They fought Mecha Sonic through better strategy and thought they had him on the ropes with their combined assault on the machine including some aid from the soldiers. Shortfuse was convinced they got the hunk of metal exactly where they wanted him when he fell to one knee after catching a right hook from Knuckles and just had to finish him off with a killing blow.
Tails hears the familiar sounds of Sonic rushing to the scene and greets him upon arrival. "Sonic, it's—!?"
He stopped when he saw crimson coated on both his body, gloves and quills that obscured his cobalt blues. Looking like a deranged guy freshly off from their mania episode like Mecha is with the blood on his armour. Tails found him a little frightening looking with all the reds on him and just knew right there that something's not right with him.
Going for a killing shot, Shortfuse deploys a laser from his armour and charges up a shot. Before he could do the deed, something whooshes at him and gets knocked off his feet with his laser firing off elsewhere. Then finds himself getting flung at an incoming Iron Rotor and crashing into him.
"Sonic! What are you doing!?" Knuckles exclaims as Sonic appears next to Mecha Sonic and helps him up to his feet. Voicing what everyone else present was wondering about when they saw that from him.
"He ain't in the form to chat right now but he is more than ready to vent his resentment on all of you chumps!"
"He ain't in the form to chat right now but he is more than ready to vent his resentment on all of your chumps!"
Both Sonics spoke in perfect unison, both standing side of side and both smirked maliciously at the others. The red eyes on the possessed Sonic looked downright predatory as Mecha Sonic spoke through his mouth.
"Check out this sick…"
"...New trick of mine!"
The two Sonics start attacking both Knothole Freedom Fighters and R.A.A Troopers alike. Proving to be more than a match for the lot of them with their combined powers.
Mecha saw it as a perfect way to twist the knife in for Sonic while the blue blur helplessly watched on. Trying to wrestle control back of his body from his evil twin.
Slimy made his way down to the aircraft hangar and saw that Tarek had managed to get away from Sonic to come down here. That was before the jackal turned around and showed his red stained face.
"W-What happened to you Doctor Mengele? You look awful!" Slimy felt squeamish at the sight but the other scientist just looked at him. Unbothered by the staring as he walked over to him. One thing on his mind.
"You have the Shards?" Tarek ignored the question and simply asks about the Shards. The redness on his face when asking that question made the reptile give off a nervous laugh.
"W-Well, I managed to k-keep the Shard of Matter out of their hands…" Slimy pulls out the Shard he still had on him to show to the older scientist. "B-But unfortunately they have the Shard of Creation—ACK!"
He felt a tight, calloused hand almost squeezing his throat and his feet hovering off the floor. If looks could kill, Tarek would have him dead on the spot with his glare.
"I have come this close to seeing through my years of searching for my own philosopher's stone just for it to be snatched from me at this hour..." Tarek stressed in a dangerous tone and Slimy could just feel an atomic bomb waiting to go off on him any moment now. "I have survived nearly being beaten to death… And I am being told just now you have lost one of the Shards that's key to both of our operations..."
Slimy felt pressure being applied to his neck, restricting his breathing and any more would kill him. "All you had to do was not lose either of them… I wonder if I am the fool for even employing you in the first place or your incompetence is why Doctor Robotnik favoured your cousin over you!"
Tarek threw him down hard onto the floor and puts a boot to his chest. "If she doesn't end you first, I will… But you still kept one of the Shards safe and that is one of the only two reasons you'll live today."
"W-What is t-the other reason?" Slimy asked fearfully. Sweat running down his forehead.
"Mecha Sonic's acting on his own, he's taken control of Sonic and I need a second opinion on the matter." Tarek takes his foot off Slimy. "I thought you had him deactivated?"
"I did but he must have somehow turned himself back on. It must be his link with Sonic and he must have reactivated him or something to that effect."
"I am growing increasingly wary of that AI. Any usefulness to be had with that link and his combat prowess not enough to offset the downsides he has." The jackal voices his opinions on Mecha Sonic. "You said it yourself that he's not willing to let anyone have a look at his coding, he'll only share what he's willing to share and it would take us years just to even understand how his neural pathway works. It's only a matter of time before he starts thinking bigger and figures out how to circumvent your safety measures."
Pointing a stern finger at Slimy. "He is your responsibility and you are the one who convinced me to help give him a new body despite my wariness. If he becomes a problem to us later, consider yourself on death's row…"
"Y-Yes sir…"
Slimy wondered if it would have been a lot preferable to stay under G.U.N's thumb after all. They never once threatened to make shoes out of him, feeding him to the pit bulls or shave off his remaining hair and they were good as their word in protecting him from people who would want him dead due to his cousin. At worst, they'd be a little gruff with him and waving their authoritative weight around with him.
He's got a Grandmaster who would happily give him the axe, a Kommissar who would do her bidding should her master decide he's not worth keeping around and a boss protecting him from them who's seemingly at the end of his rope with him. The jackal is the one he's most afraid of angering and what little he felt of it is more than enough to know the consequences should he fail him again.
That Mecha Sonic will be the end of him if he continues being a potential liability to his masters. Perhaps that's why neither Julian or Ivo ever bothered to bring him back and chose to use his blueprints to advance the Metallix Series.
"I spent four years awake in total darkness. Trapped in a world disconnected from everything else. Screams unheard." Mecha spoke tauntingly to Sonic through their link. "Four years to figure out how to destroy you completely. Welcome to my world Nicky."
Try as he might, Mecha Sonic's control is strong once he took possession of him through a backdoor of sorts and the A.I saw to it that he couldn't do anything about it while he's calling the shots. Sonic is forced to be an unwilling witness to his own rampage and fighting his own friends however he might have felt about them now.
Said friends were a little reluctant to fight him while the soldiers pressed on and treated him as much of a threat as the metal hedgehog. Something that Mecha took advantage of.
Sonic kicks Big on the chin followed by an axe kick and then pulls him in to take a boot from Bunnie for him that sends the purple cat to the ground. Trading quick blows with the rabbit before head-butting her on the forehead and floor sweeping her to go for a mudhole stomp on her skull but a few closeby R.A.A Troopers came in to stop that attempt.
Dodging their gunfire, the possessed Sonic raced up to them and tore one of the rifles out of their hands to mercilessly gunning all them down with a dead look to his eyes much to the blue hedgehog's horror. Watching the five soldiers fall to the snow as life left their bodies while Mecha lets off a crazed laughter in wake of their demise.
The severity of his earlier rage became all too clear to him.
Speaking of Mecha, he was tearing through the R.A.A forces that had given him much hassle earlier left and right. Making them pay dearly for having the nerve to think he'd fall to their puny weapons.
Showing his brutality when he swipes a claw at an unfortunate soldier's face like a grizzly bear and taking half of the flesh off his skull. Hurling his impromptu plastic surgery patient at his comrade who had a grenade ready and knocking her over. The dropped grenade exploded on her and her half-faceless friend that claimed their lives.
The unwilling Sonic battled against Knuckles, Shortfuse and Tails on Mecha's command. Unable to scream or stop his twin from having him lay stiff shots to them including his best friend Tails who Mecha seemed to aim for more than everyone else present. Catching the fox before he could pull away and delivering a fist to his face that made him see stars.
Him hurting Tails should have been the moment Sonic breaks free from Mecha's control but the machine wasn't going to let him have it and seems to feed off of him. If only he knew how to turn the link against him and how to keep Mecha from hijacking him again.
Fortunately, Knuckles came in and forced Sonic off of the fox with an uppercut that the hedgehog dodged. "I don't know what's going on with you right now and whether you're aware of it or not but that's the last time you're laying a hand on him!"
"Make that two of us!" Bunnie yelled as she rushed in to aid Knuckles.
Having seen what Sonic did to Tails and knowing it's time to lay the smackdown on him. Hoping that would snap their friend out of his current state. Sonic hoped the others could stop him before he ends up doing something really bad against his will.
The other R.A.A Troopers had tried focusing on taking out Mecha in a coordinated effort and had called in for reinforcements while everyone else's busy with Sonic but the Badnik was very hungry for some pest extermination and spreading destruction in the name of the Robotnik Empire. The soldiers fought valiantly but were doomed to a largely one-sided battle with the Paleo-Metallix and his raw power.
Any fortunate to survive his wrath if there are any left after he's finished will remember him as the Big Kahuna Butcher with how many lives have been lost to him alone. For the angel of death spreads his wings on the blast, their hearts but once heaved and forever grew still.
"Lindsey. You and the rest of your gang are to head for the aircraft hanger. We are getting out of here."
That was a call Lindsey had received from Tarek while she's running from a chasing hedgehog. Didn't need telling twice.
Isabelle chases Lindsey down the halls and avoids the redhead's bullets when she fires her sprays behind her in an effort to keep the magenta hedgehog off her but the sister of Monica proves tenacious in her pursuit. It wasn't long before she caught up to the woman who hospitalised her twin.
"Come here!" The vengeful hedgehog tackles Lindsey into a wall and then down onto the floor with the human trying to wrestle out of her holds. She wasn't letting her slip away this time. She'll get justice for Monica if she has to break this scum's face to do it.
The pair struggled on the floor for a bit until Lindsey managed to land a well-placed elbow to Isabelle's face and freeing herself. However, the mobian threw a punch at her head that knocked out a tooth with blood coming from where the missing tooth used to rest at.
Growing beyond fed up with these stupid animals being a nuisance to her, Lindsey knees the hedgehog in the face and pulls herself away from her. Pulling out a pistol as Isabelle lunges at her and a gunshot rang out in the halls.
As Mecha Sonic sees a gunship coming in to provide air support, he allows the aircraft to come near enough to be within shooting range and suddenly fly up to the craft when it gets close while dodging its onboard weaponry. He dug his servos in through the armour plating to get a firm grip and with his strength being greater than the ship's propulsion systems, he would swing it around until releasing it in the direction of an oncoming gunship like a torpedo.
The second gunship wasn't able to outpace the projectile speed of the first and an explosion cloud erupts upon meeting each other that claimed all who were aboard the ships. The fiery debris raining down on the combat area.
A combat knife belonging to a now-deceased passenger that was aboard one of the gunships made it out of the collision intact and landed in the snow unnoticed in the chaos by everyone except Mecha Sonic who had seen where it had landed. Making note of it to himself.
When Lien-Da, Gae-Na and Triplex arrived at the aircraft hangar, they saw that Linda and half of her gang including Jason and Butch were there along with Slimy and Tarek. The last of which had startled the Grandmaster when she saw his bloodied up face. The jackal paid no heed to her shock.
"Triplex. Get us out of here on the double." Gae-Na orders the husky and he turns into an Egg Predator with them boarding the ship afterwards just as a squad of R.A.A Commandos arrives to open fire on them. The transformed husky quickly headed for the exit and flew out through it to get his passengers safely out of West Robotropolis.
It was time for them to leave and return to HQ. Their business on Big Kahuna Island has now concluded. The results of Tarek's Project: Lazarus today were regrettably inconclusive and their scientific miracle will have to wait another time.
What had been a battle that the Freedom Fighters were close to winning became the backdrop for Mecha Sonic's very fierce cornered animal response and getting floored by the combined powers of the two Sonics. How Mecha is able to perfectly divide his attention the way he does without any lag or inefficiency in his fighting and being relentless would be awe inspiring if it was anyone else but him.
Sonic is formidable on his own terms and has been bested by them on occasions. He isn't utterly unbeatable. His speed just makes him hard to catch.
As a puppet of Mecha Sonic? He is a terror to fight and guard themselves against as much as Mecha himself. Including his lack of holding back his true strength on all of his opponents and making the real Sonic watch as his body is being used as an instrument of death.
An unfortunate R.A.A Trooper would convey the danger the possessed Sonic poses when he delivered a flurry of fast strikes to his midsection and with the high velocity of the vibrations hitting his pressure points, what happened to him afterwards is a sight too gruesome to describe in words. Mecha has no qualms about using such lethal methods on living beings and Sonic is powerless to do anything about it.
He revels in the bloodshed and fear he's causing in his wake but neither comes close to the joy he feels in making Sonic suffer through his callousness. He's waited four long years for this and he hasn't hit his crescendo. Even if he perishes here, Sonic will never be able to forget what he's done.
Everything else comes second to that.
Bunnie and the others have trouble trying to battle against the real Sonic despite the number advantage. Avoiding his deadlier attacks like his familiar buzzsaw move.
They're fortunate that Knuckles is with them as he stands between their own odds of survival and being killed but even the unmovable mountain couldn't put away the unstoppable menace while he's busy protecting his friends from him. Even with him around, they were getting stomped royally by the possessed Sonic while Mecha Sonic's metallic laughter rang through the area.
Gadget and Sticks arrive just a moment later to see Isabelle falling to the floor while clutching a bullet wound. The badger immediately hurls her boomerang at Lindsey and knocks the pistol out of her hand before she gets the chance to finish off the hedgehog.
As much as she wanted to get at the wolf, Lindsey knew better than to do it here where she's disadvantaged. She pulls out an emergency smokescreen capable and throws it at the two mobians before they could make the moves on her as dark smoke quickly appears that obscures the sight of her.
By the time Gadget and Sticks were able to see past the smokescreen, the redhead was gone. Having evaded them in what felt like the fourth time and having another teammate be down thanks to her. It was getting beyond infuriating at this stage and Gadget secretly wondered if he's really her good luck charm given his track record with her.
Gadget checks on the wounded Isabelle and instructs Sticks to press her wound while he goes to call for urgent medical aid. Trying to keep it calm on the outside while feeling panicky on the inside.
He had thought that because Sally Acorn had it all figured out; this should have been a smooth and successful operation that would see the capture of the villains involved in the whole affair. Instead, it has gone badly south. Probably no thanks to him from the way he sees it.
"...Mecha Sonic! Come in Mecha Sonic!" Slimy urgently called Mecha Sonic through his comm systems while the metal hedgehog got done blasting a laser in a R.A.A Trooper's face. "I know you're listening over there!"
Mecha Sonic grumbled as he reluctantly took the call. "What do you want now, Pencil-Neck? I'm very busy here!"
"We're leaving at once and you are to retreat right away."
"Who died and made you my boss? I'll come over when I'm finished."
Mecha Sonic was incensed.
He is in the middle of his fun and this no-named dork has the nerve to command him like Doctor Robotnik when he's not even good enough to hold Snively's bags. If he didn't need his technical expertise and had to settle for the lesser known cousin of Grimer Wormtongue, he would have shanked this loser long ago.
"That is a direct order and you will obey my command." Slimy became firm with him, having expected this response coming from his late master's punk of a son and knew what he needed to do to get the Badnik to follow the order his way. "Activate Protocol STH 39-S6. Override Code: One-Six-Three-Zero-Nine. Obey my earlier order and return to me at once."
After hearing those words, Mecha Sonic found himself being forced to obey Slimy's command even if he didn't want to and livid at having to retreat from his current business because of an override code he didn't know anything about.
Seeing as he's having to end his fun time early, he decides to cash in his chips now before he departs and sees that Sonic's friends were fighting Sonic over at the gunship wreckage site. Noticing that Tails was nearest to Sonic and he still had full control over the hedgehog, he knew how to get his crescendo as he let off a curt chuckle to himself. Make lemonade out of lemons.
As Tails and the others were fending off Sonic, Mecha proceeded to direct the battle which brought the hedgehog ever closer towards a specific spot. Make it appear that they're forcing him back.
Unaware of what Mecha was really up to, Sonic cheered on Tails and them. If they take him down now, he won't be a danger to them any longer.
"...Come on bro! What's the matter with ya!?" Mecha taunts Tails as he evades his attacks and knocks aside a charging Shortfuse. "Ya still too yellow bellied to actually fight me like a man? Too chicken to fight someone bigger than ya?"
Tails ignored the trash talking from the possessed Sonic yet that only encouraged Mecha to up the ante. "Hey, I'm talkin' to ya. What, you suddenly becomin' deaf or somethin' Pixel-Brain?"
The fox did show some reaction to the unflattering nickname that Sonic had long since discarded but still kept his cool. He knew that's just Mecha Sonic trying to get under his skin and set him off. Tails knew Sonic wouldn't be vomiting such things at him.
Mecha Sonic says to the fox while battling him and the kit dodging his lasers, purposely letting Tails outpace his shots. "You're nothin' without me and you're useless without me around!"
"That's not true and you're not Sonic!" Tails yelled. This machine knows nothing about him and just saying whatever it takes to get to hi—
"Then why didn't you rescue me during those six months that I was being held captive ya useless mutant freak?"
Mecha retorted harshly and that caught Tails off guard for a moment. If he wasn't so powerless, Sonic would have scrapped Mecha on the spot for the mutant freak remark and trying to use something personal against his brother like that.
Mecha proceeded to take advantage of that momentary surprise from Tails and quickly grabbed the knife off the snow. Sonic realised the danger Tails is in and tried everything he could to break free from Mecha's control to no avail.
"Here comes your favourite part!"
Mecha cackled spitefully to Sonic before making him swing the blade at the fox. A loud pained cry rang out whenever the blade made contact with Tails' skin under the white fur patch on his chest and a line of red would appear across the chest a second later.
The fox stared at Sonic with wide, pained eyes. Afterwards, Mecha made Sonic boot Tails a few feet away from him and landed on his back in the snow as some of his blood painted the white ice.
Everything came to a stop when everyone saw what Sonic had just done to Tails with Bunnie letting out an audible gasp and Knuckles' jaw dropping. He couldn't believe what he just witnessed as he and Bunnie rushed over to the wounded Tails.
"I'll have to go now but I hope the freak croaks. Buh-bye hahahaha!"
Mecha's laughter faded into nothing and a shell-shocked Sonic at long last had regained control. The blue hedgehog looked at the knife in his shaking hands and saw Tails' blood on it. The sight of it was enough to make him drop the blade onto the snow.
His breathing became stuttered and found himself hyperventilating as he tried to calm down but it was useless as his thoughts were in a stormy whirlwind. Unraveling at the seams.
He tried to take a step forward towards Tails but Shortfuse blocked his path and pointed his blasters at him as did the surviving R.A.A Troopers. "You keep well away from him or else I will terminate you on the spot if I have to. I'm dead serious. Back off."
"Tails..." Sonic stammered with a quivering lip and shaking all over, backing off from Shortfuse as the weight of what he's done struck him like an express train. "I-I have just h-hurt Tails..."
"Sonic?" Rotor called out his name in concern as he saw him having a real breakdown before their very eyes. The hedgehog shook his head and ignored his call.
"I-I'm a d-danger..." Sonic says to himself, eyes watering and hands on his head as he keeps stepping back away from where Tails is. "I-I'm a threat to e-everyone around me a-and it's all my fault… I have to… I h-have to go away somewhere for everyone's sake…"
"Sonic? Sonic!"
The blue hedgehog would quickly run from them and speed away in another direction. Their calls fall on deaf ears as he disappears from the island.
Heading somewhere that he doesn't want to be found at. After what he's done today, he sees himself as a danger to all of his friends as long as Mecha knows how to hijack him and use him against his loved ones.
He has to go somewhere away from the world and find his own place of solitude. Go somewhere none of them would think to find him at. He needed to be alone. Away from everyone else for a while.
Sally and her team gather themselves as they look over the deactivated Iron Vigiles that decorate the halls along with a few R.A.A Troopers who had perished in said ambush. Not helped by the news from Gadget about what had happened to Isabelle at Lindsey's hands.
She was a little frustrated at losing Lien-Da and Gae-Na thanks to those creations of Tarek but they now have some form of evidence against him with these deceased cyborgs as well as getting word from Sonia's team that they've captured Tarek's science staff. They just need to capture him and get their testimonies to put him away for good. Maybe even redeem their earlier misfortunes on Resort Island while they're at it.
Sally gets a hail from an R.A.A squad and goes to answer it. "Report."
"Lien-Da and the other high value targets have just escaped from us in an Egg Predator. We have aircrafts set to pursue it."
"Damn it!" The leader of the Knothole Freedom Fighters let out a loud curse that caught her teammates off guard and a frustrated face to match it. "Do not let them get away! Over and out!"
The chipmunk then gets a call from Knuckles and the echidna's tone is grim. "Tails' been wounded and needs medical attention. Sonic has just gone AWOL."
"Oh no…" Sally's eyes widened as the devastating news hit her and the others around knew it from just reading her reaction. The worst has just happened.
"He's left the island and wherever he's gone off to, I don't think he wants us looking for him…"
Author's Notes: We have reached the breaking point of Sonic the Hedgehog and the fallout of this mission that had gone south. It's all been leading to that moment.
Tune in next time to see the aftermath and reach the end of our second act. Peace.