Chapter 68: The Grand Finale - Part 5:
Back on Mobius, all of Sonic's friends were still on Emerald Coast, sitting anxiously in the circle of beach-chairs with the Master Emerald in the middle. Though it was well past dusk, the group was allowed to stay as long as they wanted due to their celebrity-status. Despite the beautiful, clear, starry skies, and the peaceful waves, nobody was paying attention, instead leaning forward with their eyes glued to the glowing emerald, watching the scene between Sonic and Hyper Eggman, which ended in the former's apparent defeat.
"No...NO...NOOO!" Knuckles roared, a combination of heartbroken despair and hot rage in his voice, his fists and teeth clenched and his eyes trembling as he fought to hold back tears.
"I-I can't believe...it-it's c-come to this!" Amy moaned, before breaking out into a sob as she cried hard into Cream's shoulder.
"Dada?" Sonic Jr. asked in a shaky voice.
"SONIC!" Tails moaned, showing no restraint whatsoever as he expressed his emotions, "WHY?! WHY'D YOU DO IT?! WHY ARE YOU ALWAYS SO FUCKING HEADSTRONG?! YOU COULD'VE EASILY...gotten...out of there..."
Tails cut himself off as he proceeded to sob as well, while Blaze and Rouge cried much more quietly, making sure to wipe and dab their eyes and noses unlike everyone else, and only letting out the occasional sniffle. Shadow, being the most stoic member of the household, did not show any visual evidence of his grief, save for hanging his head downwards and shutting his eyes loosely. Silver behaved in a similar manner, but one could tell that his composure was a little less stable, as his face twitched occasionally.
"Well, I guess that's that." Rouge said somberly, "Sonic's suffered his first loss."
"Not counting that one Extreme Gear tournament, yes." Blaze added with a sniffle, "Kind of a shame that this loss not only applied to the battle, but also to his life."
"Yeah, a real shame." Tails groaned, blowing his nose hard before he clasped his hands together in front of his face, "Don't worry, Sonic. You will never be forgotten. Your legacy will live on. I'll ensure it."
"I'm sure he would've been very proud of that, Tails." Cream replied mid-sob, gently stroking Amy as she continued to cry into her shoulder.
Tails sniffled a little more before speaking up again.
"The thing is though, how am I gonna stand a chance against Eggman now that he's like that? It can only be a matter of time before he makes his way back down here and starts wreaking havoc." He said.
"Don't sweat it, Tails. It takes more than brains or power to win a fight. A big part of any man's strength comes from his allies." Silver replied, "But let's not think about that right now. We're clearly too shook up by this tragedy to fight anytime soon, so until that time comes, we should just take as much time as we need to grieve."
For a great length of time after that comment was made, everyone remained silent, paying no mind to the fact that the Master Emerald was glowing brighter than it had been seconds ago, nor to the deranged laughter that Eggman was letting out.
Back in space, the powered-up doctor was still standing on Planet Wisp, high up on the massive plateau that he had just fought Sonic on top of. He continued to stare off in the direction where he had chucked his adversary, still trying to take in the fact that he had managed to defeat him.
"I-I can't believe it!" He said excitedly, "After all these years, I've finally won! Maybe once I conquer the world below, I'll break into a brewery and celebrate! This new body can probably handle more than twice the alcohol that I could drink before! Heh heh heh!"
His musings were interrupted as he noticed a small but unmistakable purple twinkle off in the distance.
What was THAT? He thought to himself, before he was suddenly caught off guard.
Though it was much too fast to make out, a purple being surrounded by a flaming, orange aura rammed its foot right into Hyper Eggman's face, squashing it in a significant distance and disintegrating his mustache, all the while knocking every single fang-like tooth in his mouth loose. The force of the kick sent him spiraling all the way around the axis of Planet Wisp, though he was stopped after the being held out his foot and tripped him, causing him to land hard on his back in the exact same spot he had just been in. He slowly got up onto his hands and knees, coughing hard and choking as he spat all of his teeth one-by-one out of his mouth, coughing up some blood as well, given how they had scratched up his throat. When he was finally done, he jumped in shock at the sight of his attacker slowly landing on his feet just a few meters away from him. The being in question resembled Sonic in overall shape, but with midnight-purple fur, pale white skin on his muzzle and chest, much longer quills, no garments save for a golden gauntlet on each wrist and ankle, and a complete lack of irises, pupils, or a mouth. He also had some lavender-colored stripes around his lower arms and feet, and two extra-long ones running along his top quill and down his face. His leg was still considerably swollen from where he had been bitten, but he appeared to be completely unaffected by this. This was none other than Darkspine Sonic, a transformation that he could only undergo by taking on the emotions of rage, hatred, and sadness. The doctor did a double-take at the sight of this.
"S-Sonic? Is that...you?" He asked uncertainly.
"You could say that." Darkspine Sonic replied, a gruff and sinister tone to his voice, "Honestly, I find it pretty hysterical how you thought I was dead!"
"Well, given the beating I dished out to you, I see no reason why I shouldn't have." Eggman replied, "But that was just pure dumb luck. Don't think a new coat of fur-dye is gonna make you stand a chance against me!"
"We'll see about that!" Sonic said, his face not changing at all.
"Rrrraaaaggggghhh-HAH!" Eggman grunted, charging towards his foe as fast as he could, attempting to nail him with a hard punch to the face.
"Time Break!" Sonic yelled in reply, holding his hands out and releasing a burst of red aura that spread out and slowed down time around the two.
He retaliated by nailing the doctor back in the stomach with a flame-accented punch, following up by ramming through him with several rapid spin-dashes, and dealing a flip-kick that sent him up into the air. Once the first hit had been landed, time sped back up again. Before Eggman could recover, Darkspine Sonic had already teleported right by him and knocked him back onto the mountaintop (causing the entire mountain to crumble to the ground upon impact) with a punch to the chest. However, due to the immense force from the hit, Eggman was sent all the way through the planet, popping out at the other side, where Sonic had already teleported. He was subsequently elbowed in the groin, leaving his face open to a roundhouse kick, which was promptly dealt to him.
"DADADADADADADADADADADADADA!" Sonic screamed as he decked his enemy in the face and torso with a barrage of punches and kicks that came out at lightning-speed, but hit like tanks.
"WAAHH! DADADADADADADADADADA! WAH-HAH!" He screamed again as he ended the combo with a strong foot-jab to the stomach, which caused Eggman to cough up a fair amount of blood as he was sent reeling upwards again.
Soon enough, Darkspine Sonic teleported right above Hyper Eggman and thrust both of his feet right into his head, squishing both it and his neck in a significant distance and consequently sending him falling back down at an alarming speed. He then knocked him back up with a somewhat weaker uppercut and sent him reeling off into the distance with a two-handed punch. While he was briefly taking his time to decide what attack to use next, Sonic soon noticed several Wisps flying up towards him, one of each color, having recognized him despite his transformation. Yacker was the one leading the pack.
"Great! I'm glad you could all make it! Now do you mind using those powers of yours?" He asked.
Yacker replied by speaking in his incoherent alien language, making gestures that Sonic interpreted as "We're on it".
"Speed Break!" Sonic yelled, flying after the incapacitated doctor at a high speed, his arms and fingers extended in front of him as he spun around rapidly in a drill-like formation, red streaks flying off of him in the process.
Not long after, all of the Wisps flew after him and entered his body to let him use their power. Within seconds, he has absorbed the powers of Boost, Spikes, Burst, Rocket, Drill, Hover, Laser, Cube, Frenzy, and Void, causing his entire body to be surrounded by a white aura as he began to rotate even faster, his entire form flashing in all of the aforementioned colors. Sonic picked up a lot more speed and finally caught up with the still-flying doctor, before hitting him in the stomach, drilling him with enough force to push him through space at light speed, while also causing a near-constant stream of blood to be forcefully regurgitated as he was being attacked.
"FINAL COLOR BLASTER!" Sonic announced as he continued the attack.
After continuing to push Eggman around for a spell, he then let him go, the momentum he still possessed causing him to continue flying through space and through countless asteroids. The doctor was sent crashing through Planet Wisp a second time, and he emerged covered in purple water and dirt. Then he was sent crashing through the Sweet Mountain, emerging with his entire form covered in cake and frosting. Following this, he crashed through the Aquarium Park, which washed all the debris off of his body, but left him with countless cuts from the shattered glass. Finally, he reached the planet where the Asteroid Coaster had been built several years ago, falling into one of its many acid-volcanoes and crashing out the other side, covered in burns and even more cuts. The force of Sonic's attack was so strong that Eggman still had plenty of momentum behind him; enough to send him all the way back around Mobius' solar-system and right back to Sonic's position. The hedgehog responded by extending his foot again, tripping the doctor as he passed by, which slowed him down tremendously. He then used the same attack he had just used to push him at high speed all the way down towards the planet below.
Speaking of Mobius, the entire population was undergoing a state of complete emotional peace and relaxation, which had thus ended all worldwide conflicts and lowered crime-rates exponentially. This was all due to the fact Sonic had siphoned every ounce of negative emotion from everyone. One middle-aged man in particular was all by himself, his small motorboat parked out in the middle of the ocean as he was dangling a fishing-rod into the deep unknown below him.
"Gee, I don't think I've ever felt this good in years!" He exclaimed with a sigh, "...Though admittedly, cheating on my wife of thirty years with the transvestite twin of my college girlfriend came pretty close! Still though, it's almost as if someone took a metaphorical vacuum and sucked all the anger, hatred and depression out of me!"
Without warning, the area around the man grew dark.
"Wait, what's that?! Did I catch something?! I'm not feeling any tugs!" He said, before noticing that the shadow was coming from above him, "OH FUCKING HELL!"
Once the massive shadow grew to its maximum size, Darkspine Sonic and Hyper Eggman crashed right through the boat, sending countless chunks of wreckage, hundreds of fish of all sizes, and thousands of gallons of water high into the air. The resulting impact also caused several tsunamis to spread out, though they managed to shrink to harmless size by the time they reached the surrounding shorelines. Once the entire ordeal had subsided, the man was revealed, dripping wet and sitting on top of the back-end of his boat.
"Well that's just great!" He groaned, before a large mahi-mahi suddenly dropped into his hands, "SCOOOOOORRRREEE!"
Once the two had penetrated the ocean's surface, Sonic did not stop his attack as both he and his opponent continued to drill down towards the bottom of the ocean, causing all sea-life around them to scatter, and destroying the ones that were too slow. Within another five minutes, they both reached the ocean floor, down in the cold, inky depths of the water. Sonic still didn't stop, however, as he drilled his way into a hydrothermal chimney (effortlessly moving against the hot, strong current coming out of it, before drilling right through the planet's core and coming back out through a volcano on a tropical island. When he felt that Eggman had received enough of a beating for now, he abruptly ended the attack and (after crashing through countless more asteroids) the doctor finally landed on the remaining half of the moon, the impact not destroying it, but causing it to shake and leaving yet another massive crater in its surface.
Sonic slowed down and landed on the moon on his feet, all ten Wisps exiting his body as he walked slowly towards the weakened Eggman, who was resting on his hands and knees, breathing heavily. Suddenly, the crazed scientist felt a strong sensation that told him that his new powers were fading away.
"WHAT?! NNNNNOOOOOOOO! NO! THIS CAN'T BE HAPPENING! I THOUGHT I WAS-!" He yelled as he examined himself, parts of his body briefly flickering back to their original form as if they were parts of a malfunctioning hologram.
"Invincible?" Sonic asked, "Well it turns out you weren't. And now I finally have you where I want you!"
With one final burst of glowing white energy, Eggman reverted to his original form, his limbs skinny and his abdominal region chubby, along with his much smaller size and normal-looking eyes. His mustache was still burnt off, his clothes were still ripped, and his skin was still completely covered in cuts, burns, bruises, and fresh blood.
"...Yeah, like I was saying." Sonic continued, walking towards the doctor at a slightly faster pace and grabbing him by his ankles, "I'd say it's been nice knowing you, but it's been anything but."
Eggman could only let out a gulp as he was spun around in circles at a constantly increasing velocity, before he was finally tossed way off into the distance. Darkspine Sonic wasted no time and teleported to his location, before hitting him with one final homing-attack.
"So long, asshat!" He yelled as he watched his defeated nemesis fly right into the sun, a tingle of satisfaction coursing through his body as he was blackened by the solar rays before finally being disintegrated by the core.
After a bit, Sonic let out a sigh of exhaustion, before noticing that his own power has fading as well, in the form of countless red, green, and blue balls of aura that shot out of him and began flying off in random directions, only to fizzle out a short time later.
"I-I've...I've...f-finally...won..." He managed to say before he passed out and fell onto a large asteroid below him, falling asleep almost instantly as he was reverted back to his original form, though now without his physical injuries, due to the power he had just taken on healing him.
From that point on, Sonic sank into a deep sleep, absolutely overcome by fatigue that stemmed from taking on so much negative emotion at once, as well as the fact that he had effectively sacrificed one year off of his lifespan in order to take on such unstable powers.
Meanwhile, back on Mobius, the household was still resting on the beach, all asleep around the Master Emerald, which had been playing the entire scene of Sonic's surprise victory, though everyone but Tails had slept through it, too tired and depressed over Sonic's supposed death to pay any attention to it. The young fox looked around; everyone else in the circle of beach-chairs was still sleeping, some snoring at various volumes and others drooling a little. The thing that everyone had in common, however, was the presence of dried tears and flushed skin on their faces.
"Well, Sonic, I dunno what to say." He whispered, "You've overcome all odds once again, but next time, please let me or any of your other allies help you. You had us all worried there, especially me. Now I suggest you let your energy return before coming back, but if you take too long up there, I'll pick you up myself. Don't worry, I've reconfigured the Tornado so it can fly in space too."
"Who are you talking to, Tails?" Knuckles asked from behind him, his voice drowsy.
"Oh, uh, Sonic." Tails replied quickly, a hint of embarrassment in his voice.
"You really miss him, don't you?" Knuckles asked, placing one of his massive hands on Tails' shoulder, one of his sharp knuckles just centimeters away from cutting his cheek.
Tails nodded.
"Yeah, well, don't be ashamed. We all do. Even Shadow. Boy has he changed so much." Knuckles replied.
"Y-Yeah." Tails replied.
Suddenly, some TV static could be seen inside the Master Emerald, before an image of Omochao holding a microphone came up.
"I didn't know the Master Emerald could tap into public broadcasts." Tails said, scratching his head in confusion.
"Yeah, cool, isn't it?" Knuckles asked, "I often use it to watch porn after you go to sleep. You can even wirelessly hook game-systems up to it."
Before Tails could respond, Omochao spoke up.
"Breaking News: a massive black-hole has appeared out of nowhere due to causes unknown as of this time." He said, "According to the most recent satellite-footage, it's set to consume all of existence in exactly one hour, so everyone, you'd best carry out your last plans now. Your last meal, your last movie, your last sex, do it all now!"
Back in space, Sonic was still snoring lightly on top of an asteroid. He suddenly cracked an eye open at the sound of what seemed to be a massive vacuum. Immediately afterwards, both of his eyes were widened as soon as he realized what was happening. Due to the Super Emeralds still being in Eggman's possession when he had died, their power had started a violent reaction to the sun's heat, and formed a massive and rapidly-expanding black-hole.
"Oh shit." Sonic cursed, quickly getting onto his feet and broke off into a run, just as the void was closing in on him.
However, he realized that he wasn't going anywhere, and every step he took was only causing the asteroid he was on to roll in place like a circus-ball. He proceeded to jump across the asteroid belt as quickly as he could, gaining a bit of distance. However, he soon came across a gap too wide for him to cross, and he survived only by grabbing onto a pair of asteroids on the other side, gripping one with each hand. As the black-hole caught up to him, Sonic suddenly found his left arm dangling loose as the asteroid it clung onto was sucked in, before quickly attaching it to the other one. However, an asteroid about twice as large as the one he still clung to rammed through it, shattering it to pieces and pushing Sonic further into the vortex.
"NNNNNOOOOOOOOO!" He yelled desperately, an arm extended in front of him as he was engulfed by the black-hole.
Back on Mobius, Tails and Knuckles were still wide-awake, staring anxiously at the Master Emerald as everyone else was slowly beginning to wake up.
"This is really bad." Tails said somberly.
"What is?" Cream asked, followed by a yawn.
"A black-hole just appeared somewhere up in space and it's primed to swallow us all whole unless something's done about it!" Knuckles replied.
"Huh?!" Silver gasped in alarm, hurrying over to the emerald to see the newsfeed for himself.
"What?!" Shadow asked, following suit.
"So this is how it ends for us, then?" Amy asked in an emotionless tone, "Oh, I really wish we could've at least gone up in space and recovered Sonic's body!"
"Well it'll take a miracle for that to work." Blaze replied, "With any luck, that black-hole has already consumed him by now."
"P-PLEASE DON'T SAY THAT!" Amy yelled back, tears welling up in her eyes due to the raw nerves that were still present after his supposed demise.
Back in space, all hope seemed to be lost for the blue blur, for his unconscious body was still lingering inside the black-hole and it was only a matter of time before it would be crushed. However, a bright streak light suddenly shot into the vortex, followed by several more, until they nearly dominated its entire form. After a few seconds, an even brighter flash of light occurred. When it died down, the black-hole was gone, revealing the universe just as it had been before it first appeared, complete with its sun, moon, and planets. The flashes of light that had neutralized it were also revealed to be countless Wisps, who had all pitched in and managed to save Sonic, in a similar manner to how they had done so on one of his previous adventures. Eggman, however, was still dead, for he had hit the sun before the black-hole appeared. The Chaos Emeralds within him had also been knocked out in the process, and were sent hurtling back towards Mobius, though nobody paid any mind to this. Without hesitation, a group of Wisps (one of each color) carried Sonic, who was still unconscious, down towards his home-planet as everyone else returned to Planet Wisp.
"WHAT'S THIS?! I DON'T BELIEVE IT!" Omochao exclaimed in shock, "Well, folks! It turns out that the apocalypse has been cancelled (or at least delayed until some billions of years into the future), and we can all live in peace once again for a while!"
"WAHOOO!" Everyone in the household cheered, watching the news report in the Master Emerald, which showed the black-hole being neutralized by a bright light.
"Well that's a relief." Rouge sighed contently.
"Tell me about it." Amy replied, "But still...that leaves the question about whether or not we can still find..."
She was cut off as a bright light appeared just to the left of the circle of beach-chairs, before dying down to reveal Yacker and a bunch of his fellow Wisps, carrying Sonic down to the ground with them. They gently set him on the sand and (after one final wave of goodbye from Yacker) flew off immediately.
"Sonic!" Amy said as she hurried over to his body, followed by her friends.
"C'mon, Sonic! Don't you dare die on me!" Knuckles grunted anxiously.
"Sonic, you can't." Tails groaned, his eyes growing shaky with tears once again.
"N-No! Sonic! Please wake up!" Amy moaned, "SONIC!"
She broke out into a sob once more as she leaned into Sonic's chest, everyone else proceeding to look down mournfully, for it appeared that the black-hole had ensured Sonic's death. Or so it seemed. Not long after she had leaned into his chest, Amy suddenly felt a pulse right against her head, followed by a large, gloved hand touching her back. She looked up to find Sonic with his eyes half-open, smiling weakly at her.
"Sonic?" She asked hesitantly
"Yeah, I'm here. What is it?" Sonic replied.
Everyone gasped, before they all let out a yell of "SONIC!".
Sonic was taken by surprise as he was pulled up onto his feet and forced to hug all of his friends more than once. After a bit, everyone got off of him to give him some breathing-room.
"Sonic, I-I..." Tails said, "I can't believe you made it through that!"
"I'm pretty sure you said that the last time I was engulfed by a black-hole, Tails." Sonic replied, "You know I would've!"
Tails shrugged.
"Yeah! Fuck you, Eggman!" Sonic Jr. suddenly exclaimed.
Amy and Sonic's jaws dropped.
"Junior! Where the fu...heck did you learn that word?!" Amy demanded, before quickly glaring at Tails and Knuckles.
"Uhhhh, don't look at me!" Tails replied quickly.
"What are you talking about?! That wasn't me!" Knuckles replied.
Without a word, Amy let out a loud battle-cry as he revealed her hammer, proceeding to chase after the two for a spell, before two audible smacks could be heard. She soon returned to Sonic's side.
"Words cannot express how grateful and proud I am of you, Sonic!" Amy said, hugging him once more as the two locked lips for a good ten seconds.
"Thanks, Amy. I appreciate it." Sonic replied, before suddenly pulling off as he felt a tingle down below, "H-Hey! My sex-drive's back! YAHOOEY!"
Everyone else but Amy adopted a grossed-out facial-expression.
"Oh my, uhm...oh yeah!" Amy said, before clearing her throat.
"Oh, right." Sonic replied, lifting his wife off the ground and holding her like a baby, "Welcome to the sandwich shop! Can I get you that six-inch topped with everything that you've been craving?"
"Hmmm, that sounds pretty nice, but actually I'm in the mood for a deep-fried twinkie!" Amy replied.
The two began walking back towards their car as they continued their discussion.
"Coming right up!" Sonic replied, "...Oh, but uh, I apologize if it hurts a little on the way down, or leaks too much when you start eating it! And sorry if you find a little bit of red food-coloring in the cream-filling! I haven't made one of these in a long time!"
Behind the couple, Knuckles (now with a comically large bump on his head) shoved the Master Emerald into his hammerspace and helped Shadow, Silver, and Blaze carry the beach-chairs, while Tails (also with a bump on his head) and Rouge carried the heavy alcohol cooler together.
"Way to make us do all the heavy-lifting, assholes!" Knuckles yelled after them in irritation, only to receive no reply of any kind.