- Disclaimer: This Fanfic is based on a Mobius where the events of Chakra X's Nazo Unleashed have occurred and Shadow has his memories intact. The Mobius in this story is not the same Mobius from the games, rather, it is heavily inspired by the one from the Archie Comics, but it is different from both continuities, for reasons that are made obvious in the fanfic itself. As for MLP this takes place before 'Princess Twilight' but after the defeat of Sombra. –
- CW: Blood, Swearing, Gore, Death-
On Angel Island Sonic and Shadow revert from their fused state and Shadic ceases to be. Sonic is heavily fatigued, so Knuckles helps him up. Shadow is passed out altogether, so Tails helps him up. Knuckles says, "Tails, let's take them somewhere to get some medical treatment, they may need a doctor," he pauses with a concerned look on his face and stares at Tails, "I could probably heal them in a few days with an emerald, but I'm pretty beat, unless something else horrible happens soon." After saying that he quickly knocks on a fallen log to un-jinx himself. Tails holds up Sonic by his shoulder, as Knuckles picks up Shadow, Tails pushes a button on his watch to call the Tornado to the island. they then load them onto the Tornado and take off.
-Meanwhile-
Location: Ruined Robotropolis
"The monster from the Master Emerald, it has been eliminated, sir." Snively says in his usual nervous voice, Doctor Robotnik looking visibly, and uncharacteristically, shaken, then he nods, deciding he should act now. Robotnik booms an order, "Snively, bring out item '1564-Luciferian: TDS'."
"The fox doll, sir? If I recall, you gave up on that project." Snively inquires, but Eggman stares forward stoically, "I need to see something..." Snively brings out the Tails Doll, wincing as he looks at it, even remarking, "…How dreadful…". A machine Robotnik was going to use as a spy drone, but he lost interest, because he has more in-depth ways to spy on the Freedom Fighters. He then replaces the gem with a fragment of the Master Emerald he had collected, and its systems activate.
Suddenly a violent cascade of negative Chaos-energy erupts from the doll's gem, which causes a metamorphosis. Robotnik gazes at what he had done in bewilderment, the doll starts to pull and rip metal from around the lab and connects them to its body with strange black tendrils, it also grabs the nearby broken husk of Metal Tails and joins it into its being. The shape of this creature takes form as the body of the Tails Doll vanishes into Metal Tails and it begins to move like it's actually alive and breathing. The hinges in its joints disappear, being filled in with a black fluid. Its Master Emerald shard dangles from the cord on its head, shifting from a familiar green to a glowing black. Its two tails contort and segment into long sharp points no longer suitable for flight, in between these points flows this same black fluid allowing full mobility. The blank metal face rips open into a smile as its robotic eyes blink to life.
"IIIIvooo." It says in a chilling, shrill, voice, one that sounds like Tails, yet very twisted and haunting. Robotnik scrambles around for a device, any device that might have a self-destruct switch for the entire facility. "I've done too much, so much progress, it will not end here…" Suddenly one of the doll's tails punctures Robotnik's shoulder, revealing his metal muscle fibers, that bleed. The force of the strike knocks his glasses off of his face, showing his red pupils.
"I want to thank you for creating me, Ivo. I want you to live so I can tear all life asunder, and you can watch as I bring about the end," It smiles, "Have I mentioned how wonderful it is to have real emotions, not some algorithm or advanced AI! I will be able to feel every death with extraordinary satisfaction!" It giggles, as Robotnik coughs up blood then the Doctor grits his teeth and yells, "Do it now, Snively!" Hiding behind a desk, Snively pushes a button, and it makes a loud beeping noise. This victory is short lived as the doll, slices Snively, and the desk he's hiding behind, in two, with a whip of his tails. Metal Tails frowns, "that's not good."
With a bright flash of light, and a deafening explosion, the entire facility goes up in a nuclear fireball, but the doll uses chaos control just in time, "You're a poor sport Ivo, truly a shame." Then it looks toward Mobotropolis. "Now to find my true targets." It cackles and its unnatural voice echoes across the destroyed landscape.
A day after Nazo was defeated, Sonic and Shadow both receive medical care and both of them are getting equally stir crazy. They are both at a small doctor's office in Furville, an armadillo doctor diagnosing their injuries. She says, "Well, Sonic, Shadow, both of you have the exact same injuries; fractured femur, a few of your toes are shattered, and, somehow, all of the injuries are in the same place and in the same pattern." she stops as she reads from her clipboard, then she says, "Whatever you two did I wouldn't recommend doing it again." Sonic snickers and says, "Yeah, me and Shadow won't be getting that mixed up for a while." Shadow stares forward blankly, and groans in shame.
Then Tails gets a message on a transceiver; he looks at it and his face becomes grim. Before Sonic could ask what's going on, Knuckles barges into the room, holding a chaos emerald and uses that chaos emerald to heal all of the injuries Sonic and Shadow have. This reckless healing angers the medical professional, "Excuse me, sir! You can't just do that! You have no idea- ", Knuckles snaps at her, "New Mobotropolis is on fire, and we need the two guys who can stop the end of the world; and they've done it multiple times. So, back off!" The doctor clears her throat and leaves the room, Shadow looks at Knuckles, "Is this the Doctor's doing?" Knuckles grimaces and nods. Shadow then continues "Then I suppose I can get us to New Mobotropolis." Sonic crosses his arms "That Eggman is gonna get a piece of my mind for doing this!"
They warp there in a green flash of light. They arrive at the entrance to the city, just before the houses get dense closer to the main castle, Tails looks around and asks, "What- What happened here?", they all feel empty as the place of hope and prosperity they had worked so hard to protect, burns to the ground in front of is rampant, and bodies lay in the streets. "Robotnik committing a genocide the day after Nazo nearly killed us all, just like the bastard." Knuckles says as he looks at the bodies of people around. Suddenly they hear a scream, a loud snap, and then walks ahead and casts a shadow, so Sonic gives a hand gesture signaling them to go into an alleyway. Sonic peeks out from the wall to see the macabre model of Metal Tails. It hums a tune as it drags a freshly killed citizen behind it; the corpse is a raccoon girl; she is missing her lower jaw and her eyes rolled back into her head. Sonic's mouth opens, agape in horror, he gulps as he turns back from peeking around the corner. Before he could disclose the information to everyone else, the gang hear a "Psst." From an area behind a house across the street. The source of the noise is Sally Acorn, as well as an emotionally broken Amy Rose. They stay low as they move behind the house before 'Metal Tails' saw them. "Sal, we need to know what the hell happened here." Sonic says, with urgency in his voice. She looks down, "It happened this morning… that thing came from nowhere. I've watched it for a while, entirely helpless. Sonic, that monster is not just a bucket of bolts. It seems like it has a motive beyond conquering, grandstanding or serving Eggman, it-it it's unlike anything Robotnik has ever made." Sonic grimaces. Then Shadow asks, "How many people have we lost?"
Amy holds her head and shudders at the words. Sally stares forward, with tired eyes, "Too many." Sonic stands up straight, clearly angry, whispering, "We have to stop this guy!" Sally gently grips his arm, almost choking up, and says, "Sonic, it tore Rotor in half! I almost lost you yesterday, I will not lose you today!" Then Amy stood up, her eyes red with tears. "Please- pl- Please Sonic. I don't want you to die."
Suddenly, the ground shakes with an unnatural covers their ears, as Knuckles manages to peak around the corner and look at Metal Tails, it had leaned backward, opened its mouth, and screeched like a predator securing its kill. the more Knuckles stares the more he realizes that this monster is barely a machine. He recognizes that shard in its head.
It stops screeching and stands up straight, its head snaps toward the entrance and Knuckles instantly gets back behind the wall. "Guys, we need a plan fast because it's on its way here, and it has a piece of the Master Emerald hanging from its head." Knuckles says as quietly as possible. The monster drops its victim, breathing loudly as it marches toward the entrance. It starts to maniacally speak to itself, to everyone's horror, it says "They all died so easy, cut, bled, gutted. Like my very own slaughterhouse. A city of souls leaving this mortal coil, it makes me feel so very alive."
Sonic grits his teeth and looks to his friends. He whispers angrily, "When I find that Eggman…" Sonic then sighs "That thing said it killed everyone in the city, how could it kill that many people?" Sally responded to his question, reluctantly, "Well, it broke through our defenses, shut down Nicole and her nanites. I don't doubt what it said, thankfully though, there are a few survivors, but... most of the Freedom Fighters are missing or dead."
Sonic gets angrier, Tails covers his mouth in grief and Knuckles moves farther away from the corner but, Shadow is deep in thought about a strategy. Suddenly, the doll looks up and it is blasted to the ground with a blast of psychic energy, then it gets lifted into the air and the energy launches it into a building, Silver the Hedgehog slowly descends from the sky. "You will not harm any more people here," he says as he touches the ground. Metal Tails limps its way out of the building, and its leg is heavily damaged.
Its eyes begin twisting and whirring, scanning Silver, then says "No files on you, now I'm interested, and you are the first to damage me." Its leg then completely repairs itself, a black fluid seeps out then it stretches and expands to graft metal scraps into itself, to perfectly heal the damaged limb. Silver readies his psychic powers, "I was coming here for a completely different energy signature, but since that one was stopped, I guess I have to take you down instead."
Sonic and Shadow see Silver, then they both speed toward Metal Tails and they both bash into it, knocking it back into the crater it was already in. Tails, Amy, Knuckles and Sally start looking for people to evacuate. It pushes a wall off of itself as the three hedgehogs stare down Metal Tails.
"When did you get here Silver?" Sonic says as he looks at Silver for a moment. "Well, I came back because I sensed something that so powerful, I could feel it my bones," Silver then holds out his hand toward Metal Tails, "I guess I was, uh, a day late, my bad. So, I'll help take care of this because it seems just as dire." Metal Tails stands back up, as the black fluid fixes every broken part of it.
"Sonic and Shadow, my main targets, I'm glad you showed yourselves," it chuckles "I want to feel my life threatened, I want the thrill of nearly dying, they're all so weak here, they couldn't give me what I wanted… so, I peeled them apart," it opens its arms, "But now three candidates! Three thrills! My short life will be ended today!" It smiles ear to ear and the black fluid comes out of the gaps in its shoulders, knees, and out of the various segments of its tails, the metal contorts to his new dimensions, making him taller and hunched over, his tails longer, the static on his black gem turns red, and red static runs down his body. "KILL ME!" it screams.
It gets on all fours and leaps at Silver. Silver holds it in mid-air, as it gnashes and claws at him, he launches it skyward, as Sonic runs up the side of a building to bash the metal abomination with his built up momentum, he combos his attack with a kick, which puts it in Shadow's range and he throws a Chaos Spear into its chest, impaling it into a building. It groans and coughs up the black fluid, as the chaos spear dissipates, it slides down the cobblestone wall and leaves a trail of the fluid on the wall. It then uses its tails to push itself up onto its feet.
"What is this? You three aren't using the most you have!? Am I not worth your all?!" In a fit of rage, his tails expand and then stretch rapidly, splitting into nine blade-tipped tails. Sonic and Shadow dodge the tails, as Silver manifests a force field around him, but as they dodge these whipping tails, the Doll slowly walks toward them and says, "You still hold back? Why? Why can't I make you all see that I am worth killing." Then Metal Tails shifts gear, again, and manages to find a blind spot on both Silver and Shadow, it swats them both away in the blink of an eye. It then mutters to itself, "Maybe I've been doing this the wrong way, all at once might not work."
He singles out Sonic and begins slashing him with all nine tails at blinding speeds. Sonic is able to keep up, since this speed is elementary to him. Even so, he doesn't notice as a tail grips his ankle, then tightens which makes him trip and then all the tails bash into him with violent fervor. The exhaustion from fighting Nazo hits Sonic in full force as he feels heavy and sluggish, unable to escape.
The tails start beating Sonic further into the pavement. Hearing and feeling the ground shaking, Sally yells out, "Sonic!" from the sidelines, Sonic sees her and tries to tell her to run but can't with all the pain in his chest. Suddenly the pummeling stops, the tails suspended in the air, as Metal Tails' head snaps toward Sally, its eyes locking onto her as she yells. "Sally Acorn... that's it!"
Suddenly Metal Tails disappears with a Chaos Control. Then it reappears behind Sally, its tendrils twist back together, turning into two scythes. Its over-stretched body hunches over Sally, and its blades start sharpening themselves against each other as he looms over her. Her eyes and body tremble with fear as she hears it breathing behind her. "You will be his catalyst." it mutters with a grin.
Then the metal abomination drives its scythes through Sally, and cleaves her in two, the wretched noise of her body being bisected, echo through the burning city. Sonic watches, his mouth agape, and in that instant, he felt a familiar force pulse in his body. "No..." Then he clenches his fist, punching the pavement and black static spans across his body. "No!"
He punches the ground again, and the punch fractures the cobble road. He yells in a hoarse voice then explodes with dark energy. The air blasts Shadow and Silver back as soon as Silver manages to help Shadow up, and when the dust clears Sonic's fur and quills are pitch-black, Sonic is hyperventilating, the air around him is shimmering. Silver stares in awe and Shadow looks bewildered. Shadow thinks to himself, 'How did you access that form we aren't anywhere near the Chaos Emeralds'. Sonic, without a saying a word, booms toward Metal Tails at the speed of light, and with a hard kick to its side, he knocks the beast miles away. Sonic looks back at everyone who saw, his pupils reappearing for a moment and in a strained voice he utters, "Get… these people… to safety." With those strained words he used Chaos Control.
When he reappears, he is twenty or so miles away from the center of New Mobotropolis, in the middle of the forest and Metal Tails is embedded into a crater. "So, this is your true- ", Before it could speak, Sonic grabs its mouth and starts to slowly crush the abomination's head. Metal Tails lets out a low-pitched yell. Dark energy quickly flares out of Sonic's body as he lifts Metal Tails up, then rams it into the ground, Sonic gets on top of the Doll and punches it hard, he straightens out its face and punches it again splattering black fluid on the ground with each blow. Sonic then grabs the wire on its head.
"Kill me, pull it out, pull out the wire and do it. Do it," it pleads and begs for death. Sonic grips the wire harder, making the Doll convulse. "Why did you do this?" Sonic asks with fury, Metal Tails coughs and then chuckles, "It's why I was born, and thusly, why I must die. Duality. Dichotomy. My very essence commands me to commit horrific acts, I feel them conspiring in my head, two people in the void. They want you strong. You can already achieve a super form without the emeralds now the possibilities are endless, accessing the Chaos Force like Shadow can." Sonic processes what the Doll says, then the Doll smirks and it says, "Do you think Sally would have liked the 'all-black' look?" With that Sonic, lifts it into the air and bashes his knee into Metal Tails' face, while it falls onto the ground, Sonic warps further into the air, and black energy forms in his palm. "Black. Wind!" He slashes his hands in the air multiple times and the dark Chaos energy blasts screech through the sky, and the explosions can be seen for miles, spanning higher than the tree-line. As he fires the blasts, he realizes that he killed the Doll with the first blast, he slows down as his emotions push through the Dark Super form, and he stops. Then as he powers down, he lands softly onto the ground, he looks toward the massive crater he has created, and he puts his head in his hands and sighs deeply, stands up and stares into the sky, "I hope you're seeing this Sal, because I'll do everything to avenge you." Then he picks up the Master Emerald Shard and limps away from the crater.