Chapter 80: Grand Experiment Pt 1
Anti Maria drags her cousin into a cell deep within her lair which is quite old based on old human ruins inside the mountain range within Eurish. "So sad how humanity has fucked up and teleport to the lost world with their tails between their tails. Pitiful, letting these beasts control this planet," Maria said as the Egg Pawn tosses him into his cell to lock the door.
"What is your plan? Taking over this world?" Anti-Eggman demanded Maria have a devilish smile to laugh at this.
"This world. Oh no, I have better plans than a puny world. I have all the tools to push forward with my plan and will show you a taste of it. Showing you how I will restore the Robotnik name to its former glory," Maira said as Dr. Ivo thought she was insane.
"What happened to you and where is grandfather?" he asked.
"Grandpa choked in the end. He was a powerful warlord with the brains to rule the world but he wasted it trying to save this doomed world," Anti Maria said.
"What are you talking about? He tried to save you in his new kindness," Dr. Ivo said.
"That's the worst mistake he ever made. He cured me but held back my true potential," Maria said.
"You murdered him?!" Anti Eggman questioned.
"Well it had to happen at some point," Maria said as she walked away to prepare for her cousin's torture. "Get comfortable, you are going to be here for a while," she said with an evil smirk to walk away with a graceful step hiding the devil buried within.
"Belle, get the others to save me and stop this madness," Dr. Ivo said to activate his beacon.
Back with Belle, she got the signal to be deeply worried. "Oh no, the doctor got himself into a jam. Sonic and Mina, I need you at the command center right now. This is urgent," Belle said on the radio with them just collecting the 8th gemstone.
The two speedsters get there very quickly to be ready for action. "What is the problem?" Sonic asked.
"Father has been captured by his cousin," Belle said as the two were confused by this.
"His cousin, I thought all the humans were gone," Mina said.
"Well, this is different. His cousin Maria is back and she has captured him," Belle said as Sonic and Mina looked on with shock and surprise.
"Maria is here," Sonic said as he deeply remembered how much she meant to Shadow and how her death almost put the planet at risk a couple of times.
"We know of Maria from our world but she was dead for a long time," Mina said as her first adventure was teaming up with Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Amy to stop Shadow and Eggman using the Ark.
"Well, this is different. Maria is not a nice person. She is a little devil even when she was very young from what the doctor was telling me about her. I had lost contact with him in the mountains in the landmass of Eurish. Take the Sleath Ship and track him down, if you need to. Stop Maria, I have a bad feeling about her," Belle said showing them the tracker signal from his glasses in the vast mountain range.
"Alright, we will be on our way to collect the good doctor," Mina said as the couple headed off to the hangar to take the stealth ship to get off of Demon Island to head for the location. "I don't believe this, Maria is alive here," Mina said.
"I wonder how Shadow would feel about this. Seeing Maria alive in the flesh," Sonic wondered.
"He has abandoned the past to embrace the future. Rouge, Omega, Whisper, Tangle, Ace, Shard, and especially Hope," Sonic said as Mina nodded her head.
"Yes he did but the past will always be there. It's how you handle it is what matters. This Anti Maria would be the opposite of the original from this world's Mobius," Mina said as she wondered about something.
"What is it?" he asked.
"I was wondering about how this world relates to ours because there are clear differences in history from our own," Mina said as they approached the Eurish mountains to the far northern.
Within her lair, Maria senses the ship approaching her. "I see my cousin brought in some new friends for me to play with," she said looking through a spy bot via her Magitek. "Oh cousin, time for you to speed up your torture Ivo," she said to snap her fingers to make the Egg Pawns get her Cousin to bring him deep within her lair.
"Got a little set up here?" Ivo asked to see it's an ancient human research station built deep within the vast mountain range.
"It works for my needs. I find it curious about those two you sent to break you out of here. They are not from this world or this reality period. Very curious," Maria said.
'What are you getting at?" Ivo questioned.
"It's all part of my plan. Learning about the deep regions of reality or multiple realities," Anti Maria said as the Egg Pawns brought him into a room where he would be placed in a containment field.
"Different realities?" Dr Ivo asked as Maria had a big sick smile.
"Yes, I did a lot of research and now you will see the fruits of my labor," Maria said focusing her energy on Dr. Ivo to begin shocking his body to make him scream in pain to laugh at his suffering.
Back with the couple they managed to land on a ridge within the mountains to be able to get close to the signal that Belle sent them. "Wow, this place looks nice and empty," Mina said as they overlooked the ridge to see a deep valley below which is untouched by dirty hands.
"Yeah, Miles or Smalls didn't ruin this place. Very few within this world seem diseased by their corruption," Sonic said as Mina nodded her head. Her long purple hair dances along the cool gentle breeze showing a beautiful display.
"Well hello there my guests. My cousin had summoned you to my lovely suite here in the Eurish mountains," a spy bot comes in with a sweet yet twisted voice comes out of it.
"Maria, we are about to take the good doctor back from you," Sonic said as they were greeted by an army of Egg Pawns with their eyes lit up by Maria's techno-magic taking control of them.
"Oh, I have taken control of my cousin's defense units. Come play with me, I want to see what you can do," Anti Maria said as she made them attack. Mina uses Hover to lift them into bubbles and toss a bunch of fireballs to blast them away.
Sonic kicks and tackles Egg Pawns to turn them into scrap metal while swinging his legs to release wind crescents to slice up the robots into broken parts. He goes into a Spin Dash to tear through enemies.
Mina kicks and blasts several robots with lighting bolts to clear the way. "Nice warm up right, come into my lair and you will have main course meals," Anti Maria said as the two speedsters rushed towards the chosen location to go into a cavern to see a large metal gate blocking their path.
Sonic uses his Spin Dash and Mina goes into Spike mode to spin and crave their way through the thick metal doors. They drilled through to be within an ancient human lab. "Place has seen better days," Sonic said to see it's quite durable despite the rust around the place.
"It's a place used by Humanity over 1000 years ago before they abandoned it and went to another world. Ever since I woke up from my slumber like my cousin, I made myself at home here," Maria said on the speakers infusing them with her magic to let her soft voice echo through the ancient hallways of the research bunker.
"Sleep, what happened with Gerald?" Sonic asked.
"He has been dead before I was put on ice. He had a terrible accident, he worked so hard to help me. I managed to recover some of his audio diary. If you are curious, there is a monitor nearby. So you can watch it," Maria said with a cute yet devilish giggle.
"Creepy," Mina said as they went up to the monitor to see lights coming up and hear Gerald's voice coming out of it.
"Here I am. I wanted to conquer the world with my genius but I had a change of heart after all the death I have caused. Within my closing years, I wanted to make amends by helping my granddaughter Maria Robotnik," Gerald said to continue.
"She was 11 years old at this time. She lived her life like any other human. She would go to school and come home to her family. She was in good health and had a remarkable IQ of 300. A chip off the old block, getting those good Robotnik genes," Gerald continues.
"If I told you her life ended due to the NIDS she has gotten. Would anybody care listening to this, I doubt this. Over the years her family began to reject her due to her smarts and her rotting personality making her quite the outcast among the family. This would be the end of her story if she was abandoned by the family. Lucky for her, her grandfather is a genius above all else. She does have people that care for her still," Gerald presses forward with his thoughts.
"My genius is going to save her. I am someone gifted superior to most just like my granddaughter. If I can't save her then nobody can. Whatever is going on I will figure it out as always she is my granddaughter after all. This girl be even more extraordinary when I am done," Gerald finished his thoughts.
"This is the beginning of Project Phoenix. Professor Gerald's Robotnik audio diary entry one completed," Gerald finished for the audio diary ended and the screen turned off.
"Project Phoenix like Project Shadow?" Mina wondered.
"So where is Shadow at?" Sonic asked.
"Oh, sweet Shadow. He and the Biolizard were part of a decommissioned weapons project. He used the research to aid me and help with my NIDS. It has interesting results," Maria said as she looked at her hand to surge a mysterious power.
"You have Magitek?" Mina asked to see her power flowing through the ancient bunker watching their every movement inside.
"Oh yes but it was something I picked up in my travels before I was sealed away. I only improved my skills since then," Maria said as she commanded legions of drones along with remaining Egg Pawns to kill them. "Wipe them out and give me a good show," Maria said as the two kicked and used energy attacks to rip up the robots to crave a path deeper within the base.
"Gee this is crazy," Sonic said as he kicked an Egg Pawn into a wall to leave a dent behind while ripping the robot in half.
"I know, this is going deeper than we can think it would be," Mina sends out explosive clones to take out crowds of robots and drones. She then makes three clones which help her take out more robots via kicking, Flame Boost, and lightning bolts. Mina and her clones use Flame Boost to speed through hordes of robots while engulfed in fire.
They smash through a door to be within a large warehouse area to sense something big within here. "So I have gotten my hands on the Metal Virus. It was a powerful weapon back in my time. Used to turn things into robotic slaves via nanites to aid in building the old human empire. We call it Roboticization and with my Magitek can bend them to my will," Anti Maria said as a huge beast appeared to let out a big thud shaking the whole area.
"Oh, what the hell. That is the Biolizard but it's a robot now," Sonic said as the Biolizard let out a big roar that shook the whole mountain range around them.
"Yes with the Metal Virus, I turn it into a deadly weapon. Able to do what my grandfather failed to do, control this beast and use it against you. Attack!" Anti-Maria's Magitek takes control of the robotic beast with her seeing through its eyes. "Front rows to your deaths," her voice speaks through the Biolizard now called the Cyber Lizard.
"Well this went up to 10 pretty fast," Sonic said as the Cyber Lizard was using Chaos powers to begin lifting all the crates and containers to toss them at the duo. They use their speed to dodge incoming projectiles with them counterattacking.
"It is using an Anarchy Beryl to power itself up," Sonic said as he went into his Mystic Form to fly in the air to begin casting wind spells to blast away incoming crates to blow them to scrap metal.
Mina transforms into Rainbow Mina and begins to use lightning blades from her hands to slice up containers. She tossed four clones to engage the metal monster to use its lightning blades to cut into its metal skin.
The Cyber Lizard unlashes a powerful shockwave to blow the clones away to take them out. It opens its mouth to unleash orbs of energy to pepper their locations.
Both of them slap the orbs away to use their energy attacks to strike the monster to deliver enough force to knock the beast into a wall denting it behind it. Mina tosses orbs of plasma which punches right through the energy attacks to strike the monster.
The Cyber Lizard slams its feet onto the floor to unleash pillars of energy to erupt around it. Mina uses Rhythm to release a powerful sound wave from her mouth to take out the energy pillar while knocking down all the floating containers in the air.
Sonic flies towards the metal beast to Boost the monster to slam onto its side and enhances his kick with explosive wind magic to connect releasing a powerful vortex tearing into the metal body of the creature.
"Not bad. Quite interesting. Time to step it up," Maria said as Cyber Lizard used Chaos Control to freeze them both in place while swinging its large tail into her sending them flying across the vast room.
"Gee, I forgot that thing could use Chaos Powers like Shadow. We need to take away that Emerald," Sonic said as Mina had an idea.
"I am going to use a Color combo move to remove the Beryl. Distract it," she said to fly away to get into a good position.
Sonic curls into a ball to harden like a diamond to slam into the head of the monster while using a Sonic Wind to generate a vortex to entrap and let the sharp winds slash into its skin. It uses Chaos Control again to freeze Sonic in place to lob an orb of energy to slam into him triggering a big explosion.
"Not so fast little mongoose," Maria said as the Cyber Lizard used Chaos Control on her to freeze her.
"Not this time, Void," she twists her gravity powers making her body so dense becoming a mini black hole. The time-space isn't slowing her down at all with Maria being impressed with this.
"Using dense gravity to counter time-space stop of Chaos Control. Interesting," Anti Maria nods that her opponents are not simpletons.
Mina lines herself to use her Color Combo Ghost + Laser to become intangible to become a bolt of light to phase right through the beast to grab the gemstone to appear on the other side. "Catch Sonic," she said tossing the gem while using Laser to bounce off the walls to slam at the being beyond the speed of light doing severe damage to Cyber Lizard.
"You didn't win yet," Anti Maria said as she made the beast transform with it able to grow large bat-like metal wings that act like hands. Then tons of orbs begin to manifest around the creature. The creature uses Chao Control but Sonic utters his trademark smirk.
"My turn now, Chaos Control," he uses his Chaos power to cancel it out and powers up to leash out unleashing torrents of wind sickles to crave into the metal hide of the monster. Then following up with a powerful orb of flames to fire in the direction of the monster to unleash a big explosion weakening the creature.
"Impressive, you can use Chaos Control as well?" Maria's voice asked to be confused by this.
"What can I say, I am very adaptable Hedgehog," Sonic hyped himself up to slam into the beast using his light speed to blitz into the monster. He summons an orb above his head to let out mini fireballs to track and strike the monster. He leaps above the flaming orb to kick it into the Cyber Lizard conjuring a big fiery blast.
The monster pushes them back with a shockwave to use its wings to lift itself into the air to slam down unleashing surges of energy. Both fly above the attacks to strike downward into the Cyber Lizard pushing it past its limit.
"Get vaporized," Maria ordered the Cyber Lizard to leap onto the ceiling to use its wings to prepare an energy orb to kill the duo.
"Sonic," Mina said as Sonic still holding the gemstone making him surge with Chaos Energy to prepare a powerful spell.
"Wind Reflection," Sonic conjures a powerful wind barrier that can catch and reflect the powerful energy attack with twice the speed and power sending it back to the Cyber Lizard. The reflected attack scores a fatal blow to see the Cyber Lizard lifelessly flopping onto the floor dead by Sonic's spell.
"Interesting, you brought some time. Come forward and I got more surprises for you," Anti Maria said as her voice disappeared from the destroyed robot.
"Baby, that was insane," she said to be deeply impressed.
"Well, I was working on that one. Pretty handy, come on. We need to save the Doctor," Sonic said as the couple kept pushing deeper into the bunker.
Maria looks on still pretty confident she will win anyway. She looks over her cousin being tortured via shock making him scream in pain. Maria has a cute yet evil smile. "Oh cousin, you are so funny," she said.
"You monster," Anti Eggman said as she revealed a new toy she had.
"Oh, I will be more than that. I want to become something completely different. I found something that was teleported to our world and it was quite remarkable. A powerful gemstone that surpasses the Anarchy Beryls in sheer magnitude. It will be the means to make me a god," Anti Marie said as someone was talking with her.
"I am in a position to stop them," a strong stoic voice said.
"Thank you, give me a good show. Cyber Shadow," Anti Maria said as she looked over this screen to be very happy. "Finally the key to all knowledge and power in all of creation. The Phantom Ruby will be the key to becoming a Goddess of Creation," Anti Maria said with a devilish grin with a weird fiery aura covering her body making Dr. Ivo feel very uneasy.
"Grandfather, what is the price for curing her NIDS," Dr. Kintobor thought as the depths of Anti-Maria's evil were only going deeper than they could imagine.