Chapter 62: A Blast from the Past - Part 8:

"Whoa! Check out that manly armor!" Blaze awed, her cheeks turning a vivid red as she eyed Silver's transformation.

"Nah, it's a little drab for my tastes." Rouge replied.

"I just don't get it!" Dr. Eggman yelled, "Why are you three so goddamn happy?! This is supposed to be a dangerous and emotionally troubling situation, and yet you just shrug it all of like it's an everyday thing?! What kind of bullshit is that?!"

"Well, when you've been kidnapped for this many hours with no indication of exactly when the rescue-party is gonna show up, the mere shock of being kidnapped kinda' wears off." Amy replied, "Plus, when you put it beside leveling Station Square, blowing the moon in half, breaking the planet into seven fragments, dragging five planets across the universe and fucking up five solar-systems in the process, and enslaving a race of aliens, sexual harassment is pretty much child's play."

"I guess that makes sense." Eggman replied.

"Ha! That pothead! He seriously thinks that putting on a little muscle is going to let him stand a chance against them?!" Dr. Eggman Nega gloated, clearly not paying any attention to the discussion.

"Good point. Why do we get the stupid enemies?!" Cubot asked.

"If you were to ask me, I'd say that it was a clever idea to fuse those rocks together! Even if their plan fails, it's still something!" Orbot replied.

"Yeah, they only seem stupid when you compare 'em to our bosses!" Hexbot added, with Tribot nodding in agreement.

"Less buttering up, more patrolling!" Eggman barked back.

"Hah! You pothead! You seriously think that putting on a little muscle is going to let you stand a chance against me?!" Alf Layla wa-Layla mocked.

"Why do I get the feeling that he's quoting that dialogue from someone else?" Sonic asked.

"Heh! I don't think you have any right to call me the pothead here! You're so incompetent, you fail to do something as simple as acknowledging your own damn comrade!" Silver snapped.

"...Was that cocky?" He asked his teammates, receiving a thumbs-up from Sonic and a shrug from Shadow in reply.

"Pah! Foolish dumbass! Feigning arrogance won't work against me!" Alf replied, charging up an enormous purple ball of energy covered in typewritten words between all six of his hands.

He then released the deadly projectile and hurled it straight at the trio of hedgehogs at an alarming velocity.

"Hold on tight!" Silver warned, before winding up a punch.

He then let loose just as the ball of energy hit him, and after a few seconds of his stone fist and the projectile struggling to overcome each other, Silver managed to overpower it and send it reeling back towards its point of origin. Alf, meanwhile, was hovering in mid-air, cackling with glee.

"Huh?" He asked, "Oh shit!"

The ball of energy hit the wide open Alf Layla wa-Layla, resulting in a deafening explosion and a large, thick cloud of smoke, which Silver did not hesitate to fly into.

"Damn! I didn't think he'd be able to block that one!" Alf said.

Within the smoky expanse behind him was the transformed Silver with Sonic and Shadow each standing on one of his rocky shoulders.

"Now." Shadow said quietly, before launching a chaos spear at the group's adversary, which struck the metallic sword at the tip of his tail, electrocuting him.

"Gah!" Alf wailed in agony, "Oof! Hey! Yow! What is that?!"

Following his paralysis, Alf found himself being attacked by some small yet painful forces all over his body, which he could not see at the time. Within another minute, the thick cloud of smoke dissipated, revealing Sonic and Shadow rapidly homing-attacking him. Right as he was about to swat them off, Alf suddenly felt a sharp pain between his legs, due to a homing attack that Sonic managed to land. He grabbed his crotch, but this left him open to another attack: Shadow proceeded to land an aerial dropkick right into a magenta sphere that was bulging out of his chest, squishing it in and causing even more excruciating pain. After a blood-curdling scream, Alf stepped back as Shadow landed back on Silver, and in the midst of panting heavily, he gave a massive heave and regurgitated a fair amount of blood, which created an audible sizzling noise upon falling into the magma below.

"Okay, just what in the hell was that?!" Sonic asked.

"I thought I told you before. I have the ability to use my chaos powers without calling out their names." Shadow replied.

"Actually, you didn't." Sonic replied, before all three of them noticed Alf slowly recovering from his damage.

However, Silver was quick to continue his assault. He nailed Alf straight in the face with a punch, before twirling him on his stony index finger and tossing him upwards before flying after him. He then attacked him with a rapid series of punches and after sending him ricocheting off the roof of the lava-filled dome with a flip-kick, he launched him back down towards the lava by bringing his fists together and smacking him downwards with a powerful thrust. As soon as he hit the lava, Alf bounced back up with a squeal of pain, and while he was stunned, Silver knocked him towards his comrade with a hard blow to the face. Before either of the monsters could stop it from happening, the blade at the end of Alf's tail struck Dark Gaia straight right in his central eye, causing crimson blood to gush out like a waterfall and a loud shriek in agony that shook the entire cavern. As Alf Layla wa-Layla wrenched his tail out of the once occupied eye-socket, Dark Gaia grabbed his face in pain.

Alf finally had a chance to recover and proceeded to charge straight at the transformed Silver, who had reentered a fighting stance. The demented genie raised all six of his hands and fired off a purple ball of energy from each one. Silver swerved from side to side to avoid the first four, and blocked the fifth by crossing his rocky arms. Finally, he wound up a punch and repelled the final orb, but Alf flew through it effortlessly and continued his fast approach. Silver brought his arms together to block an incoming flurry of punches, and just as he was slowly bringing them back down, Alf slashed at him with his tail, effectively slicing off one of Silver's stony fingers, though since it was not a part of his body, it did not hurt.

Alf proceeded to follow up by aiming a downward slash at Silver's exposed head, but was knocked off balance as Sonic charged up a spin-dash and launched right into Alf's stomach. Shadow dove after him, and after the two gave him a second beating with countless homing attacks, he jumped up and delivered a powerful punch right into his single eye, squishing it in a significant distance and causing Alf to wail in pain and tightly hold his face in his hands (not before Shadow jumped off) as blood gushed out from between his fingers. As Shadow retreated back onto Silver's shoulder, Sonic continued his assault by grabbing the incapacitated Alf's tail and using the midair momentum he still possessed to fly around him in rapid circles, getting him tangled up with his own tail. He then jumped right in front of him while holding the blade, and rammed it right into the reddish orb on his defenseless chest. With a blood-curdling scream, Alf Layla wa-Layla began flailing around in pain, his beaten eye constantly shifting, twitching and bugging out, and dark blood cascading from his mouth and chest. This was followed by a blinding flash of light, causing everyone within the cavern to shield their eyes. When it finally died down, Alf had reverted to his normal form known as Erazor Djinn. He now had two eyes, and his teeth were smaller and more realistic. He had also lost four of his arms, and had been reduced to about a third of the size he had just been. His overall proportions were more human-like, the blade that occupied the tip of his tail (which was no longer present) became a golden sword that was being clenched in his hand, and the tattoos that covered his purple skin were less wild and had lost their glow. He was panting heavily and was covered in bruises and bloodstains.

Promptly, Silver lunged forwards and grabbed Erazor with his hands, proceeding to squeeze him tighter and tighter in an attempt to crush him. Shadow watched silently as he did this, but when he happened to glance at Silver's opposite shoulder, his eyes widened.

"Silver!" He said.

However, his words fell on deaf ears, as Silver was still focusing on squeezing Erazor, whose grunts and cries of pain were drowning out his voice. After rolling his eyes, Shadow leapt to a spot closer to Silver's exposed head.

"Hey! Listen!" He called into his ear, startling him into letting the evil genie go.

"What's the big idea?!" Silver groaned, "I had him just where I wanted him!"

"Look!" Shadow replied, pointing down towards the sea of lava below.

While shielding their eyes from the blinding light, nobody had noticed Sonic falling towards his scalding death after his attack.

"SONIC!" Silver called out in alarm.

"No worries! I got this!" Sonic yelled back, "Oh, and by the way, Shadow: I heard your little remark back there, you traitor!"

Without hesitation, Sonic unrolled the cuff of his right glove, revealing what appeared to be an ordinary-looking analog watch. He began to frantically tap the glass with his index finger like a touchscreen, causing the drawing on the face to switch between a bubble, a small flame, and a bolt of electricity.

"C'mon, c'mon, c'mon!" He said quickly, before finally landing on the flame.

By this time, Erazor Djinn had regained his composure and saw the vulnerable Sonic.

"Flame of Judgement!" He cried, pointing his finger straight at the falling hedgehog and releasing a small fireball, which homed in on him, only to combust and disappear six inches away from him.

"What?!" Erazor yelled, before proceeding to swipe his sword, sending out boomerang-shaped fireballs with each slash.

Sonic landed right on top of the lava completely unharmed, with the flaming barrier completely visible around him. He noticed the projectiles coming straight for him, but merely reacted by folding his arms and adopting a smug facial expression. The flames once again dissipated against his fire shield.

"It's my Elemental Shield Generator!" He said, "Pretty cool, huh? Tails built it for me as a birthday present when we were celebrating it back in Mobius National Park!"

"Really? It was that birthday? I thought that time, Tails was being stingy and gave you nothing but a chili-dog; a.k.a. something you could have literally gotten any other day." Shadow replied.

"Oh hush! You weren't even paying attention! All I remember you doing was standing against a tree with your arms folded, staring into the horizon!" Sonic replied.

"SILENCE!" Erazor yelled, "I may have suffered that setback, but I won't leave here without a victor-OOF!"

His sentence was cut off as Silver punched him straight in the stomach, sending him reeling right into Dark Gaia's hands. He ended up being impaled in five different spots by his long claws, before being shaken off, too much in pain to react other than letting loose a terrifying scream and countless gagging noises. He fell into the magma below with a splash, and somehow had the energy to pop back up, bobbing at the surface and flailing his arms wildly, before tiring out and slowly sinking downwards. The lava that was sent flying up from the splash hit Sonic's fire shield and ran off like rain on a window.

"Great work, Silver!" Sonic called.

"Don't thank me just yet." Silver replied, "We still have the matter of Dark Gaia."

A good distance away from the trio stood Dark Gaia, who proceeded to let out a tremendous roar that echoed throughout the planet's core. Without a word more, Silver flew towards the beast as fast as he could go while weighted down by the countless rocks he had drawn to himself. However, the seemingly savage creature was aware of this, and reached down into the pool of magma, which did not burn his hands in the slightest. He came back up holding a large slab of molten rock in each hand, and tossed them both at his foes. As Silver flew directly towards the oncoming assault, Sonic was boosting across the lava, still using his fire shield as he ran, causing drops of lava to spray behind him. He then began rolling along the lava's surface for a spell while curled into a tight ball, before launching upwards and destroying one of the two oncoming lava rocks by ramming through it. Just as this happened, Silver had punched the other one, and Sonic was given a chance to land on his extended fist. After dodging and countering several more hot rocks, Dark Gaia realized that his adversaries were getting closer and after charging up for a second, released a massive white laser from his mouth.

"Great. What now?" Sonic asked, "I mean, I could probably withstand that with my electric shield, but what about you two?"

"Well, I'm too slow to fly around it." Silver replied.

"Damn it, you guys! Stop worrying!" Shadow said, "Chaos...LANCE!"

Shadow released a large projectile from his hands, which hit the laser as it approached the trio, stopping it in its tracks, before finally breaking through it and flying straight into Dark Gaia's mouth. He swallowed it, but it only caused him to get electrocuted. The smoke cloud resulting from the laser being broken apart also allowed Silver to reach Dark Gaia without being seen. While he was still stunned, he nailed him in the stomach with a hard punch from his left hand (causing him to cough up a large amount of blood), following up with a downward smash to the top of the head with his right. He ended the combo by pummeling the beast with a countless number of quick punches, and then seizing him by the neck and holding him down towards the lava. However, Silver had forgotten that Dark Gaia was immune to the magma, and was unprepared when he stood back up and grabbed his stony body in his clawed hands, letting out a loud snarl in the process.

"Oog! Rrgh!" He groaned, struggling to get free.

In this struggle, he noticed that some of the rocks that he had telekinetically pulled towards himself were crumbling slightly due to being squeezed so hard.

"Hang tight!" Sonic said, now no longer standing within an elemental shield.

He jumped off of Silver's rocky shoulder and dove onto his arm, before sprinting down it at full speed. Shadow followed suit on his respective side of the body. As he was watching his two comrades running down along his arms, Silver looked back up and saw that Dark Gaia was charging his laser up again.

"Uhm, any day now, guys!" He said hurriedly, nervously staring into Dark Gaia's mouth.

"Almost there!" Sonic called back, putting on even more speed.

He eventually reached the end of Silver's middle finger, and bounded off, before landing a homing attack directly in Dark Gaia's right eye, causing it to disappear in a large burst of blood. Shadow was skating down Silver's right arm, but felt it shaking due to Dark Gaia's attack, causing him to stumble.

"C'MON!" Silver shouted, prompting him to continue.

Shadow eventually reached the end of Silver's other middle finger and launched the same attack on Dark Gaia's other eye. In his agony, he let go of Silver at last, canceling his attack and screeching in pain as he held his profusely bleeding face in his clawed hands. The frequency of his roars sent Sonic and Shadow flying off of his head, and back towards Silver, who caught one of them in each stone fist, without crushing them. After the two jumped back onto his shoulders, the trio of hedgehogs stood in silence as they watched their adversary's rather elongated reaction to the major damage he had taken.