Author's notes: Nothing new.
CHAPTER 47
Angel Island, ten minutes later...
A sonic boom is heard as Frenzy's Tornado appears over the island, stops on a dime, and begins a vertical landing on one of the island's more open plains. After it lands, Frenzy removes the oxygen mask and helmet and fixes his hair due to helmet hair. As he gets ready, he hears a rapid heartbeat behnd him and he looks and sees Tails, with his robotic nature exposed and he can see the biomechanical heart behind the reinforced metallic ribcage. He also notes Tails' metal claws are digging into the armrests on the seat.
"Hey, you okay?" asks Frenzy, a bit worried.
Tails' sapphire optics blink before looking at Frenzy.
"I think my lungs have collapsed. I'm not getting any oxygen." wheezed the metal fox through the oxygen mask.
"Um...try breathing..."
Tails inhales deeply before coughing as he forgot to breath. He tries to reach up and remove the oxygen mask but find his claws stuck to the armrests.
"Um...I'm stuck..." said Tails as he tries to get his claws unstuck.
"Hold on. I'll get the crowbar." said Frenzy as he began digging through a side compartment.
"This has happened before?"
"Oh yeah. Our world's Bunnie's robotic hand got stuck. Granted, her robotic hand doesn't end in claws but when it latches onto something hard enough in subconscious fear, it doesn't want to let go."
After a bit, the black-furred fox finds the crowbar and works on getting it behind the claws on one hand. He tries to get them to budge but they refuse to budge.
"Okay, gonna have to get some more leverage." muttered Frenzy as he opened the cockpit. TD slides off the glass onto the floor.
"I don't want to go to school mommy." mumbled TD as he hit the floor, his eyes having a spiral design within them.
"Well, at least he's alright." said Frenzy before he had his robotic tails come out and uses them to get some more leverage with the crowbar. Metal creaking is heard as the metal claws finally let go of the armrest. Frenzy then works on getting it behind the other hand as Tails works on trying to get the hand free as well with the one freed hand. After a bit, the hand comes free and Tails tests both hands.
"Okay, no damage. Sorry about that." said Tails as he removed the oxygen mask and helmet.
"Eh, don't worry about it. I guess I should have gone a bit slower with the new passengers." said Frenzy chuckling as he put the crowbar away.
"Hey, should we have tied Shard down?" said TD as he climbed out of the cockpit and hung over the side.
"Oh shit. I forgot about that. He lacked magnetic feet, didn't he?" said Frenzy as he looked at the two who nod slowly.
The three climb out and Frenzy opens the side door that leads to the back and the three climb in and see the three trapped in the back wall of the aircraft.
"Has the ride stopped?" asked the three with worried voices.
"Yeah. Guess I'm getting the crowbar again." said Frenzy as he went back to the front of the aircraft.
"You okay Shard?" asked Tails as he began having his skin and fur regrow.
"Negative. If I had a heartbeat, it would be fluctuating rapidly right now." replied Neo-Shard.
"Welcome to how we feel about flying in this thing." came Slothic's muffled voice behind Neo-Shard.
"Why do you suffer this?"
"Kid worked hard on this thing. Besides, fastest escape craft we've got."
"Escape craft?" said Tails, a bit shocked.
"We only fight Metallix Neo when we need to. Otherwise, we run." said Ravager as he tried to pull one of his arms out of the dent impression but failed due to how deep he was buried in the metal.
"He's that bad?"
"From the memories I saw, first encounter saw him kill everyone faster than anyone could react." said TD as he sat down nearby.
"And he hasn't killed everyone a second time?" asked Tails.
"We have small teams fighting his forces now, not a huge army. Plus, elemental energy brings those he kills back but we generally have other teams go for escape tactics. It's a complicated mess." said Slothic, voice still muffled.
Tails leans against a wall, thinking heavily as he wonders how even Neo-Shard could fight this Metallix Neo.
"Okay, I got the crowbar." said Frenzy as he walked back in with the crowbar and wedged it under one of Neo-Shard's arms and began working on dislodging the metal Sonic from the wall.
Outside, the group are unaware of a corrupted Flicky watching the aircraft.
Snively's base...
Mephiles' eyes open as he walks into the room housing Sonic and the control device enabling him to control Sonic, where Snively is ensuring that it remains operational.
"We have a problem." said Mephiles.
"Now what?" muttered Snively in annoyance as he turned away from the control panel.
"A strike team has landed on Angel Island."
"They must be going after the Master Emerald. Do you think Knuckles can keep them away from it?"
"No. I heard the voice of another Knuckles coming from that aircraft's cargo bay that they arrived on the island on."
"Another Knuckles? Must be another alternate. Very well. Shall we dispatch Mecha Sally or Infinite to deal with them?"
At that moment, a black ring portal opens and a Metal Sonic walks out of it and into the room. Mecha-Sally and Infinite get defensive as the Metal Sonic looks around the room. The portal closes behind it.
The Metal Sonic lacks any paint, as if it had been deployed before any paint could be added and it is covered in years worth of minor battle damage as well as several upgrades that are not normal on a Metal Sonic. It spots Snively and advances towards him slowly. Infinite gets ready to attack but Snively motions to stand down. The Metal Sonic is soon standing in front of Snively and does a half bow while maintaining eye contact.
"Metal Sonic unit, Metallix N3-0, reporting. Requesting update and mission from surviving Robotnik Empire member." said the Metal Sonic in a voice that lacks any sort of emotion, even Sonic mimicked emotion.
Snively looks at Mephiles and the corrupted sun god nods silently. Snively looks back at the Metal Sonic.
"Metal Sonic Metallix N3-0, your mission is to stop a Freedom Fighter strike team from getting the Master Emerald. Do not destroy the Master Emerald though nor its guardian. Ensure they do not get the Emerald though, as well as ensuring they cannot free the guardian from our control." said Snively in a commanding tone.
"Mission accepted. Target ID required." said Metallix Neo.
A drone flies over and hands Snively several pictures and he holds them out for Metallix Neo to see. The Metal Sonic scans over the six pictures, looking at the pictures of Slothic, Frenzy and Ravager the longest.
"Stop them. Under any means. Understood?"
Affirmative!"
The Metal Sonic is gone with speed on par with Infinite's.
"Well, that should take care of that problem." said Snively as he went back to the control panel.
Back on Angel Island...
Neo-Shard, Slothic and Ravager step out onto the grassy terrain of the island. The three look around at the jungle before them, noticing a lack of any sounds from nature beyond wind.
"Something's wrong..." said Slothic as he eyed the jungle skeptically while Ravager kneeled down and put one of his palms on the ground and closed his eyes.
"The island's afraid. Slothic's right. Something is wrong." said Ravager after a moment and standing back up.
"Heads up! We have hostiles closing in fast! Infinite levels of fast! Three...no two...no, one mile out already!" said Neo-Shard as he turned towards the threat rapidly closing in.
"How many?" asked Frenzy as he readied his wrist blasters.
"I am detecting only one. A Metal Sonic."
"Wait! Did you say a Metal Sonic?!" asked Slothic, Frenzy and Ravager at once and with worry in their voices but before the black and yellow Metal Sonic could respond, a colorless Metal Sonic smashed into him and as it sped by the five, it locked eyes with Slothic, or eye, before it flew into the jungle with Neo-Shard, dragging the Metal Sonic through grass, rocks and trees. Despite being caught off guard, Neo-Shard quickly recovers and despite being dragged through so much, quickly reaches up and grabs Metallix Neo by the face and quickly spins so that it is now Metallix Neo being dragged through the grass, rocks and trees of the island.
"That's not good!" said Frenzy as he looked down the path of destruction the two Metal Sonics had disappeared through.
"We need to secure the Master Emerald!" said Tails as he took off towards the center of the island, followed quickly by TD. The other three look at each other before following the two.
END CHAPTER
Sorry this chapter is a little shorter than usual lately.
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