Adventures of the Orange Flash
Chapter 64: Dethroning the King
"I believe I asked you a question, how do you know who I am when I don't know who you are or never met you before," said Silver in a serious tone, looking at the nine tailed fox with wariness.
Naruto was about to answer when Kurama suddenly interrupted him "Don't tell him everything,"
"Why not?" asked Naruto mentally.
"I suspect that this Silver isn't the one we know but rather belongs to the future of this Sonic's dimension. I see no point in revealing things which might cause problems further down the line," Kurama explained.
"I see what you mean," thought Naruto before turning to Silver "The thing is that I'm from another dimension so it's rather your counterpart whom I'm familiar with,"
Silver quirked an eyebrow in response "That doesn't explain much,"
Naruto shrugged "We can talk about it later, could you tell me what's happening here? I was outside the castle, dealing with something and came back to meet all this,"
"…very well then, I am here from the future to find this 'Sonic' and destroy him," Silver declared, bringing shock upon everyone around.
"Huh, talk about déjà vu," said Kurama.
"I know, right?" thought Naruto.
"So, who is Sonic?" Silver demanded.
Sonic and Scourge immediately pointed at each other "He is/He is!"
"You coward," Scourge growled in anger.
"Okay, it's a technicality, but still…," Sonic muttered.
Silver glanced at Metal Sonic "Hold on, I recognize this model. So if this Metal Sonic is blue…,"
Sonic let out a groan "And here it comes…,"
Silver snapped towards the blue hedgehog and sent him flying into a pillar "I have you now, traitor!"
Naruto immediately appeared in front of Silver, holding a fist towards his face while it's coated in foxfire. He even noted that the robin hood hedgehog was also aiming an arrow at Silver.
"Yield, lest I be forced to end you," said the hedgehog sternly.
"You wanted me to do this," Silver retorted, Naruto glanced at the robin hood hedgehog and detected no shift in emotions.
"What I desire sirrah, is an explanation,"
Silver angrily pointed at the dazed Sonic "During your time, one of the legendary Freedom Fighters turns on the team and destroys them, dooming the future! Only Sonic is remembered having the power capable of doing that!"
"Wouldst you take a life by legend alone? Art thou so convinced after seeing him for naught but a moment?" asked the hedgehog with a frown.
Silver opened his mouth to respond but hesitated upon hearing the question and began to feel rather unsure of himself "…but it makes sense,"
Naruto shook his head in response "Dude, one thing I've learnt through my life so far is that legends aren't always accurate. Sonic may be one of the strongest Freedom Fighters, he's also the most loyal and bears a strong moral compass. The guy would rather hang himself than betray any of his comrades,"
The robin hood hedgehog nodded happily in agreement "The fox speaks the truth, Sonic's heroism is far more recognized than his speed!" he gestured for Silver to see Sonic defend Amy from Rosy despite having been slammed into a pillar.
At that moment, Naruto caught movement from his left and quickly leapt away right as a green blur closed in on them, revealing to be Scourge who knocked Silver and the other hedgehog to the ground with a leg sweep.
"Kiss up to the hero later, respect the real legendary power here and now," Scourge reached out to grab the hedgehog's hood and pulled it down on his face before kicking him away "I've never met your counterpart here, I think that your 'brother' took you out!" he noticed Silver preparing to attack with his psychic powers and intercepted with a Spin Dash and drive him into a pillar "Nice powers noob, how about using them to get a less stupid haircut," then he turned towards Naruto who stood there with his arms crossed "Now for you, time for payback for that humiliation from last time!"
Scourge dashed towards Naruto but quickly put on the brakes as a green hammer slammed on the ground in between them, Rosy smiled crazily at the green hedgehog "Oh you say the meanest things, Scourgey!"
"Would you just go away?!" said Scourge in frustration, backing away from the insane girl.
"Hey, you leave Rob alone!" Amy rushed at Scourge, angrily swinging her Piko Piko Hammer over her head.
"Oh, so Rob's his name," said Naruto thoughtfully.
"Is that what concerns you?" asked Kurama.
"Sort of, but there's another problem…,"
Like Naruto said, it was practically a battle royale here. Everyone's randomly switching targets in the heat of battle and it's obviously causing no small amount of confusion amongst each other. Even Naruto was starting to find this to be very annoying as he bumped against Sonic back-to-back.
"Seriously Sonic, this is going nowhere," said Naruto with a frown.
"Yeah, things could at least be more organized," said Sonic, then he suddenly came up with an idea "Hey man, I've got an idea," he whispered to Naruto who smiled.
"Sounds good to me," Naruto took in a deep breath "TIME OUT!" this got everyone to stop and stare at the duo.
"Now that we've got your attention, how about we do things more orderly? Like this; let's prioritize taking down Scourge first then move on to the next target?"
Metal Sonic beeped a few times before responding [Assessing proposal…acceptable]
Naruto turned to Silver "We can deal with your reasons for being here afterwards,"
Silver nodded as he helped up Rob "Fine by me,"
"Oh and Rosy gets to have the final smashes on Scourge," Sonic added.
Rosy giggled happily "Oh, you're the bestest,"
"Hey! Now wait a stinkin' minute here!" said Scourge in complete disbelief of what's happening here.
Naruto glanced to the side and saw that the Suppression Squad has regained consciousness "And what about you guys, care to join us to take Scourge down? I don't need to guess that you all have a beef with him,"
The squad stood there silently until Miles spoke up "…indeed you're correct that we begrudge Scourge, none of us ever saw him as a king but rather Princess Alicia as the true royalty. We had been planning on betraying him all this time," hearing this surprised many and angered one greatly.
"You traitors!" Scourge yelled in rage.
"Better to be a traitor than a slave after what you had done to us," Princess Alicia retorted as they joined the others to surround Scourge.
Scourge looked around and growled "Oh cute! Real cute! Throw enough chumps and hope that it works against me, huh?" then he sneered at them "Well, you'd better forget that, I've got ways of dealing with you!"
He took off at highspeed whilst dodging the arrows and debris launched at him by Rob and Silver with the others chasing after him.
"Halt villain!" Rob fired more of his arrows but having difficulty to land a hit on the green hedgehog.
"Drop him before he escapes!" Silver was having similar problems in trying to get the hedgehog as well.
Sonic charged up a Spin Dash and caught up with Scourge to hit him in the back right as the latter made it into the throne room with Shadow and Naruto close behind before the rest caught up to confront Scourge who went to sit on his throne with a confident smirk on his face.
"You're done, Scourge. Give it up already!" said Sonic.
"You're outmatched, outnumbered and have no way out of this. give up and save yourself another humiliation!" Naruto added, he couldn't help but notice some sort of energy emitting from the throne.
Scourge simply smirked in response "Not a chance, not while my throne's stocked up in Anarchy Beryl!"
"Anarchy Beryl…oh no," Sonic became rather nervous about something.
"Sonic, you know what he's talking about?" asked Naruto.
"I have a bad feeling that this Anarchy Beryl is this world's counterpart of the Chaos Emeralds," said Sonic grimly.
Naruto quickly caught on to what Sonic meant and became very tense "Then that means…,"
There was a bright flash of black light from the throne which dissipated to reveal Scourge completely changed. His quills turn upward and his irises have become red, much like Super Sonic's. Unlike Super Sonic however, Super Scourge's fur has turned purple instead of gold and his sclera has become black. Also, Super Scourge's sneakers have become purple, the flames on his jacket and sunglasses turn to blue, and his scars are darker.
"All hail the king, baby!" said Super Scourge with a toothy grin.
"Looks like things just cranked up by a whole lot," said Kurama.
"Pretty much the gist of things right now," thought Naruto.
Music Start: Nemesis Theory; Give No Mercy
Scourge unleashed a radial burst of energy, knocking everyone away from him and falling to the ground save for Naruto who kipped up to his feet with a frown towards the superpowered hedgehog.
"I'm going to enjoy softening my knuckles on all of you deadmeats! But first…," Scourge rushed towards Princess Alicia and held her up by the scruff of her neck "You said you wanted to rule, right? Then here's your throne!" he flung her strongly at the throne, knocking it over.
Patch and Boomer attempted a pincer attack with the latter rushing him to strike with his sword and the latter attacking from a distance with his power gauntlets. Scourge simply held out a hand to block the incoming blast whilst letting the sword strike him, shattering into pieces upon impact much to their shock.
"You really want to lose your other eye? Where's Fiona by the way?" asked Scourge nonchalantly.
Patch looked at his broken sword in disbelief "Il est impossible!" he was suddenly grabbed by the neck and thrown at Boomer, knocking them down to the ground.
"Got out while the getting was good? Guess that makes her smarter than any of you, but I was expecting her to run off from the very beginning; it's what she's good at anyway when things get tough," said Scourge with a frown.
Naruto heard a gasp of shock and sensed sorrow somewhere near the entrance to the throneroom but snapped back into focus as he saw Sonic tussling with Metal Sonic yet again and quickly knocking the robot away with a flying kick and landing next to the hedgehog.
"What's going on that Metal Sonic is going after you again?" asked Naruto, keeping an eye on the robot.
"Turns out that Metal Sonic decided to cut his losses and come after me before Scourge snatches the honor of getting rid of me before him. Kinda liked it more when he wasn't talking," Sonic explained.
Naruto groaned at this "We already have enough problems as is with this guy adding more to our problems,"
"Then I can help with that," Shadow spoke up as he walked past the duo and approached Metal Sonic "Since it came to this zone on its own, then I can tap into that power and send it away!" he grabbed Metal Sonic and disappeared via Chaos Control.
"Now that's taken care off, what's the plan?" asked Naruto.
"We need to have him use up the time he has in the Super Form," said Sonic.
"Then let's get to it, Shadow Clone jutsu!" Naruto conjured a large number of clones as they charged towards Scourge head-on.
"Silver, hold him in place!" Sonic called out.
"Right!" Silver concentrated his psychic energy on Scourge, enveloping him in a cyan aura to restrain him.
Scourge scoffed at this "Again? Have you forgotten that this won't hold me?" suddenly he felt his arms and legs being wrapped in blue chain constructs of energy and looked down to see the Naruto clones using their ECG-X gloves to produce the chains as they began pulling him down towards them "Why you little…,"
Several more clones dropped down from the ceiling with the Earth Aspect activated and their fists encased in stone "Terra Punch!" they slammed Scourge strongly to the ground and forming a crater before piling on top of him with everybody immediately joining them in holding the hedgehog down.
"We should at least keep him like this until he loses his Super Form!" said Sonic.
"I doubt it's that simple buddy," Naruto responded.
"Yeah, not while you are not in either Chakra Mode or Bijuu Mode right now," Kurama retorted, not understanding why Naruto hadn't transformed the moment Scourge revealed his trump card.
[Naruto, Scourge's power is climbing rapidly] Nico called out urgently.
Silver grunted in effort "L-Look out…! I'm...losing…him!"
Light peered through the gaps of the dogpile and not even a second later that everyone was sent flying by a burst of energy from Scourge's roar of rage as he glared at the group in anger.
Sonic shot up to his feet and began relentlessly attack Scourge with multiple Spin Dashes, trying to knock him down "Fall down! Fall down! Fall down already!"
"That does it!" Scourge grabbed Sonic by the leg and flew out of the castle by smashing through the walls. Naruto saw this and got up to follow after them but not before detaching the SAC from his waist and calling on Nicole.
"Nico, I'm gonna need you to hang back and check on everyone while I go and help deal with Scourge," said Naruto.
Nico nodded hesitantly "Okay, but please be careful,"
Naruto responded with a thumbs up and a foxy grin before running out of the castle via the holes in the walls to find Scourge having tossed Sonic into a muddy puddle due to the thunderstorm occurring outside at the moment
"I gave you a chance where we could have ruled the multiverse together, but noooo…you decided to remain being the good ol' boyscout! Now look where it has gotten you!?" Scourge growled at his blue counterpart angrily "You know what? Forget it! I don't care about Mobius or Moebius, I'll spin dash both planets in half because I can! I'll keep stomping on planets until I find one that gives me the respect I deserve!"
"Respect this!" Naruto called out as he rammed a Giant Rasengan into Scourge's stomach, blasting him away from Sonic and through several trees in the forest as he landed next to the blue hedgehog.
"Thanks for showing up, things were kinda rough for me," said Sonic, being helped up to his feet by Naruto.
Scourge got up and was absolutely livid upon setting his eyes on Naruto "You! I've just about enough of you getting in my way!"
"Whoa, somebody is really mad at me. Then again, it happens whenever baddies have trouble getting rid of me," Naruto commented.
"Yeah, and the numbers are in double digits," Kurama added.
"I'll be needing you to leave this guy to me, Sonic. I'll take it from here," said Naruto.
"Ya sure, man? You're going up against a souped-up version of myself," asked Sonic with concern.
"Don't worry, I got this. Fighting him will be no different from when we faced Enerjak,"
"Alright then, be sure to land a few hits for me,"
"Will do,"
Scourge saw Sonic run off towards the castle and was about to follow him when Naruto stood in the way with his arms crossed, making the hedgehog angry all over again and made it quite clear to the kitsune.
"This is all your fault! Ever since I came to your universe, you've caused me nothing but trouble; getting in my way every time and humiliating me! I never would have imagined that I would hate someone more than Sonic!" Scourge ranted.
Naruto retorted "Don't pin this on me, you're the one who decided to come to my dimension with intentions of conquest and picked a fight with me, then there's your dumb attempt of dragging Nico-chan through your Warp Ring. If there's anyone to blame then it's you for getting me involved,"
"Shut up!" Scourge yelled "I'm gonna get rid of you then Sonic's next!"
"I'd like to see you try with me around,"
"Hahahahaha! And how exactly are you going to do that? I'm in my Super form, I could destroy you with a single move but I'm gonna take my time toying with you, humiliating you the same way you humiliated me,"
Naruto rolled his eyes "Your threats hardly mean a thing to me, I've faced others before you who were far more intimidating than you ever could,"
"Sounds to me like you're in a hurry to die,"
"On the contrary, I'm in a hurry to bash your face in," said Naruto "Let's do this Kurama!"
Kurama smirked gleefully "Finally, couldn't take anymore of that punk's annoying voice!"
Naruto fused his chakra with Kurama's and the golden chakra burst out before enveloping his body and emanating like that of flickering flames, starting with the two front spikes of his hair pointing upwards to resemble horns, the whisker-like markings on his face become thicker, and the chakra shroud's shape alters to resemble a full-length haori with six black magatama markings around the collar with his nine tails sticking out from underneath, and various other archaic lines extending along his body differently from his chakra mode.
"So what you can transform without Chaos Emeralds, big whoop," Scourge scoffed.
Naruto simply smirked "You're about to find out just how strong I can be even against someone like you,"
Music Change: Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic OST; Enfin Apparu!
"Shut it and get crushed already!" Scourge growled out as he dashed towards Naruto and attacked with a flying punch, the kitsune lashed out with one of his tails to parry the punch before retaliating with several punches to the face then knocking him back with a palm thrust to the stomach "Why you…!" Scourge thrusts his hands forward as he launched a volley of purple energy blasts towards Naruto who took to the air with the energy projectiles following after him. Naruto spun around and proceeded to deflect the energy blasts away from him with punches, kicks and tail swipes.
"My turn, Water Dragon!" activating his Water Aspect, Naruto used the rainwater to create a trio of large serpentine dragons made out of water to lunge at Scourge who flew in them and forcefully dispersed with several blasts at close range.
"Was that your best idea; splashing some water on me?" Scourge taunted arrogantly.
Naruto appeared above Scourge, having switched to his Lightning Aspect with a fist reared back "Fist of the Thunder God!" he called down the lightning of the thunderstorm into his fist before landing a punch on Scourge's face with a resounding boom of thunder, sending him crashing down to the ground and forming a crater from the impact. Naruto looked down with caution before widening his eyes upon seeing a large beam of purple energy being fired right at him. Chakra flared around Naruto as it took on the form of Kurama's head to act as a shield and defend against the attack.
"Talk about arrogant, this punk is relying on pure power alone," Kurama scoffed.
"I used to be the same way too but experience had me grow out of it," said Naruto, he formed a Rasengan with one hand and rammed it against the beam as he proceeded to push it back whilst preparing another Rasengan with the other but lightning bolts flowed into with Scourge being unaware or plain ignorant until Naruto was right in front of him with the energy beam forcefully dissipated and he could see what appears to be lightning rampaging within a spiraling sphere of energy.
"Special delivery; Thunderstorm Rasengan!" Naruto rammed the new variation of his signature jutsu into Scourge's torso, unleashing the aforementioned thunderstorm contained within it.
Scourge was dazed from the attack for a moment before angrily retaliating with a barrage of punches and kicks full of fury with Naruto taking to the defensive as he blocked and parried the attacks until Scourge suddenly moved in a burst of speed to appear behind Naruto and grabbing him by the back of his head before diving quickly towards the ground with clear intent to slam his opponent into it.
"How'd you like that you-huh?" Scourge looked down at the ground finding a shattered wooden log instead of Naruto at the center of the giant crater "Where'd he g-,"
"SURPRISE!" Naruto reappeared in a yellow flash and side-kicks Scourge up into the air, then he flies up and roundhouse punches the hedgehog away before flying and reappearing behind them to elbow them in the stomach as they turn around. Finally, Naruto attacks with a combo of punches and kicks before kicking him into the air, kneeing him in the back and slamming him to the ground with an axe kick.
"You really know how to make a guy angry at you," Scourge growled, glaring at Naruto who simply shrugged his shoulders.
"It's a gift, almost every bonehead I've faced gets mad to me for being a pain in the neck," said Naruto without a care.
"Well I'm through playing around, I'm going to destroy you here and now!"
"…okay,"
Scourge went into his spinball form and began gathering energy around himself, Naruto responded by forming a large Rasengan with three smaller ones orbiting around it. Both combatants flew at each other with their strongest attacks,
"DIE!/ PLANETARY RASENGAN!"
The collision in the middle resulted in a huge bright explosion which devastated the area around them. The smoke soon cleared to reveal two figures at the crater with the difference being that Naruto was still in his Bijuu Mode but Scourge was no longer in his Super form and visibly fatigued.
Music End
Scourge looked at himself in disbelief "H-How…w-why…?"
"The Anarchy Beryl may act similarly to the Chaos Emeralds and gave you a Super form, but it's the opposite of them. My Bijuu Mode had a time limit in the beginning but now I can fight for days on end unlike you. I purposely made you use up the time you had in your Super Form, being invulnerable does require energy after all…energy you no longer have to sustain it. The bottom line is…you have lost yet again," Naruto explained as he approached Scourge who was now on his knees and panting heavily.
Scourge looked up to glare at Naruto with the kitsune looking down on him, much to his answer "Me…lost? No, you cheated…me…I'm the king…you're…nothing…,"
Responding in annoyance, Naruto shattered the crown into pieces with a swat of his hand before grabbing Scourge by the collar of his jacket to him close so they could stare into each other's eyes.
"You're not a king but rather a bully in a playground, always taking the easy way out and getting the quick rewards. Something I find to be disgusting," Naruto tossed Scourge to the muddy ground and continued to frown at him "Respect is something that is earned, not given so freely. That kind of respect will forever be out of the reach of a miserable coward like you who's desperate in seeking out attention. Guys like Sonic and I always do things the right way, helping others to achieve things that one wouldn't be able to do alone. Good will always beat evil no matter how hard the latter tries. A pity that you don't share the same ideals with us,"
Naruto knocked Scourge out with a chop to the neck and carried him on his shoulder before jogging back to the castle.
"Another one falls to our might, you're building up quite the resume," said Kurama, looking at an actual list in the mindscape with his personal favorite being the defeat of Uchiha Madara.
"Tell me about it, for once I'd like things to be a lot simpler," thought Naruto with a groan.
"Sorry to say, but things were never simple for you and I don't see it happening anytime soon,"
"*Sigh* I know…,"
Naruto soon arrived back at the castle and went inside to the throne room where everyone were waiting until they heard him enter and looked only to be stunned upon seeing the knocked-out Scourge slung over his shoulder.
"I-It can't be…you actually beat him…," said Miles Prower in absolute disbelief.
"How could he accomplish such a feat?" said Alicia in shock.
"He's so strong, how come I never heard of him?" said Silver with a small frown.
Sonic walked over with a smile on his face "Looks like you really went to town with him, eh?"
"Yeah, he was tough but couldn't cut it in the end," said Naruto, placing Scourge on the floor then creating a Shadow Clone to have it tie him up.
"Goes to show that you're way past cooler than him," Sonic held out a fist.
Naruto smirked as he bumped fists with him "Thanks man,"
The next day, Naruto along with Sonic and Amy were back at the castle, making sure that the Suppression Squad were properly disassembling the Globe Posts, apparently Princess Alicia will be taking back control of the kingdom but Naruto couldn't help the feeling that it wasn't entirely the case before deciding to think about it later. Miles offers Buns a place back in the squad but Buns adamantly refused, given that she doesn't trust them anymore plus she needs to undergo rehabilitation with Dr. Kintobor to be able to walk again.
At the moment, Sonic and Naruto were having a conversation with Silver who was about to return to the future with his modded Warp Ring at Kintobor's Tower.
"Alright then, Silver. Are we cool now or do we have to fight?" asked Sonic.
Silver shook his head in response "No, I need to do more research first but I intend to find the real traitor among the Freedom Fighters. I'll be back later to protect your team,"
"Then I'll be here to do that in the meantime," said Sonic with a shrug.
Silver tossed the Warp Ring for it to enlarge itself and activate the portal "Farewell Sonic, we will meet again," he stepped through the portal with the Warp Ring disappearing afterwards.
"Have fun with your dystopian future or whatever,"
"So, what do we do with this guy?" asked Naruto, gesturing to the unconscious Scourge on his shoulder. The kitsune had his hands and legs cuffed with a paper tag placed on the hedgehog's forehead.
"I know just the place where we could drop him off where he won't be a problem to anyone…the Parallel Zone," said Sonic.
"Lead the way man, you're the tour guide," said Naruto, making sure that Scourge doesn't slip off.
"Sure thing, by the way…what's with the paper on Scourge?"
"It's a Paralysis tag, meant to make a body completely immobile so as to prevent any form of escape. Last thing we need is for this guy to be a pain in the neck when he wakes up," Naruto explained.
"Preaching to the choir man, let's go," said Sonic in complete agreement.
"Right behind ya,"
As the speeding duo left Moebius, someone was watching them from behind the nearby trees before slowly walking away with an aura of depression and confusion.
This is Hussbek online with the latest chapter, Naruto was quick to learn that this Silver isn't the one he's familiar with some things never change as he attacked Sonic with the belief that he's the one who would betray the Freedom Fighters, leading to a dystopian future. After clearing things up a bit and reorganizing, Naruto and Sonic get everyone to focus on a core objective; taking down Scourge, even the Suppression Squad joined the group due to their grudge against the hedgehog.
However, Scourge had an ace hidden up his sleeve as he had something called Anarchy Beryl which enabled him to attain a Super Form, similar to when Sonic and co use the Chaos Emeralds to transform. Things almost went one-sided with Scourge beating everyone down until Naruto used the Bijuu Mode to face him and stayed on even ground. The fight was intense but Naruto was able outlast Scourge due to the difference in duration between the two forms. Things went back to normal, mostly with the Globe Post being returned to Dr. Kintobor and them preparing to send Scourge to the Parallel Zone which will be a first for the kitsune.
The next chapter will officially mark the end of the Suppression Squad before moving on to the next arc being the last in the Comicverse before Naruto and Nico return to the Gameverse.
Be sure to read and review like always.