Chapter 55: A Blast from the Past - Part 1:
I am Dr. Eggman! The greatest scientist in all the world!
I can't fucking believe it! I've actually won! I broke the hedgehog!
(Please don't sue me, DC!) Anyways, now that those nuisances
have been weakened at the sight of their lovers being tortured to
no end, there is no better time than now to shower them with tough
enemies that they won't be able to defeat because they're overcome
with negative emotions! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHA!
(clears throat) Anyways, let Phase 2 of the plan commence!
"Now that I've successfully weakened those fools, it's time to let them all die unhappy." Dr. Eggman gloated.
None of the girls appeared to be shocked.
"Well that may be your intention, but in reality, you're just setting yourself up to die in an air of controversy!" Rouge replied.
"Hmm?" Eggman asked.
"You heard her! Once the guys get here, word will spread throughout all of Mobius about your sexual misconduct!" Blaze replied.
"Yeah! Even if you're alive by the time it passes over, it'll still haunt you from time to time! I mean, hell! To this day, there are still people who don't trust Shadow!" Rouge continued.
{A cutaway began showing Shadow entering an old-fashioned bar on the outskirts of City Escape. The interior was dimly lit, and moderately crowded. Aside from alcohol and peanuts, there were also a few barber chairs in the back that allowed men to get shaves and haircuts in an old-fashioned manner. As the black hedgehog entered the building, multiple pairs of eyes darted towards him. Among the crowd, one of the barbers was scared enough to toss the razor he was using right at Shadow, who ducked. The blade got stuck in a wooden pillar holding the ceiling up, right in the middle of a poster that read "WANTED - Shadow the Hedgehog! (Dead or Alive!) Wanted for killing many GUN troops and aliens, and creating complete utter confusion over his true motives! 50,000-ring reward for capturing him, and 100,000 if you bring him in dead!", dripping lather and stubble onto the floor as it hung there. "Oh, come on!" Shadow said, "Didn't we already establish that I'm between antihero and hero?!" "Sorry! It's a false habit of his!" The bartender replied. Shadow groaned in disgust.}
"Hmph! You may be feeling positive now, but when we dismember your friends soon, all of that precious hope will be lost!" Nega replied.
"That is, if they even survive the...in-flight entertainment that's given to them!" Eggman added, "...Oh, wait! I forgot to set it up!"
He stepped over to the control panel, and pressed a white button right below the red one he had pressed earlier.
"Oh yeah, sure! Launching them inside a rocket to their death is totally their idea of entertainment! No, seriously! Sonic's quite the sucker for dire situations!" Amy countered.
"No, I mean actual in-flight entertainment, you imbecile! Just a nice...4D movie for them all to watch - and I have a hunch that it'll be pretty familiar to them too!" Eggman replied with a slight evil laugh.
I'm Shadow the Hedgehog! The Ultimate Life-Form!
Rrrrgh, nothing is going right today! First, my favorite swim-trunks
decide to fucking rip on me, forcing me to wear my other pair, then
the girls get kidnapped, and THEN we learn that those obnoxious
doctors are still alive when there's really no way they could've
survived after we served their asses to them on silver platters with
fries and shakes! And just when I thought it couldn't get any goddamn
worse, I see their minions ruthlessly flogging my wife! Ohhh, those men
are gonna pay once I get to them! ...Unless Sonic decides to hog the
spotlight again and make sure he's the one to deal the final blow!
Inside the tower, Sonic, Silver, and Shadow were casually sitting on the floor anxiously.
"Let's hope this rocket leads to wherever Eggman is." Shadow said.
"And Eggman Nega!" Silver added.
"You know guys, I've been thinking..." Sonic started, prompting the other two to give him their undivided attention and eye-contact, "Even though it's clearly not true, given that discussion a few moments ago...part of me thinks that maybe...maybe Amy's glad to be where she is now."
"Nonsense!" Silver replied.
"I dunno, though. Maybe she's only faking it! Maybe she's not trying to resist Eggman at all! Maybe she's just going to submit, or even embrace him! I mean, I've had ED recently! Maybe she's secretly happy that he's doing this since she'll finally get that release she's been wanting!" Sonic continued, sounding more serious.
Shadow put a hand on Sonic's arm.
"Look, you two have been married for almost two years now! There's no way in hell that she would just randomly turn on you like that!" He said.
Sonic appeared to have snapped out of it.
"Yeah, I should just forget it," He said, "After all, we'll still save them either way!"
"That's the spirit!" Silver said with a thumbs-up.
Suddenly, the three hedgehogs were distracted by an ominous, bright light coming from the center of the room. When they all stood up and walked over to inspect it however, the light grew and became even brighter, prompting them all to shield their eyes. However, simply shielding their eyes wasn't enough, so they had no choice but to lie face down on the floor and attempt to block as much light as possible from their faces.
When the light finally died down, Sonic stood up and found himself on a long, metallic bridge in what appeared to be a futuristic city in space.
"Alright, guys! You can get up now! We can see fine!" He said, looking around, only to see that Silver and Shadow were nowhere nearby.
"Hello?" Sonic called, "Silver! Shadow! Where are you guys?!"
There was no answer.
"Shit." He cursed, "I guess I'll have to go find them. ...But...where am I?"
Sonic proceeded to walk around, admiring the scenery and taking in the fact that he was alone in a large and echoey place. During his search, however, he heard some other noises echoing through the city. These ones sounded like the engines of motorcycles. He looked over the edge of the bridge he was on, since the noises appeared to be coming from one of the bridges parallel to it.
Suddenly, the sound came back, this time on the same bridge as Sonic. Sonic managed to look behind himself quickly enough to see the source, and being just as fast as it, was able to make it out; it consisted of two fast-moving figures, one blue, one silver.
"Wait a minute, is that Silver?!" He pondered, "But...how did he get so fast? Hey! Wait up!"
Sonic proceeded to chase after them, eventually catching up as the three ran past a large neon sign that read 'Stardust Speedway'. The two beings up ahead noticed Sonic chasing after them, and split up, with the silver creature proceeding to fly behind Sonic. Sonic however, was busy inspecting the blue figure up ahead, and noticed that it had glowing red eyes.
"Metal Sonic!" He realized, before hearing some mechanical noises behind him.
Looking back, he saw the silver mech proceed to shoot large jagged spikes off of his body. Sonic managed to start screeching to a halt and let them fly overhead, but the spikes still ended up destroying the bridge ahead of him, creating a wide gap and a cloud of smoke, which he fell into since he could not slow down soon enough.
Metal Sonic was hovering over on the other side of this gap, and using his X-ray vision too see through the smoke and rubble, managed to see that his organic counterpart had survived the assault and was jumping off of the falling chunks of the bridge in order to break his fall.
Sonic managed to land on his feet on top of one of the buildings, sliding forward a tiny bit, before noticing the two mechs jumping towards him from behind and winding up punches. He managed to backflip right over their heads as they landed, and got into a fighting stance. With all three of them standing on the building together, Sonic could finally recognize the silver robot (who turned out to be Silver Sonic; the penultimate boss of Sonic 2).
"Seriously, what is it with Eggman reusing old robots lately?!" Sonic asked himself, "I mean, I've already beaten you two before, so wouldn't this be all the easier?"
After he and his combat partner looked at each other for a second, Metal Sonic fired an energy ball from the cannon built into his abdomen, which was promptly dodged by Sonic via a sidestep.
"Heh, I guess you guys aren't the talkative types! ...Not like you ever were anyway!" Sonic said, before noticing that the energy ball had turned around and was homing in on him.
"Well damn!" He continued, "There's something new! Good to see that the Doc actually bothers to upgrade you guys!"
Sonic then proceeded to backflip over the energy ball again, and began charging a spin-dash right as it was turning around to continue the chase. Just as it was about to hit him, he accelerated forwards and knocked it right into Silver Sonic, electrocuting him and sending him flying off the building's roof. Immediately, Sonic boosted full speed towards Metal Sonic, who teleported out of the way. Sonic quickly pulled to a stop and barely avoided falling off the building as well.
"Whoa!" He exclaimed, "That's a new move too! This should be interesting!"
Without warning, Metal Sonic proceeded to rev up the jet engine that stuck out of his back and zoom towards his rival, who calmly started to charge up yet another spin-dash. The two blue blurs collided, and after a brief struggle as they tried to overcome each other, Sonic managed to send him reeling backwards into the air, and seize the opportunity by homing attacking him in the stomach. Metal Sonic landed on one of the many metal bridges that snaked their way around the city, and looked up to see Sonic jumping off of the building after him in order to try and land another hit.
However, he was too quick, and somersaulted out of the way, before blocking a second homing attack with his arms. Just as Sonic managed to stick the landing on the ground, his metal counterpart teleported behind him and launched him a considerable distance with a kick. Sonic once again landed on his feet and felt some moderate pain in his side from the bruise he had just been given.
"Ngh! Ow! The bastard hit me somewhere that just healed!" Sonic groaned, though could not dwell on the issue for too long, as Metal Sonic had charged him again.
He dodged it once more, though this time with a side-flip and took off running at an incredible velocity as he chased down his attacker. The blue robot proceeded to fire more homing energy shots at him, which were all dealt with swiftly. The first one was knocked into the second, the third was forced to explode on the bridge due to having been dodged too quickly, the fourth had been disposed of in a similar way as the third, though on the wall instead, and the fifth was knocked into Metal Sonic with a homing attack. While he was sliding along the ground in a stunned state, Sonic boosted into him again, knocking him into the air once more, before following up with a high jump into the air, preparing to kick him from above.
However, he was intercepted as Silver Sonic suddenly reappeared and flew past him while curled into a ball, one of his spines creating a very small and slightly bloody cut on Sonic's arm.
"Ugh!" He grunted as he landed on his feet yet again (though he was forced to bend his knees to break his fall).
Silver Sonic did not slow down one bit, and after bouncing twice on the bridge, proceeded to roll along it at high speed, leaving a trail of black scratches and sending sparks flying out behind him. Sonic managed to stay ahead of him, and soon caught up with Metal Sonic, who was still stunned after being hit by his own projectile. In a stroke of genius, Sonic repeated the attack pattern he had just used, and this time he was able to successfully land the kick. Metal Sonic was knocked into the approaching Silver Sonic, jamming his rotating spikes and causing them to break off, while also causing the two to suffer several scratches and spin out.
Sonic screeched to a halt, and watched as they slowly started to get up, slightly sparking and buzzing quietly from the considerable damage they had taken. Silver Sonic proceeded to charge a spin-dash, but only managed to go forward a few feet before slowing down and uncurling. He looked at himself and realized he was missing his quills.
"Hah! You guys seem pretty beat up already! And to think that that was only a warm-up!" Sonic said, before quickly homing attacking Metal Sonic again, knocking him off the bridge, before boosting into the defenseless Silver Sonic.
Before he could touch the ground, Sonic proceeded to charge up a spin-dash, and launch into the air, ramming through Silver Sonic several times at high speed, before knocking him back to the bridge with a downward kick. He then ran around in circles fast enough to create a small tornado, lifting the mech off of the ground once more and carrying him over the edge, before spin-dashing right into his abdomen and holding his position as the two proceeded to fall down diagonally towards the base of one of the buildings. At the last possible second, he jumped off the robotic corpse and watched from a distance as it flew full speed into the building, creating a dust cloud. After it subsided, a large pile of rubble and chunks of the building was revealed to have crushed Silver Sonic.
However, Metal Sonic had survived the last hit dealt to him, and charged Sonic from behind by means of his rocket booster, pushing him into the wall of another building like an American football player in mid-tackle. After being pressed against the wall, Sonic had no time to react as Metal Sonic raised a yellow hand with sharp white fingers and clamped it around his neck, in an attempt to gag his rival. Not giving up, he stared seriously, but not angrily into the eyes of his adversary, noticing that one eye had been completely blown out and the other slightly cracked.
Suddenly, Sonic had an idea. He noticed that his legs were the only part of him not being held by Metal Sonic. Slowly, he started swinging his legs back and forth, swinging them higher and higher each time, his robotic rival not noticing what was happening. Finally, Sonic swung both feet high enough to kick Metal Sonic right between his legs, strong enough to cause his remaining eye to black out and his grip to weaken. Looking down, a bunch of screws and bolts could be seen falling from the dent that had been created. All of the beating that Metal Sonic had just taken made him very frail, as upon falling to the ground, his head and limbs immediately separated from his torso.
After dusting his hands off, Sonic lifted Metal Sonic's decapitated head from the ground and examined it.
"Sonic, you asshole! I was upgraded to be unstoppable! I was supposed to win this time! It's not fair! You must have cheated somehow!" He said in a fake, robotic voice, before tossing the head back to the ground.
"Alright, enough fooling around." Sonic continued, "I've gotta get out of here and find the others."
Looking around, he noticed that one of the many bridges within the city was headed straight for the planet Mobius below. Without hesitation, he performed a few jumps off of the nearby walls and proceeded to sprint along it, following the path out of Stardust Speedway.
Meanwhile, inside the lair, Dr. Eggman and Dr. Eggman Nega were both watching the screen from their positions on the beds, their expressions infuriated at how Sonic had dealt with the robots.
"Grrr! This is annoying!" Eggman said, "No matter what upgrades I give Metal Sonic, he always loses!"
"Keep your hair on, Eggman." Blaze said sarcastically.
"Oh wait! It's already gone!" Rouge replied, followed by the three girls laughing, clearly optimistic despite the potentially deadly circumstances.
"Rrrgh! Things are definitely not going well with my latest invention...at least for now!" Eggman continued.
"You mean 'our' latest invention?!" Eggman Nega added.
"Whatever. Let's just send that blue nuisance a few years ahead in time and see how he holds up against enemies that he hasn't fought in forever! Mwahahahaha!" Eggman cackled.
"Tribot! Speed up the transition!" Eggman Nega ordered.
"With pleasure." Tribot nodded, as he pressed yet another button on the control panel.
Back in space, Sonic was just nearing the planet, when suddenly, the bridge behind him started disappearing in a flash of light. He sped up, trying to reach his destination, but the light that was following him was too fast and outran him, leaving him with no choice but to fall at high speed down to the world below. As Sonic was falling, he could vaguely hear echoes of the two doctors laughing maniacally.