16 Chapter: Two Shines (二つの輝き; Futatsu no kagayaki)
"All ready!" MaVi said happily when he finished the last preparations.
A sentient virus was inside Sigma's improved body in a darkened glass capsule. MaVi created a cyber screen for himself and saw that his two enemies were already walking on the long corridor in the one of the towers on the surface of "demon head".
Are they coming towards me? MaVi thought. I took a little look at the battle between X and Sonic, and Vile...And what kind of expression did X have on his face! Now he, along with this cursed hedgehog, is slowly but surely walking towards me! Well...Time to join the party!
With the hand of his enhanced host body, MaVi hit hard the glass of the capsule, causing the glass to be smashed into pieces. He exited from his capsule on the floor. A virus did not notice that liquid from the capsule had been spilled all over the floor, which was still hot, judging by the steam emanating from the liquid. MaVi stood and looked at the whole room. The room, he was currently in, was empty except for a huge, squared hole to the basement in the corner and a mushroom-like device behind the capsule. Since there was impenetrable glass on top of the device, contents that were inside the device were safe. A virus grinned and, in the instant, spider-like limbs appeared from his "backpack" on his back.
Thanks to Doc for doing a wonderful job as my tool. MaVi thought. Thanks to the data I got not only from him, but also from my enemies, I am already prepared with equipment just in case. Especially this...
The virus approached the hole and looked down. Down in the shadows was a huge armor that MaVi created while staying in Doppler's body and using latter's skills to accomplish his goals.
This armor will help me, but later. My strength and the power of one emerald are enough for me to crush them both!
At this, MaVi looked towards the device, on top of which, under glass, were four Chaos Emeralds (red, yellow, white and purple). An intelligent virus, pressing the buttons and automatically opening the lid of the device. MaVi took a white Emerald, wide open his chest and shoved in the emerald. Then MaVi walked through the dark passage towards the place where, he assumed, he would welcome his two enemies. As he walked, MaVi grimily thought to himself:
I'll show this old man that he was wrong about me.
X opened the luxurious doors to a large room. The white reploid went inside with the blue hedgehog. The room had thick columns with stone dragons on top in the corners of the room, four thin columns around the platform with the stairs. On the platform there was a dark and seemingly dark passage with luxurious red royal curtains and an arch. Although the arch looked demonic and something straight out of a Lovecraftian horror story. Sonic opened his mouth to say something when he suddenly felt Chaos Energy emanating from the passage.
"Sonic, what's the matter?" X asked, seeing that Sonic began to focus on the passage.
"I..." Sonic began, when suddenly someone's voice, familiar only to X, came from the passage.
"I'm so pleased that you both have come. I hope with all my heart that you will be entertained. Three heroes who begun their trip to the underworld... Magnificent, isn't it?"
"I don't care about such thing as a hero." Said X, who was angrier than he ever was now due to the mention of the "third hero", especially if this comes from that month, and Sonic looked at him worriedly. "I don't care what else you say in my direction. But I know one thing for sure... SONIC and I WILL defeat you, MAVI!"
Sonic had a lot of thoughts in his head about what X just said. The hedgehog progressively became more worried about his friend, fearing that he would again enter his "demon" state.
MaVi walked onto the platform. His host body had improved armor, which had "muscles", shoulder pads, a belt and spikes on the arm, and a piece of armor that was in the middle of the lower body in one particular place. The most noticeable thing, that catch the eye, was that behind his back there were something resembling spider legs, and a huge "horns" pointing upward. The armor itself was in light colors, consisting of purple, green, yellow, red and aquamarine. Sigma's body had red "scars" on its face that ran down from forehead to cheeks, and a small yellow gem on body's forehead.
"What a loud statement." MaVi said with a villainous smile. "When I win this battle and destroy both of you, I will become not only the ruler of this planet... But also, the most powerful being like that hedgehog."
"I'm sorry, but how exactly do you become the "most powerful being"?" Sonic asked rhetorically.
"With the help of one or many Chaos Emeralds, of course!" A virus answered with pride. "I saw how you used this invisible energy from these emeralds. If I get all these Emeralds, then I can become a Chaos Taker, just like you!"
A blue hedgehog fell silent and looked straight at MaVi with wide eyes. There was silence until the white reploid and the virus heard the giggles that came from Sonic. Soon hedgehog's giggles grew into hysterical and loud laughter. As he laughed, Sonic held his stomach and small tears appeared in his eyes. This left X dumbfounded, not understanding why his ally was laughing.
"What's SO FUNNY?!" MaVi asked, looking angry and annoyed, especially if the laughter towards him coming from the blue hedgehog, he hated more than X.
"I-I j-just..." Sonic began, still laughing. "I-I just didn't even think, that you, being a wonderful manipulator, could be so naive!"
"WHAT?!" MaVi shouted, gritting his teeth. "I?! NAIVE?!"
"Sonic?" X asked a hedgehog.
"I'll explain." Said Sonic, beginning to calm down and wiping the tears from his eyes before he turned to MaVi. "You just didn't understand everything that way. First, Chaos Emeralds are not enough to become a Chaos Taker. There are many factors in how exactly a person, robot or another creature, like me for example, can become a Chaos Taker. Second, I won't tell you about these factors, because as a Chaos Taker myself, I generally doubt that you will be chosen in this role. You are an excellent manipulator and tactician, but you are naive and inexperienced, and plus I already know that you're going to use this title for evil and your ego. Unlike you, I learn from many things and grow, while trying helping others in my might and understand them. But you can't, because you always hid behind other people's faces and didn't grow. You don't even have your own voice to say it proudly! Well, what exactly does that make you instead of a "powerful being," eh?"
"You...You..." MaVi growled, but at the same time telling himself to calm down and concentrate. To some extent, he found truth in Sonic's words, and this angered him more.
Taking advantage of this, X fired from his X-Buster directly at MaVi, but the virus managed to jump before the shot could reach him. Flying over the heads of the two heroes, MaVi fired energy projectiles, filled with Chaos Energy, from his spider-like limbs and "horns". A white reploid and a blue hedgehog managed to quickly leave the attack zone. While MaVi attacking heroes, he noticed three shiny stones in Sonic's bag and immediately realized that they were the other three Chaos Emeralds. A virus started to figure out how to get them during a fight with his opponents. X shoot shots at MaVi again, but he also moved quickly, avoiding energy attacks. Soon a sentient virus noticed a big shot in front of himself. MaVi grinned and formed his round shield on his arm, which he used to shield himself from the shot. A shot hit the shield and left MaVi unharmed.
Good thing that I collected enough reset data to make my equipment for these moments. A virus thought proudly to himself. Now I need...
Unexpectedly for MaVi, Sonic, but without a bag, quickly jumped on his back and covered a virus's eyes with his hands so that the former could not see. A hedgehog gestured to X that he could now preparing shot for MaVi. The white reploid nodded his head and began to quickly charge his buster. By the time X was continuing charging X-Buster, the virus took and threw Sonic to the wall. But a blue hedgehog managed to land on his two legs before quickly running towards MaVi and began spinning around him, drawing latter's attention to him. The sapient virus focused on the hedgehog until he caught Sonic's head by his arm. He lifted a hedgehog up and looked at the blur speedster straight in his eyes. Sonic himself began to hold Mavi's hand, somehow trying to get out of his hands.
"You shouldn't interfere with my battle, you little bas..." MaVi growled before he noticed something.
MaVi looked up at the level of Chaos Energy in his body and was very surprised to find that level of energy in his body began to decrease at an average speed. At this point, MaVi immediately realized with horror that Sonic had begun to take away the Chaos Energy away from him. A virus threw a blue hedgehog away from him, and then he noticed, that the hedgehog had a small grin on his face. Not understanding what was going on, MaVi soon found the answer to his question in the form of a huge, charged shot that was aimed in his direction. But it was too late, as the shot reached him…
BOOM
The sound of the explosion could be heard throughout the castle. As the explosion began to subside, an angry MaVi ran out of the smoke. Even though he was able to survive the explosion, his body was a little damaged. Running towards X, the virus turned his hand into a flamethrower and sent a stream of fire towards a white reploid. X managed shoot three times at MaVi before he quickly running away from the stream of fire. At this point, Sonic stopped next to the white reploid and began to whisper to him so that only he could hear him:
"X, I managed to take half of the Chaos Energy from him to myself. I can give you half the energy that is in my body, so that we can defeat MaVi, and take the Chaos Emerald from him. If anything, I put my bag far away from this place. Are you ready to kick his butt?"
"Roger." X said with a smile before his smile faded. "Sonic, I'm sorry if I said to him in answer in the way, that made you worry about me again. We can talk about this later after our fight is over."
By this time, MaVi had sent another set of projectiles towards two heroes.
"No time to relax!" A virus exclaimed.
Sonic gave X his signature smirk and a white reploid smiled as well. X quickly headed down, passing projectiles over his head and began shooting at MaVi. The virus once again sent projectiles towards X, but immediately after that he felt a punch to his face, which sent him in the other direction. The white reploid managed to bypass the attack, but one of the energy projectiles hit him in the shoulder. Sonic immediately walked up to X, checking that his ally and friend was okay.
"I'm fine." The reploid said to the hedgehog. "I'll live...SONIC, BEHIND YOU!"
Sonic realized what X meant and quickly turned to see that more projectiles were flying in his and reploid's direction.
"No rest!" MaVi said loudly, being on the other side of the room from them. "Not even a slice of change of winning! Your bodies and souls...I will smash them both!"
BOOM
There was an explosion in the room and the MaVi became to laugh like a maniac.
"HA-HA-HA! This time it ends in my victory!" A virus exclaimed, continuing to laugh.
Then MaVi formed his shield on his arm just in case and began to look around in search of his enemies, if they survived after the explosion.
"Though I can admit that you were tough nuts to crack during the fight." MaVi said, baring his teeth at this thought. "But what remains for me to do is find that bag, which, unfortunately, this damn hedgehog somewhere..."
At this point he heard a sound behind him and turned to cover himself with his shield. The blue blur hit the shield and continued to spin, trying to go through the shield.
"You thought that..." MaVi began and unexpectedly several shots hit him in the back.
A virus turned to see his other opponent. Taking advantage of MaVi's distraction, Sonic jumped away from the shield, in flight collecting the amount of Chaos Energy in his body, including what he got from MaVi, slipped below a virus's face and…
BAM
Sonic hit MaVi on his host body's chin, sending a body flying upward. A white reploid then fired a powerful shot at MaVi's back. A hedgehog jumped high into the air and began attacking a host body multiple times using both his multiple attack and battle techniques. Soon finding himself on top of MaVi, Sonic hit him in the chest with his hand, piercing right through him.
"No! No! NO!" A sentient virus panicked, but it was too late, then a blue hedgehog had already pulled the white Chaos Emerald out of his body, depriving him of additional strength.
Seeing his ally and opponent flying down, X raised his X-Buster again and began charging it, preparing to fire. Trying to do something to protect itself, MaVi threw his shield towards X. The shield had multiple spikes on its edges. Sonic quickly landed on the ground and ran towards the reploid to grab the shield and threw it in the other direction from his ally. But as soon as a hedgehog jumped in front of X and reached his hand to a shield, to his surprise, X pushed him with his free hand away in a different direction away from him. Then a white reploid shoot next big charging shot at MaVi, and the shield ended up hitting the top of the reploid's head. The shot reached virus's host body and split it in half. Two parts of Sigma's body flew in different directions and began to fall. MaVi growled, narrowing his eyes at the two heroes. But for some reason he smiled and said:
"That's not…Over…Yet…"
Soon MaVi's upper body exploded so loudly that the explosion could be heard throughout the castle. The shield fell on the ground. Sonic quickly stood in front of X and looked at his face. He saw that the front part of the white reploid's helmet was so smashed, that Sonic can see wires hung from the damaged V-shape fin, and that in the place of red crushed gem, there is camera-like thing in X's system. Seeing the motor oil flowing from under the helmet to reploid's face, a blue hedgehog began to scold the reploid:
"X, why did you push me and take the blow on yourself?! I could point the shield in the other direction so you wouldn't get hurt yourself!"
X looked at his ally silently, then he replied:
"I understand your worries about me, and you don't want me to get hurt. But you jumped in front of me and tried to catch the shield, even though a shield can have damage you any moment. Sonic, even though you have rapid regeneration of small wounds in your body, like scratches, as I noticed, this shield could get into your face or to your body, and literally harm you in the big way or even kill you. This shield was specially made for fighting tougher and powerful reploids like me. I didn't want you to risk your life like that. I'm sorry I pushed you...But I needed to do it to protect you in turn. I didn't want the same thing to happen to you that happened to Zero..."
"Thank you for protecting me." Said Sonic, thanking X. "I appreciate it, but can I ask you not to take so much harm on yourself and leave some things to me, okay? I don't want to lose such a great friend like you. Well, I could just catch this shield without hurting myself or even scratch on my body. I've done this before when I fought Eggy's badniks. I have several stories to tell you."
"I know that you tough guy, but…" A white reploid said but stopped when he started to choose right words (in his opinion) to say, not wanting to offend the hedgehog.
"Yeah, I'm tough type, but also I'm adventure seeker." Said the hedgehog and raised his index finger high. "I am Sonic the Hedgehog and I always accept the challenge and call to adventure!"
"Just don't overdo it." X said with a smile and he himself noticed that from the moment he and Sonic were here, he began to smile more often. "Sonic, I know that my explanations are not excuses for pushing you...I'm…"
"I'll be there for one minute." Sonic said and quickly ran towards the passage.
A blue hedgehog took the curtains and tore a one piece from them, then returned to the reploid and gave him a piece of curtain's fabric, before he ran out of the room somewhere and returned with a bag three seconds later. Sonic placed the white Chaos Emerald inside the bag with the other three. X had rubbed the fabric piece over his face to wipe off the motor oil. Suddenly one thought came to the white reploid and he turned to Sonic:
"Sonic, I saw that you were focusing on the passage before the fight. Is it because you sensed the Chaos Emerald inside...Sigma's body?"
"Yes, and now I'm starting to feel the energy of Chaos much stronger than in the passage..." A hedgehog began and then pointed his thumb at the large hole that was formed from MaVi's self-explosion. "In here."
A white reploid silently walked up to the hole, which was several floors long, and looked down along with Sonic. A blue hedgehog wanted to take one step to jump, but suddenly X stopped him with his arm.
"X, what is it?" Sonic asked, looked at him and realized that there was a reason why X stopped him.
"I get it." A white reploid answered and looked with hatred at what was below in the hole. "He's still alive."
"Wait a minute, he…" A surprised Sonic started to ask when he noticed two glowing dots below.
"SONIC! RUN!" X shouted.
The blue hedgehog, realizing that the reploid was not joking, ran away from the hole with X. Three huge rockets flew straight towards them from the hole. Explosions were heard behind the two heroes, creating huge holes in every room they entered. Soon the two heroes arrived in one room, that none of the missiles reached since they exploded along the way. Sonic and X turned to see multiple holes in a line and a shadow walking straight towards them.
"I knew you were alive." Said the angry X, gritting his teeth.
Sonic silently looked at the shadow and began to prepare for battle, while figuring out where to put the bag again.
"Certainly!" MaVi said loudly. "I do not wish to be dead. I need to be alive in order to become the supreme ruler of this planet!"
Soon MaVi appeared in front of the two heroes. His new appearance is Sigma's head in a huge mecha-like armor. The main colors on the huge metal body were red, blue, yellow and silver. The armor resembled the body of a huge reploid. In the middle of the armor was a demonic face with yellow "eyes" and a "toothed mouth". The armor had huge red shoulder pads, two taka-shaped canisters on the back. Yellow tubes connecting canisters to the main body. On his extra arms were are busters, like X-Buster. The royal-like coattail was at the back of the armor.
"Another gift from "Doctor Doppler"!" MaVi said, looking proud of himself. "Kaiser-Sigma! With this armor and the three Chaos Emeralds inside me, you are just bugs to me!"
At this point, the virus looked towards the bag that Sonic was holding.
"I have no idea what you are saying." X growled, then he rushed towards MaVi. "But I will send YOU TO HELL! Sonic, run out of here!"
"Got it!" Sonic immediately agreed and began to run to be out of this room.
But as soon as a hedgehog reached the exit from the room, suddenly, as if in slow motion, invisible "tentacles" consisting of Chaos Energy approached him. At this point, Sonic immediately felt these "tentacles," but it was too late. As a result, MaVi pulled a blue hedgehog towards him like a magnet, causing Sonic to hit his head to the armor. X fired a powerful charged shot towards the head of Sigma's body to help Sonic to get out of MaVi's grip, but a virus formed a shield around the head and chest and caught a hedgehog with his hand.
"FREE HIM, NOW!" A white reploid shouted and ran towards MaVi.
But by that time, with its free hand, a sentient virus forcibly tore off Sonic's bag before throwing a hedgehog at X. MaVi carefully took the Chaos Emeralds out of the bag and then he placed all of them inside himself. He threw the bag on the ground and with his foot he began to trample the bag. While MaVi was doing this, he had an evil and sadistic smile on his face. A lot of buzzes became more louder with every hard step on the bag. Sonic saw all this in flight. In this bag was a device, that Tails spent more time of his free time, even not slept several nights, to create it and in the end, he gave it to Sonic, so it could help him and X with the mission. Seeing that MaVi crushing something, which Tails was put his heart and mind in it, without much care in the world or even regret…That made Sonic very angry. X stopped and managed to catch a hedgehog in his hands. At that same second, Sonic jumped out of X's arms and directly and coldly, with a hint of rage, addressed a sentient virus:
"I see that you chose this. Well, I hope that you won't regret it terribly..."
Ignoring the hedgehog's words, MaVi turned to X:
"X, you guessed that the weak point is my head. You have a very smart head. What about you, blue and sharp, I already received Chaos Emeralds and figured out how it works myself. Without your beautiful gems and with me becoming the king of the Earth, you are nothing in front of me..."
Before MaVi had time to finish speaking, he felt that something strange began to happen inside his body. The virus felt how the systems were getting out of control and were uniting and tearing apart inside his host body. He immediately felt a growing headache and felt as if his mind was starting to fade. He wanted to ask what was happening to him, but due to the sudden severe pain in his body and head, he lost his ability to speak, and his words were replaced by incomprehensible muttering and loud cries of pain and agony.
X did not understand what was happening to MaVi but began to guess that perhaps this was exactly what Sonic talking about.
"Sonic, what's happening to him-?!" A white reploid began to ask then Sonic runs and take the bag with broken device in it, before grabbing X.
A blue hedgehog quickly ran out of the room and ran throughout the castle until they were inside one building far from the "demon head" below. Sonic arrived in one room with the small window through which "demon head" can be seen. When the hedgehog released X from his hands, a reploid asked him again:
"Sonic, what's happening to MaVi, is this what you meant?!"
"Yeah." A blue hedgehog answered and looked through the window at the "demonic head" where they left MaVi. "This is what happens when someone who is not a Chaos Taker uses more Choos Energy than necessary. This immediately deprives a person of sanity, and this person turns into some kind of mess."
"You mean..." X began, then...
RRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRR
"What is this?!" Asked a white reploid and looked out the window back to the "demonic head" where he heard the roar came from.
What he saw, left X shocked and at the same time terrified. Not only did he see that the top of the "demon head" was destroyed, along with the buildings that previously were on it.
In the sky, a reploid saw a giant metal creature flying. This creature, formerly known as MaVi, had Kaiser-Sigma's armor literally fused with its body and looked like living human flesh. In the middle of the body, the "demon face" became an additional mouth and eyes. The legs were missing and instead there were a huge number of large and small wires and metal tentacles. The arms in three parts, shoulders, forearm and palms with three blade-sharp claws, levitated next to the main body. Behind the back were two canisters that acted as a life support apparatus for the creature with Chaos Energy in it, whose additional huge cables, stuck into the two shoulders of the creature, poured energy into the main body. In addition to the canisters, there were two metal "angel" wings with sharp feathers directed in every direction. The head shape of the creature itself looked like a bird's beak with a huge bright yellow gem on its forehead and a single green "eye" in the center. On the top of the head there was what looked like a crown, which looked more like a birdcage than a royal crown. The whole body was in cold gray and black tones except for the edges and lines of the body and its parts, in which the green Chaos Energy shimmered.
While X looked in horror at who or what MaVi had turned into, Sonic silently looked at the flying creature with a serious expression on his face. He knew that this would happen to MaVi, because he could not control the Chaos Energy in his body. But Sonic knew one thing that would be a slightly positive turn for this situation. What a blue hedgehog need to do now is to wait and prepare for this moment.
"WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?!" Hornet screamed in horror when he saw transformed MaVi on the screen.
A hornet reploid, Dr. Cain, Tails, Jumper, Marty, Thomas, Marty's entire pirate crew and Maverick hunters looked in horror at the creature on the screen.
"I don't know what it is exactly." Tails said. "But I have several bad thoughts about this. I'll contact Sonic..."
Looking at Miles Electric, a little fox was shocked and horrified to find that the connection to the device he had given to Sonic had been cut off. He had several thoughts in his head about what was going on or who this creature can be coming from.
"Tails?" Dr. Cain asked the fox worriedly, which is why Tails paid attention to him. "Did something happen to X and Sonic?"
After calming himself down a bit, Tails looked at Dr. Cain with a serious expression on his face before he replied:
"It's possible that something happened to them."
"Can we intervene?" Hornet asked.
Tails thought about it for a few seconds until he replied.
"We don't know yet. Although, if you think about it, we can help them a little."
"I'm sorry." Jumper interrupted, pointing his finger at the "demon head." "Tails, when you copied the structure of the castle, what was inside that building, that looked like a demonic head?"
"Why this question, Jumper?" Marty asked, raising an eyebrow.
"I'm talking about the fact that maybe we'll find something inside the "demon head" that can help our comrades in the battle with the final boss." Explained a coral colored reploid.
Suddenly one thought came to a little fox's mind, and he immediately look at Miles Electric to look up at the stucture of the castle again. He then quickly noticed a whole cannon inside the "demon head". Tails was so terribly surprised that he had not noticed it before.
"Tails, are you okay?" Dr. Cain asked again, noticing the expression on Tails' face.
"Doctor Cain, inside the structure, which is built based on a demonic head, there is a whole cannon!" Tails said and everyone in this command room gasped from surprise.
"A cannon?!" Dr. Cain asked and looked at a little fox's screen himself.
Soon Marty came looked at the structure of the castle. After looking at the cannon for about two seconds, the blonde pirate turned to Tails:
"Tails, maybe we can teleport at the castle and use this cannon? By that we can help Sonic and X."
"You're right, Marty." Said the little fox. "As I noticed, the creature that MaVi turned into, has two canisters on his back, which apparently serve him or them like a medical life support. If we take away two canisters from them, then the chance of victory will turn towards X and Sonic."
"Good idea, Tails." Dr. Cain said, then he proposed a plan that he had come up. "We can send a group that can get to the "demon head" and use the cannon. Tails, you're going to be in this group. Unfortunately, I can't go because I have things to do and again...My age...Dammit…"
"Well, that's understandable." Tails said before he turned to the crowd. "Who wants to go there with me?"
"Can I go?" Jumper asked and everyone looked at him. "I am very knowledgeable about using guns and my skills can be useful in this mission."
"Unfortunately, I won't be able to go." Marty said. "I still need to recover from my injuries. So, I'll all of this to you, Jumper. You got it, sailor!"
"Y-Yes, ma'am!" Said a coral reploid with wide eyes of excitement, and if he was human, his cheeks will be flashed out of shyness.
Tails smiled at Jumper, then he turned to the crowd and was surprised to see that many reploids, hunters and pirates, raised their hands. A large anime-style drop fell over the little fox's head, but in his heart, he was glad that there were many people willing to help. Dr. Cain, along with three Maverick Hunters' engineers, went to one room where there were several teleportation capsules.
All the people and reploids, in fear and great worry, went out into the streets or looked through the windows in the buildings, in which they were now, at the creature that had once been MaVi.
In New York, Rollera and Pazmar stood on the roof of one of the buildings with captured robbers and looked at the sky. Rollera was trembling in fear due to her feeling that she was looking at deities from cosmic horror movies she watched, while Pazmar simply placed his hand on her shoulder to ease her anxiety a little, but he himself looked at the creatures with narrowed eyes. The robbers looked at the creatures in fear, believing that he had come to bring judgment on people, especially on them.
In Cairo, Horus looked up at the sky in worry, not understanding what was happening and was unhappy that this creature had cut short his day as his city's Robin Hood.
In the prison of one of the bases of the Maverick Hunters, although Lurk could not see what was happening outside, he knew that now the situation seemed to have gotten worse somehow.
In her home, Tu huddled near Bao's lap as he tried to calm her down, stroking her head. Even though the gray reploid himself was afraid and worried, he knew that his adopted daughter was more scared and was determined that he would protect her at all costs.
"Sonic, what are we going to do?" X asked Sonic. "Do we have some way to wi... What the…?"
In the corner of his eye, X noticed something glowing, and he turned to outside of the window and saw that seven luminous points began to fall in different directions of the castle. Mavi did not pay attention to that, which is strange. X immediately guessed that these luminous points were...
"These are Chaos Emeralds!" A white reploid exclaimed loudly. "But why MaVi not noticed it immediately?"
"MaVi did not noticed Chaos Emeralds because he is not himself anymore." Sonic said. "And I mean that now MaVi was literally insane. X, we need quickly to collect Chaos Emeralds before MaVi could do anything. After we collects Emeralds, we need to go to different place, so I can restore them. Are you ready?"
"I'm ready, Sonic." X said, deciding he will question Sonic later, and took the blue hedgehog's hand. "For everlasting peace."
"That's the spirit!" Said Sonic with a smile. "Let's go!"
A blue hedgehog ran away from the room with X, while taking the bag to put the Chaos Emeralds in it.
Tails, Jumper and two other Maverick hunters named Nicole and Kirby arrived at the scene through teleport. Nicole was a female reploid with light "skin", heavy orange armor with light green stripes, looking like a US Army uniform, a helmet, and blue eyes. Kirby had "Hispanic skin," green eyes, dark blue armor, a helmet with a radar, and a belt with an amount of ammo. All three reploids noticed that a little fox was holding his head with his hand, looking dizzy, and there is a chance, that he will soon vomit.
"Teleportation is not for you, yeah?" Jumper said, looking at Tails with concern before he looked all around him. "This place is pretty...Gloomier than I imagined. Honestly it reminds me of one level in my favorite fighting game where I fought a demoness with green hair and wings on the sides of her head, who wears skimpy clothes."
"Can you show me your game after the mission?" Kirby asked, looking interested. "I…"
"Kirby, you better not think about it!" Nicole loudly scolded the dark blue reploid. "Especially about this last part!"
"Um..." Said Jumper, who was puzzled by the reaction of the orange female reploid of Kirby's apparent interest in his favorite video game.
Tails looked at Miles Electric's screen to see the route to their destination. Soon the group walked down the street, following the directions the little fox gives them.
Within minutes, Sonic and X found five Chaos Emeralds thanks to a hedgehog's sensitivity to Chaos Energy and X's radar, which was in his helmet. When they found a Chaos Emerald, Sonic would give the emerald to the reploid, who in turn would put the emerald in the bag he currently holds. While a hedgehog was quickly running along one of the streets of the castle, X raised his head and looked at the creature again. Suddenly he noticed that the creature raised its hands up. As soon as X asked the question in his head what it was going to do, he suddenly noticed that the scrap metals that was lying on the street began to rise to the top. Realizing what was going on, a white reploid turned to Sonic:
"Sonic, MaVi began to lift the scrap metals upward! He is probably going to either attack us or possibly soon attack the planet!"
"Got it." Sonic said in a serious tone and began to run faster.
Suddenly he sensed the Chaos Energy. X also noticed a Chaos Emerald's left energy through his radar. The Emerald was located somewhere on the next street not too far from them. A reploid pointing the direction of Chaos Emerald by his index finger to the blue hedgehog. They eventually found a green Emerald lying on the ground. Sonic grabbed the Chaos Emerald while running and gave it to X, who put the Emerald in the bag.
A few seconds later they found the purple Chaos Emerald and began to run towards the safe place for them to restore and use Chaos Emeralds. While running, Sonic ran past Tails' group. Tails' group looked after them before they crossed a road to another street.
As Sonic ran, X looked at the creature again and he saw that he was sending large ball, consisting of scrap metals, down, right to the one of areas of the castle, he and a blue hedgehog are currently in.
"Sonic, a large ball is flying towards us!" A reploid shouted to the hedgehog, and the latter nodded his head before quickly speeding up.
They both heard a ball falling loudly behind them.
Soon they arrived inside one of towers on another side of the castle. Stopping in one empty room without windows, Sonic released X from his hands, and he then turned to a white reploid.
"Can you give me the bag?" Sonic asked and X gave him the bag. "Thank you."
"Um, Sonic, can I ask you something?" A reploid asked and the blue hedgehog, who started taking out each Emerald and placing it on the floor. "How can we fight MaVi if the Emeralds have so little energy left? I doubt they can help us now."
"I can use the Chaos Energy from my body to return the Emeralds to their previous state." Sonic answered. "I know how to do this, but I rarely use it due to some reasons."
"Some reasons?" A white reploid asked before one thoughtcrossed his mind about what Sonic meant. "Sonic, I still don't fully understand the concept of what abilities a Chaos Taker may have... But is it not by chance connected with the fact that…You can lose your life?"
A hedgehog slowly raised his head, taking the last Emerald from the bag, then he nodded. X's eyes widened in shock. A reploid stood and looked at the hedgehog until he began to say:
"S-So you w-want to tell me that you could die during this?! Sonic, you can't be serious! We can find another way to defeat MaVi, but not this way! I…"
Placing the Chaos Emeralds in a circle, Sonic looked at X again. A hedgehog's signature grin appeared on his face, to reploid's surprise and confusion.
"Remember how I said earlier that I can take on any challenge?" Sonic asked. "And that's what I do. Thank you for worrying about me. I appreciate it. But I can tell you with confidence that I will live after this. I've done this before and even though I became weak afterwards, I didn't die and never wanted to. Just trust me with this, okay? You will not regret."
X looked at the hedgehog for a minute in silence until he nodded his head and moved away for his own safety. He still worried about his friend and ally, but he knew that Sonic knew what he was doing. Thanking X in his mind for his understanding, a blue blur closed his eyes and raised his hands up. Suddenly the Emeralds moved and flew upward, forming a circle around a hedgehog. The Emeralds began to slowly spin around Sonic, and blue and green Chaos Energy appeared in the blue hedgehog's palms, which was directed towards the Emeralds. Soon, the Chaos Emeralds quickly swirled around the hedgehog, and the energy increased in quantity so that they formed something like a tornado. The Chaos Energy splashed out and flew throughout the room. X tried not to fall into the outburst of the energy and protecting himself with his arms, while being more worried and even afraid of what could happen to Sonic. This continued until the entire room lit up with a bright white light.
Sonic began to breathe deeply, as it seemed to him that with the Chaos Energy, his life energy was also leaving, but he resolutely continuing filling the Chaos Emeralds to restore them. Suddenly he felt someone's presence and he immediately realized that they came to support him. Sonic smiled and then he opens his eyes. His eyes became red with a little orange tint.
Soon the light began to fade and a white reploid moved his hands down. What he saw made his eyes widen in awe. In front of him he saw Sonic with Emeralds, that had already begun to glow brighter than before. Sonic's blue fur turned golden, his eyes changed color, and his needles were raised up. A golden hedgehog looked in X's direction and smirked, raising an eyebrow in a playful manner.
"Do you like it?" Sonic asked. "I told you I could handle it."
"S-Sonic." X said and approached a flying hedgehog with great fanboying admiration in his eyes. "...I...I-IT'S COOL! I-I-I don't even have words to describe it!"
"Thank you for the compliment." Sonic said with a smile, then he extended his hand to a white reploid. "Are you ready? I will give you the Chaos Energy so that you will transform in your own super form. To the point?"
X looked at the hand. There were so many thoughts and questions running through his head, but he hold the hand. Sonic began to give Chaos Energy to the reploid.
"Well, who's first?" Jumper asked as he, Tails, Marty, Nicole and Kirby arrived below the "demon head".
"We'll all go there up." Tails said. "I'll help you all get up here."
"I can help too." Said Jumper. "My name is for a reason. I can immediately jump high and carry two people to the top at the same time!"
"Are you real?" Asked Kirby.
"Kirby, don't get distracted so easily." Nicole said with obvious irritation.
A little fox flew up and took Nicole by her hands. Tails headed up while Jumper took Kirby's hand and jumped high into the air. As it turned out, a coral colored reploid really jumped high and was the first to reach the entrance to the inside of the "demon head" before Tails could reach it. When a little fox landed and released Nicole from his arms, the whole group slowly walked down. Kirby took out the flashlight he had brought just in case and turned it on. As the group began to walk, suddenly Tails heard something from above and turned around.
"Hey, Foxy, did you hear something?" Jumper asked and turned to see that the fox had widened his eyes in awe and had a bright smile on his face. "Tails?"
"Look." Tails said quietly and pointed his index finger straight to the sky.
The three reploids looked where Tails pointed, and their eyes also widened in awe. The group saw two golden luminous points in the sky, that heading towards transformed MaVi. There were Sonic and X. X had restored, but golden armor, and azure eyes with a green tint, in contrast to the red eyes with orange tint of a golden hedgehog.
"It's them?" Jumper asked, looking pleasantly surprised. "I think I have a story that I want to tell Marty."
"Yeah." Tails agreed with the coral reploid, then he turned and ran further down. "Let's go! We still had things to do!"
Jumper and Kirby with a bright smile, and Nicole, who rolled her eyes but also smiled, quickly followed the little fox.
Soon, Sonic and X stopped near MaVi, who, meanwhile, was collecting scrap metals from his castle.
"Hey, MaVi!" a hedgehog loudly addressed a creature, who turn its head in their direction. "Our second round is not over yet! Do you want rematch? In our case, we are gladly accepting it!"
Without answering anything, the creature sent scrap metals towards Sonic and X. Both heroes quickly flying away from scrap metals before they headed towards MaVi. While flying, Sonic curled into a ball and headed towards a creature as X began charging his X-Buster. In an instant, the hedgehog hit the MaVi's fused armor, but this did not bring any damage to the creature. At that same second, Sonic flew away and returned to X.
"My attack does not harm him." Said a golden blur. "If this is so, then we must look for where his weak points are!"
"Got it." Said a golden reploid and fired a powerful shot at MaVi.
But by the time the shot could hit MaVi, a creature had formed an energy shield in front of itself, using not only Chaos Energy, but also its tentacles as support for the shield. Sonic and X immediately realized what they needed to do and flew in two different directions to not only destroy the tentacles, but also finding creature's weak points, while avoiding the metal feathers and scraps that MaVi send in their directions.
"Wow." Kirby said in awe when he saw the cannon itself in front of him. "I never suspected that such a battle cannon would be this huge."
"It's better to focus on the mission." Nicole told her partner, before she told others. "We need to set up the cannon now. Clearly and quickly."
The cannon was long and huge. The cannon was mostly gray with red lines on the sides. It was attached to a platform where there were devices with which the cannon could be adjusted and controlled. The group climbed onto the platform and Tails immediately ran towards these devices. Jumper stood next to a small fox while Nicole and Kirby kept their weapons ready and looked around in case something suddenly attacked them. Surprisingly, Tails quickly finished to getting access to a cannon in minutes before he turned to Jumper.
"Everything is ready, Jumper. You can begin."
"In this short time?!" Jumper asked, looking surprised. "I didn't know that you..."
"We don't have time for this, Jumper." Said the little fox. "You will admire my skills later, when our mission is done."
"Yes, Captain Foxy!" Jumper said loudly and saluted to Tails before he quickly walked towards the cannon.
Jumper took the control over a cannon and began to aim. Tails stood next to him to help him with directions. Soon, through the camera that attached to cannon, which showed where the weapon would be aimed, Jumper saw that he was pointing the cannon at one of MaVi's canisters and noticed that X was hitting the tentacles so that the energy shield could be weaken and disappear. The coral reploid began to wait until the cannon was charged and the shield completely disintegrated. Soon he noticed that X flew away, and MaVi began to direct large laser energy projectiles possibly towards a golden reploid and Sonic. At this, Jumper pressed the trigger with determination.
At the same second, a huge bright shot flew out of the cannon, which seconds later hit one of creature's canisters. This shot was so strong that Kirby and Nicole almost fell off the platform and could have fallen if Tails and Jumper had not caught them in time. As the two Maverick hunters stood back on the platform, the entire group heard MaVi's loud roar of agony.
RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRR
Sonic and X were surprised that unexpectedly a laser from different direction hit one of creature's canisters, destroying it in the process. Without wasting a time guessing who did it, a reploid and a hedgehog again headed towards MaVi and began attacking him to find its weak points. In turn, the creature tried to protect itself by directing lasers from its mouth, gem and different places on its body, attacking the heroes by its remained tentacles, and throwing metal feathers from wings, and huge metal pieces from the buildings, towers, and other remains of the castle Sonic's and X's direction.
Seeing what happened, Jumper took control of the cannon again and aimed it at the second canister to completely weaken MaVi. But before he could pull the trigger...
"Everyone! Leave this platform! NOW!" Nicole suddenly shouted, and the way she shouted, that sound urgent.
Jumper at first did not understand what was happening until Tails grabbed him and Nicole, who also grabbed Kirby by his arm, by their hands and quickly flew up from the platform in different direction. Soon a huge green laser beam streaked over onto the platform, destroying it with the cannon. The hot remains of the cannon and platform began to fall over the ground. Tails flew to the ground, while avoiding hot scrap metals and released all reploids on the ground. Nicole released Kirby and Tails fall on the ground, looking exhausted from holding such weight. Jumper took the fox in his arms and the group started to walk fast to the exit from the "demon head".
In the sky, Sonic turned to see, where MaVi directed the beam, and he noticed a coral reploid, who holding his best friend, and two unknown reploids to him, presumably Maverick hunters, who jumped on the street and quickly leaves this area. Questions arose in the golden hedgehog's mind as to what they were doing here and whether they were responsible for the destruction of one of the canisters that weakened MaVi. He smiled and thanked them for their help, before he flew towards the creature.
Meanwhile, X distracted MaVi with his shots while he headed towards the second cantister. At this moment, Sonic, curled up into a ball, began to attack MaVi from all sides. Taking advantage of this, a golden reploid quickly flew to the second canister and took out Zero's laser beam, which was still with him. X cut in half not only the second canister but also the cable, in which the Chaos Energy was transported to the creature's main body, with the laser beam. But at this Zero's laser beam broke, and its broken pieces flew down. MaVi roared in pain again, as it had already lost its second source of the energy.
Sonic continued to attack MaVi until he accidentally hit a yellow gem on the forehead, getting through the birdcage-like crown. Golden blur noticed that the gem cracked easily. Thinking that this might be another Achilles' heel besides two canisters, a golden hedgehog flew away from creature, curled up into a ball and quickly headed towards the gem. Even though Mavi tried protecting itself with an energy shield and a shot of feathers at the hedgehog, Sonic was able to go through the shield and hit a yellow gem. He crushed the gem. MaVi roared for the third time from the pain.
Sonic quickly appeared next to X. They both looked at each other before they nodded their heads, knowing that they going to make final hit. Both heroes flew straight towards MaVi's chest at the speed of light and prepared their fists.
"Game..." Sonic and X began, approaching the center of creature's chest and...
BOOM!
"...Over!" Finished both golden hedgehog and reploid as they passed through the body of MaVi, dividing it in two halves.
The creature let out one last roar until it passed out and two parts of its body began to fall to castle. A lot of motor oil poured out of the two parts of the body on the ground like a rain.
"How cool..." Kirby said with stars in his eyes as he watched Sonic and X gave MaVi the final blow before he said loudly while jumping. "We won! We won! We won..."
"I'm sorry, Kirby…" A Maverick hunter turned to Nicole, and it was clear that she was very annoyed that Kirby did not pay attention to one thing. "…BUT WE HAVE TO GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE BEFORE TWO HUGE BODY PARTS FALL ON US!"
After Nicole shout this, the group began to quickly run to get away from the castle area. At this time Tails recovered and flying next to three reploids. When the group almost reached the exit of the castle area, Tails immediately noticed that the lower body of the creature was falling towards them. A little fox grabbed Kirby's hand, while with his other hand, he also grabbed Jumper. Kirby in his turn grabbed Nicole's hand. Tails flying very fast, trying to get to the exit.
Unexpectedly for the group, MaVi's lower body seemed to stop mid-air for some reason.
Soon the group got out of the castle area, and they stopped near a stone that was not far from the castle at a safe distance. Everyone sat down on the other side of the stone from the castle to be safe. Tails began to breathe deeply and heavily from fatigue. His fur was wet with sweat. A little fox walked a little away from the three reploids and shook himself like all foxes do after they get out of the water. As soon as Tails shook himself out…
CRASH
BOOM
CRASH
…Loud noises and rumbles were heard behind the stone. The group already knew that these sounds were caused by two parts of MaVi's body that fell onto the castle, but despite this, everyone was scared since this was unexpected.
Then everything became quiet.
Nicole looked around, then she took out something like a tablet and typed a message on it to Dr. Cain that the mission was complete and that they need a shuttle to be sent for them due to Tails' and possibly Sonic's problem with teleportation. The fox looked into the sky, hoping that he would see his two friends. Soon he saw two shining figures in the sky, and he smiled. Tails raised his hand up and began to wave it so that Sonic and X noticed him.
"Here!" A little fox said loudly.
Two lights flew down towards Tails and three reploids. When the golden hedgehog and reploid landed, they both returned to their previous forms and all seven Chaos Emeralds appeared around them.
"Hello, Tails." A blue hedgehog greeted his friend. "Thank you, guys, for helping us a little in the battle with MaVi. I didn't expect to see you four in this place, but I appreciate it."
"When we saw MaVi on the screen back in Maverick Hunters' Agro-2 Base, we decided that we would help you a little." Tails explained. "Sorry if we went behind your back like that."
"It's nothing." Said Sonic with a smile. "You and others made the right choice to interfere a little."
Tails smiled until he noticed that X began to stagger, losing his balance.
"X?" A worried little fox asked the white reploid.
The blue hedgehog turned his head towards X. Before a white reploid could answer the little fox's question, he immediately fell to the ground, to the concern of the anthropomorphic hedgehog and fox, and the three reploids.
"X!" Tails loudly said, quickly approached X, and picked up a white reploid to check on him.
Sonic walked up to the unconscious X with a serious face, sat down on his knee and placed his hand on his chest. Jumper, Kirby and Nicole also approached due to their concern for their comrade.
"He's alive." A blue hedgehog said to the relief of everyone around him. "He was just tired from the battle, and used most of Chaos Energy I gave him. He needed to rest."
"Thank Freedom." Tails said, exhaling deeply in relief.
"As I know, teleportation will not be very pleasant and comfortable for Tails and perhaps for you, Sonic." Jumper said. "We can ask for a shuttle..."
"I already did it." Nicole said and everyone turned their attention to her, except Kirby, who already knew. "I told Professor Cain to send a shuttle for us. We need to wait about 10-15 minutes."
"Well, we'll just sit and relax." Sonic said. "But we needn't to forget that we are watching over X."
A blue hedgehog jumped onto the surface of the stone. Jumper decided to look over MaVi's castle. A coral reploid jumped to the top of the stone, being careful not to hit Sonic, who gotten relaxed. Jumper looked of what used to be a gloomy and frightening place. All that was left of that place was rubble, destroyed buildings and two halves of the creature. The sun began to rise over the horizon and shine in Jumper's face. A coral reploid smiled, knowing that everything ended well and jumped down back to the ground.
Kirby started talking to Tails about his inventions. Nicole just sat and watched over X, who was placed near the stone. Sonic lay on the stone with his hands behind his head with eyes closed. Jumper looked up at the sky with the sad smile. Even though he felt sad because he knew that he would soon say goodbye to his new two friends, but at the same time, part of him hopes that after their farewells to the two heroes from different dimension, they might return to his world with the new interesting and incredible things with them.
Next time...Farewell!
Oh...This was a difficult chapter. I rewrote it two times. The second time of rewriting this chapter is this chapter you just read. While I am writing this chapter, I experienced difficulties in the form of keeping epic action, adding new characters that would help our heroes with Tails and the battle with the main and final boss. But I made it through, despite the difficulties. I thank my readers for their patience.
Notes from author (it's fun factin' time!):
- As I said earlier, I rewrote this chapter twice. To make it easier, I'll call the original text of this chapter #1, the first rewrite #2, and the second rewrite you read as #3. #1 was completely based on the original chapter 16. When I looked at the text of #1, I dislike it. The reasons for this:
A.I felt that Sonic was somewhere on supporting role.
B: I wrote X like a jerk while staying true to the manga.
I decided to rewrite it and even though I loved #2 more than#1, I was not completely satisfied, again due to the reasons that I described above regarding Sonic and X in #1. I want to point out that #2 somehow can be called a prototype of #3. This is due having using elements from #2 for writing #3. I rewrote 16th chapter again for its release, and I this is we got #3 version. I liked #3 more than #2 and #1, so I chose this to publish and release.
-I wrote #2 and #3 based on half of the original chapter in the manga (pages 1-29) before I changed the rest of the plot, so the chapter can be interesting to read and for Sonic to have role in it too.
-In #1 and #2 the main final boss was Sigma (not MaVi). I changed that role to MaVi since I put him in this fanfic in previous chapters.
-In #2 Tails have acting role in 16th chapter as he with X and Sonic fighting against Sigma. When I look over #2, I was be like: "OMG, I overdone it so much. Tails was not necessary even here to fight Big Bad.". In the end I decided that in this version only Sonic and X can fight MaVi (the main boss of this version), but I changed Tails role as a leader of the mission group, that in this version of the chapter take control over cannon to help our blue guys during their boss fight.
-For the design of MaVi (now I will call him Chaos MaVi) in #2 and #3, I took inspiration from bosses from Sonic like Solaris and Dark Gaia, the appearance of deities from Lovecraft stories and angels from the Old Testament, and a little from Silent Hill in terms of symbolism in the design. In #2, the design of the transformed Sigma (that I mention earlier) was more like an Old Testament angel and he even called himself "Azothoth". In #3, the appearance of Chaos MaVi became like Solaris, as I was more inspired by the latter. As for the symbolism, there is only one here and it is a crown in the form of a birdcage. This crown is a personification of the fact that MaVi himself is stuck in his program, and he is like a bird that is locked in a cage. How much MaVi will try to escape from his program, the program will always be with him. MaVi is painfully aware of that, and this is one of the reasons why he does not like to be called a machine or use "it" as a pronoun in relation to him.
-In this chapter, I wrote more than three pronouns towards MaVi: "he", "they" and "it". I will explain why I used there pronouns to cleanse some To clarify MaVi's gender identity is male, and his pronouns are he/his. The reason why X and Sonic still call the creature that MaVi turned into by these pronouns is because they know that this creature is him, but in a different shape and form. Tails and the others call Chaos MaVi by pronouns "they/them" because they do not yet fully know that creature was and where it came from (despite they had several ideas about that this creature was), they all decided to use this pronoun for now. The idea of using a third pronoun "it", when I'm writing this chapter. What if pronoun "it" will be used as a manifestation of MaVi's nightmares and fears into reality of that he become in the end? Like becoming brainless machine? And I did exactly that.
-X's Super Form is the golden version of his Third Armor, which in this fanfic was triggered by the Chaos Energy that Sonic gave to X. I chose this option because it's very cool for me. Also, for a bit of creativity, in his super form, X has azure eyes with a green tint to contrast with Sonic's red eyes with orange tint.
-I took inspiration for Sonic's eyes having orange tint in his Super form from Super Sonic's official 2D artwork and Sonic IDW #29 cover RE by Aaron Hammerstrom. When I looked at them sometimes it seemed to me that in Super Sonic's eyes there is little orange or yellow tint.
-And there is a reference to Darkstalkers as Jumper's favorite game! You already guessed by the description a coral reploid gave to Kirby about one particular character from this game.
-For original named characters, that first appeared in this chapter, I will say that Nicole is the reploid version of Lanolin the sheep from IDW Sonic. But unlike the sheep, that nowadays was presented in current issues, Nicole has boundaries with her seriousness about the matter of the mission and following the rules, and often tries to understand and think about other people's feelings first before she makes a decision or move to mission. Kirby, unlike Nicole, is a cheerful guy who will always help and for some reason he was interested in Jumper's videogame. Thank God, that Nicole was nearby to stop him from committing something foolish and always acts for him as a voice of reason.
I'll see you this month with the final chapter in this story and a conclusion where I will not only talk about aspects of this fanfic, but also how I have evolved over the time I've been writing this fanfic. See you soon and I wish you a good first month of summer!