Hey all! I'm back! Sorry it's been awhile, I've been busy, and this chapter is a bit longer. But if you don't want to read two combat chapters in a row, then check out my one shot story: "Amy In: The Wedding of Sonic The Hedgehog". Although it is in the same continuity, It's not required reading for this, and this is not required reading for that. But enough of me, please enjoy:

Ch. 19: Continuing Clash

"Let's finish this, you wretched bootleg," Metal Sonic says, reaching up and tearing a chunk of black rock out of his plating.

Metal Sonic and Metal Sonic 3.0 stand facing each other, Metal Sonic hovering in the air and 3.0 looking up at him. Metal Sonic crumbles the chunk of black rock in his hand. 3.0 grumbles angrily. 3.0 raises his glowing hands, a chunk of molten rock rising from the already scarred ground. 3.0 thrusts his hands forward, launching the red-hot projectile at Metal Sonic. Pulling up the data for 123-Omega, Metal Sonic's hand turns into a minigun. Metal Sonic fires, blasting apart the chunk of rock with just a few bullets. But he doesn't stop firing and the bullets pepper the surface of 3.0's chassis. 3.0 takes off sideways, activating his magnetic field, causing the bullets to harmlessly orbit him. Metal Sonic flicks his arm down, retracting the gun back into his arm. Metal Sonic charges a laser, glancing away from 3.0 for a second to check his position. Just before Metal Sonic fires his laser, 3.0 drops the magnetic field, raising his red-hot hands. A wave of magma erupts from the ground, intercepting the laser after it fires. As the wave of magma falls, 3.0 notices as Metal Sonic flies off in the opposite direction. 3.0 narrows his eyes, shutting off his engine, he turns and starts it back up to give chase. Metal Sonic blazes through the forest, making a straight path for where the team dropped their batteries. Metal Sonic curves around a tree, but is unable to dodge some branches. He smashes through the foliage, 3.0 close behind, following the path that Metal Sonic carved. As 3.0 is closing on Metal Sonic, Metal Sonic cuts his engine, tucking into a roll as 3.0 flies right over him. 3.0 turns his head, tracking Metal Sonic's movement. Metal Sonic rolls to a stop in front of the four batteries that his team dropped in the grass before this engagement. 3.0 slows, turning around and landing across from Metal Sonic. Metal Sonic reaches over, grabbing one of the batteries as he stands up. 3.0's hands begin to glow once again, waves of heat pouring from his glowing palms. 3.0 rises into the air, standing on a pillar of lava. Hot waves of lava roll across the ground, setting the grass and brush ablaze.

"I hope you rust, you scraphole," Metal Sonic spits, almost weakly.

Metal Sonic stumbles on his feet, pulling back his arm that holds the battery. 3.0 raises his red-hot hands, and the pillar of lava bulges as if preparing to spit a thousand heated projectiles. Then, with what appears to be a considerable effort, Metal Sonic takes a step forward, hurling the battery up at 3.0. 3.0's eyes track the slow projectile, planning to swat it out of the air. But just as the flying battery bears 3.0, Metal Sonic suddenly perks up with renewed energy, and with a speed that 3.0 was not prepared for, Metal Sonic fires a ball of condensed energy at 3.0. A shining, crackling ball of yellow energy streaks towards 3.0, the robot, recognizing the bigger threat, throws up his black shield. The clunky battery flies in just before the black shield forms, it smacks against 3.0's chest, causing nothing but superficial damage. The ball of electricity washes harmlessly over 3.0's black shield, as 3.0 reflexively catches the battery. The pillar of magma begins to fall, but 3.0 stays in the air.

"You know," Metal Sonic says, glaring up at 3.0 with a somewhat giddy undertone. "Heat really tends to drain your batteries faster than normal."

3.0, thinking he's safe inside of his shield, suddenly looks down, the surface of the large battery is beginning to bubble and deform from the red-hot grip of his hands. 3.0's head snaps back up, and he lets out a distressed beep right before the battery explodes. The exploding battery fills the black shield with smoke and a dirty orange glow. The black shield fades as 3.0, burned and coated in battery acid, falls into the burning pit of his own making. The crispy, bent form of 3.0 smacks into the now shallow lava pool with an unexpectedly wet slap. The magma bubbles one last time before hardening into a dark stone cast around 3.0. Metal Sonic chuckles darkly to himself, he crosses his arms and walks over to the edge of the pit, his foot crunching a smoking pebble. In the middle of the pit, 3.0 shakes weakly, the battery acid has put numerous small holes in his surface, and the burns have warped him unrecognizably. Only one arm, the front of his torso, and his head stick out of the black, smooth surface. Acid has leaked into his cracked black eye, and it's not even glowing anymore. Testing the cooling rock with the tip of his toe, Metal Sonic steps onto it carefully, stopping just on the left side of 3.0, where his arm isn't restrained under the rock. 3.0 raises his free hand, and his claws begin to glow.

"Look at this, 3.0," Metal Sonic says, lifting his foot.

"I'm free…" Metal Sonic stomps on 3.0's wrist, pinning his hand to the ground. "And you're not."

Metal Sonic leans down, grinding his foot down until 3.0's hand pops out of its socket. The hand goes clattering to the ground, falling open, and quickly cooling to its normal color. 3.0 looks up, his functional eye meeting Metal Sonic's gaze.

The buzzes and boops of 3.0 consolidate just for a moment, forming a single phrase, "Are you?"

The red light in 3.0's eye fades and his body falls limp. Metal Sonic pauses for a moment, saying nothing. Then, unceremoniously, he lifts his leg and gives 3.0's broken head a good kick, causing it to flop side to side.

"Stupid… dim-witted… lesser…" Metal Sonic mumbled to himself angrily.

Then, Metal Sonic pulled up his GPS, he still sensed Eggman Nega's life signal, as well as his teammates, except for… Mecha Knuckles?

"I hope he's dead," Metal Sonic says, turning towards the clearing.

With a shriek of his engine, Metal Sonic hurtled off to find his teammates and their target.

–

As the head of Mecha Knuckles explodes against Eggman Nega's Eggmobile, the entire machine tilts backward, not helped by the fact that the sudden explosion causes Eggman Nega to jerk back on the controls. The entire Eggmobile does a backflip, only managing to avoid a crash because of the automatic stabilizers. Johnny quickly stands, recovering from his dive out of the way. As he fusses over the grass stains on his already green head, he sees Mecha Sonic moving towards him. Mecha Sonic rolls forward on two small wheels, each in the back of his heels, similar to Silver Sonic's. The wheels are both fast enough and confusing enough to temporarily catch Johnny off guard.

"Woah there-" Johnny was cut off as Mecha Sonic grappled him.

The taller, more imposing form of Mecha Sonic easily overpowered Johnny, gripping him with one hand on the shoulder, the other reaching up to Johnny's torpedo-like head. Mecha Sonic gripped Johnny's head with such intensity that it groaned and started to bend. Mecha Sonic tried to break Johnny's main form of propulsion. Johnny screamed in agony, not in pain, but in having his design compromised. Suddenly, a missile flew in from the side, striking Mecha Sonic on his right side.

"No respect for the dead," Eggman Nega makes a tisk tisk tisk noise, shaking his head as he fires another barrage of missiles.

Johnny took the opportunity to escape, activating his thrusters to put himself in a forward spin. He peels himself out of Mecha Sonic's grip, front flipping and smacking Mecha Sonic in the face with his heels. Mecha Sonic stumbled back, unable to do anything but curl up his arm to protect his head as missiles slammed into him. Mecha Sonic was jostled and sent stepping sideways. Just as quickly as he fled, Johnny was back with a grin, he administered a flyby punch, further disorienting Mecha Sonic. Eggman Nega charged up a dual laser cannon, firing at Mecha Sonic's center mass. Correctly predicting the move, Mecha Sonic slides backward on his heel wheels, moving just before the lasers strike him. Before taking another pass at Mecha Sonic, Johnny swiped a tree branch off of a nearby, non-destroyed, tree. Johnny neatly picks some of the smaller twigs off of his premier branch and raises it like a lance. Mecha Sonic spins, reaching out just in time to get a hand on the stick, pulling it to turn the tip away from himself. Johnny pulled, attempting to retrieve his prized weapon, but Mecha Sonic was ready. Mecha Sonic tugged on the stick, putting Johnny on an unfavorable trajectory. As Johnny passes close, Mecha Sonic brings his free arm down, trapping Johnny in a headlock. Mecha Sonic tightened his elbow as he positioned Johnny into a robot shield. As expected, Eggman Nega fired another round of missiles. But it didn't go as planned for Mecha Sonic.

"Sorry my dear boy, but it won't be as easy as that!" Eggman Nega smirked, his finger gingerly gliding across the control panel to find a particular button.

Pressing a large blue button causes a corresponding blue portal to open in front of Mecha Sonic, with the missiles gliding right in. As soon as the portal closed, another one opened on the opposite side of Mecha Sonic, the missiles reappearing and striking Mecha Sonic's exposed back. Mecha Sonic fell forward on top of Johnny, but Johnny never planned on staying, he shot out of Mecha Sonic's grip like a bullet.

"I… haven't… lost," Mecha Sonic struggles, sliding his hands down to try and prop himself up.

But with just the push of a button, an arm shot out of the Eggmobile and pinned Mecha Sonic back to the ground.

"Ooh!" Johnny landed next to Mecha Sonic, looking up at Eggman Nega excitedly. "Can I do my finishing move?"

Eggman Nega sighs, but throws up a big smile, "Of course you can! Just make it a good one."

With a nod, Johnny rockets straight up, "The Jolly Johnny Jumping (J)knee!" Johnny yells as he meteors down towards Mecha Sonic's pinned form. Johnny hurtled downward through the air in a 'knee of justice' pose. Mecha Sonic turned his unblinking eye downward, looking away from the oncoming strike. But before it landed, the sound of whipping blades filled the air. Silver Sonic flew in from the perimeter of the clearing, smashing into Johnny as he descended. Silver Sonic's spindash connected cleanly with Johnny's center of mass, transferring all kinetic energy into him like a giant Newton's cradle. Johnny flew for a short distance, hitting the ground hard and rolling. Silver Sonic landed next to Mecha Sonic's prone form, spinning on one wheel and blasting the Eggmobile's arm with a barrage of silver spikes. The arm faltered and Mecha Sonic rolled out from under it.

"Juuuust great!" Eggman Nega yelled with a scowl forming on his face.

He pressed a button and the compromised arm detached, falling limply to the ground as the Eggmobile backed away. Silver Sonic skated over to Mecha Sonic as he stood up. Eggman Nega stopped the Eggmobile as Johnny flew back in, landing next to him. Johnny was caked in dirt, and looking angry. Mecha Sonic stumbles over to Silver Sonic, placing a hand on his shoulder.

"Some of my systems are compromised, we need to hold out until Metal Sonic can back us up," Mecha Sonic glances at the treeline, past the fallen trees.

"If he's still functioning…"

–

Metal Sonic was flying, it was actually kind of relaxing, weaving between the trees. Metal Sonic was moving at quite a significant rate. Though he may not have cared for the inferior robots, they were his inferior robots, and he needed someone to yell at. Plus, his title as captain was pretty much all he had at that point.

'Hohohohehehe," a strange laugh rang out from the clearing as Metal Sonic approached.

Metal Sonic flew over a downed tree and surveyed the battlefield. He spots Silver Sonic getting pummeled by Johnny, the silver robot can't handle Johnny's rapid hit-and-run tactics. Metal Sonic turns and sees Mecha Sonic getting absolutely bullied by Eggman Nega. As Mecha Sonic stumbled forward, attacking places where Eggman Nega used to be, the Eggmobile effortlessly glided out of the way, firing a missile occasionally to keep Mecha Sonic off balance.

"Oops, seems someone's targeting systems are a bit messed up," Eggman Nega says with a grin, leaning in excitedly every time a missile clips Mecha Sonic or explodes near him.

Metal Sonic grumbles, crossing his arms, "You had one job."

With a surge of his engine, Metal Sonic speeds over to Silver Sonic. Just as Johnny made another pass, Metal Sonic sped in. Metal Sonic put out both legs, and the kick connected directly with Johnny's torso. Thrown off course, Johnny let out a yelp of surprise as he connected shoulder-to-shoulder with Silver Sonic. The impact sent Johnny spiraling, trying to regain control, and it sent Silver Sonic crashing to the ground, shooting out a barrage of silver spikes directly into the dirt. Johnny hit the ground, bouncing over numerous already-made craters and divots. Metal Sonic landed on the ground, watching Johnny slide to a rough halt face down in the dirt.

"I have conquered a 'new and improved' version of myself," Metal Sonic boasts, raising his hands to make air quotes. "What hope do you have against me?"

Johnny pushed himself out of the dirt, his hands going up to the rocket on his head, "No, no, no…".

Johnny felt for the dent that Mecha Sonic squeezed into his head but found that it had been popped back out by the impact from hitting the ground.

Johnny chuckled, dropping his hands to his sides, "I'll tell you what hope I have…" Johnny's head rocket starts up, "I'm the Sultan of Speed!"

With that, Johnny rockets up into the air, easily passing out of normal human eyesight. But Metal Sonic tracks the movement quite easily, his red Irises dilating as he focuses his vision. Metal Sonic focuses inward once again, drawing extra power from his core as sparks begin to dance up his arms.

But While Metal Sonic was distracted looking up at Johnny, Silver Sonic stiffly got back up to their feet. Not seeing Johnny, Silver Sonic turns to the eggmobile. Just at that moment, Mecha Sonic throws a slow, pretty obviously predicted punch at the Eggmobile. But right as he does, a green portal opens up and Mecha Sonic's whole arm goes in. Before Mecha Sonic can pull back, the portal closes, chopping off Mecha Sonic's left arm at the shoulder. Mecha Sonic fell back, landing in a patch of clumpy dirt, with oil and sparks shooting out of the hole where his arm used to be. Eggman Nega let out an uproarious laugh, glancing to the side just in time to see Silver Sonic's advance. Eggman Nega shoots out a missile, but Silver Sonic curls up into a spindash, blowing straight through the missile. With a grimace of displeasure, Eggman Nega pulled a lever and a blue, semi-translucent, hexagonally patterned shield began to appear up the sides of the Eggmobile.

As yellow electricity enveloped Metal Sonic's form, he blasted off into the air, creating a pulse of air that washed over the entire clearing. Metal Sonic appeared as little more than a crackling yellow cone as he moved upwards.

"What the-" Johnny looked down just in time to see Metal Sonic's fist connect with his face.

Metal Sonic unleashed a devastating uppercut, sending Johnny's chin upward and his whole body flying back. But Metal Sonic doesn't let up, he grabs Johnny's arms and lets a torrent of crackling energy flow into him. Every moving part of Johnny's body convulses as Metal Sonic returns to a normal color.

"I could think of many better titles for you," Metal Sonic says, slugging Johnny across the face with one hand while holding him with the other.

"Sultan of Slow, Sultan of Stupid," Metal Sonic lists, punching Johnny across the face repeatedly.

Metal Sonic headbutted him, holding him out at arm's length as he watched oil drip from his face. "But the one I like the most is Insult to Speed," Metal Sonic released Johnny, leaving him in a limp free fall.

As Johnny fell, Metal Sonic curled his arms inward, a bead of energy forming in his chest. Thrusting his chest forward, Metal Sonic unleashed a white-hot beam of energy which hit Johnny dead on, sending him even faster toward the ground.

Just before the last blue hexagon of Eggman Nega's shield formed, Johnny hurtled through the gap, smashing through the glass dome atop the Eggmobile. Johnny's smoking body smashed into the space right next to Eggman Nega, coming too close for comfort. Eggman Nega recoiled in surprise but didn't get any time to process as Silver Sonic smashed into the shield immediately after. The whole Eggmobile was sent backward, falling to the ground and rolling over once, Johnny slid along what remained of the glass dome as Eggman Nega gripped his seat straps and gritted his teeth. The Eggmobile came to a rest, tilted at an angle. Metal Sonic landed next to Mecha Sonic, glancing at him, deciding that he was fine, and turning towards the Eggmobile. Silver Sonic surveyed the scene, getting prepared to attack again. Eggman Nega unbuckled his seat, lowering himself onto the console as Metal Sonic began walking toward the Eggmobile. Eggman Nega reaches into a console and pulls out a chord.

"Johnny! Activate Chaos Control protocol!" Eggman Nega yells, banging on Johnny's head and trying to pry it open, but it's dented shut.

"A-Activate what?" Johnny asked, confused, but Eggman Nega plugged the chord into the base of Johnny's neck and Johnny went limp, his eyes turning a solid blue with white text flashing across them.

Eggman Nega finally managed to pry open the seam in Johnny's head, revealing a chamber with a square indent. Eggman Nega slid open a hidden compartment, pulling out the blue Sol Emerald. The shield around the Eggmobile faltered and faded as Metal Sonic broke out into a run, his engine starting up. Eggman Nega jams the Sol Emerald into the slot and slides the compartment closed. Silver Sonic is rapidly approaching the Eggmobile. Johnny began to glow, and as he did, Eggman Nega's nervous expression slowly faded into a smile.

"And It begins…" Eggman Nega says softly to himself as the glowing light from Johnny glints off his glasses.

In a flash of light, Johnny and Eggman Nega vanish.

Silver Sonic slowed to a gentle roll, stopping just in front of the empty Eggmobile. Metal Sonic flies in, landing on the lip of the Eggmobile's cockpit. Metal Sonic stared down at the empty space as Mecha Sonic pushed himself up and began to limp clunkily toward the Eggmobile. Silver Sonic reached up and pulled themself into the Eggmobile with just their arms. As Mecha Sonic approaches, Metal Sonic locks up. Low battery. Metal Sonic wasn't very careful with his energy. Metal Sonic collapses into the Eggmobile's seat.

Mecha Sonic stumbles forward, "S-Silver Sonic, plug him in"

Immediately complying, Silver Sonic took the battery off of their back and pressed the button to pop out the chord, plugging it into Metal Sonic's neck. As Silver Sonic did this, they didn't notice the small, bug-like robot as it climbed onto their body and hunched down, blending in with Silver Silver Sonic's metallic surface.

"I'll download the d-data banks," Mecha Sonic said, a plug extending from one of his fingers as he struggled to climb into the Eggmobile.

Silver Sonic picked Metal Sonic up, laying him in the pilot seat of the Eggmobile and setting the battery in his lap.

1% charged…