Sonic the hedgehog

Dark Era

The characters are property of SEGA

As Sonic's group headed towards Red Mountain, Doctor Eggman walked along the catwalk, which surrounded the meteorite core composed of the Amethyst of reverse Chaos, below several badniks could be seen mining and extracting fragments and then putting them in wagons. Eggman smiled complacently.

"Well, once as much ore as possible has been mined I'll take it to my new base! The Mega Death Egg!" Thought Eggman looking up at the sky.

Although nothing special could be seen there was the new base the Doctor had created since his last defeat, it had a system to make it invisible, and that way no one would know what the doctor had been working on. It was more armed, more defended and more spherical... if that was even possible. In addition it also had the capability to serve as a ship.

"Unfortunately, by starting to mass mine the amethyst I've been able to confirm that the core is almost impenetrable, I won't be able to get anything out of there... What a shame!" Continued the Doctor thinking "Since I've got it right here, what less to extract it all."

Then Metal Sonic descended from the air, he had a slightly different appearance since acquiring the Amethyst of reverse Chaos. His blue color, almost similar to the original Sonic had given way to purple, and the grey colored parts were now completely black plus his red eyes were now a bright purple color.

"My, my, what an imposing air, the amethyst has had an unexpected effect on you, worthy of the best soldier in Eggman's Neo Empire!" Eggman looked Metal in the eye and said "Yes, I just came up with the name, and yes, I love it."

Eggman left, because he had to control the transport of the Amethyst to the Mega Death Egg. Metal Sonic looked at the Amethyst of reverse Chaos, as the badniks performed the task of extracting the ore.

"Everything is going as it should" He said in a metallic voice, then he looked at the core which was much smoother and darker. Soon a badnik that had touched the amethyst glowed white before disappearing, Metal Sonic watched this carefully "Yes, everything is going as it should" He turned around and took flight using his thruster.

Meanwhile, Sonic's group formed by the hedgehog, Tails, Rouge and Gamma had separated. On one side Tails, Rouge and Gamma were approaching Red Mountain, while on the other side Sonic was heading to the city to ask the Chaotix for help. "It's always good to have all the help we can get" said Sonic before heading to the city where they had their office.

"I hope they can help us" Tails said as he watched his friend disappear over the horizon "They're always willing to take on a case though."

"And at the moment this one seems mysterious enough to catch their interest" Rouge continued heading towards Red Mountain.

They ran down the trail towards the mountain which was filled with enemy badniks.

"So what were the black and purple badniks on Angel Island? And what happened to the Master Emerald? What happened to Knuckles and Amy?" As Tails thought this he missed a Homing Attack which left him very exposed to a large Badnik that was about to hit Tails, but just then a laser beam from Gamma burst off the badnik's head "Phew! Thanks Gamma" Said Tails putting his hand behind his head in regret "I got distracted."

"Focus, we're nowhere near there" Rouge reprimanded him 'The truth is, we're lucky they haven't raised the alarm yet' He said looking at all the wreckage of Badniks shattered along the course.

"Sorry, it's just... there's just too many things that don't seem to fit" Tails said.

"OBJECTIVE: SQUASH BADNIKS, FIND EGGMAN AND INTERROGATE HIM ABOUT THE SITUATION" Gamma interrupted.

Rouge looked at Omega "That's right, first things first, we have to find the Doctor because he seems to be the only one who will know how to give us an explanation."

"And while we're at it we foil his most likely evil plans!" Said Tails looking decisively at the top of the mountain.

Once the three of them got there while avoiding detection by the badniks it was already getting dark, so they hid among some rocks while Tails looked at his PAD

"The strange energy is coming from exactly inside that Eggman base" Tails said pointing to the base built around the meteorite impact site. It had high metal walls, spotlights and was filled with Badniks.

"Oh, I wish a certain shady hedgehog was here" Said Rouge looking at the intercom "With his help it would be much easier to break into the base. But nothing, there's no way to get in touch with him" He said pocketing it.

"Yep, Shadow is quite an enigma" Said Sonic who had suddenly appeared, behind him was Espio to whom Sonic had already explained everything they knew so far.

"We've already seen how you've "cleared" the road before we got there" Espio said, he and Sonic had seen the debris from the badniks all along the way "I've come to help you, Charmy Bee and Vector have stayed behind, we had too much work in the office to leave it totally unoccupied.

"Any help will be useful to us And more so considering your ninja skills Espio! They're perfect for an infiltration mission" Said Tails.

"Well, this seems like the ideal time to sneak into the base" Rouge said "Gamma you stay here, you're too much of a gadget for a mission like this. When I call you on the intercom make as much noise as you can to attract the attention of the badniks at the base, so we can move more easily."

"ORDER:... ACCEPTED, I WILL STAY HERE UNTIL FURTHER ORDER" Replied Gamma.

"He doesn't seem to be too okay with missing the main action" Sonic thought as they got ready "Well, I understand him truth be told"

The group left the shelter among the rocks and moved quickly taking advantage of the rocky environment of Red Mountain to hide from the spotlight. So they went until they were close to the walls.

"What now?" asked Sonic.

"I could use my invisibility to smash the badniks in this area of the wall" Suggested Espio pointing to the group of machines patrolling the same spot on the wall "And then I could turn off the spotlight, but the latter would only serve to make the whole base realize that something is going on before the real distraction started so let's forget that last one."

"Yeah... Okay, so once you're done with the badniks Rouge and I will fly in while dodging the spotlight" Tails said to which Rouge nodded "And I'll carry Sonic."

"And once inside the thing will be simple, find that unknown energy source and continue undetected" Sonic continued.

Everyone nodded showing agreement with the plan and got on with it, Espio went running to the base of the wall, he was almost spotted by the light but with a skillful somersault he was able to evade it. He climbed up and used his invisibility to finish off the EggRobo badniks. As he had predicted between being invisible and the darkness of the night the robots had no chance, he jumped on top of one and in the air threw two shurikens against two other badniks and when he hit the ground he made a Spin Dash finishing with the remaining three. Then he became visible again and made a gesture so that they understood that he had already finished, Tails charged with Sonic and flew with Rouge taking advantage of a moment in which the spotlight was as far away as possible and climbed to where Espio was, when they arrived they got rid of the debris throwing them out of the base quickly and went down helping themselves with those who could fly.

"Omega, it's time" Rouge said over the intercom "Do your thing."

And then explosions were heard in the distance and a spotlight was broken by a Gamma laser. At that moment the alarm sounded and most of the badniks went outside, which made it easier for the four to move undetected, before long they arrived at where the meteorite had made impact, the amethyst was embedded in the Red Mountain slope and the core.

"What is this? There are mining tools all over the ground, but no sign of any enemy" Sonic observed 'They must have been mining that ore'.

"Did you notice? It's the same color as the one Master Emerald had" Said Tails "I knew there had to be a connection."

"Let's take advantage of the fact that there aren't any badniks so we can get closer" Espio said becoming visible again.

"There are no badniks because I've already taken them over" Said suddenly a metallic voice "And Doctor Eggman is already preparing the base.

"METAL SONIC!" Said everyone watching him descend

"Ah yes, that's the name this body is known by" Said Metal "But not for long."

The four looked at each other confused

"What do you mean, and now you can talk?" Sonic asked

"Forget it, I'll be done with you shortly, the only thing that holds sway between world domination..." Said Metal Sonic "...is you scum."

He quickly flew towards Tails and kicked him down before he could even react.

"Tails!" shouted Sonic "Damn you...!"

Metal Sonic had spun on his heels and kicked him in the stomach sending the hedgehog flying until he hit a wagon. Rouge took altitude and Espio became invisible.

"Yeah, I admit it, you guys have some unique abilities..." Said Metal Sonic as he blocked a kick from Rouge and countered and hit him with a series of punches "...you are an extraordinary group of people" He continued as he dodged a shuriken that whizzed past a short distance from him, seeing the trajectory he could intuit where it had come from and therefore where Espio was which he hit quickly which made him visible, Metal kept hitting him at high speed until he sent him away.

"Something's not right, you're stronger and sturdier than normal" said Sonic as he launched a charged Spin Dash at Metal, an attack the robot dodged with a Chaos Control.

"WHAT!" Sonic exclaimed "To do that technique you would have to have at least one chaos emerald.!"

"THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE!" Said Rouge in surprise

"You didn't expect that did you?" Said Metal Sonic smugly

Tails and Espio were approaching from behind in an attempt to catch him off guard, but Metal turned around and raised both hands freezing them in mid-air.

"Your attempts are useless" Said Metal Sonic which slammed them to the ground 'I already have too much power' He did the same to Sonic and Rouge who were charging at him from different directions.

"That... is Silver's psychokinesis and Shadow's Chaos Control mastery" Said Espio almost unable to get up.

"How is that possible?"

"Oh and not only that! I also enchanced my stre" Metal Sonic charged the energy from the Amethyst of reverse Chaos fragment he was carrying in his chest and from that two beams came out, one hit Sonic and the other one hit Espio "Now it's..." Metal moved at an incredible speed, about twice his previous speed, immediately after that he became invisible and visible again "...I am unstoppable! No one can deny me control of the planet!" He said raising his hands among the four fallen ones.

"That's where, as usual, you're wrong Metal" Said Sonic, who had stood up while this one wasn't looking "This planet will never be and it's never going to be part again of Eggman's empire!"

Metal turned and charged Sonic at top speed, moving the fight much closer to the meteor core. Sonic could barely cover himself, without even having the chance to counterattack, he tried to hit Metal with a high kick but his rival dodged the blow with a backwards jump and charged a Spin Dash enveloping itself strongly in blue and red rays that was heading towards the hedgehog, then came Tails flying who caught Sonic by the arm at the moment when Metal was throwing his Spin Dash and moved him aside, with the luck that the Spin Dash only grazed his cheek. Instead the very strong and charged attack burst against the supposedly impenetrable Amethyst's core.

"NOOOOOOO!" cursed Metal, being his own body and having charged it so much he couldn't stop it of his own volition.

Sonic and Tails saw how the attack was creating cracks in the core.

"Dude..." Sonic whispered to Tails "...I think I have a bad idea, you can't imagine how bad it is."

He wrapped himself in blue lightnings then jumped up and did a Homing Attack, hitting the sphere that was now Metal and creating more pressure against the core.

"Sonic! NO!" shouted Tails

And then an opening was created in the core followed by a shockwave that sent the three flying quite a few meters backwards, from the core came seven lights, each of a different color, and they shot out towards an unknown location.

"...Damn you" Said Metal Sonic looking at Sonic, who was crouched down and smeared with dirt, Metal had dents on various parts of his body and the screen that served as eyes was fractured "It's not time yet..."

From the core came out a white smoke in which two figures could be seen rising up

"Free at last!" Said one of them in a hopeful tone voice

The smoke dissipated, and there they were...

"Shadow!, Silver!" Sonic exclaimed completely perplexed "Now I really don't understand anything, what's going on?!"

"Save the confusion for another time Sonic" Said Shadow in a serious voice "Now it's time to make you pay..." He looked at Metal

"And to get an explanation once and for all!" Exclaimed Silver clenching his fist

Both hedgehogs stared at Metal Sonic, as the uncertainty only grew bigger inside Sonic and Tails.