"Ugh…" Gear slowly opened his eyes. Looking around, he was in some kind of lab, as well as noticing his limbs were restrained. Gear attempted to generate the Smack Hands, but the cuffs covering his arms and legs were preventing him from creating the build.
"Boss, he's awake." Gear heard a robotic voice.
Looking towards the source of the voice, Gear saw someone who he never wanted to see. The notorious Dr. Ivo Robotnik, aka Eggman. He has on blue glasses, goggles, red turtleneck jacket, black pants, and white gloves. Next to him were his red sphere and yellow cube robot lackeys, Orbot and Cubot. Gear tried to generate any of his builds again, but the restraints were suppressing them somehow.
Eggman chuckles at his attempt. "Try all you want. Those restraints are specifically designed to repress your nanites."
Gear growls at the mad doctor. "What do you want, Eggman?" He demanded.
The doctor's smile grew creepily large. "Straight to the point. I appreciate that. You see Gear the Dog…"
"Dire Dog." Gear interrupted.
Eggman looked at Gear confused. "Excuse me?"
"I'm a Dire Dog. My dad's a German Shepard and my mom's a Dire Wolf." Gear explained. He get's really annoyed whenever people keep mistaking him as a regular dog.
The cube and sphere robots floated closer to Gear.
"Now that ya mention it, you do look a little different than other dog mobians." Cubot said.
"I'd say. Your fangs matches that of a wolf, but your ears are pointier." Orbot analyzed.
Eggman sighs in small annoyance. "Fine, whatever. You see Gear the Dire Dog. Even since you came along and started wrecking my robots, I couldn't help but wonder how you've been creating those machines out of your body. I hacked into the G.U.N. database a few weeks ago, but there was only so much information I could get before being forced out. Only thing I found was that you have strange nanites in your body and a couple reports from Charles The Hedgehog. So then I figured I would have to take a closer look."
Gear kept glaring at the mad doctor until he realized something. "You weren't trying to capture the city, you were trying to capture me!"
"That's correct. I knew if I led an attack near a populated area, you would come along running like a certain blue nuisance. Despite loosing a good portion of my army, it was well worth it." Eggman said as the screen behind him lit up, showing the nanites in Gear's body. The Nanites on the screen appears as microscopic blue glowing machines.
"A while back, I started working on similar nanotechnology, but nothing like these. From what I could tell, these nanites serve as mechanical genetic building blocks. Capable of manipulating the DNA in a person on a cellular level. Especially this specific nanite." Eggman said as he clicked a button. The screen changed to a picture of a nanite that has a metal dark grey surface with blue glowing circuits around it.
Gear looked at the nanite surprised. He never knew he had this nanite in him. "Wha… what nanite is that?"
"So you never knew? Not really surprising considering it's been hiding among your other nanites. In truth, I only came across it by accident when I was doing an extensive molecular scan on your body. This nanite acts as a organism to machine interface, a sort of Control Nanite. Which allows you to manipulate the other nanites, generating machines from your body." Eggman explained
"So what now? You try to extract the nanites from my body?" Gear asked.
The Dire Dog knows moment Eggman even tries, he'll turn into that mechanical abomination like he did years ago. He doubts the restraints can stop him from transforming. Even though Gear knows that he may not be able to change back, he'll at least stop Eggman.
The mad doctor's smile however, didn't falter. "Oh, I'm well aware. I read the report about Charles trying to remove the nanites, turning you into what he called a Mecha Beast that recked havoc on the facility you were at. Hence the reason I brought you to one of my secret offsite bases instead of my center of operations in Metropolis, just in case. And besides, I just so happened to have brought back one of my newest creations recently."
The screen changed to something that looked like a black mass with a white cat mask and yellow eyes.
"Uh, what is that?" Gear asked.
"I AM PHAGE, THE ULTIMATE AI CREATED BY DR. EGGMAN." The A.I. introduced herself with a female voice. Gear doesn't know why, but her voice alone sent chills down his spine. It was as if he could feel the malice in her voice.
"Allow me to explain, a while ago, Phage acted as my infiltrator and saboteur. Attacking and infecting any computer software she can touch. I created her to steal information from a scientist that was researching power rings, but unfortunately it didn't go well. Though Phage may have failed her first mission, she now has a chance to make up for it in this experiment." Eggman explained.
Gear narrowed his eyes at what he said before horror overtook his face. "What do you plan to do?"
Eggman started laughing a little. "Well, since you asked nicely. I intend to upload Phage into your special nanite, taking full control of it."
Just like that, all the color drained from Gear's face. The mere idea of Eggman's creation taking control of the nanites horrified him. "Are you Crazy! I mean, you are crazy. But you don't even know if your A.I. can control it! Or what could happen if she even tries!" He tried coming up with accuses to dissuade them.
"OH I'M SURE I'M UP FOR THE CHALLENGE. ESPECIALLY IF I CAN DISCOVER THE SECRETS IT HAS INSIDE." Phage said gleefully.
"I'm confident Phage will take full control of it. Now then." The floor between Eggman and Gear opened up, revealing what looked like a large blaster with a thin barrel at the end. "You should only feel a sting." He said smiling. The doctor connected a cable to the blaster. Phage disappeared from the screen and Gear saw a yellow glow inside the cable as it traveled into the blaster. Eggman then pointed the blaster right at Gear's chest. "Don't worry, this laser data blaster won't hurt you. Just simply transfer Phage directly into your Control Nanite."
Gear focused on creating his builds again to break free, but to no avail. Eggman pulled the trigger, firing a extremely thin beam right at Gear's chest. At first, Gear felt only a sting on his chest that lasted a second, until suddenly.
"Aaaaahhhh!" Gear screamed to the top of his lungs as he felt every part of his body on pain. The white circuit lines on him started trailing yellow as his body started thrashed as if he was having a spasm attack.
"Unknown virus attempting entry. Infection rate 20%." A robotic voice came out of Gear's mouth. The last time something like this happened was when Gear's parents and Sir Charles attempted to extract the nanites out of his body. If what Eggman said was true, then it was the Control Nanite talking.
"That's it, Phage! Keep going." Eggman ordered, not noticing the blanking red light on a monitor next to him.
"Um, boss." Orbot said.
"Not now." Eggman waved him off.
"45%. 73%." The Control Nanite said with Gear's voice as the yellow circuits now completely covered Gear's entire body.
"Eggman, sir." Cubot tried this time.
"Did you not hear me. I said not now." Eggman said, refusing to see Phage's
"89%. Attempt successful. Emergency defensive protocol initiated."
The restraints started to short circuit. The Dire Dog could feel the nanites were beginning to turn him into the Mecha Beast. Eggman started laughing again with this success.
"Yes! If G.U.N. and the Resistance had any shred of hope before, it's been…" Eggman didn't finish as entire room shook from an explosion. The alarms sounded as more explosions were felt through out the room. "What was that!?"
"What we've been trying to tell you, boss. The Resistance and G.U.N. forces are attacking this base." Orbot
"What! How did they find us?" Eggman said.
"IT DOESN'T MATTER." Phage's voice now came out of Gear's mouth, getting the attention of Eggman and his robots. "IT'S TO LATE."
Suddenly, the restraints were torn apart as Gear's body was covered in machines. Machines covered his body as he grew in size, transforming into the Mecha Beast. The mechanical monster smashed the entire lab as Eggman quickly left with Orbot and Cubot. Demolishing the outer wall of the facility, the Mecha Beast completed it's transformation. It had the Punk Busters for legs, the Big Fat Sword on it's right hand, a Smack Hand on the left, two Slam Cannons on it's shoulders, and a metal dog head.
Outside the Eggman facility was a small army of Resistance and G.U.N. forces. The army pointed their weapons at the giant robot in fear of it. The Mecha Beast stared down at the soldiers and tanks before letting out a loud mechanical howl.
After the Mecha Beast was fully transformed, Gear appeared somewhere else. The Dire Dog opened his eyes as he looked around to see a digitized yellow landscape. The towering metallic structures that have yellow circuitry running along them, and the sky above him was pitch black.
"What is this place?" Gear said, not knowing where he is.
Suddenly, some of the structures shifted around, revealing Phage coming closer to gear. It was as if her presence was manipulated the environment.
"ISN'T THIS PLACE AMAZING." Phage said admiring the place. "IT'S SIMILAR TO THE CYBERSPACE REALM, ONLY THIS PARALLEL WORLD SEEMS CONNECTED TO THE NANITES THEMSELVES. AND LOOK HERE." The structure next to them shifted a bit, creating a screen that shows what's happening outside through the eyes of the Mecha Beast. The mechanical abomination was targeting the Resistance and Atlas forces with it's huge Slam Cannons. "WE GET TO WATCH AS YOUR GREATEST BUILD DESTROYS YOUR PATHETIC FRIENDS."
Gear looked in horror as the Mecha Beast was about to open fire. The Mecha Beast was about to fire it's weapons on the people trying to rescue him. He started hyperventilating at the mere thought of attack innocent people.
'No, not again. It's just like what happened before. When people got hurt because of me. Because of my nanites.' Gear thought as he saw flashed of memories of himself attacking everything around him when he turned into the Mecha Beast last time. When he fought his own father and nearly killed him "NO!" He yelled to the top of his lungs.
Suddenly, the circuit lines on Gear's body glowed blue. At the same time, the environment around Gear turned from yellow to blue as well. The Mecha Beast reacted, shaking it's head turning the cannons to a alternate direction, firing away from the Resistance and G.U.N army.
"WHAT!" Phage said surprised. The evil A.I. turned her gaze on Gear, her mask slowly cracking out of frustration. "SO YOU STILL HAVE SOME CONTROL OF THIS WORLD. LET'S FIX THAT."
The malicious A.I. shot out black tendrils from her body at Gear. On instinct, the Dire Dog tried generating the Boogie Pack, and fortunately it worked. Gear flew away, but her tendrils went after him. As he was dodging her attacks in the air, Gear noticed his build was blue, believing it had something to do with this world. Changing tactics, Gear switched to the Smack Hands, slamming down on Phage. The A.I. moved out of the way, though he did manage to smash a part of her black mass. She countered by launching more tendrils at him, but Gear blocked them with his build. However, the moment he did, Phage's black mass latched on, slowly disassembling his build. Gear tried pulling away, but her black tendrils wouldn't let go. He then tried deactivating his build, and managed to slip free the A.I.'s grasp. Phage started chuckling a little as Gear fell back.
"WHAT'S WRONG, LITTLE DIRE DOG? SCARED? DON'T BE. SHOW ME MORE OF YOUR BUILDS." Phage tried goading Gear.
"I'm not scared, Phage. Just trying to fight smart." Knowing what her tactic is now, Gear created the Boogie Pack again and flew away. 'If close combat is too dangerous, I'll resort to range attacks.'
Phage quickly followed him, floating in the air through the structures. Fortunately, Gear was faster. Gaining some distance, Gear landed on the metallic floor and switched to the Slam Cannon, taking off a chunk of metal from one of the structures, and firing a round at Phage's mask. The metal chunk blasted off a part of the A.I.'s mask.
Gear instantly regretted it, since the broken part of her cat mask revealed a large mouth with sharp teeth. If that wasn't bad enough, instead of Phage having one eye, she had a bunch of them. It was like seeing a creature from hell.
"HOW DARE YOU!" Phage said in a low enraged tone.
'Well, if she wasn't ticked before, she is now.' Gear thought.
She launched more of her tendrils. Gear moved out of the way, firing more rounds at her. The chunks were passing through her black mass, creating holes before closing. Despite damaging her mask, her main body appeared to quickly repaired itself. Seeing he wasn't damaging her, Gear jumped away using the Punk Buster, jumping off the sides of the structures repeatably. As he fell back, Gear continued thinking of a way to beat Phage until he realized something.
'When I somehow stopped the Mecha Beast earlier, the structures circuits glowed blue like I did.' Gear thought to himself.
Stopping next to a structure, Gear placed his hand on the blue circuit wall. Now connected to the Nanite World, Gear knew this placed acts like a nerve center for the Mecha Beast. While the Dire Dog may not be able to shut down the Mecha Beast so long as Phage has control, he could use it to send out a radio broadcast. Making sure he's broadcasting on an open channel, he spoke out.
"If anyone is listening, this is Gear the Dire Dog. I don't have long so I have to make it quick. Eggman has infected my nanites with a A.I. called Phage. She's attempting to take direct control of the Mecha Beast. You all have destroy the robot before…" Gear didn't finish as he felt something latched onto his leg. A black tendril has grabbed Gear's leg and yanked him away from the wall.
Phage was laughing as Gear was being dragged towards her. "OH, GEAR. EVEN IF THEY USE ALL THEIR FIREPOWER, THEY'LL NEVER STOP THE MECHA BEAST." She gloated.
Gear generated the Big Fat Sword and sliced her tendril apart, then followed up with another swing on her body. As his sword left a open wound on Phage, revealing that Gear sliced the end of a red sphere in the A.I.'s body as Phage yelled in pain. Next to it was the control Nanite completely wrapped around by black tendrils.
"The Control Nanite!" Gear said as he reached for it.
Attempting to reach for the nanite in the A.I.'s body, Phage countered by launching green digital energy at Gear, causing him severe pain as he got hit in the arm. Gear was forced to back off as she regenerated her wound.
"INDEED. I HAVE ALREADY BEGUN SHIFTING THROUGH IT'S DATA. THIS OMEGA-2 NANITE HAS SO MUCH POTENTIAL. UNFORTUNATELY, IT WOULD APPEAR A FEW OF THE NANITE'S CORE FUNCTIONS WERE LOCKED SOME THOUSANDS OF YEARS AGO. STILL, I'LL FIGURE OUT HOW TO UNLOCK THEM IN TIME." Phage told him.
'Thousands of years ago?' Gear wondered.
Not able ponder on this, Phage stretched her tendrils at him. Gear swung Big Fat Sword, slicing her tendrils apart. Trying out an idea, Gear fell back a bit and placed his hand on a structure. The structure turned blue as Gear commanded it to launch a circuit block at Phage, squashing her against the building behind her. Just as Gear was hoping that finished her, the block's circuit turned back to yellow before launching itself in Gear's direction. The Dire Dog moved out of the way as the block crashed into another structure. Phage quickly recovered and smiled.
"CLEVER IDEA, GEAR. LET ME TRY." Phage said as the structures around Phage started shifting around. Then suddenly, one of the structure swiftly shifted a piece of large block towards Gear.
"Oh crud." Gear muttered.
More of the structures moved to crush Gear. Generating the Punk Busters, Gear jumped away from being crushed. Gear swapped to the Boogie Pack and flew away from the structures trying to turn him into a pancake. Though no matter where he flew, Phage took more control of the structures. In front of Gear, the corrupted buildings rose up and launched some pillars at him. He flew down to dodge the launched pillars, and deactivated the Boogie Pack to squeeze through the narrow structures as they closed together before landing on the ground. Phage caught up as the structures around Gear launched two large cubes together with him in the middle.
Gear generated the Smack Hands, stopping the cubes from squashing him, only for Phage's tendrils to latch on to his body, keeping him completely restrained. The Smack Hands were interfaced and taken apart by Phage's tendrils. Gear tried generating his other builds builds, but any build he made was quickly disassemble before it formed. The building behind her shifted into a screen.
"THAT'S BETTER. NOW, ENJOY THE SHOW AS THE MECHA BEAST…WHAT!" Phage exclaimed.
Gear looked up to see the screen. It showed the Mecha Beast starring at a razorback aircraft with a G.U.N. soldier inside pointing the same laser data blaster Eggman used to send Phage into the Control Nanite. Aiming at the Mecha Beast, the human fired a beam at the Mecha Beast's metal head. At that moment, the screen cracked before a green beam shattered through, crashing between Phage and Gear. The sadistic A.I. withdrew her tendrils from the beam, freeing Gear as he fell to the ground on his knees.
The beam disappeared, revealing a lynx girl with light brown fur, black hair and green eyes. The ends of her long triangular ears are black and her face features cheeks tufts on her muzzle and a stripe along the bridge of her black nose as well as one under each of her green eyes. She wore a purple, black, white sleeveless dress, decorated with a white trim and a small golden brooch with a purple gem. The girl also has white gloves with purple cuffs, black pants, and black shoes with white toes and black soles.
"Who…who are you?" Gear asked, astonished by the girl in front of him.
The girl smiled gently as she looked at Gear. "I'm Nicole the Holo-Lynx. Commander Topaz asked me to help you."
"Topaz?" Gear said surprised.
Eggman's A.I. paused as she stared at who arrived and became enraged while the cracks on her mask spread. "YOU!" Phage exclaimed in rage. She was close to having the Mecha Beast's power to herself, only for Nicole to get in the way.
Nicole only farrowed her eyes as she turned to Phage. "Hello, Phage. It's been a while."
Gear stood up and looked at Nicole with surprise. 'Guessing those two know each other. Especially with the glare they're giving to one another.'
Phage's rage seemed to calm down a little and as she started chuckling. "YOUR RIGHT, NICOLE. IT HAS BEEN A WHILE. IN FACT, I'M GLAD YOUR HERE." The structure shifted around, cutting off Gear's and Nicole's exits. "FOR YOU ONLY TRAPPED YOURSELF IN A WORLD I HAVE COMPLETE CONTROL OF."
The structures quickly slid towards Nicole and Gear. Nicole rose her hands and created a green energy shield made up of data. The shield was able to stop the structures from crushing the two. Gear was amazed that Nicole was able to protect the two of them, but quickly noticed she was having difficulty keeping the shield up.
'This is bad. As long as Phage has control of this place, I don't think she can be beaten.' Gear thought as he looked at the metal floor. 'Maybe I can regain control of the place if I focus.'
The Dire Dog placed his hands on the ground and focused. Concentrating, the circuits on the ground lit up blue, forcing the AI's control away from Nicole and Gear. The structures attempting to crush them backed away. Phage saw what the Dire Dog was doing and pierced the ground with her tendrils, attempting to drive back Gear's control. Right now, the fight turned into a battle of will. While Gear was putting up resistance, Phage's influence was overwhelming him. The blue circuits around Gear and Nicole were slowly turning yellow again. Seeing this, the holo-lynx dropped her shield and came next to Gear, placing her hand on his shoulder.
"Let me help." Nicole said.
Gear felt as if Nicole was channeling her processing power into him. Together, the structures around them were turned back to blue as Phage's influence subsides. Phage looked what they were doing and became frustrated.
"NO! I WON'T LET YOU!" The A.I. launched green digital energy at the two. At the last second, Nicole raised her shields again, blocking the attack. She was holding the barrier up, but it was difficult to do two things at one, even for her. "THIS IS MY WORLD NOW! I HAVE THE NANITE! I HAVE CONTROL!"
"Not for long." Gear said as he commanded the structures to pin her body and tendrils to the ground. Running at her, Gear generated the BFS again before slicing her body. The wound opened up, revealing the control nanite. The Dire Dog instantly reached out, ripping it out of Phage before falling back toward Nicole.
Infuriated, Phage broke through some of the structures, attempting to grab Gear with her black tendrils before Nicole fired digital lasers at her tendrils. With the Control Nanite in his hands, Gear's blue circuits lite up bright blue as it transferred power to him. Gear turned toward his new friend.
"Ready to finish this?" Gear asked her.
Nicole looked at him with determination in her eyes. "Of course."
Gear turned to look at Phage as he generated the Slam Cannon and took aim. Nicole placed one her hands on the cannon and the other on the Control Nanite, transferring power from it to the cannon. Instead of loading the cannon with solid objects, it was storing energy from the Control Nanite. Phage was struggling to break free from the structures as it slowly broke apart.
"NO! THIS ISN'T RIGHT! I HAD THE CONTROL NANITE, I HAD EVERYTHING! I WILL NOT LOSE AGAIN!" Phage roared in fury.
"Phage! Begone!" Gear and Nicole yelled together. As they fired the enhanced Slam Cannon, sending out a massive blue digital laser at Phage. The direct hit from her laser caused Phage's body to be destroyed, revealing the red orb within her cracking.
"NO! I CAN'T BE DEFEATED. I REFUSE…" Phage wasn't able to finish before her body was disintegrated into absolutely nothing.
The yellow circuits in the environment turned blue as the A.I. disappeared. After there was nothing left of Phage, Gear retracted the Slam Cannon. Turning to his new friend, the Dire Dog had a grateful smile on his face.
"Thanks, Nicole. For saving my life." Gear thanked her as he was feeling light headed.
"Of course, Gear I'm just glad I arrived in time." Nicole said smiling.
Suddenly, the two noticed the environment started to go slowly darker. The blue circuits brighting the structures were shutting down. Gear tried to asked Nicole what was happening, but before he could, everything went dark.