Chapter 64: The Grand Finale - Part 1:
I'm Silver the Hedgehog! The hero of the future, today!
Phew! Hopefully, that was the last enemy we have to fight before
we finally reach the doctors and rescue the girls! I mean, it's not that
I can't fight or anything, but y'know, it's ALWAYS nice to take a short
break from the action once in a while! Plus, even though I have my
psychic heal, not even THAT can get rid of exhaustion! Ah well,
regardless of such, I'm still gonna persevere, and I sure as hell
won't give up, no matter how bleak the outcome looks to be!
Well into the cave, Sonic, Silver, and Shadow continued walking. The opening to the icy dome that they had just been in was several kilometers behind them and no longer in sight. The trio's surroundings were completely dark and the only sounds in the vicinity were their echoing footsteps.
"I swear, every now and then, I expect another enemy to pop up and surprise us." Sonic said calmly.
"Don't worry." Silver replied, "I don't get surprised. And so far, I'm not detecting anything, so we're good."
"Hmmm, I guess having psychic powers would do that to you." Sonic replied.
"Hah! Bullshit!" Shadow interrupted, "If you don't get surprised, then what was the deal with your reactions to some of the previous enemies we faced?"
"Oh, I knew those guys were coming! I just didn't know who they were." Silver replied.
Suddenly, several pairs of small lights lit up along the cave floor, leading to a spotlight at what appeared to be the end of the passage. Without a word, the three hedgehogs sped up towards it. At the end, a large red button could be seen on top of a thin pedestal in the center of the spotlit area. After briefly scanning the area, Sonic readied his finger to press the button.
"Well, there doesn't seem to be anything telling me otherwise, so..." He said.
"Don't touch it!" Shadow shouted, making Sonic twitch in shock, withdrawing his finger in the process, "Don't you remember what happened the last time a big red button was pressed?"
"Oh, get real, Shadow! It's just a spin-off franchise!" Sonic replied.
"...Which also contains the worst portrayal of me I've ever seen, and is the reason why so much of your precious fanbase has turned their backs on you!" Shadow continued.
"Damn it! Can't we talk about this later?! We have some fatasses to kill!" Sonic dismissed, pressing the button, "...And I'll have you know that I actually like the show! It's only the prequel game that's subpar!"
Shadow rolled his eyes in response. Suddenly, a voice from some invisible loudspeakers began to speak, echoing throughout the dark passage. The three heroes recognized it as Dr. Eggman's voice.
"Congratulations! You have overcome the many trials of...The Retro Simulator! Now, sit back and relax as you enjoy your reward!" The speaker said.
"Nice try, Eggman! You're not fooling...!" Sonic replied, only to cut himself off as he saw a set of three soft armchairs and a large table rising from round slots in the ground.
The chairs were arranged in a circle around the table, which in of itself was crammed with a variety of refreshments, including shrimp cocktail, finger-sandwiches, baked brie, steam buns, buffalo wings, fried calamari, Mexican bean-dip, crab cakes, a chocolate fountain, and a large alcoholic punch bowl in the center. Following this, a large movie-screen lowered from the ceiling at the end of the room.
"Okay then." Sonic finished, as he and his partners sat down and began to eat, "I'd be lying if I said I wasn't getting a little hungry during all that combat!"
"I'll say!" Silver agreed, tossing an entire third of the baked brie into his mouth and chewing it quickly.
"I always knew that Eggman was an evil prick who's more annoying than even the Sonic fanbase, but I never knew he was such a good cook!" Shadow said, dunking a finger-sandwich into his cup of punch, downing it in a single bite, and licking his fingers in rapid succession, "I know most people don't expect me of all hedgehogs to give such praise, but this shit deserves way more than five stars!"
"Just one problem though: no chili dogs." Sonic added, receiving eye-rolls from both of his friends.
"Okay, so what's this about?" Rouge asked, immobilized on top of one of the king-sized beds.
"Well, since that trio of meddlers found a shortcut through my Retro Simulator..." Eggman replied, only to be cut off.
"You mean 'our' retro sim- AUGH!" Eggman Nega interrupted, only to be kicked hard in the stomach.
"As I was saying, since they found that shortcut, they completed the trials sooner than I thought, and thus would have appeared an hour early. So I decided I'd give them a little reward for their heroic efforts before their ride ends. Besides, it's always nice to have a good time before you get annihilated." Eggman continued.
"You do realize you just contradicted the entire reason why you instigated this whole scheme in the first place, right?" Blaze asked, "Y'know, with the whole 'destroy Sonic while he's in a negative emotional state' shtick?"
"Tell me about it! I can hear FanFicSins bitching about it already!" Amy added, immobilized on the bed right next to Blaze's.
Eggman gave a facepalm at his own mishap, prompting a giggle from all three girls and even Orbot, Cubot, Tribot, and Hexbot.
A good hour later, the Sonic OVA was airing on the movie-screen inside the rocket ship that Sonic and co. were in. The punch bowl was empty save for some particularly large chunks of fruit, the chocolate fountain had been shut off and licked perfectly clean, and almost all of the other refreshments had been completely polished off. The only remaining morsel was a lone crab cake, still sitting on top of its platter, which was being gripped in the hands of Silver and Shadow as they tug-of-warred over it, exchanging harsh glares and quiet growls. Ignoring the minor commotion, Sonic was sitting his seat, completely mesmerized by the film.
"You might know everything I'm going to do, but that's not going to help you, since I know every-!" The on-screen Sonic said as he glared at Metal Sonic, before the movie was shut off.
"NOOO!" The real Sonic yelled, "It's was just getting good!"
"What the hell are you talking about? You've seen that countless times already!" Silver replied, as Shadow snatched up the last crab cake for himself while his guard was down and popped it into his mouth, "Damn it!"
Without warning, the movie screen returned to its slot in the ceiling of the room, and the hedgehogs all felt a sensation that told them that their rocket was landing. Upon landing, the rounded dome split open, revealing nothing but the vast reaches of space. The trio hopped out of their ride and landed on an asteroid which was part of a huge belt that the rocket had landed on. The lack of gravity and oxygen had no effect on them whatsoever.
"Sooo...what next?" Shadow asked.
"Beats me." Sonic replied.
"I can tell you what's next." Silver said, his eyes tightly shut and his index and middle fingers pressed against his temples, "Something big is headed our way, and judging by the psychic waves it's giving off, we're most likely gonna fight it."
Once again, Silver's prediction was correct, for within another minute, a massive, spherical, metallic space-station flew into view, close enough that the trio could just barely make out its occupants.
"Well, well, well! If it isn't those inquisitive rodents! You know, the ones who cheated their way through my Retro Simulator, and not only wasted me a boatload of cash, but also prevented what could have been a good ten more chapters!" Dr. Eggman called, his voice being projected to the trio via an intercom.
"Save the editorials for later, asshole!" Sonic called back, "Now if you two are interested in keeping your worthless lives, then you'd be more than wise to hand over Amy nice and easy!"
"What? What happened to those graphic death threats from earlier?" Eggman Nega asked, "First you said you were going to brutally kill us, and now you're willing to let us go?"
"It's just the delicious meal getting to him." Eggman whispered into his partner's ear.
"We can hear you, y'know!" Shadow called.
"Regardless, I'm afraid I won't be handing over these fine women...er, I mean animals unless you agree to one condition!" Eggman continued.
"Yeah? And what's that?" Silver inquired.
"You three must promise to let us take over this world, and not interfere with our plans whatsoever!" Eggman Nega replied, "And as a bonus, we won't lay a finger on anyone you hold dear!"
The three hedgehogs were silent, taking in what had just been told to them.
"Well? We don't have all day! The choice is yours!" Eggman called.
"Let you conquer the world that I put in countless years and effort into protecting?! No way in hell! You must be out of your fucking minds!" Sonic replied, "If we can't get them back, then we'll just beat them out of you!"
All three hedgehogs got into a fighting stance after he said this.
"Well fortunately, we had just the plan for this sort of situation! Now, hedgehogs! Prepare to bear witness to my greatest..." Eggman started, only to receive an uncomfortable glare from Eggman Nega, "Fine! Our most brilliant invention yet! Let your eyes devour it, and let it nourish your goody-two-shoes hero-minds!"
"You could've just said 'feast your eyes'." Sonic said, clearly unamused.
"Yeah, well this way sounds more menacing!" Eggman replied, before pressing yet another button on the control panel.
A large antenna appeared on top of the spherical fortress, and immediately sent out a large neon-yellow ring of energy. Within another thirty seconds, several large robots had flown towards the location of the lair and were hovering around it. This group consisted of the Sonic 3 version of Metal Robotnik, the Egg Viper, the Egg Emperor, the Egg Dealer, the Egg Dragoon, and the Nega-Wisp Armor. The three hedgehogs watched quietly as they saw what was happening. All six robots were suddenly enveloped in a neon-yellow aura, as was the fortress itself, and were drawn into Eggman's base, resulting in a blinding flash of light that took a good two minutes before it died down.
"W-WH-WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK IS THIS SHIT?!" Shadow shouted, a remark of that kind incredibly rare for him to make.
"Lemme guess: another Death Egg? Like maybe 'Mk. IV' or something?" Sonic asked, trying to stay calm, but still intimidated nonetheless.
"W-What?! Ha ha! N-N-NO! What the hell would give you that idea?!" Eggman asked, a hand behind his head, "Anyways, don't think you're gonna fuck up this evil scheme! Nyahahahaha!"
The heroes all took a second to look at what had just occurred. The fusion of all six mechs with the space station had formed a massive robot roughly the same size as the planet Mobius itself, and capable of crushing the very asteroid that they were standing on. It had a round central body shaped like the original fortress, but was now colored in the likeness of Eggman's face, though with half of his mustache being gray and one lens of his glasses possessing no top-half, in order to reference Eggman Nega. The backside was adorned with a large pair of robotic wings, allowing the mech to fly and hover, and the Egg Viper's tail. Sprouting out from its central body were eight gigantic arms. Two of which belonged to the Nega-Wisp Armor, one was the Egg Dragoon's blaster, one was the Egg Dragoon's drill, one was the Egg Emperor's lance, one was the Egg Emperor's shield (now with the slot-machine from the Egg Dealer built into it, which determined what attack would be used), and the remaining two were the arms of Metal Robotnik. The entire mech was controlled by the two doctors, each wearing a specialized glove and boot (each was attached to the control panel in the bedroom via several wires) that seemingly gave each of them manual control over one side of the robot.
"Uh, Sonic?" Silver asked, "I know we were inevitably going to face them in some epic finale, but...how are we gonna stand a chance against this damn thing?!"
"I guess it's time to power up!" Sonic replied, "...Like I do at the end of literally all my adventures!"