A/N: I don't have much to say for this chapter, except enjoy the ride as we finish the Chaos Competition Arc!
I would like to thank Monster King for favoriting and following since my last chapter!
Without further ado, let's move on to the reviews and what matters most: the story!
7 Reviews
danielman21
Same here, Emerl is a tough opponent, especially since he's a Phantom Ruby illusion. Hopefully Knuckles will have what it takes to win!
It's true, Tails' namesakes are really soft :) I need to have more moments like that in my stories that are pure fluff, even if it doesn't directly add anything to the plot. I love feel-good stories like that. I highly recommend "The Size of Chris' Heart" by TheLordsbeacon.
Super duper waffles
The Society's showing their true colors... Hopefully Sonic and friends will have a chance of stopping both them and Eggman. Three-way battles are always fun to read, even if they're tricky to write.
1: Both IRL Earth and CoE Earth are almost exactly the same, except the concept of Sonic does not exist in CoE Earth, most of the politicians are different, certain events in history happened slightly differently, Covid-19 did not happen. As for similarities, most of the countries on CoE Earth are essentially the same as IRL Earth, and all the laws are the same as well. Both Earths have most of the same media too.
2: Yes, Sonic does play Earth video games in his spare time, and so do Tails, Amy, and Cream! But for Sonic in particular, he prefers racing games like Need for Speed, Forza, and Gran Turismo, but he has dabbled in other games like Fall Guys, Rocket League, and even Fortnite. I imagine that Tails and Cream play Minecraft, but Cream also plays Kirby, and Amy also plays racing games as well as Mario and Legend of Zelda. even though Knuckles doesn't play as much as the others, he does enjoy Super Smash Bros and even games like Overwatch. They all play other games too like Pokemon, but these are the ones on the top of my head for now. Also, funny you mention this now, since I just came across a Reddit post asking what games Amy plays, and the top comment is "she says she plays Pokemon or Animal Crossing, but she actually plays Resident Evil", which I can totally imagine.
3: Not many other Sonic Movie elements are canon to this story, except for Agent Stone, who has no connection to Robotnik in this universe except he runs the Mean Bean Coffee Shop. Tom's entire family are canon, and so are Major Bennington and Commander Walters and Randall.
4: Mobius' humans would probably think of Earth as largely the same as Mobius, except a bit more complicated due to how society works, as well as slightly less advanced in technology. Some may even say it's comparatively boring.
Five-Chosen
I've seen Ask the Sonic Heroes before! :D I don't remember that specific moment since it's been a while since I last saw it, but it's cool that Knuckles was the first person she ever hit with her hammer XD
blazenight01
Okay, that's good, I was a little concerned about that. I didn't know if Knuckles in particular was too outgoing, but it's to know he's still in character. And that reminds me, if I get more comfortable writing small talk, I should definitely have Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Amy chat more in my stories.
As for Amy, I can make a note to tone her back a little in her matches with Sonic and Rouge, particularly her match with Sonic.
Jenaku
Thank you for your review! I enjoyed writing Chris and Knuckles' dynamic, as well as the Amy vs. Rouge match. I do love making the story different from the show!
Don't worry, Mr. Tanaka will be okay with a little rest and TLC.
Amy vs. Knuckles was fun to write! I love their character dynamic.
Now that the GUN robots are no longer in GUN's hands, they're a real force to be reckoned with.
Here is the final part of the tournament arc!
Monster King
I'm doing what a lot of stories tend to not do: showing politicians without giving the story any form of political bias! I'm not the type to get involved in controversy or bash anyone either because I'm not toxic like that. And Sonic and friends have been around on Earth long enough that it's clear they're the good guys, and the military compensates them for keeping the country safe from Eggman.
The closest story I can recommend where the military helps Sonic against Eggman is A Bridge Between Worlds by AndTails. I'm not sure if I'm aware of any others off the top of my head, but good luck with your search!
CreativeKitty975
The judges would not have been able to see inside the tent, which is one of the big reasons why it would be banned in the tournament, and besides, how did Rouge even bring it with her? I imagine it would probably be too big for Hammerspace.
In an alternate universe, she could probably win against Knuckles, but likely still lose against Emerl. Amy is my favorite girl character, so I pampered her a bit in this tournament XD
I like that part of the fight with Amy and Knuckles too. It also gives me an excuse to put her kickboxing skills to good use.
To be honest, I wasn't expecting to write death either, but I wasn't going to kill off any important characters. It would also be unrealistic if all the GUN agents got away from the Society without any heavy casualties, especially with a robot as dangerous as Beta Mk. III. I don't like writing death, which is why I only write it sparingly. In fact, I felt bold doing it, since this was my first time in any of my fanfictions where I wrote death, and I've been writing on this site for over six years.
Topaz is definitely feeling guilty after that mission, even though she knew what she was signing up for when she joined GUN.
Thanks for your review as always! Here is the conclusion to the Chaos Competition Arc!
Chapter 46
Episode 46 (part 2)
The Finals
Diamond Stadium – Sun March 19 – Third-person POV
Before the final match started, Elmer called for a twenty-minute break so that people could get more snacks and use the restroom if they needed to. Only about half of the people in the stands left to do what they needed to do, but Chris and his friends and family were among those who went down to the food court to pick up more food and refills. Even though the food was pricey, Chuck said he was okay with it and it was all on him because his wallet was practically bulging with the family wealth, so he could afford it all.
"Are you nervous, Knuckles?" Chris asked the echidna next to him as he finished paying for his second hot dog.
"You asking me if I'm nervous?" he chuckled. "I dealt with Emerl before, I got this."
"Wait, you did?" Chris asked in confusion. "Oh wait… you're talking about the past, right?"
Knuckles nodded. "Yeah, he wasn't always a bad guy. He was pretty okay until Eggman caused him to just… suddenly snap. He was pretty tough, but in the end, he wasn't anything we couldn't handle." Knuckles leaned against the wall. "And besides, this version of Emerl looks like he's a whole lot easier than before, so I'm feeling pretty good about myself."
"I'm so excited!" Cream cheered from nearby. "I hope you win, Mr. Knuckles!" The echidna smiled at her enthusiasm that hadn't wavered since the tournament began.
"Hey, Tails! Over here!" they heard Sonic call. Those nearby turned to see the small orange fox running their way, waving as he made his way over.
"Hey Sonic!" he called, excitement in his voice. "Guess what? I got to be an announcer with Scarlet!" Even though he already told them that over the phone, he was so excited about it that it was worth repeating.
Sonic grinned. "I'm proud of ya, buddy! How was it?"
"It was really fun!" Tails said as he joined his big bro. "I was a little nervous at first, but Scarlet did most of the talking, and eventually I got the hang of it."
"How did that happen?" Amy asked as she approached. "Just curious."
"Um, well…" Tails scratched the back of his head. "They kinda don't want me telling the exact reason for now, but I volunteered, and they somehow said yes."
"Awesome!" Sonic said with a grin. "Oh yeah, there's been something I've been meanin' to tell you for a bit now."
"Yeah?" Tails asked, noticing Sonic's more serious tone of voice as he went up to pay for a chili dog.
"'K, so I was thinking… Watchin' Chris out there today… I kinda feel like I should have brought this up a long time ago, but I think we should see if we can train him how to fight, or at least teach him self-defense."
Tails blinked in surprise. "I… was actually thinking the same thing earlier, how did you know?" he said. "But yeah, self-defense is really important. We can arrange something when we're back home. Maybe we can even find a way to include him in our sparring sessions in a way that's not going to overwhelm him. Though it might be a little tricky since humans have a much lower pain tolerance than us Mobians."
"You know we'll think of something," Sonic said with a smile.
They continued chatting for a bit, but right as Tails received his chili dog and finished paying for it, he was approached from either side by a few staff members.
"Sorry to interrupt, Mr. Prower, but we need you to come with us right away," one of them told him. "It's urgent."
"O-Okay…?" Tails said, feeling a little nervous as he looked up at the men. "Um, can I bring my chili dog though?"
One of the men thought for a second. "We don't normally allow food in the conference room, but we'll make an exception for you since you just ordered food and I don't like seeing it go to waste."
"Okay," Tails said. "Uh, s-see you later guys!"
As Tails followed the three men through the lobby and out of sight, the others were visibly confused at what had just happened.
Diamond Stadium – Sun March 19 – Third-person POV
Tails took a deep breath as he followed the stadium's staff into the spacious conference room, where Elmer Johnson, Tom Wachowski, and several other people he didn't recognize were already gathered. Reading the room, the fox could tell that the meeting was already in progress. He was surprised to see Tom there, but he knew that he was a police officer from Montana, and it was very possible that he was a volunteer there like the Chaotix. But he didn't get to ask about it because Elmer started speaking first.
"Welcome in, Tails," he greeted as the kitsune sat down in the nearest occupied seat, seemingly paying no mind that he had brought food into the room. "We hate to call you away from the event like this, but we asked you to come here since you volunteered to protect Scarlet, which led us to believe you have knowledge of what's going on behind the scenes in the tournament."
"Y-Yeah, I do," Tails said, his small legs dangling from the human-sized seat as he prepared to take a bite of his chili dog. "I did some research of my own last night. I didn't see anything that added up on the news, so um…" He hesitated for a moment, glancing around the room. "I hope you don't mind, but I kinda hacked into the security feed to see if I could find any answers myself."
"Hm," Elmer said. If he was surprised, he didn't seem to show it. "Did you find anything?"
Tails shook his head. "Nope… Whoever's behind the sabotage seems to have been very thorough."
"Are you sure it's okay to hack into–"
"It's fine," Elmer said, holding up a hand, keeping one of the men from continuing that thought any further. "I know Tails, he helped me before. He helped me to realize how important this stadium's turf was back when it used to be a baseball stadium."
"No offense, but what does that have to do with hacking?" the other man said.
"Tails has helped to save Station Square time and again from Dr. Eggman, and his technological know-how has never failed to help us. I trust him."
Tails blushed at Elmer's compliment as he shyly looked from one face to the next.
"We have about fourteen minutes before the final match, so the point is, we found out the cameras were shut off again."
"Today?" Tails gasped.
"Yes, today," Elmer confirmed. "But only the ones around the storage room were shut off, the rest were working just fine. And just to be sure, we sent security down there only to find the Chaos Emerald untouched. Although, the rest of the room appears to have been roughhoused in."
"So what does that mean?" Tails asked, sitting up after swallowing a mouthful of his chili dog.
"I went down there myself," Tom spoke up. "Several boxes were knocked off the shelves, and a lot of others looked like they were out of place. So anything could have happened."
"Which means whoever was in there must have failed to get the Emerald," Tails deducted.
"My thoughts exactly," Tom said, folding his hands across the table.
Letting out a sigh, Elmer closed his eyes. "I don't want to have to delay the tournament again…" he said. "Especially since we're so close to the end."
"It would be the safest option though," Tom said.
"That's true," Elmer said, opening his eyes again. "We could refund all the attendees and host the final match tomorrow like we did yesterday, but it really hurt our sales when we did that, and we can't afford to do it again. Besides, putting it off until tomorrow just to have one match before everyone goes home is not practical in any capacity."
"Please don't cancel the tournament," Tails said with a hint of urgency, leaning forward in his seat.
"I don't want to either, Tails, but it's too dangerous," Elmer told him. "Even after we tightened our security as much as the city would allow, we still have saboteurs in our midst, and frankly we can't risk the safety of the general public."
"I know, but I can still help you guys look for anything suspicious!" Tails said. "Me and Sonic are free, even Rouge can help if she wants!"
The others looked at each other, unsure of how to answer the young fox.
"I had a really good vantage point up in the announcer's booth, so I can see everything that's going on in the audience," Tails pressed.
"But that's only half the problem solved," Tom said.
"As soon as I get back, I'm gonna talk to Sonic and Rouge and see if they can cover the downstairs area," Tails proposed.
"Are you sure they'll be okay with missing the big finale?" Tom asked.
"I mean, it's up to them in the end," Tails said, "but the fewer people who know about any of this, the better. I don't want to see the whole crowd getting scared, you know?"
"I'm in full agreement with you, Tails," Elmer said. "Then based on you and your friends' track record, I'll accept your proposition. And even if nothing happens, I appreciate that you're taking the initiative and covering all our bases."
"Thank you, sir," Tails said, blushing a little bit as he picked up his chili dog and prepared to leave the room.
"All right, you can go back to the others now," Elmer said. "There's not much time left until Knuckles and Emerl duke it out in the ring."
But Tails was already gone, just a blur of light orange and white as he flew out of sight.
Diamond Stadium – Sun March 19 – Third-person POV
Before long, the twenty minutes were up and everyone was gradually filing back into the arena for the final match of the Chaos Competition. Knuckles and Emerl were already down in the arena in their corners, ready for the match to begin.
"Ladies and gentlemen, are you ready?!" Elmer declared into the microphone, and the entire crowd cheered. "It's time for the final round! Who will win?! Will it be the muscular Knuckles the Echidna, or the master of many abilities Emerl?"
As excited as Knuckles was, he also couldn't help but feel a little nervous deep down. Emerl could not only copy other people's abilities, but he could also use any of his previously copied abilities, even if their original users weren't around. Plus Knuckles knew it was inevitable that Emerl would copy his own abilities and use them against him at some point. He braced himself for the fight to come. He hoped they wouldn't be evenly matched for a long time as a result.
Knuckles knew he had to win this. He had to. He had always been suspicious of Emerl, particularly because he was a Phantom Ruby illusion. And it didn't help that he had started getting rough in his match with Mr. Tanaka.
Up in the announcer's booth, Tails was keeping a careful eye on Emerl in case he started to act differently than how he had been since he inexplicably showed up at the mansion last month. He had to simultaneously keep an eye on the crowd in case he detected movement that didn't look normal, but it seemed to be an impossible task with how many people were there at the stadium.
"The winner will receive $50,000 and one of the seven genuine Chaos Emeralds!" Elmer announced. "On your marks… Get set… FIGHT!"
Knuckles and Emerl immediately charged out of their corners at each other. The echidna was the first to fight, trading blows with Emerl. However, the robot caught on and became an even match for Knuckles, which he anticipated. Neither of them were able to get an edge over the other.
The monotony of the battle suddenly changed when Emerl executed Sonic's spin dash and pushed against Knuckles, who caught him. Emerl was spinning so fast that he was actually grinding against Knuckles and driving him back toward the edge of the arena. Knuckles realized what was happening and leaped back just in time, making sure he landed in the arena and not on the ground outside of it.
Knuckles let out a growl and lunged straight toward Emerl who was recovering from his attack. Emerl was caught off guard by Knuckles' sudden move, and he took damage from Knuckles' flurry of tight punches. But then Emerl activated Rouge's Screw Kick and spun out of the way, nearly causing Knuckles to stumble forward after punching the air where the robot had just been standing.
"Oh, what's this?" Scarlet said from the announcer's booth. "Emerl just used Rouge's Screw Kick to pull out of the way of Knuckles' attack! But Rouge was not one of his opponents, how did he do that?"
"My guess is Emerl watched Rouge fighting earlier and learned her abilities as she went," Tails speculated.
"Hm, that makes sense," Scarlet said.
Knuckles realized he was starting to lose. Emerl had nearly gotten him to fall out of the arena twice, and Knuckles had only gotten a few hits in himself. He didn't realize how fast Emerl was going to be.
I can't lose… he thought. Not this early. I won't lose!
Knuckles immediately turned and ran toward Emerl who had just landed, but it was like he had eyes in the back of his head, because he flipped out of the way like Rouge, then took off into the air like Tails, spinning his legs around like propellers.
"That's not fair!" Knuckles shouted at the robot flying above him.
Knuckles leaped high into the air after Emerl, but the robot used his fists in an attempt to pile-drive Knuckles into the ground. The echidna dodged the attack and then swiftly dove down at Emerl fists-first. Now it was the robot's turn to dodge, and it activated Sonic's super speed and homing attacks. Knuckles took hit after hit as he vainly tried to counter Emerl as they fell toward the arena.
From the announcer's booth, Tails was watching Emerl closely, wincing at each hit Knuckles took. The robot wasn't even allowing Knuckles a chance to fight back.
He's definitely acting more violent than before… Tails thought. I don't know why, but… this doesn't look normal at all.
As soon as both fighters landed on the ground, Emerl switched to Knuckles' fighting style and delivered punch after punch on the poor echidna, and even though he tried to fight back, he found that he was only able to get one or two hits in for every twenty Emerl was giving him.
However, he glanced behind him and panicked for a split second when he realized how close to the edge of the arena Emerl had driven him. He got a sudden burst of adrenalin and strength and immediately fought back with everything he had. Both fighters were blurs as their fists flew; however, while Knuckles was gradually gaining ground, Emerl was still blocking his attacks and not taking any damage whatsoever.
Knuckles got an idea and suddenly struck out with a kick to Emerl's legs, knocking him to the ground. But before he could get any more hits in, Emerl rolled out of the way, leaped to his feet, and copied Rouge's Screw Attack again. Knuckles leaped to the side, but Emerl moved with him and drilled straight into him, causing him to be thrown back across the ring. He then immediately rolled into Knuckles using Sonic's spin dash, then spun around with his arms outstretched, hitting Knuckles about a dozen times. Knuckles was struggling to defend himself.
This is really painful to watch… Tails thought, his ears starting to droop.
The moment Emerl stopped spinning, Knuckles leaped into the air to the other side of Emerl and slammed his fists into the ring, creating a shockwave that ripped toward the robot. Not only did it create a deep gouging crack in the arena, but Emerl easily jumped clear over the shockwave as it dissipated somewhere behind him.
Since Emerl was preoccupied with the shockwave, Knuckles used this opportunity to lunge at him and tackle him to the ground. However, he underestimated Emerl's reaction time, because the robot used his strong legs to flip Knuckles off of him and onto the ground outside the ring. The bell went off, signaling the end of the match.
Nearly everyone in the stands leaped to their feet, cheering for the victor. Cream, on the other hand, was quite tense because Knuckles was actually hurt during the fight, and she hoped that he was going to be okay. But now that he was outside the ring, that meant he didn't have to fight anymore. At the same time, Cream was very happy that Emerl won. She had secretly been hoping that he would win at least a few matches, because she had practically adopted the robot since he reminded her of Gemerl back home.
Amy, however, seemed to be quiet. Something seemed to be off about Emerl, and not just because he was a Phantom Ruby illusion. Chris looked over, having picked up on her tension, but neither of them could talk about it because there was too much noise and everyone around them was caught up in the celebration. There was confetti and even fireworks going off, and Cream had to cover her ears because the environment around her was so loud.
Emerl waved to the audience as they gave him a standing ovation, and Knuckles approached and shook his hand like a gentleman.
"You did good," he told him. "I gotta say, that was one of the closest fights I had since arriving here on this planet. We should spar for real some time."
Even though the robot never demonstrated any ability to speak, he gave a quick nod, acknowledging Knuckles' suggestion. He and Knuckles turned to Elmer Johnson as he made his way into the ring, microphone in hand. All the while, the crowd was cheering like crazy. And then another man entered from the sidelines and stepped into the arena, joining Elmer.
"And now, I'm gonna pass the mic to our very own… Mayor Aaron Pinsky!"
"Thank you, Mr. Johnson," the mayor said as he took the mic offered to him. "You heard it here first folks, Elmer is the official winner of the Chaos Competition!"
Then he realized his mistake and chuckled. "Did I say Elmer? I meant Emerl, their names are spelled the same almost," he said, and the audience laughed with him. "But Elmer's a winner too! He's been more than a fantastic announcer for this whole event, and I can't thank him enough. But yeah, this event has been a monumental success. We sold more merch than I could have ever anticipated, and both yesterday and today were sellouts. There are already talks online to make this an annual event, which, given everyone's tremendous support this year, could be a real possibility. But anyway, congratulations to you, Emerl, you fought hard and won not just the hearts of everyone in the audience, but a genuine Chaos Emerald for you to keep."
In the announcer's booth, Tails was watching intently with bated breath as one of the stagehands walked forward, carrying a box that he assumed contained the Chaos Emerald.
"And now, as your prize for winning the first annual Chaos Competition, I hereby present you with a Chaos Emerald," the mayor said as he handed it to Emerl, who accepted it and looked at it. "We all know that Dr. Eggman is at large again, despite him finally being detained by law enforcement early last month. Government forces have made preparations to step up their game in the fight against the Eggman Empire. Now that he has escaped from prison and entered hiding, we cannot hold back on our efforts any longer. We must be serious if we ever hope to bring him to justice. You may think this has nothing to do with the tournament, but on the contrary, it has everything to do with the tournament. In fact, Eggman's recent resurgence is exactly why the Remerson Administration created it, funded it, and sponsored it in the first place. Despite several of Eggman's robots competing in the tournament (which was allowed, although they were closely monitored), Eggman himself did not show as we were hoping. Regardless, Emerl, we award you the Chaos Emerald, and we expect you to assist us in our endeavor to locate and detain Dr. Eggman."
Eggman's outpost – Sun March 19 – Third-person POV
Eggman's grin could not have been any bigger.
"I never thought the award ceremony would have been this much of a snooze fest…" he said. "But no matter, the time has come. Jerome may have started this mess, and now I'm about to finish it… once and for all."
He pressed a button.
Diamond Stadium – Sun March 19 – Chris' POV
Everyone was quiet as the mayor continued his speech. When he got to the part where Emerl was expected to help the government, I realized I was starting to feel relief. I was SO glad I didn't win, because if I did, they would probably expect me to help them too. At the same time, I was just a normal kid outside of my family wealth. But Emerl on the other hand? He had a HUGE task on his shoulders. And if any of my other friends won, then they would have been given the same responsibility. No one told us any of this before the tournament started.
"This was in the fine print," Grandpa explained, noticing my confused face as well as the others around me. "It says the winner will be offered the opportunity to assist the government if they're deemed capable enough. I'm pretty sure that only applies to Mobians and truly strong people, rather than others like you, Chris.
"Oh, okay," I said. I had never read the fine print when we were signing up for the tournament.
"Guys, look at his eyes…" Amy said cautiously. I followed her gaze and tried to look at Emerl's eyes. It was hard for me to see them due to how far away he was.
"His eyes are turning red…?" I said. I was confused. Was that a big deal…? But when I looked over to my left and saw Amy's uneasy look and Cream's alarmed one, I quickly realized that somehow it was a big deal, I just wasn't seeing it.
"I don't like this…" Amy said quietly, her gaze a little more intent than usual.
"Is something wrong?" I heard Vanilla ask from three seats over. When Amy didn't answer right away, I spoke up.
"I think something is happening to Emerl…? I'm not sure," I said. I looked back to see Emerl's red glowing eyes as he held the Chaos Emerald.
"It's not just that," Amy said. "It's– It's turning evil."
"Wait, how do you kn–"
My voice died in my throat as there came a sudden bright glow from the arena below us. Emerl had just absorbed the Chaos Emerald, and then in the blink of an eye, he curled into a tight ball and bounced off all the walls and the floor, creating huge cracks everywhere, and parts of the wall below the seats collapsed.
"Emerl, what are you– WHOA!"
Elmer was forced to duck under him as he spun right near his head. Everyone started screaming and panicking all at once, and many people started making a mad rush for the exits. I saw that with each impact Emerl was making, the arena floor was cracking more and more.
"Everyone stay calm and evacuate as quickly as possible!" the mayor ordered, his voice blaring through the stadium's speakers over the noise of all the panic ensuing around me.
"Everyone stay together!" Grandpa urged everyone as we got up, took our things, and made our way out of the row we had been sitting in up until now. However, there was a bunch of people scrambling up the stairs ahead of us, and we had a tough time leaving our row. To say it was a full-on stampede was an understatement.
It took a full minute for all seven of us to be able to make it out onto the stairs leading into the lobby. I could feel the crowd pushing against us as we made it into the circular lobby, which was somehow an even worse place to be. There were several exits, but there were people going literally every which way to try and find the ones closest to their cars.
I heard the fire alarm sounding as the emergency doors started to open, and people streamed out of them like their lives depended on it, which by all intents and purposes, they did.
Up ahead, I could see Helen and her family racing toward one of the exit doors. As much as I wanted to be there to help her, I couldn't risk leaving my friends and family because then it would be too easy for me to get lost. Even though I wasn't lost, I was scared. Even over the panic around me, I could hear Emerl smashing things from back in the stadium behind me.
"Everyone stay together!" I heard Amy call. Cream stuck close to Amy because she too looked visibly scared.
"N-Not again… Not again!" She was starting to go hysterical over the fact that her new friend was acting this way, and Ella gently picked her up and scooped her into her arms. She actually resisted for a second before eventually giving in.
Even though we were on the move, it felt like we weren't going anywhere at all. There were thousands of people all around us, and there was no end to the sea of constantly moving people who were pushing past each other in an attempt to escape what what could become our grave if Emerl were to come our way. That thought scared me even more.
I never thought for a second that I would need to bring my comlink today. Otherwise, I would have called Sonic and Tails, and maybe even Rouge if she happened to have a comlink. But I didn't know Rouge that well, so I ruled her out. Tails was up in the announcer's booth from what I remember him saying, and I had no idea where Sonic was.
As we passed by one of the entrances to the arena itself, I could see Knuckles inside trying to stop Emerl. I saw him running toward the robot, but Emerl bashed him into the stands where a bunch of people were still trying to escape. I knew his strength was down, so there was no way he could–
"Don't look back, Master Chris, keep moving!" Tanaka told me. He had a point; if I looked back it could slow all of us down.
"Move it!" I could hear someone shout.
"What's the holdup?!"
"We're gonna get killed in here!"
"There you are!" I heard a young voice call from… was it above me? I looked up to see Tails flying above the crowd.
"Hey Tails, go help Knuckles!" Amy shouted above the noise, before her expression changed to one of determination. "Actually, take me with you!"
"I wanna help too!" Cream added from Ella's arms.
"Chao chao!" Cheese and Chocola echoed.
Ella looked at Cream pointedly. "Are you sure you want to do this, dear?" she asked, and Cream nodded firmly. "Okay then, please be careful!"
"I will, Miss Ella!" Cream promised as she flew out of Ella's arms and through the doorway into the stadium. Her two Chao joined her.
"Ready when you are, Amy," Tails said, reaching his hand down to her. She grabbed on, and Tails carried her into the battle after Cream.
I stood there watching them go. I wanted to watch them fight Emerl, but there was too much noise and the crowd was too thick.
"Come on, Chris," Grandpa urged me, snapping me out of my trance. I followed him, Ella, and Mr. Tanaka through the crowd, looking for the exit door closest to where we had parked. There was so much noise everywhere, and I couldn't see any sign of the security teams. They were probably in the crowd somewhere, and if they were, they were having a really hard time controlling the crowds.
None of this felt real.
Diamond Stadium – Sun March 19 – Third-person POV
Sonic looked up, stopping in his tracks the moment he heard the evacuation order coming through the speakers. Up until now there had been nothing out of the ordinary regarding Eggman or that mysterious group that stole the GUN robots. However, an urgent evacuation order was the last thing he expected.
Without hesitation, Sonic dashed out of the back halls of the stadium and made it into the lobby, where there was a practical stampede trying to force its way out the doors. Even for him, he found himself having a tough time navigating the crowd. Rouge, who had been on the lookout with him since the start of the final match, caught up with him.
"Whoa, what's with everyone all of a sudden…?" she wondered aloud.
But Sonic was already out of earshot. He was rebounding off the walls to get closer to the entrance to the arena, and when he got there, he immediately saw what had caused the crowd to panic and evacuate en masse. Emerl was down there destroying everything in sight, even bouncing around in both tiers of the spectator area, and Knuckles was having a hard time trying to contain him, barely able to hold his own.
Clenching his fists, he let out a sigh.
"He was a ticking time bomb just waiting to go off…" Sonic realized.
Rouge joined him from behind as he sped his way down the stairs to get to Emerl.
"Then why didn't you do something about him sooner?" she asked.
"I would have, except he was literally dumped on us without any explanation," Sonic said. "None of us had any clue what to do with him."
"Emotional attachments, huh?" Rouge asked.
Sonic shrugged. "Yeah, kinda."
There was no time to talk further because both of them had already reached the middle of the stadium and landed in the arena. Knuckles glanced back at them, all the while keeping his concentration on Emerl.
"This thing wasn't fighting this hard before!" Knuckles called. Sonic noticed several bruises all over the echidna from where he had been either bashed or thrown into things by Emerl. In short, Knuckles was not at his best, since he had just come off a hard fight, so Sonic knew he had to up his game.
Emerl leaped back into the arena at a speed that would astound any human who happened to be watching. Before anyone could react, he spin-dashed straight into Rouge, throwing her back into the stands, before uncurling and kicking Knuckles down onto the ground. He landed and attempted to Screw Kick Sonic, but he immediately went into a spin dash, and both hedgehog and Ruby-powered robot were grinding against each other. Sonic was able to push him back a little, but then Emerl executed a spindash of his own. This caught Sonic off guard, and he was thrown back, albeit not as far as Rouge was. One thing for sure was Emerl was indiscriminate in who he chose to attack.
"Sorry we're late!" Sonic heard Tails calling from somewhere. Getting up, he saw Tails, Amy, Cream, Cheese, and Chocola flying down toward the arena, and they wasted no time engaging Emerl in battle. Surprisingly, he was able to somehow hold his own against all of them.
"You're just in time for the party, guys!" Sonic said as he too ran forward.
"Why are you doing this?!" Cream pleaded with the robot.
"He's not gonna listen, Cream," Amy told her as she pulled out her hammer.
"Just like I was telling Rouge earlier, he was a disaster waiting to happen!" Sonic added.
Meanwhile, Emerl was bulldozing his way through whole seating sections, attacking no one in particular. However, he seemed to go after anyone who attacked him, as Tails, Knuckles, and Rouge were finding out firsthand.
"Hey Knuckles, we'll cover you," Tails told him. He knew the echidna was already quite winded from his fight, to say nothing of the fight he was going through right now.
The echidna nodded. "Appreciate it."
"We need a strategy!" Amy called, keeping her eyes on Emerl in case he came her way. "Anyone got any ideas?"
"I'm thinking!" Tails called, diving out of the way as Emerl's spherical form whizzed right past his ear.
"We need to get Emerl out of here!" Knuckles called.
"What?! That's even worse!" Amy called.
"But there are still people in here!" Knuckles pointed out, watching Emerl as he laid waste to another section of seats thanks to his copied Screw Kick.
"Yeah, but they're all leaving!" Amy said. "We pretty much have this whole place to ourselves!"
"Hey, I'm looking around, and I don't really see anyone in here anymore," Sonic pointed out, looking around. Sure enough, the stadium itself was already empty. Everyone was out in the lobby flooding out the emergency doors. "So let's try and keep it from leaving, yeah?"
"So no one's around, huh?" Knuckles repeated, looking around to verify Sonic's claim. "All right, yeah, I see your point."
Right as he finished saying that, Emerl spun like a pinwheel straight at them, throwing him and Tails back. The robot immediately leaped into the air toward Rouge who was flying thirty feet above them, but her reflexes took over and she countered him with her Screw Kick. She and Emerl clashed in midair several times, unable to land a solid hit on each other.
As Emerl was occupied, Tails took a few steps back and flew high into the air, looking all around the stadium, scanning each one of the seats.
"All right, they're all out!" he called, giving two thumbs-ups to his friends and teammates.
"Speakin' of 'all out', who's with me?" Sonic rallied.
"You know I am!" Amy cheered, holding her hammer more firmly with both hands.
Suddenly they heard the sound of a rough impact, and Rouge fell from the sky and crumpled onto the ground between them. Amy gasped, before looking up at Emerl right before he landed on the ground on the other side of ring, close to where Cream was standing.
"Please stop!" Cream shouted in a tone that was uncharacteristically stern of her. "You don't have to do this!"
"He's not gonna listen, he's not even real!" Amy told her, before looking back at Rouge.
"I know, but it's still sad…!" Cream lamented.
"Don't worry about me, just keep him busy!" Rouge said as she pushed herself up to a standing position.
"Right!" Amy said, turning her full attention on Emerl once more. She ran toward him ready to swing her hammer, but he used his Phantom Ruby powers to summon the metal pole that he used during his match with Mr. Tanaka, and used it to counter Amy's hammer swing. Emerl immediately spun around and swung the pole into the pink hedgehog from the side, throwing her back into the wall.
"Amy!" Cream called in alarm.
However, Emerl's distraction with Amy provided Sonic the perfect opportunity to drop-kick the robot to the ground from behind. Rouge was able to get a few hits in herself.
"We're doing it!" Sonic encouraged his friends. "Just a little more!"
However, Cream didn't feel encouraged.
"Emerl! Please don't do this!" she pleaded, approaching Emerl. "We taught you how to be Mobian!"
"He's not gonna listen to you, hon," Rouge said from across the ring. "Didn't you hear Amy?"
"I don't know that unless I try!" Cream stated, her hazel eyes full of determination.
Amy brandished her weapon once again and ran back toward Emerl. However, the moment she swung her hammer directly at the robot, he grabbed the blunt end of it. Amy barely had time to feel a hint of dread before he threw the hammer behind himself, and Amy along with it. She let out a scream as she flew outside the ring, but Tails caught her just in time.
"You okay…?" he asked in worry as he set her down.
"Y-Yeah," Amy said, bending down to retrieve her weapon.
"Guys, this thing knows our every move," Sonic said, speaking loudly enough for everyone to hear him. "We gotta find a way to take it off guard somehow."
Emerl buzzed right past Knuckles, who tried to land a punch on him, but the robot was too fast for him, and Emerl leaped into the stands, punching a hole through another wall.
"Let's all attack him at the same time!" Amy suggested.
"Worth a shot," Sonic said optimistically.
"CREAM!" Knuckles warned.
The small bunny looked up just in time to see Emerl flying straight at her, its right arm spinning like a drill. She yelped and stumbled backward, and her two Chao flanked her, ready to protect her. Sonic saw this and sped toward Emerl, who swatted him away with his rapidly spinning hand. Fortunately, it was enough to make Emerl abort his attack on Cream, and he leaped back into the stands, causing more damage to the stadium at random. Knuckles wasted no time in breaking into a glide after him.
"We can't let him leave the stadium!" Amy told everyone, pointing at Emerl as she ran toward him.
"Leave it to me!" Sonic said as he ran forward, vaulting himself into the stands after Emerl. The robot copied Tails' ability and spun his legs to gain air time, before quickly switching to Rouge's ability and Screw Kicking Sonic down into the seats. Amy winced when she saw this.
"Y'know, my Screw Kick is not a glamorous look on you," Rouge told Emerl as she approached. "Here, lemme show you how it's done."
She twisted her legs around each other tightly and executed a Screw Kick of her own toward Emerl, but he saw her coming a mile away and leaped high into the air. He landed on the edge of the roof well above the stands, before disappearing out of sight.
"And there he goes..." Amy said, sounding disappointed.
"Oh, we're not lettin' him get away," Sonic said and took several leaps across the stands until he was standing on the roof where Emerl was standing before. "Try and keep up!"
He took off running after Emerl, who was already leaping down into the parking lot and causing destruction completely at random. He was destroying several cars, thus trapping many of the escaping spectators. Tails carried Amy up and out of the stadium, Cream and Rouge followed them out, and Knuckles glided after them. Everyone saw the smoke rising from the dozen cars that Emerl had already destroyed. Everyone else in the parking lot who were trying to leave were now debating if it was worth leaving, because Emerl could easily crush their cars with them inside.
Right when Sonic reached Emerl, the illusionary robot jumped out of the way and indiscriminately continued his rampage. Sonic winced when he realized he saw a few people who were injured during the fight.
His eagle eyes spotted Vanilla, Chuck, Mr. Tanaka, Ella, and Chris trying their hardest to make it back to the car through the crowd. However, he wasn't going to play favorites. He wanted to protect everyone.
"We gotta get him away from here somehow!" Tails shouted over the noise of an exploding car.
"Good idea, Tails," Sonic said. "Let's do what Amy said, double-teaming it may be the way to go from here."
"Don't let it touch any cars!" Amy called as Tails set her down. "Especially the ones with people in them!"
The parking lot was in a state of complete bedlam. The police officers who were on the scene could not do anything to control the crowds, since they were greatly outnumbered. For every police officer, there were about forty people. At the rate Emerl was going, the military would have to be called in.
Sonic tightened his fists and his resolve. He knew it would take a lot more than speed to defeat an opponent as tricky as Emerl.
Sonic leaped across cars and executed a homing attack at Emerl, but he flipped up, kicking Sonic out of the way with relative ease, before executing a spindash of his own straight at Knuckles who was approaching from his other side. Knuckles was thrown back into the concrete stairs leading into the stadium, creating a large crack upon impact.
Rouge flew toward Emerl from directly above, but Emerl simultaneously saw her coming and countered her kick with a kick of his own, then grabbed her outstretched leg, swung her around, and threw her into a semi.
"This is not working…" she muttered, holding her head and pulling herself off the broken windshield, all the while trying not to cut herself on the glass.
"NO!" they heard a young voice shouting in fear. Before they realized it, Cream was flying straight toward Emerl, who was flying toward a group of people that happened to include Vanilla. Cream was trying not to panic, but it was already overcoming her, and Cheese and Chocola easily picked up on it.
Emerl's sudden move attracted the attention of Sonic, and he ran toward Emerl, along with Tails, who was a lot closer to the robot. Before Emerl could reach Vanilla, Sonic delivered a powerful kick to the robot, driving him off and forcing him to abort his attack.
"You okay, Miss V?" Sonic asked, looking at the motherly rabbit.
"Yes, I'm okay, Sonic," she told him. "Thank you."
"I'm watching this thing, and I don't think it's like anyone you ever encountered before. Well, at least not since you got here," Chuck said, having to raise his voice. "The way I see it, your strengths are your weaknesses."
"Amy said we should all try and attack it at the same time," Tails said, "but it's really hard because he's super fast."
"Not only that, but you saw how fast it could switch abilities too," Chuck added.
"So we just gotta give it all we got in one go, got it," Sonic nodded. He turned to see Tails flying high above them and away from the general area of the battle.
"Tails…?" Sonic said, wondering what his friend was up to.
"Over here! Come and get me!" Tails taunted, sticking out his tongue at Emerl as he hovered in place. Sonic chuckled. This was yet another example of his influence rubbing off on him.
Sonic ran in his direction and taunted the robot himself, which finally got his attention. He turned and bolted straight toward them, causing even more blind destruction as he finally left the parking lot, but not without suddenly turning around and sprinting straight at Amy. She swung her hammer at him, but missed. When she was recovering from the force of the swing, Emerl came back at her, but she tripped over the fallen front bumper of a car. But before she fell, and long before Emerl got to her, she felt herself being scooped into Sonic's arms and carried to safety.
"Thanks, Sonic," she said quietly as Sonic set her down. She softly blushed as she usually seemed to do whenever Sonic rescued her.
"Damage control is looking pretty impossible here!" Rouge called as she joined them, along with the others.
"I know, and that's what's bothering me," Knuckles added.
"Where are you guys trying to take him anyway?" Rouge asked Sonic and Tails.
"The ocean!" Tails responded. "Just like what we did when we were fighting the Egg Fort for the first time."
"Oh no! Cream!" Amy yelped as she saw Cream and her two Chao fighting Emerl. They appeared to be driving Emerl back, but he had suddenly switched to Knuckles' punching ability and bolted toward them with his fists out.
Amy ran toward Emerl with her hammer ready to swing, but Tails had the same idea and he was charging toward the robot from the other side. At the last second, Emerl leaped out of the way, and Tails and Amy collided with each other hard, and both of them fell to the ground.
"Oww…" Tails held his sore head, a single tear pricking his eye from the cranial impact. "S-Sorry…"
"Me too…" Amy whimpered, holding her own head. "Are you okay?"
"Y-Yeah, I'll be okay…" Tails said, before pulling himself up. "Just a bit sore and shaken."
"Same…" Amy admitted as she too stood up. "We'll be able to rest as soon as we take care of that robotic bully! Let's go!"
Up ahead, Emerl was rebounding between buildings, escaping Sonic and Knuckles as they pursued him.
"We tried overwhelming it, and even that's not working!" Knuckles called as he glided alongside Sonic. "And it's already bad enough that he can copy all our abilities."
"We'll think of something!" Sonic called. "First things first is to keep him away from all the people!"
It would seem that Sonic jinxed it, because Emerl chose that precise moment to dive down and enter the nearest parking garage. Sonic cringed at the crunching sound of cars being damaged inside.
"You go!" Knuckles said. "I'll watch for him out here."
"Got it! Sonic said as he leaped inside the parking garage, followed by Rouge and a newly-arrived Tails. Sonic told himself to be careful as he searched for any sign of Emerl in the dimly-lit concrete environment he was in.
This was not Sonic's kind of fighting environment. Emerl could ambush him at any time, even though his friends were there with him. He preferred the openness of the city outside, and even that would be temporary because he and Tails planned on luring him to the ocean, which was even more open.
"There he is!" he heard Tails call. His head whipped back to see Emerl flying away from them. Tails flew forward and tried to tail-whip Emerl, but he hopped and copied his ability in an instant, swatting him into the wall. He collided with the concrete wall hard, the wind knocked out of him. As Tails peeled himself off and glanced back at the large cracks on the wall left from his impact, Emerl leaped out of the parking garage, but not before crunching the hood of one more car, setting off its alarm and airbags.
"I got him!" Rouge called as she flew after him. Sonic ran over to Tails.
"You okay, bud?" he asked him, checking him over for injuries.
"Y-Yeah… I think so, but that really hurt…" Tails said as he shakily stood up. "But we can't do anything if he keeps using our own abilities against us."
"No sweat!" Sonic said, giving him a thumbs-up. "All we gotta do is overwhelm him, right? It's… six, seven… eight against one. I think those odds are pretty good!"
"Thanks, Sonic," Tails said with a smile.
Sonic nodded, smiling back at him before he took off and leaped out of the parking garage in pursuit of Emerl. Tails promptly flew after him, quickly locating the robot leaping across the rooftops, causing a swath of destruction in his wake. He joined the rest of his friends in the chase, but from the looks of it, no one was able to get anywhere near him. He was moving too fast.
"Where is he taking us?" Knuckles asked, expertly gliding from rooftop to rooftop high above the streets below.
"It's anyone's guess, really," Rouge shrugged.
"Aha!" Tails exclaimed in delight. "I knew it! He's taking us to the ocean, just like we planned!"
"Nice work, Tails!" Sonic said, grinning at his young friend.
"You sure there's not gonna be anyone there at the beach?" Knuckles cautiously asked Tails.
"Well…" Tails thought for a moment. "There's a lot of coastline that isn't a public beach, right here in Station Square, so we can take him there."
"If he'll let us," Amy called from where Cream was carrying her. "Right now he's the one leading us on a wild goose chase."
Suddenly Cheese broke away from Cream and sprinted through the air straight toward Emerl, but the robot's eyes glowed a super bright shade of red, and as he hopped onto another high-rise building, he spun in place through the air above the street, shaking Cheese off as he approached. Even worse was that Emerl didn't act like the Chao could pose any kind of threat. Cream yelped in fright as Cheese fell toward the street, but he recovered just in time and flew back up to Cream.
"How can you do that to my friend Cheese?!" Cream exclaimed, flying even faster now and catching up to everyone else.
"Hey…" Rouge warned. "His eyes are getting brighter."
"Does that mean it's getting more powerful?" Amy asked, looking at the robot as he evaded Sonic and Knuckles' attacks.
"I don't know…" Rouge admitted.
No one made any progress in damaging or approaching Emerl in the minute that followed. He hopped off the last building and made it onto the beach, which was fortunately one of the lesser-visited beaches, and no one happened to be there that day. The moment the others caught up, Emerl instantly doubled back on his own tracks and violently Screw Kicked Rouge roughly a hundred feet across the beach. He immediately turned and pounded Knuckles into the sand using his own fists before he could brace himself, forming a deep, echidna-shaped hole in the sand.
"Now he's attacking us all for real," Amy noted as Cream set her down and landed next to her.
"And it wasn't before…?" Knuckles' muffled voice called from beneath the sand.
"Not like this," Tails said, carefully watching Emerl. "He only attacked if we got too close to him, but now he's fighting us on purpose."
Knuckles grunted as he pulled himself out of the sand, ducking as sand flew from Emerl's sudden sprint forward. Amy hammered him aside, but he didn't take any noticeable damage.
"We have to keep our guard up at all times, that is imperative," Knuckles said. "Look out for each other, don't let him attack. Don't even give him an inch."
"But that's impossible! I mean, look at him now!" Amy pointed out, looking back at Emerl.
"Hey Tails, let's use our team attack!" Sonic told Tails. "You know, the one where we spin together."
"Oh yeah!" a newly-invigorated Tails recalled. "Gonna have to come up with a name for that."
"Okay, you guys keep him distracted!" Sonic called to everyone else.
"Not a problem here!" Rouge said as she ducked under a flying punch from Emerl.
However, it did turn out to be a problem, because Emerl was now doing a number to Knuckles no matter how much he tried to fight back. He was already greatly weakened from his final round match with him, but now he was fighting for his life. Rouge was unable to hold Emerl off, and neither Amy nor Cream and her Chao were able to get anywhere close to them.
"Here's hopin' he won't try and copy this too. You ready?" Sonic asked, to which Tails nodded firmly.
In a matter of seconds, both of them were in position, forming a tight ball and grabbing each other's ankles so their ball form could stay intact.
"Here we… GO!" Sonic announced. He propelled them both straight at Emerl, who turned to focus his attention on them. The spinning hedgehog and fox could tell that the robot was trying to copy their ability and perform a spin of his own, but to no avail. Both of them were grinding against each other in midair. Sonic and Tails were rapidly gaining ground, and the others watched, wondering what the outcome would be.
However, right as it looked like Emerl was going to be driven into the ground, he suddenly dodged out of the way and rushed straight toward Cream. Knuckles ran forward and tackled her out of the way just in time. Meanwhile, Sonic and Tails had too much momentum, and both of them landed far out in the ocean. Sonic could barely register the other voices calling out to him as the cold shock from the water hit him.
Instinct kicked in and Tails dove straight toward Sonic who was gradually sinking like a rock. He firmly took his friend's hand and doggy-paddled back to the surface, before awkwardly flying Sonic back to the shore. He told himself he had to work on his water takeoffs a little more.
"Emerl!" Cream spoke firmly. "Nobody wants to be your friend anymore because you keep hurting people! I don't want to be your friend anymore either! First you destroyed the city, then you tried to hurt my mommy, and now you tried to drown Mr. Sonic! And…" She sniffed, trying to hold back the tears. "A-And it hurts that you're not even real! You're working for Dr. Eggman, and… I hate him! And I hate you too!"
With those uncharacteristically bold and harsh words, Cream flew straight toward Emerl, her normally happy, reserved and joyful expression now replaced with rage and vengeance. Cheese and Chocola mirrored her, both of them copying Cream's unhinged anger. Both of them flew ahead of Cream and tried to attack Emerl together, but Emerl copied their abilities simultaneously and headbutted them several feet away. Alarmed, Cream ran toward them, an idea forming in her mind.
While Emerl was preoccupied with Cream, Knuckles rushed in and tried to land a hit of his own on Emerl, but he grabbed him and threw him back into the sand, before promptly punching Rouge away who had flown in from his other side.
"Cheese Shot!" Cream called before hurling Cheese straight at Emerl. This was a new attack for the robot, and he wasn't sure what to do with this new information. It looked like it was about to switch abilities, but to everyone's surprise, even Cream's, her attack worked and Emerl took damage and staggered backwards. A few red pixels crackled from his chest where Cheese made a direct impact.
"Did… Did that do something…?" Amy asked, hope rising in her voice.
"I think you got something goin' there, Cream!" Sonic said, grinning at his young friend.
As Cheese returned to Cream, she scooped Chocola into her hands and prepared for the pitch.
"Chocola Shot!"
Just like she did with Cheese, she threw Chocola with all her might at Emerl, and the Chao made his mark, slamming into Emerl with brutal force, causing him to stagger backwards, pixellating.
Emerl tried to retaliate by picking up some sand and forming it into a ball in his hands. He wasn't sure how to copy an attack as complex as what Cream had demonstrated. He threw the ball of sand straight at Cream, who hopped aside. However, some of the sand still landed on Cream's orange dress.
"That wasn't very nice…!" she lamented.
Seeing this, Tails and Amy charged toward Emerl, but Sonic held out his hand to stop them, and they looked at him in confusion.
"Let her cook," Sonic said, using some slang he had picked up a few months ago.
"How come?" Amy asked. "She's not as strong as us."
"Or so we thought," Sonic said. "Look at her right now. Those hits she's getting in with her Chao are way past brutal. I know you guys wanna help, I mean, I wanna help too, but this is her fight. She's the one who started a friendship with this Phantom clone… and sadly, she's gonna be the one to finish it. But… if bad turns to worse, then we can step in."
Tails nodded in understanding, and Amy did the same a moment later before they returned their attention to Cream's fight.
As Chocola was returning for his second time, Cream threw Cheese back at Emerl, damaging him again.
"Cheese Shot! Chocola Shot! Cheese Shot! Chocola Shot!" Cream called roughly every five seconds. Cream and her Chao were gradually driving Emerl toward the ocean, both of the Chao slamming into his artificial core one by one. This was when Cream realized she was winning this.
"You– Not you, Dr. Eggman, will never know how much this hurts me!" Cream exclaimed, her high-pitched voice wracked with emotion. "The real Emerl is gone forever. Dr. Eggman can't play with my feelings by bringing him back. And besides, I already have the bestest robot friend in the whole wide world named Gemerl, and he would never act the way you're acting!"
All five of her friends who were there watched in shock and awe as Cream took her pent-up anger out on the robot, and it crackled and turned into red cubes with each crushing blow it took. As they saw this, they started cheering for her, particularly Sonic, Tails, and Amy.
Emerl didn't know how to react. Throwing sand was not the same as the ability Cream was using, especially since he didn't have anything equivalent to Chao, and the possibility of creating an artificial Chao was beyond his abilities; only Eggman could do something like that. Besides, Cream was fighting faster and faster, no longer shouting her attack names as she was deeply focused on getting rid of him. He no longer had a chance to attack, especially since he started crackling violently as he was forced into the water.
"I'll never forgive you, Dr. Eggman!" Cream shouted with all her might. With one final hit from Cheese, Emerl exploded into a mass of red cubes that promptly vanished, ending Emerl once and for all.
Just like that, the air was quiet once again, the last moments of the battle still resonating with everyone. Cream was shaken from the sudden adrenaline rush she had gone through, and her panting was starting to give way to tears. All of her friends ran over to her, Sonic and Amy leading the way.
"You did it, Cream," Sonic said, gently patting her back. "I knew you could do it."
Cream sniffed before wiping her tears away.
"I never want to fight ever again…" she whimpered. "It's too scary…"
"I getcha," Sonic said, a wan smile on his muzzle. "Deep down, no one likes getting into a fight… 'specially against people like Emerl. But you did a really cool job there, Cream. I'm real proud of ya."
"Yeah, me too!" Amy said in wholehearted agreement, giving her friend a hug. Cheese and Chocola joined in.
"Dr. Eggman is so mean…" Cream said. "I don't want to see him do any more bad things… but…"
"I know…" Amy said, her voice softening. "He just doesn't get it. But it doesn't stop me from believing that there's at least a little good in him somewhere."
"Hey," Sonic said, and Cream looked up at him. "It's okay if you don't wanna fight anymore after this, I won't make you do something you don't wanna do. But right now, you did your very best, you ran where no one else could run. You acted on your instincts, and–" He chuckled. "Best of all, you didn't even give him a chance to fight!"
A brief smile played across Cream's face, a sign that she was already starting to recover from the battle earlier. She had already come to terms with the fact that this Emerl was a fake. She had reassured herself with her own words at the end of the fight.
"I wanna go home…" she whimpered before closing her eyes.
"Shhh, it's all right, Cream," Amy comforted her friend. "We can go home now."
Sonic nodded. "But first, I should probably swing by the stadium and make sure things are okay there, make sure everyone's okay, and see if we can clean up the damage Emerl did. But yeah, we can drop off Cream back home and ask Ella to make a meal fit for champions! What do you say, kiddo?"
But the small bunny had already fallen asleep in Amy's arms. Sonic's expression softened.
"Aww…"
"It's been a really long day…" Amy said softly, stroking Cream's head between her ears.
Tails nodded. "This is even more reason we need to get back to Mobius as soon as possible, so Cream can see Gemerl again," he said.
"You know it's not gonna be easy, right?" Rouge said as she approached the group. "You guys may have the Corundum, but now we need all seven Chaos Emeralds on top of it. Well, lucky for us… Emerl was carrying one, so–"
"Or so we thought," Knuckles interrupted, his voice carrying disappointment as he carried the red Emerald out of the ocean, water dripping off his fur. "I'm not feeling any power coming from this Emerald."
Amy turned to him in surprise. "Wait, you mean…"
"Yup. It's a fake."
With those words, he crushed the Emerald in the palm of his hand and let its shards fly to the four winds. No one was as concerned about Knuckles potentially littering on the beach as much as the shock that the Emerald had been fake the whole time.
"No way…" Amy gasped, still holding Cream.
Knuckles gritted his teeth. "You're right, there's no way we were playing for a fake this whole time. If I had known it was fake, I wouldn't have signed up for the tournament in the first place!"
"We weren't playing for a fake, Knuckles," Tails told him. "It had to have been switched out at some point is what I can figure." He paused for a moment, still processing the situation, before letting out a sigh. "Whoever did it played their cards really well, I'll give them that."
"Wasn't the whole point of this little tourney to get him to show his face again?" Rouge asked rhetorically. "Now he's got an edge over us, assuming he's the one who stole the Emerald." She sighed. "And I was hoping I'd get to see it up close and personal…"
"Oh yeah, Sonic, we need to get back to the stadium," Tails reminded him.
"I'll get right on that," Sonic said as he turned to leave. "Just gonna take Cream home and I'll meet you guys there."
"Okay, that sounds like a plan," Amy nodded as she passed Cream to Sonic, who cradled her gently in his arms.
"Last one there's a rotten Eggman!" Tails called playfully, spinning his namesakes and flew off the beach and back toward the city. He had a decent headstart ahead of everyone else.
"You heard him," Rouge said to Amy and Knuckles as she took off after Tails.
"Hey, no fair!" Amy whined as she ran off after them. Knuckles joined them, gliding above the heavy traffic of West Station Square, leaving Sonic alone with Cream and the Chao on the beach.
Sonic cradled Cream gently in his arms as he turned to leave.
"Rest easy, champ," he spoke gently to her. "You earned it."
"Chao…" Cheese added, flying closer to Cream, as did Chocola. Both of them were mirroring Cream's sadness, even though she had already fallen asleep.
"I'm gonna make sure that Eggman pays for what he did," Sonic silently vowed. "Playing with a little girl's emotions like that… That is not cool."
Holding Cream tighter, he took off down the beach before limping back toward the parking lot, sand flying in his wake. The Chao were barely able to keep up with the hedgehog's incredible speed.
Eggman's outpost – Sun March 19 – Third-person POV
"And that's a wrap," Eggman declared, hands behind his head as he swiveled his chair back and forth, watching Cream deliver the final hit on the Phantom Ruby illusion of Emerl. "The last loose end of Jerome's removal has officially been tied."
Orbot, Cubot, and Bokkun were elsewhere in the outpost working on something, so only Decoe and Bocoe were there to witness Emerl's demise firsthand.
"Doctor, have you safeguarded the Phantom Ruby to prevent this scenario from occurring again?" Decoe asked.
"Of course," Eggman said as he switched off the TV. He didn't need to see Cream's friends comforting her; it was irrelevant. "Enlisting a human was my first and last mistake. Although, Jerome has been around me long enough to understand how to access my logs, and the Phantom Ruby by extension, even though they should have been safeguarded. The moment I moved here, I took the liberty to change all my passwords so that scheming ex-politician couldn't access my private information again even if he wanted to!" He chuckled. "Though, I'm rather lucky he didn't discover my method of tapping into the reactor that powers the Phantom Ruby. Otherwise, the damage would have been catastrophic. He was only able to summon someone as weak as Emerl."
"But Doctor, Emerl was not weak," Bocoe pointed out. "He has caused a great deal of destruction to the west side of Station Square."
"Compared to Metal Sonic and even Infinite, he was weak, at least the Phantom illusion was," Eggman clarified. "Besides, the Phantom Ruby was still cooling down from extended use during my Egg Moon plot."
"Will this impact your plan in the long run, Doctor?" Bocoe asked.
Eggman grinned. "Not in the slightest," Eggman said. "Though, it could have been a lot worse, all things considered. I'm rather fortunate his options were limited, but out of all those limited options, of all the creations I've made and the monsters I've controlled… he chose Emerl. Emerl, a robot whose weakness was personality. He learned compassion and all those other unnecessary emotions through Sonic and his friends."
Eggman stood up and paced the small room, hands clasped behind his back.
"Even I'm not that sadistic to launch a psychological attack on Cream of all people. Sonic, I understand, he's been a thorn in my side for the better part of thirty years, but Cream? Absolutely not! She is a child!"
"But she has thwarted your plans too," Decoe pointed out.
"Yes, but she's still a child," Eggman said. "That level of trauma she endured could impact her for the rest of her life. But enough about Cream, she has her friends to help her. You have no idea how badly I wanted to recall Emerl once I regained control of the Phantom Ruby. It was a minor disruption to Operation Second Chance, but it was ultimately inconsequential. Now if I were to deploy Emerl, I would have at the very least created a Phantom Final Egg Blaster to strike fear in the hearts of the populace." He stroked his luxurious mustache in thought. "But that would be redundant, given how I already created the Eclipse Cannon. So I planned to eliminate Emerl in a different way that didn't involve him simply 'disappearing forever.'"
He created air quotes with his fingers as he said this.
"Now when the tournament was announced, I knew this was my chance to get rid of Emerl once and for all. However, I couldn't use him to acquire the Chaos Emerald. Speaking of the Chaos Emerald…" He paused mid-pace. "I plan to find those fools who took it out from under my nose. No one takes a Chaos Emerald I call dibs on and gets away with it."
"So what will you do next, Doctor?" Decoe asked.
"Revenge," Eggman grinned. "Revenge against that bunch of misfits camping out in my Egg Dome, those who call themselves the Society… the Society for Observing and Neutralizing Interdimensional Creatures… and Xenomorphs. Lame name, by the way."
"Judging by the name, it would seem they classify you under the 'xenomorph' category," Bocoe commented.
"Which is an insult in itself," Eggman said. "I am a human for crying out loud, and if any one of them with half my IQ saw the Alien franchise, they would know that neither me nor Sonic are considered 'xenomorphs'. Their name alone is a crime, and while they seem to want to eliminate Sonic, which is commendable, that would disrupt my timetable."
He sat back down, looking at one of his screens that showed a view of the entire city.
"So what I'll do is dish out a healthy dose of revenge against the Society, but not before I roll Operation Second Chance into my greater master plan… Operation Endgame."
His grin could not have been more sinister.
"No one will see it coming, and more importantly, that hedgehog and his friends will have zero chance of stopping me this time!"
His bellowing laughter reverberated throughout the entire outpost he and his robots were in.
The Egg Dome – Sun March 19 – Third-person POV
The remaining six members of the Society were gathered in the main control room of the Egg Dome, watching Emerl's rampage play out on one of the screens. No one could have anticipated anything that happened immediately after the tournament.
Watcher and Browning were lucky to have gotten out of there when they did. They were still feeling incredibly weak after using Chaos Control to escape Diamond Stadium, but they finally got enough energy back to drag themselves to the control room and sit down in two of the chairs.
"I've been wondering…" Dragg said, leaning against the wall. "How'd you know how to use Chaos Control, anyway?"
"That's a loaded question there," Watcher said, leaning back in his chair. "When those aliens raided Superior… When Eggman thought he was so clever to shut down all my tech… Little did they know that I had a backup surveillance system. That's right, we even had hacking in mind when Superior was built." His voice was quieter than usual since he was still recovering from the effects of Chaos Control. "So from the safety of my hotel room after they blew up Superior… I pored over the surveillance footage from before the whole thing went up in smoke. I had to find out how Shadow and Rouge escaped. There was no way they could have found a vehicle in time, they were so deep in the facility it wasn't even funny. So I looked over that footage good and hard. And I saw that Shadow was holding a Chaos Emerald, and he held it and said the magic words. And I figured if he could do it, so could I. He and Rouge and the Thorndyke boy were all holding onto each other, so that's probably how they all got teleported to who knows where. So… Guess I got lucky it worked for me, huh…? But man… The kickback from this thing is insane. Feels like I got hit with a train."
"Well, we can rest like a king since we're the real winners of this tournament," Dragg chuckled.
"Well, now that the tournament is finally over – suddenly hard to talk after Chaos Control for some reason," he realized, his voice sounding quiet. "We should check in with the Organizer."
"I'll take care of that," Passer said as he tapped a few buttons on the console. However, the screen continued to display "Connecting…" after nearly thirty seconds.
"The Organizer did say he was extremely busy lately," Narasu commented.
Passer was just about to open his mouth when the loading screen disappeared and the Organizer's shadowy face appeared.
"Is the tournament finished already?" the Organizer asked in mild surprise.
"Yes sir, it just wrapped up roughly fifteen minutes ago," Passer said. "And we have a little something to show for it." He reached for the Chaos Emerald lying on the computer console and held it up for the Organizer to see. "However, since there were two Chaos Emeralds in the storage room, Watcher and Browning grabbed one at random and activated Chaos Control to return here undetected."
"Two Emeralds…?" the Organizer repeated. "It doesn't matter, though. Since you were able to use Chaos Control, it proves you're holding onto the real one. Excellent work."
"As soon as I recover, I'm going to feed it to Beta," Browning planned. "I already gave it the ability to track Eggman's tech, but now it'll be able to track other Emeralds too." He chuckled, but had to stop because it was too painful.
"At this rate, we are well ahead of schedule," the Organizer declared. "Now that the Society has a Chaos Emerald at last, it's time to take action. Find and destroy Dr. Eggman at all costs, by any means necessary. Use your own methods and discretion, but don't mess this up. You only get one shot. I'll cover you from here."
Watcher smiled. "I'm coming up with ideas as we speak," he said.
"That's good then, taking the initiative," the Organizer spoke. "On my end, I'm arranging something big for you in the coming days, so be ready for that."
"But sir, what about Sonic?" Narasu asked. "He's the whole reason we were founded. He's the one changing the status quo."
"Not to worry," the Organizer said, adjusting his glasses. "I have… intel on what Dr. Eggman may be up to. Once he inevitably reveals himself, Sonic will naturally be drawn to him, and if we play our cards right, they will be destroyed together."
Watcher chuckled. "Speaking my language now," he said, before coughing.
"No more time is to be wasted. Find Eggman at all costs!"
Those were the Organizer's last words as he hung up, and the screen returned to its usual view of Station Square's skyline.
With a groan, Browning pushed himself out of the seat, grabbed the Emerald, and shuffled down to the lab. His body felt heavy and sore all over. Nothing could have ever prepared him for the level of physical body aches he was experiencing as a direct result of using the Chaos Emerald. It was like pulling an all-nighter, plus body aches that usually came with a bad flu, but somehow worse. He didn't know if he wanted to work with Beta until he recovered, but he had to do this. He was too excited to get the robot up and running.
In moments, he had unscrewed the hatch and installed the Chaos Emerald in the hatch designed for it. While he didn't have much knowledge on how Chaos Emeralds worked, he had been sent a few tips by the Organizer while he was modifying Beta. He was specifically instructed to make it compatible with Chaos Emeralds.
As soon as the red gem was installed, Browning closed the hatch and activated Beta, whose eyes glowed as it came to life. Browning was already giddy that Beta was more powerful, but when he looked at his tablet, it turned to pure ecstasy. He was picking up the locations of some of the Chaos Emeralds nearby!
"Look at this!" Browning called as he made his way back to where the others were.
"Did you install the Emerald already?" Li Yan asked.
"Yeah, and look what's coming up! Look at this! It's picking up Emeralds! I see two of 'em!"
"Two Emeralds?" Watcher said. "Gimme that." He took the tablet and saw where two of the Emeralds were located. "This… This is genius! Tech that rivals anything Tails and Eggman can ever come up with is right here in our hands! All right, boys, you know what to do. Browning, Passer, get to the Valkyries and find those Emeralds immediately!"
Both of the addressed men stared at him.
"With all due respect, we were told to find Eggman, not collect more Chaos Emeralds," Passer said.
"Chaos is power. Don't you get it?" Watcher declared. "With the power of as many Emeralds as we can get our hands on, we'll be invincible! Eggman and even Sonic the Hedgehog himself will be afraid of getting anywhere near us! Don't you want power too?"
"Howard, we're not in this for power, we're only here to maintain the status quo–"
"Which is our endgame still, don't get me wrong, Ray," Watcher said. "And like I told you yesterday, the Organizer put in charge, which means you'll do exactly as I say. Now… Obviously I can't go anywhere in my position, which is why I'm politely asking you two to go in my stead and find Eggman. If you can pick up any Emeralds, that would be cool too."
"But I'm still recovering from Chaos Control," Browning stated.
"Oh, right, it'll probably impact your piloting skills. Anyone else wanna go in his place? How about you, Narasu?"
"You want me to fly a Valkyrie?" Narasu asked. "I don't have that kind of experience."
"They have autopilots," Watcher shrugged. "Oh, and don't forget to bring Beta with you. He'll help you guys find the Chaos Emeralds."
"Fine then. Let's go, Colonel," Narasu said as he and Passer left the room.
"Seriously… what's his problem?" Dragg asked.
"If Chaos Control is hurting his body as much as he claims, then that may be an important factor," Li Yan said, making sure Watcher couldn't hear him. "He is also letting his incredible power go to his head. Not a wise move, I might add."
Browning took his tablet back and returned to the lab, an idea forming in his head.
You want power that badly, huh? Browning thought. Well, you're gonna be in for a shock.
He pulled out his phone and sent a quick message to the Organizer before getting to work cleaning up the lab.
A/N: With this chapter, we have officially completed the Chaos Competition arc! In my opinion, it was 100% necessary for me to cover two episodes with five chapters, because I always felt like the tournament arc was incredibly rushed, and I wanted it to feel a little more relaxed and interesting, which is also why I added in Eggman, the Society, and the Chaotix.
Fun fact: This is where the Phantom Ruby was first going to be revealed in my early drafts for this story. However, I reconsidered it because it felt like more sense that I introduced it back in the Chaos Saga, so that's what I went with. That was back when I was originally planning on adapting the Murasia Arc for this story.
I do have to admit, writing fighting scenes is exhausting, especially when I just did it for four consecutive chapters. As much fun as fight scenes are, my expertise has always been with emotional scenes, intense moments, and conversations that advance the plot. I still need work with slice-of-life scenes, small talk, and actual comedy.
I forgot to say this two chapters ago, but I was originally going to have Li Yan go to the tournament with Watcher, but I realized it would be too complicated, so I replaced him with Browning instead. Also, for anyone wondering, the Organizer doesn't know that people can use Chaos Control with fake Chaos Emeralds. I was originally not gonna say that yet, but Knuckles revealed that the other Emerald is fake, which means the Society got lucky when they took the real one!
Also, I have a pretty big announcement! I know I said this a couple times before, but the remaining episodes (47-52) will not be adapted in this story. Instead, they'll all be replaced with a completely different and original story featuring the cast in a brand-new adventure. I have a few reasons for this: (1) First and foremost, Chris prevented Sonic from returning home, and I don't want to have Chris do that in this story since it would be very out of character for my version of Chris to do so. (2) The Freedom Movement and the Time Stagnation Phenomenon are nonexistent in the Chaos on Earth universe. (3) Earth and Mobius were always separate planets. They didn't use to be one planet. (4) Big, the Chaotix, Angel Island, and the X-Tornado were never shown traveling through the portal to return to Mobius. (5) In Episode 46 when Sonic chases Eggman through the mountains, he mentions a massive scheme that is never followed up on. That's a shame, though, since it would have made an incredible climax for Season 2. That's all about to change... All the players are in position for when Eggman unleashes his ultimate master plan:
OPERATION ENDGAME
Coming in two weeks! Don't miss it!
