call and looked to Amy. She smiled and let go of her focus, eyes glowing crimson. Amy lashed out and pushed her strength further, cutting through a body cleanly before kicking the halves apart with her still prettied feet. She swept the floor with a slash to behead it and spun around, accelerating at the next moving object to punch it into a wall. It bounced off and Sonic flew towards the ground as he split the head open.
Somehow, the crowd wasn't thinning.
"Not much longer," Rouge said.
"Fifteen minutes until discharge."
"Halfway home. C'mon, big guy."
"There are a lot in the tunnel ahead!" Amy called out.
"We can't break the ceiling right now! I think that laser takes too much!" Rouge called back.
"We'll just accelerate..."
"Sonic?"
"Go faster...I'll do it. Cover me."
Amy nodded and slashed away as Rouge backed her up with gunfire. They danced in a circle around Sonic as he placed a hand to the dusty wood below him.
"Mark."
They spun away, landing back to back behind him as a pulse rippled out and in a wide circle around his form. The light dimmed further in his eyes.
The light would be their guide no more.
Okay.
"Let's make our own."
His fur bristled, rising up as the energy pooled inside of him. He drew his blade in a fluid motion as he moved.
A single step.
The pulse that trailed him made that familiar, dimension ripping sound. The light of the world flickered off for a moment.
His fist hit the ground far ahead, caving it inward as he landed, his sword held at his back.
Everything burst into a torrent of white. Heads flew in slow motion.
Bodies slipped into oblivion.
"Fuck me," Rouge said with a giddy gasp.
"Holy shit. When'd he learn that?" Amy asked, awe in her eyes. They walked forward, looking at the destruction carved through the darkening tunnel. Sonic's green eyes shone in the dark. Behind him, the undead slowly advanced.
"You two okay?" he asked.
"Yeah. What the hell were you worried about?" Rouge asked with excitement. "I mean..."
"It takes a while to get that thing set up. Any number of things could happen in that span of time."
"But that was...come on, Sonic. That," Amy said, pointing to the carnage around her.
"I don't like taking chances."
Amy felt her heart ache at that. She had forgotten the extent of the change in him.
"I can't play with the lives of people I love like that."
She looked at him again, feeling that ache dull. Maybe not himself...but Sonic all the same. The smile that she expected wasn't there. But she didn't know if it was something he had in him any longer.
Omega lumbered past them.
"Ten minutes."
"We're making good time," Rouge said.
"I wish...we could feel the sun again," Amy said quietly. "I feel like this is it."
"Probably. Once that party favor goes off...well it's gonna be our last hurrah."
"..."
"Ready?" Amy asked Rouge.
"As I'll ever be. Let's make this one a riot, hon."
"Yeah."
Rouge ejected the spent cartridge from her gun and loaded another clip of bullets into it. Amy wiped the Ginsu knife on her already dirtied and blood soaked shirt.
"Bigger...than me," he said to himself.
The undead continued to move, packed together tightly. The formation broke like a rolling wave.
"Tch!"
Sonic slashed freely as Rouge hoisted Amy into the air. Omega simply moved ahead, barely noting the obstacles ahead. The undead reeled from contact with his metal shell, and smoke rose from it with each successive bump.
"Seven minutes."
Rouge's ears twitched.
"What is...why do I know that sound? Don't tell me..."
"Rouge?"
"They might be starting that party early."
"We should have thirty more minutes," Amy said.
"No guarantees."
"It's clearing up. Put me back in."
Rouge guided Amy down with one hand, the other firing at whatever was in her sight. Amy let go of her hand and dropped down, slashing away at the undead before her.
"Five minutes to discharge. All functioning organic life should stay clear."
"Is that it?"
Amy pointed to a stark white stone spire in the middle of the tracks. She felt her breathing get heavier as she neared.
"I didn't think bio weapons...got that big," Rouge said, panting.
"High levels of enriched uranium detected," Omega droned.
"There...you go. Must have been bite sized...before it touched the nuke...material," Amy said with a wheeze. "Sonic? Sonic...where are you?"
A severed head flew past her and bounced off of the spire before rolling to a stop.
"Shit...not again," Rouge grumbled as she fell to her knees. "Can't keep it together."
"It's this thing..."
Sonic walked past them calmly. He drew his sword and pointed it at the spire.
"One last..."
He stuck the sword into the ground ahead of him and walked forward.
"Sonic...?"
Amy raised her head.
He thrust his hand into the spire, cracking the stone. A white substance traveled up his arm. He steeled himself, feet planted firmly into the earth.
"Sonic...no, stop. Stop! Stop it! Fucking stop it!"
"You fucking idiot!" Rouge yelled. She drew her gun to try and shoot the construct, but her body failed her as she fell onto her side. Amy hit the ground, gasping and crying as she tried to move.
Blue fur turned to white.
There was nothing left.
"One hundred twenty seconds to final discharge. All functioning organic life should-"
And then.
The world was instantly replaced.
"You really did do it...just for them.
So this is the power of love."