Chapter 63: A Blast from the Past - Part 9:
"Aaaannndd, down goes the Infernal Bastard!" Amy quipped.
"Another victory for the Blue Blur and his team!" Rouge added, "At this rate, he'll reach the finals in a heartbeat!"
"Right you are, Rouge! But the question still remains: Who will enter the ring next?" Blaze asked.
"Quiet, you!" Eggman Nega barked.
"Now I'm starting to worry." Eggman groaned, "We only have so many interactive holograms for them to face, and if they don't die soon, who knows how we'll fare when they eventually reach us?"
"Do you really need to ask?" Rouge asked.
"Yeah, we all know you'll lose no matter what tricks you have up your sleeves!" Amy added.
"I have just about had it with you obnoxious vixens." Eggman growled.
"But wait! What's this?! The challenger is getting back up!" Blaze quipped, "Boy is he lucky that we don't do the whole '10-seconds to knockout' thing for this tournament!"
Back in the cavern, Dark Gaia slowly rose back to a stand, letting out shrieks that made him sound like he was panting. When he was finally back upright, he let out another powerful roar that almost sent Sonic and Shadow flying off of Silver's shoulders. All three hedgehogs got into a fighting stance as they watched Dark Gaia undergo a rather disturbing transformation. His entire head split open across the front, revealing a large mouth full of tiny tongues, which shortly gave way to reveal seven large green eyes. Two incredibly long tongues also sprouted out from the sides of his central eye and hung down like the tongue of a dog. Below his head, four extra arms suddenly ripped through the skin on his sides, causing so much blood to escape his body that it would have killed him if he were human.
"W-What the fuck?!" Silver gasped.
"That's his second form that I told you about earlier." Sonic replied.
"You guys haven't seen shit! If you think that's gross, you should play the Japanese version of my game!" Shadow scoffed.
"Whatever. Time to turn this guy into blood-sausage!" Sonic said.
Before any of them could move, Perfect Dark Gaia summoned six long tentacles with neon-blue dragon heads on the ends (with each head having a green eye in its mouth) which came up from below the lava. The dragon heads began to glow, before suddenly causing a blue barrier to appear around the beast. Silver cracked his stony knuckles and flew towards it. He attempted to punch the shield, but it didn't even leave a scratch, and instead caused the stones that made up his right hand to crack slightly.
"Well damn!" He said.
"Something tells me we'll need to be strategic." Shadow said, before noticing the eyes that the heads on the tentacles had in their mouths, "Aha!"
He fired a chaos spear at the nearest head, landing a direct hit in its eye, and causing the barrier to weaken a little, creating a hole just big enough for both he and Sonic to get through.
"Good thinking, Shadow." Sonic said, jumping over to the arm opposite to the one he was standing on, "Now we'll need to power up, and go after him while we have a chance.
Shadow nodded.
"You two fly in and distract him. I'll take down this shield and then we'll regroup." Silver replied.
Without waiting a second more, Sonic and Shadow gripped each other's fists tightly as if they were about to handshake, summoning the Chaos Emeralds in the process. The emeralds began to encircle them both with increasing speed, until they were enveloped in a blinding flash of light. Soon, both Sonic and Shadow were in their super forms. The two powered-up hedgehogs promptly flew through the hole in the shield just as it was closing. Silver watched as they made their way in, before proceeding to yank on the nearest tentacle, easily ripping it off of Dark Gaia's body and causing him to bleed some more. As it was still writhing around violently in his hand, he spun it around rapidly and tossed it like a javelin at another dragon head, causing its eye to get destroyed by its sharp teeth.
Inside the barrier, Super Sonic and Super Shadow continued to fly towards Perfect Dark Gaia, who became aware of their approach and began spewing large neon-lavender energy-balls, which were swiftly dodged. The last of these was much larger than the rest, and was hit with a chaos spear (much stronger due to the added power from the chaos emeralds) from Shadow, which fused into it. With a powerful kick, it was sent back to its point of origin, who took the hit and was sent falling backwards from the impact. After standing back up, he hardly had any time to recover before Shadow nailed one of his eyes with a strong punch, partially blinding the beast and triggering a waterfall of blood. Sonic rejoined his cohort and took out the eye just opposite of the one Shadow had hit. While their foe was stunned, the two hedgehogs looked around and saw the force-field dissipate completely. Silver didn't hesitate to fly towards them and begin to face off against Dark Gaia in an empty-handed fight, clashing their fists and claws together in rapid succession. Eventually, Silver managed to dodge an incoming claw-swipe and nail Dark Gaia in the face with a two-handed thrust. He then seized him by the throat and gripped him tightly, pinning his two uppermost arms to his sides in the process.
"Alright guys! I got him!" He shouted, "Try and finish him-WHOAH!"
However, Silver had forgotten that in his perfect form, Dark Gaia had six arms instead of just two, and he used his four remaining arms to grab Silver's stony body, effectively immobilizing him, (while also using his other two after they were freed). Sonic and Shadow were hovering off of the sidelines and immediately flew in. Silver saw this, but then looked straight ahead once more and saw that Dark Gaia was charging up his laser again.
"Hurry, Sonic!" He yelled, before feeling his right leg being freed, for Super Shadow had rammed through one of the beast's many hands with a mid-air spin-dash, slicing off its claws.
Silver took advantage of this opportunity and nailed his captor in the gut with a strong kick, causing it to withdraw three more of its hands. Super Sonic rammed through the remaining two, and Silver was freed, but not before Dark Gaia let loose its laser, which had not been cancelled out despite the interference.
"Silver! Look out!" Sonic yelled, attempting to fly into the scene, only to be stopped by Shadow.
When the laser finally dissipated, Silver was revealed to have blocked himself with the rocks he had summoned, showing no obvious signs of damage.
"The hell?" Sonic asked, before quickly noticing an incoming claw-swipe and flying out of the way.
He retaliated by ramming his foot into another of Dark Gaia's eyes, with Shadow taking out two others. Silver rushed in while the beast was stunned, and began pummeling him with a series of punches and kicks, with a final blow that sent him falling backwards. He got back up, swaying back and forth due to having the wind knocked out of him, and covered in countless bruises and bloodstains.
"Now, Sonic." Silver said, prompting him to make eye-contact, "FINISH HIM!" He brought his stony hands up to his mouth in a tubular formation as he said this.
Sonic nodded.
"You heard him, Shadow!" He said, "Ready to do that thing we did back in the old days?"
"You don't even need to ask!" Shadow replied, flying closer to his former rival.
The two powered-up hedgehogs interlocked their hands and pressed the flats of their shoes together, before spinning rapidly until they became a large golden ball of energy. The projectile rammed straight through Perfect Dark Gaia's remaining eye, effectively finishing him off. The two hedgehogs ended the attack and flew back onto Silver's shoulders, powering down in the process. The trio watched with satisfaction as Dark Gaia (in the midst of leaking much blood and letting loose an ear-splitting roar in agony) slowly sank into the lava below him.
"Whew!" Sonic gasped, "I'm surprised I didn't pass out from exhaustion this time!"
"Forget that! What about Silver's little act of treason right before the final blow?" Shadow asked, glaring at Silver's exposed face.
Silver could only muster a sheepish grin as his cheeks flushed a crimson hue.
"In any case!" Sonic interrupted, "How do we get out of here?"
"Hmm." Silver thought aloud, "This time, there doesn't seem to be a mechanism that would automatically send us on our way, or a blatantly obvious pathway to the next fight. Maybe we have to wait for another foe to show up before we can progress?"
"Great. Just fucking great." Shadow said sarcastically, as he kicked a small stone off of silver's shoulder.
It bounced off the wall and ceiling of the dome, and landed inside a crack in a faraway rock platform. An unknown mechanism inside this crack caused the lava below to turn into harmless water. A twenty-inch drift of heavy snow fell from seemingly nowhere above the heroes' heads, and formed some ground below as well. The rocky walls of the planet's core were then replaced with a large, ring-shaped iceberg, and the ceiling became an aurora-filled night sky. Suddenly, all the rocks within the dome (including the ones that were coating Silver's body) turned into small glaciers and fell down towards the bottom, leading the heroes to all fall down into the snow, only to immediately get back up.
"Welp. At least it wasn't a metal floor, like the one in Final Rush." Shadow said, shaking some snow out of his fur, "Get knocked onto that floor too hard, and you're in for one hell of a concussion."
"Holy shit!" Blaze exclaimed, "I've never seen a trick-shot like that before!"
"GRRR!" Eggman growled, "This is unfair! They were supposed to find a hidden tunnel below the magma, and go through an obstacle course with a pathway for each of them!"
"Then they would need to either die trying to complete it, or find a switch at the end, which would split that rock open and change the environment that way!" Eggman Nega added.
"Gee, what are the odds that your trap would backfire?" Amy replied sarcastically.
"Just like this entire scheme, might I add?" Rouge added.
"Oh! Those hedgehogs may have had some luck on their side, but we've got some luck here too!" Eggman replied, "Lady luck!"
"Okay, we get it. We're your prisoners." Amy replied with an eye-roll, "And I think the readers get it too."
Back in the frosty cavern, the trio was still pondering how to escape their current predicament. Sonic looked out across the icy lake and noticed an iceberg much taller than the others in the area.
"That gives me an idea!" He exclaimed, "Guys. Maybe we can head over there and see if we can spot anything of interest from the top."
"Great, but...how can we even make it across the lake?" Silver asked, "I mean, if you try to boost across that water, your shoes might freeze, and I sure can't get across."
"Why's that?" Shadow asked.
"Well, I kinda' exhausted my psychic powers during those last two fights, and they need to recharge." Silver replied.
"That's what'cha get for dragging all those rocks with you." Shadow jeered.
"Dude, there was literally no other way we could've taken those two brutes on!" Silver barked back.
"Let's stay on topic please!" Sonic interrupted.
"Well anywho, I didn't exhaust my powers during that fight as much as he did, but using Chaos Control to cross the water might drain them completely." Shadow said, "I guess the only way to reach that iceberg now would be to swim...if we could do that."
"That's it!" Sonic exclaimed, "I actually got over my hydrophobia somewhat recently! Maybe I can get across!"
Receiving nothing but a pair of shrugs in response, Sonic proceeded to reveal the Gaia Bracelet from beneath the cuff of his left glove, and rub the green gem on it for a few seconds, transforming into the Werehog once again. He cannonballed into the water and proceeded to breast-stroke across the lake, his extra fur allowing him to maintain his body heat, and his extra muscle allowing him to swim faster. Before he was even a tenth of the way across the lake however, he began to sink and found it exceedingly difficult to stay afloat. He suddenly plunged below the water's surface and sank like a rock.
"SONIC!" Silver and Shadow called out in unison.
Underwater, Sonic stayed calm and activated his Elemental Shield Generator, causing a bubble-like shield to envelop him.
"Heh, good thing this gadget is waterproof! Who the fuck knows where I'd be if it wasn't?" He said, "On another note, I guess this transformation gives me too much extra weight! Then again, I can walk on the bottom of water, and that's cool!"
Sonic proceeded to run along the icy lake-bed as fast as his transformed legs could carry him, being completely impervious to drowning due to his Aqua Shield.
"Wait! Walking on the bottom of water?! Man, those fans were right! I am turning into Mario!" He exclaimed a few minutes later.
When he thought that he'd made it across, Sonic proceeded to jump upwards as high as he could with the extra fur and muscle weighing him down, and use the Aqua Shield's bouncing ability to eventually reach the surface of the water. He managed to grab a ledge and climbed onto it, deactivating his shield again once he was safe. Looking up, Sonic could tell that he had found the right place, so he looked around for the ledge that his comrades were on, and waved for them.
"I'M OKAY! I'M GONNA CLIMB TO THE TOP AND SEE IF I CAN FIND A WAY OUT!" He shouted across the lake.
Silver and Shadow nodded.
With the help of his spiked shoes and razor-sharp claws, Sonic had no trouble climbing the slippery iceberg. Standing on top, he let out a triumphant howl that shook the cave and sent several humungous icicles tumbling down towards the water, creating a set of platforms that could allow Silver and Shadow to cross it. However, he also caused a large snow-drift to fall on top of his comrades.
"HEY! WATCH WHERE YOU'RE SHOUTING! YOU NEARLY KILLED US!" Silver yelled across the lake.
"SORRY!" Sonic yelled back, before proceeding to look around for an exit.
He noticed an ominous cave along the wall of the dome covered in a thick yet translucent ice sheet. Promptly, he extended his arm all the way across the gap and pulled himself towards it. Now Sonic was on a fairly wide ledge along the icy wall, appearing to wrap around the entirety of the dome. He curled his hand into a fist and prepared to shatter the ice, but soon noticed an X-shaped incision in the ice he was standing on.
"Hmmm." Sonic uttered as he started inspecting it, only to suddenly feel the ground shaking.
Just as he swiveled his head around to see the source of the sound, he was caught off guard as a large blue robot with a complex design burst through the wall that was blocking the cave's entrance.
"What?! You again?!" He asked, before quickly ducking beneath a strong punch and using his stretchy arms to grab Metal Madness' arm and swing around behind him, "Hah! I should've known you'd be back, Metal Sonic! You just don't know when to quit, do ya'?!"
"J-Just what the hell is that thing?!" Silver gasped.
"It's Metal Madness; the second-strongest form of Metal Sonic." Shadow replied, "Why they chose to sic this form on us, and not Metal Overlord is beyond me."
"You're being awfully calm about this, Shadow." Silver said, "We'd better go help him out!"
The two hedgehogs proceeded to cross the icy bridge that Sonic had created, but one of the frozen platforms suddenly broke beneath their feet, with Shadow barely landing on the next one, and Silver needing to catch himself in midair to avoid a frigid fate.
"Whoa! Your hover shoes are melting the ice!" Silver said.
"Yeah, well we've got no other choice. Let's go!" Shadow nonchalantly replied, continuing to skate to the iceberg that Sonic had scaled.
Realizing the urgency of the situation, Silver chose not to argue further and continued running, managing to keep up with Shadow and touch all of the ice platforms just before they vanished completely. Once they were on the other side, the two started to frantically scramble up the iceberg, but had much trouble.
Meanwhile, Sonic was still fighting off Metal Madness. He dodged an incoming laser blast that burned a second hole into the ice wall, and punched him in the face, causing him to slide back on his feet a bit. He attempted to follow up by running towards the colossal mech and winding up another punch, but was knocked off guard with a tail-swipe, sending him sliding along the ledge and almost falling off, before he managed to grip it with his claws. Another two lasers were aimed right at the incapacitated Sonic, but were barely dodged.
"Dammit! If this guy keeps up, he'll destroy the ledge!" Sonic groaned, proceeding to swing forward and back on the ledge, and using his momentum to climb back up, nailing Metal Madness in the torso with his spiked shoes.
Back on his feet, the hedgehog looked around, and noticed another long ledge along the dome wall, this one possessing an odd lever on it. Before he could make a beeline for it though, Sonic had to bend over backwards in order to dodge an incoming kick, and counterattack with a rapid series of cartwheels. In the midst of his attack though, he was grabbed by Metal Madness' hand and thrown hard at the ice wall, causing cracks to form from the impact. Sonic climbed out of the newly-formed hole unscathed, and punched his oppressor in the face with both fists at once. By the time they both got back on their feet, the robot was covered in scratches and dents, some with sparks occasionally flying from them.
"You might as well give up, already." Sonic said, checking his claws in a vain manner, "We haven't even fought for five minutes, and you look so battered up already! Face it, you're better off fleeing with your metallic tail between your legs!"
By this time, Silver and Shadow had finally managed to reach the top of the iceberg after lots of excruciating struggles.
"Man, that was exhausting." Shadow said, panting.
"Oh, please! You just climbed an iceberg without gear! The physical toll from that shouldn't mean shit for the Ultimate...!" Silver countered, (also panting) only to be cut off.
"Silver, please don't set him off! Especially not in the middle of a mission!" Sonic called from across the gap.
"My bad." Silver replied, receiving an uncomfortable glare from Shadow, "Well regardless, we're just gonna sit this one out! You look like you've got things under control!"
"No problem!" Sonic replied, before seeing that Metal Madness was charging up another attack.
While he did this, two missiles were fired from his hands, one of which had a claw on it. The clawed one latched onto Sonic's arm, creating a small cut, but was promptly pulled off and tossed back at its creator, only to explode on his form with no effect. The second missile was apparently a homing missile, as it repeatedly pursued Sonic upon being dodged. Sonic managed to duck into the hole he had been knocked into previously, and the missile detonated just outside it. The coast being clear, he jumped back out, only to find that the ground was cracking and falling apart at a fast rate. He looked up and noticed that the weapon that Metal Madness was using was his flame-thrower, which he was letting loose.
Desperate, Sonic looked around quickly, before noticing a long and thick icicle sticking sideways off the wall of the dome. He grappled onto it with his stretchy arm, and pulled himself away, just as the part of the platform he was just on was melted completely. When the smoke subsided, Metal Madness looked around for his foe, unaware that he had escaped.
"Hey!" Sonic called out, attracting his foe's attention in the process, "If you're looking for me, I'm over here, you oversized panini-press!"
"Really, what is it with people referring to evil robots as overgrown kitchen appliances?" Cubot asked from within the lair, "I mean, what makes him look like a panini-press in the first place?"
"Forget that, you moronic bucket of bolts!" Eggman silenced, "The real question is: how is Sonic besting him so easily? He's not in his super form, and he doesn't even have his friends backing him up!"
"And people seriously claim that this guy's an evil 'genius'?" Amy whispered to her fellow prisoners, "Hello! He transformed into a mini-sasquatch, which made him stronger, you dumbass! It really doesn't take a genius to figure that one out!"
"ROASTED!" Eggman Nega shouted, only to get kicked hard in the groin as punishment, "But seriously, it's not the transformation that's helping him. Since we couldn't access the power-sources that these bosses originally ran on, we had to use standard electricity to replicate them. Not to mention that in general, holograms are neveras strong as the things they're projecting."
Without hesitation, Metal Madness jumped across the large gap onto the platform that Sonic was on, (with the platform he was previously on crumbling completely) causing it to crack slightly. He attempted to hit him with a downward punch, but his attack was dodged. Out of the way, Sonic proceeded to run over towards the lever at the other end of the platform as fast as he could in his Werehog form, but found that the middle portion of the ledge was thinner and more fragile than the ends. He stopped running due to this, leaving himself open to a tail-swipe from Metal Madness, which knocked him down again. With the ice shattering beneath him, Sonic quickly transformed back to his normal self, thus making himself lighter, and experienced much trouble getting back to his feet. Barely managing to avoid falling through the platform, he continued fleeing his foe until he got close to the lever. He attempted to brake in order to be able to grab it, but the slippery ice had significantly lowered his traction. He managed to grab the lever, but the extra momentum he possessed caused him to slide right past it and careen off the ledge, breaking the lever off in the process. Metal Madness stopped just at the end of the platform, the bridge between its ends completely gone. Due to the lever having been pulled, a massive avalanche occurred, beginning several fairly large icicles falling from the ceiling, damaging his robotic body even more. A massive snow-drift soon followed, and the weight it put on the platform caused it to break beneath his feet. Metal Madness ended up falling down into the frigid waters, short-circuiting instantly, followed by a flash of light, revealing him to have reverted back to standard Metal Sonic. After struggling at the surface for a bit more, he sank down to his defeat due to the water having shut off and frozen his circuits.
"Nice one, Sonic!" Silver called, now back on the ground "...Sonic?"
Unbeknownst to his comrades, Sonic was still falling down towards the water, where he would meet a similar fate to his adversary. Silver caught him with his telekinesis just inches above the water's surface and reeled him in.
"You okay?" Shadow asked.
"Just peachy." Sonic replied, dusting himself off, "But I did find the exit though. Hold on!"
After transforming into his Werehog form yet again, Sonic used one arm to tie Shadow and Silver up, and the other to grapple onto the ledge that had the cave on it. He then transformed back to normal and the trio entered it.