Chapter 14
The trip ended up taking about an hour, but we finally made it to the Grand Metropolis, where I saw that it had numerous ships that were trading the red liquid, me noting that it was made via some weird combination of lava and electricity. I had a reason it had to do with Solaris, but also knew that it'd be hard to get through even the plot of Sonic 06 if it happened.
"It looks like Metal Sonic's already flown the coop, but left behind a ton of robots for us to take out," I said with a frown.
"Then we'll need to split up! We're after that metal loon first, since he plans to rule the world, according to the letter. You tell us where he's at and you can stick around to take out the robots," Sonic said, me smirking at that as I sensed Froggy and Chocola... in Casino Park, which was roughly 10 miles away from us due northwest.
"Go due northwest from here for roughly 10 miles. I sense him and his captives in a casino-like city," I said, him nodding as he and his group then proceeded to rush across the rooftops with Tails's propeller tails and our group of all females proceeded to defeat all the robots that we could. And we also freed a total of 10, if you included the ones from the Power Plant... as for the Chaos Emerald that was here? I sensed it in the possession of none other than Shadow, who was at the top of the final rooftop that was after the energy storage tank. And when we got up there, we gawked at how we saw that they were joined by another creature I recognized. Who was it? Gamma the bird!
"Aw, whose the cute little bird?... And why is there a giant hulking robot with them?" Cosmo asked, me frowning at that as she got their attention.
"Huh? What are you doing here?" Rouge asked me as we approached and I smiled.
"We're just trying to find a certain robotic version of Sonic impersonating as Eggman, forcing Chao to be power sources for specific robots. What are you doing?" I asked, the group looking surprised at that, but none more so than Omega.
"Statement illogical! How can Eggman be a robotic Sonic the Hedgehog?" Omega asked... and Shadow looked at Maria and simply smiled. Did he remember? There was only one way to find out.
"Rouge, tell me, does Shadow remember everything?" I asked, her then nodding.
"Everything but who created him. He's just helping me find Eggman's secret treasure! And Omega? He wants to destroy as many robots in Eggman's possession as possible," Rouge said as I then looked at Gamma with a smile.
"And uh... Gamma? You're with them why?" I asked, the bird then speaking to me and only me.
"Because, before Omega was going to be completed, Eggman planned to have me enter the mainframe as before, since the metal on him is partially from the robot I was in. But he changed his mind because of the fact that he felt Omega would be too intelligent and have a good guy personality, so he just locked me in the same room as Omega and Shadow in stasis," she said, me looking at the others and them looking to not get it. So, I told them what Gamma said.
"Affirmative... next location to find more robots to destroy, Casino Park," Omega said, me nodding at that as we pointed to the northeast.
"We gotta go that way to the casino. But as of right now, we can't teleport directly to Metal Sonic, so we'll need to either go via our flight powers or by warping to where Sonic's team is at," Maria said, me smiling at that.
"Shadow and I can handle that much, right?" I smirked, him nodding, even though he gained the angry eyed-smile.
"I have one, you have one, so let's do it together," Shadow said.
"Chaos Control!" both of us shouted as we then warped away to the location in question... but I did have to ask Shadow one thing as we saw we were roughly 100 meters away from Team Sonic, as they were currently on the giant pinball road and simply walking up it instead of rolling into balls.
"Hey, Shadow? Do you or Maria know if Chaos Control can do other things besides teleportation and slowing time?" I asked, Shadow smiling and nodding.
"If a Chaos Control is induced while two Chaos Emeralds touch each other, you can create a time vortex that can take you to specific points in time. But I never used that power, as I was told during my first days with Maria that time travel was dangerous to play with. One wrong move and I might undo the existence of thousands," Shadow said, me smirking at that. At least the time travel was going to be handled better... I hoped.
"Well, at least you were smart enough to not use that part of Chaos Control when you were given those false memories," Maria smiled at him.
"Yeah... thanks for rescuing me, Maria... and thank you, Cheryl, for forcing Eggman to repair me," Shadow said, me sighing at that.
"Don't thank me yet... because I know of something that one of Eggman's robots did during your stasis time. This robot copied your data and has a whole slew of duplicate androids in a singular area, each one being made via cloning... if we don't find them and destroy them in time, it's safe to say that we may have an unstoppable army of Shadows to deal with," I said, that making everyone but Chaos be surprised and shocked.
"A-Are you serious?!" Tikal asked as she then sensed hard... and gasped. "Y-You are serious! Roughly 2 hundred identical life energies to Shadow in the same room, all in stasis! We need to stop Metal Sonic before he can release them!" Tikal said, me nodding at that.
"Then let's get going! We don't have all day!" I said, everyone nodding as we rushed forward and towards the pinball tables, us managing to get another Jackpot, this time from Rouge! She managed to get a potluck of 2 thousand rings from one of the big slot machines on the first big pinball table. We proceeded to rescue all 5 of the Chao trapped in the blue robots, them being inside of the turtle robots and a couple flying robots. And after we got to the end of Casino Park, we entered another place thanks to a teleporter. And it was the start of Bingo Highway. And what was the prize for the perfect bingo? The yellow Chaos Emerald! All I could think of was thank god for no special stages, because I found emerald 3 to be the hardest one to get in the game because of all the sudden sharp turns!
"Let's try to get the perfect bingo, guys! We may need those emeralds again," I smirked, them nodding as we then proceeded to grab the bingo chips on the pinball machines, using our walking to grab them, even though the path was the same as Grand Metropolis, where the floor forced you to move while standing still and move faster whilst running. And thanks to our combined efforts, we got a perfect bingo and were given the emerald at the end from a big prize-giving machine at the end of the first bingo table! And we'd also managed to rescue the five other Chao in this area. And for those wondering where they went to after we saved them? I sent them to the Chao Preservation Reserve, which was where? Station Square! More specifically, it was made in Mystic Ruins and they were protected big time by GUN as well as normal people and Mobians.
"Yes! Got the third emerald!" Cosmo smirked as I then got the emerald and put it in my bra, which made Rouge smirk.
"Now that's a perfect place to store them," Rouge smiled.
'It'd be even better if I had a bit of a bigger bust like you," I admitted.
"That's the definition of a booby trap," Maria said, me guffawing out of nowhere and the group of us then having a good chuckle or laugh, minus Omega.
"Our primary target is Metal Sonic! Don't forget that!" Omega said, me groaning as we then continued through the rest of the area and rescuing more Chao until we finally arrived at the arena to face Metal Sonic's robots in. And he then appeared from above us with his Eggman disguise, but I smirked at how, the moment he saw me and my group of girls among the group, he then changed into his real look.
"There you are, you bucket of bolts! Give me back my powers right now or you're in for a world of pain!" Chaos shouted at him in anger.
"Hehehe, that won't do, now would it? I need it until I can finish copying the data in my prisoners I have inside of me. Only then will I dispose of it," he said, that making Chaos gasp.
"YOU INSOLENT WELP!" she shouted as she then jumped from her location and tried to slam her claw into Metal Sonic, but he then slammed her back into the dirt with a single swipe of his own claws, her then groaning in pain as I frowned at the monster.
"You're not going to get away this time, bastard," I frowned as I then used the power. "CHAOS CONTROL!" I shouted, time slowing all around me and me then rushing up to the robotic asshole to slam him in the face... but I gasped at how, right before I was about to do so, he managed to break free of it and then punched me down to the ground, the wind getting knocked out of me in the process!
"Huuuggh..." I gasped from the pain as Metal Sonic then smirked.
"You must realize now the error of your ways, interdimensional traveler," Metal Sonic said, me gasping at that. Did he... Did he just copy my data?! "I believe our time is up, I'll see you later... GET THEM!" Metal Sonic shouted, us then gawking at how Metal Sonic rushed off and sent a whole slew of robots at us!
"What did Metal Sonic say beforehand? About you being an interdimensional traveler?" Rouge asked as I then started to destroy the robots.
"Look, I'll explain when these robots are dealt with!" I shouted, us then battering all the metal menaces. It took roughly 10 minutes before Team Sonic showed up, as we had gotten ahead of them in the process. And when we did so, we managed to finish the waves of robots shortly after!
"Okay, now tell us what you meant when Metal Sonic said you were an interdimensional traveler," Rouge said, me groaning at that.
"I'm from a different reality, one where humans are the only sentient creatures, there are no Mobians, and the most that a robot can do is do things when controlled by a person using a controller... and I was warped to this world from a TV going berserk and warping me directly inside the Master Emerald right before Eggman made it shatter, freeing myself, Chaos, and Tikal from it... it's why Chaos looks a lot like I did when I was fully human, why Tikal was revived from being a spirit, and why I'm a third of human, Mobian, and Chao at the same time," I said, Rouge, Shadow, and Cosmo being surprised at that.
"I see... maybe we could ask Commander Topaz to learn more about you? Maybe we can get to your world at some point?" Rouge asked, me shaking my head no.
"Only if I can become fully human again. And even then, I don't even know if anything would be different or if I'd still look like I did when I was there originally... my look was much different than what everyone looks like in this one... here, I have a picture here that I managed to keep on me," I said, being truthful. It was a photo that I had in my old wallet that I'd kept on me in case of something like this. And when they saw it, they looked at it like it was the most baffling thing they'd ever seen.
"Oh my gosh, what the heck is up with this universe you come from? It looks so... bland!" Tails gawked at it.
"Don't be rude, Tails," Sonic said, me smirking at that.
"So now you see why I can't just go back on a whim? If I did that, then people might be shocked if I look like the people from this world," I said, her then nodding at that.
"Very confusing... but interesting, too! Maybe I could make some kind of machine to at least allow you to see how your world is? You're sure to have some friends and family you want to check up on, right?" Tails asked, me smiling at him.
"That'd be appreciated... I do have family, even if it is just my brother and dad. My mom died shortly after I was born, so I was a daddy's girl with an older brother," I smiled. It would be nice to know how they were doing, so long as I made sure they didn't see any Sonic memorabilia.
"Well, we kind of need to know where Metal Sonic is at. So where did he go?" Maria asked as I sensed hard... and saw that he was in the canyon, which was even further to the west.
"He's this way, roughly 30 miles out. We need to fly there," I said, them nodding as we then had different members start flying us out to the area. We'd have a good long fly until we got there, which made me think of what Metal Sonic saw... what did he see? Too much? Or just that I come from a different universe? If he did know too much, it made me very concerned.