Chapter 17
The entirety of Final Fortress took up to 8 minutes in total JUST to get halfway through the place, which made me surprised, but by halfway, I meant halfway across the ship. We'd reached the end and were face-to-face with three different areas. The arena to face off with Metal Sonic, a prison area where Eggman was at, and the hangar filled with the hundreds of Shadow Androids. And Metal Sonic appeared shortly after in the Egg Emperor suit.
"There you are, you bucket of bolts! Give back our little friends and Chaos's powers!" I shouted at him.
"You're gonna regret tricking us, ya bastard!" Vector shouted.
"HMPH! ENOUGH OF THIS! All of you stupid air-breathers, time to meet your master!" Metal Sonic shouted before then making the Egg Emperor begin to attack us.
"Bring it on!" Charmy taunted as we then proceeded to attack the Egg Emperor as he attacked us. In the process, he shot tons of missiles at us and attacked with sword beams, but he didn't even last two minutes against all of us combined, him then falling out of the cockpit... and cloning again! But this time, his previous body melted away to reveal the things that we had fought so hard to get back. Chaos's powers, Froggy, and Chocola emerged from the liquid metal, which made the Team Rose members and Chaos extremely happy.
"You're safe! I'm so happy, Froggy... I promise to never take you for granted again," Big said, me smiling at that. So much better than him saying nothing but Froggy all the time.
"Thanky, Cheryl Chao," Cheese said happily as he and Chocola started to fly and dance, but I then noted that Team Chaotix was going to Eggman's location and Rouge, Maria, and Omega went to the Shadow Android hangar. I decided to join in with the latter group, them looking around in surprise as Omega looked super serious.
"Prepare to destroy immediate area," Omega said, me then nodding.
"We need to destroy all of them," Maria said, us then proceeding to make the whole area completely trashed with a combination of my Chaos Emerald powers, bombs from Rouge, Omega's missiles and bullets, and Maria using a special laser power she had upgraded to her arsenal after Sonic Adventure 2. But she hadn't used it until now because it made her kinda drained afterwards. But it did manage to make the place explode as well as all the Shadow Androids.
"Is that all of them?" Maria asked, me noting that she looked upset.
'I'd say so... keep in mind, Maria, they aren't the real Shadow," I said, her sighing and nodding. "But we haven't finished off Metal Sonic. We need to find him before-" I was about to say before I got a call on my pager, it being the GUN one! And it was from Amy!
"Cheryl! You need to get out here right now! It's Metal Sonic!" Amy shouted into the pager, our group then rushing out just in time to see Metal Sonic proceed to start its transformation process! And just as in the game, it took nearly a minute to finish into Metal Madness!
"Oh my god, what is taking so long?! I get that he's trying to show off, but this is too much!" Charmy shouted in annoyance, me smirking at that. He was speaking the truest of words. And when the transformation was finished, we then looked at each other and I simply held the Chaos Emeralds I had in my hand as well as Chaos producing the ones in her.
"Looks like we'll need to go Super for this one. Anyone in the group want to try it out with me, the hedgehogs, and Chaos?" I asked, that making everyone look at me, then each other, and then, shortly after, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, and Sticks all decided to step forward!
"I've always wanted to know what those rocks are for. If you can be super, I wanna be super! And destroy this government abomination!" Sticks said with seriousness.
"And I need a bit of payback against this mad machine! He kidnapped me 2 years ago when I tried to meet Sonic for the first time, so now I want to beat him over the head! And I need to learn to fend for myself so I can't get kidnapped ever again!" Amy said with seriousness, me nodding at that as I looked at everyone else.
"You guys go and distract Metal Sonic while we go Super. Show him what you're made of!" I said to everyone else, them rushing off towards the monster as I then proceeded to have the 7 emeralds' powers flow through me. I felt all the powers fueling my inner passion, me then transforming into my Super form shortly after! And I also looked at the others and smiled at how they all transformed as Metal Sonic turned into Metal Overlord and proceeded to fly into the skies. Amy looked awesome when she turned Super, with her pink hair actually growing and turning violet in color. And her Piko-Piko hammer also got more power, as it turned into a gigantic version that was as huge as Big the Cat for JUST the handle's thickness! The head of the hammer was as big around as the Egg Hornet from SA1, which I defeated effortlessly in the past!
Chaos looked amazing in her Super form. Why? She basically looked like a human, but with a halo, a set of devil horns, and her body turning to look like a mermaid, complete with fish tail. She also became completely solid instead of liquid, so she looked like a blue-skinned mermaid version of me. And she also had tons of power flowing through her, to the point that I felt that she was now stronger than even I was!
And Sticks looked just as cool. Her hair turned to be in the shape of a boomerang and she gained even more fur on her body, her eyes got more furrowed, and I saw her muscles expand greatly. Oh, and she was golden, basically turning into a more Super Saiyan creature than Super Sonic was! And Tails and Knuckles turned super in the form of Tails glowing silver and Knuckles became pink. And even though he was pink, he was bursting at the seams with power!
"Let's go get that bastard!" I shouted, us then zooming after Metal Overlord and we saw that he was expecting us.
"LONG TIME NO SEE, SONIC, MY LOATHSOME COPY!" Metal Sonic shouted angrily, his voice being very loud and very menacing!
"BRING IT ON, MAGGOT!" Sticks shouted as she then zoomed ahead of us and proceeded to smash her fists into Metal Sonic's body, me being surprised at how she managed to leave visible dents in the metal armor!
"ARGH! YOU WILL NOT INTERFERE!" Metal Sonic shouted as he then sent forth the crystal missiles at Sticks, me gawking at how she actually got stuck in one of them!
"I'll save Sticks! Amy, you give him a few good whacks!" I shouted, her then rushing forward at the giant metallic menace. And as he saw me go towards Sticks, he looked to be ready to fire another crystal missile at me, but his trajectory got interrupted when Amy gave him a metal-crunching smack from her giant hammer! And I also saw that she had caused parts of Metal Sonic to fly off after her second strike! I managed to free Sticks via smashing the crystal prison with a fist of purple emerald power.
"Thanks, mate! Now let's get 'im all at once!" Sticks shouted. Our group then rushed after Metal Sonic with Amy whacking him on the left wing while Chaos forced a massive tidal wave forged from the storm clouds to bombard Metal Sonic's giant form, managing to make parts of him short-circuit in the process! Tails then performed his own homing attack on Metal Sonic, which was followed by Knuckles punching so fast and hard that he caused the lower half of Metal Sonic to explode!
"NOOOOOGGGHHHH! I HAD IT ALL! OVERWHELMING POWER! I WAS TO FINALLY BE THE REAL SONIC!" Metal Sonic shouted as I felt his power wane massively after Knuckles's attack, which caused Sonic and Shadow to zoom through Metal Sonic's remaining parts, which caused all three hedgehogs to slam into the Final Fortress, followed by us following suit in time to see Metal Overlord return to Metal Sonic base form. "It's no use... why... why can't I defeat you?" Metal Sonic asked.
"Because, you neglect teamwork, leg day, and realizing opponents' weaknesses. And sorry to say, but I doubt Eggman would program you with those things after this stunt," I said, Metal Sonic simply laying down and going limp. He wasn't out of power, but he was very low on it. He had gone into low-power mode.
"That was awesome!" Charmy smiled as he appeared from the west with all the others, me smirking at all of them as Sonic then looked at Metal Sonic with a cocky smirk.
"Let me know when you want to go another round. I'll be glad to take you on again," Sonic smirked before rushing off, Amy simply sighing and watching him rush off afterwards.
"Ah, that's my hero. I'll chase after ya later, Sonic!" Amy shouted after him, that making Sonic give a thumbs-up before he then jumped off the ship with Tails and Knuckles following after.
"Well, that wraps this case up!" Vector smirked.
"But what about our pay?" Charmy asked.
"Oh, that's right! I almost forgot," Vector said as I noticed Eggman trying to leave via tiptoeing. "That SLIMEBALL!" Vector shouted before his group then started to chase after Egghead, making Maria giggle afterwards while Tikal walked over to Chaos with a smile on her face.
"I'm proud of you, Chaos. You've proven that you are now completely pure," Tikal smiled at her.
"I owe it to Cheryl, to be honest. If it weren't for her, I'd be exploded by Eggman and my Chao would be extinct," she smiled at her. And I also noted that Rouge looked to be getting a call on her pager from Topaz.
"Agent Rouge, it's commander Topaz. Report your status as of now. What is your location?" Topaz asked her.
"I'm uh... about a hundred feet in the air on a giant ship that's currently docking outside of Grand Metropolis... I got a bit sidetracked with a save-the-world issue with a metal version of Sonic, made by Eggman," Rouge said to our boss.
"A metal version of Sonic, huh?... Well, so long as you finished that job up, I suggest going to your next assignment effective immediately. You're to study up on something that I've detected on radar... an unusual reading that's emanating at a carnival roughly 50 miles east of your current location," Topaz said to Rouge, that immediately piquing not only my interest, but also Cream's. I then got on my own pager and spoke into it.
"Agent Martinez here. May I be allowed to join Agent Rouge on this mission, Commander? Better to have safety in numbers, right?" I asked her, that making Topaz chucle to herself.
"Very well, I'll allow it. But don't make too much of a scene, okay? The carnival in question is in a city that is very hostile towards Mobians specifically. Be careful," Topaz said, me frowning at that. Racism against Mobians, huh? That sucked. I also saw that Cream looked at me with puppy dog eyes, me smirking at her cuteness.
"Can I come, miss Cheryl? Please? I love carnivals!" Cream asked, me then looking at Rouge and then at Cream again.
"Only if you can wear a disguise so that you don't get in trouble," I said, Cream nodding at that.
"Don't worry, I have the perfect disguise for a little scamp like her," Rouge smiled as she then handed Cream a strange device... and when she pushed the button, we gawked as her appearance changed to look like a small, 6-year-old human version of what she normally looked like! But it was a trick of the eyes, as it was an illusion of sorts!
"Wow! I look like a human now!... this is amazing!" Cream smiled widely as Cheese giggled along with her. And Chocola? She had already flown over to Chaos so that she could go home to Vanilla's place.
"I have two more to spare, so that means only me and Cheryl will go this time. Sorry, other ladies," Rouge smiled as I noted that Shadow, Sticks, Gamma and Omega were inspecting Metal Sonic with intrigue.
"It's fine, we'll watch you guys from afar," Cosmo smirked as I looked at Rouge and I then decided to save time by using Chaos Control... and just as I casted it, focusing it on a VERY specific creature in the city (the fiery cat), Sticks turned herself smaller and jumped into Rouge's cleavage! And when we arrived, I groaned at Sticks, but also noted that Blaze was unconscious and she looked to be having a nightmare.
"Whoa, what happened here?" Rouge asked as she looked at Blaze in surprise. Why? Well, because she was in a small crater of sorts, she had a couple bruises and burn marks on her, and, the kicker, SHE WAS THE SAME AS I WAS RIGHT NOW! What did I mean by that? She had HUMAN appearance to her! The only fur she still had was on her arms and legs, her face was completely pale, her hair was now silver as opposed to lavender like her fur, and she had more human features, such as no whiskers and she had a normal human-like face!
"Something must've happened to her that was similar to me. She looks part human and part Mobian... you think she came from another world?" I asked, that making Rouge gawk.
"That... kinda makes sense... but she looks a bit out cold right now. What can we do?" Rouge asked.
"Simple. I use the powers of the Chaos Emeralds to heal her up. The power of the white emerald can give her more healing, but I'll need to use someone else's aura to do so, which would make them tired," I said with seriousness... and I also sensed something else. That there were 5 humans nearby and walking along the street. And for those wondering, we were in an alleyway. I then took a bit of their aura and merged it into Blaze's... and when her eyes opened? I knew that we were going to need to have QUITE the good explanation to give her.