Sonic GeneX: Doomsday
Arc 5 - Endgame - The Battle of Green Hill
Chapter 54 - The Eggman Empire
Stage 25 - Robotnikland
Note: Sonic the Hedgehog and related characters are (c) SEGA. You knew that, right?
GeneX and related OCs are (c) 2BIT (TheGreatGator), the author.
"The sun is falling in the sky beyond,
And light is fading from our world.
Now's the time of reckoning!
The final battle has begun!" - Fading World, Sonic Forces
Previously on GeneX…
Sonic was distracted from helping Knuckles against Howler by the sudden appearance of Dr. Eggman, who goaded the hedgehog into a chase!
Meanwhile, during a desperate battle with Infinite, the jackal sliced off one of his tails, leaving him too injured to fight, and then began to overpower Fera! Realizing there was no choice, Skye sacrificed his life to allow them to escape. Infinite was then devoured by Apocalos, but his purpose had been served...
Apocalos interrupted Sonic's chase by delivering Skye's body, declaring the prophecy fulfilled. Sonic remained defiant, but Apocalos warned him to check on his son who came from the future...
Now, our tale continues...
Lucky, Whisk, Amy, Cream, Big, Juice and Lucky Jr. were all still together, and trying to catch up to Sonic. Fortunately, the imposing figure of the Despair Wisp was no longer behind them. Knuckles, Rouge and Violet had taken him down by now. As the group ran in search of Sonic, Juice suddenly tripped and fell, holding his gut. "Aaagh!!" he groaned, as Amy stopped to check on him. "Hey, are you okay, son?" she asked quickly, worried. He'd stopped running, but suddenly Lucky Junior groaned and fell over as well, drawing his parents' attention. "Mee-yow!! What's wrong with Junior??!" Lucky yelped in alarm. "I-I don't know... I feel awful... M-mom, Dad..." Junior whimpered, looking up at them as he held his stomach. Whisk touched his head as though to check his temperature. "What's wrong with him?" she questioned. Big and Cream could only watch with concern. "Maybe they ate something bad..." Big murmured. Cream hugged Cheese close, not wanting to say what she was thinking, not even wanting to think it. Unsure what to do, Amy called out. "Soniiiic!! Help!! Soniiiiic!!" she cried. Fortunately, Sonic was already on the way, and hearing her voice was just what he needed to be able to find them. He sped into the part of the woods where the group was stopped, and gasped to see the "kids" on the ground. "No...not again!" he exclaimed. "What do you mean...again?" Cream squeaked nervously. Sonic couldn't bring himself to tell her. He couldn't bear to look at Cream and tell her that her son had been murdered. Instead, he crouched down next to Juice, taking his hand in his. "Can ya hear me, kid? Hang in there... Come on..." he pleaded.
It was happening to the others, as well. Starr had doubled over and was having trouble maintaining a single form as Kosmo and Carrie watched in panic. "What's wrong with you? Starr!! Dammit, I just lost one kid, I can't lose you, too!" Kosmo cried, as Shadow looked on with a grim expression. Elsewhere on the island, Lara had also fallen over, as Shade rushed to her side. "You alright, kid?" she asked. "M-mom, I... I failed..." Lara gasped, reached for Shade's hand only to see her own hand starting to vanish before their eyes! The same was happening to Aurora as she was about to finally catch up to her parents. Rainbow dashed over to her, thinking she tripped. "Careful, sweetie! ....Sweetie?" But Punchy could see that she was starting to fade. "This can't be good..." he gulped. Their daughter had already been born, if she was fading, the implication was that her future was vanishing. And of course, Copter and Gemini saw this happening to Chopper, as well. "H-he's vanishing!" Copter stammered, "What does this mean?" he asked as he cradled his fading child in his arms. Gemini's face was paler than usual. "It means...we're losing." she said. "D-don't...give up...Dad, Mom..." Chopper gasped. Back with Sonic, there was nothing to be done. Juice and Junior were both fading away as though they never existed to begin with. "I'm glad... I got to meet you... Mom..." Juice managed to say to Amy, "And Dad... Stay strong..." Junior choked back tears as he kept his eyes on Lucky and Whisk. "You can still do this, Dad... You can open the door...to our future..." he gasped. Amy grit her teeth, but she couldn't hold back her sorrow as the children all finished fading away. "NOOOO!!" she wailed, as Cream walked over to hug her, crying with her. She knew that Melody and Skye were gone now, too, and to the rabbit's dismay, she couldn't even be there in her children's last moments.
The Doomsayer stepped out of the shadows, not Apocalos but Sonic. He'd apparently seen the young ones fade away as well, and looked quite grim as rain fell around him. "You see now? There's no saving this world. Beings from the future vanishing... shows that the future is setting in stone." he announced. Sonic turned to the Doomsayer with a frustrated growl, but then a thought occurred to him. "Wait, you're still here. You're a time traveler!" he shouted, pointing at him almost accusingly. The Doomsayer nodded. "A few remain, yes. The only time travelers still clinging to this realm are the ones with magical protections placed upon them... Myself, I would say I'm cursed to see each timeline fall." he sighed. Whisk glanced at Lucky. "Hey, you think you can summon your key now? Maybe beat up this fake Sonic?" she asked. After all, with Junior gone, the main cause of his key's disappearance was also gone. Lucky was staring at the spot Junior had been, though, clearly out of it. Team Rose was busy mourning Juice as well, so Sonic was more or less on his own here. "Whatever! If we fix the future, we'll bring everyone back! Juice and Junior, Skye, and all of them!" he shouted. Lucky clutched his heart. "Pepper...and Minnie..." he realized. Casey, Argyle and Venice, too. They were all gone. But Sonic would attempt to get them back! The Doomsayer scoffed at him, though. "If they don't fade now, they'll suffer later. I have seen so many futures. We will ultimately lose... and you will ultimately go on to become me." he declared. "Never! I'll show you!!" Sonic snapped, starting to chase after him! "H-hey, Sonic... W-wait!!" Amy stammered, chasing after him as he chased the Doomsayer through the woods!
Eggman was also in the woods, and met with a jetpack-wearing Firepaw who was holding a briefcase. "Got what you wanted right here, meowr. What are you gonna do, boss?" he asked, handing the doctor the case. Eggman frowned, opening the case. "It may be in my best interest to stake out a safe haven to regroup if in fact these Lost Ones can't be stopped. And while I'm at it, I might as well take care of Sonic once and for all..." He took an object out of the briefcase and plugged it into the Egg Mobile's dashboard. "Stick close, Firepaw. I'll need one more thing from you..." he murmured, turning his Egg Mobile around as a large conical laser started to emerge on the front of the Egg Mobile! "Nanotech add-on! It's the future!" the doctor smirked before pulling a lever and firing a beam into the woods! This beam even caught the Doomsayer off guard, but Sonic and Amy also ran straight into the rift in the fabric of space that the beam had created! "Whoaaaa!! Now whaaaat!?" Sonic cried. Eggman smirked and flew the Egg Mobile toward the rift. "Hop in, Firepaw!" he ordered. "Meowr? Uhhh... What even is that?" the robot asked nervously. Eggman chuckled softly. "By my calculations... It should be the Eggman Empire!!" he declared, flying the Egg Mobile right into the strange rift in space! Firepaw groaned and hopped in after him, and the rift was starting to fade, but not before one more could find it. Metal Sonic skidded to a halt, scanning the anomaly. "A portal...to another world? You're not going without me, doctor!" the robotic hedgehog grunted, leaping into the rift just in time! The transport was a bit chaotic, and Sonic initially landed on the other side by himself. "Where am I...now?" he murmured, looking around. It was a city, its layout very much resembling Station Square. However, it was highly mechanized and futuristic, with robots flying the skies and huge screens adorning the sides of buildings! These screens displayed Eggman's familiar logo. "Welcome to Robotnikland! The ultimate city, and capital of the Eggman Empire!" came the voice of Dr. Eggman over a PA speaker!
Sonic folded his arms and tapped his foot. "What the? When did Eggman have the time to build all this??" he asked himself. "For having such fast feet, you're a bit slow in the head!" sneered Eggman as his Egg Mobile hovered in front of the hedgehog. The doctor gestured at the city around them. "Look in awe and wonder at this world! It is one of so many dimensions out there, and my latest invention has transported us here! A world where my genius prevailed as it should, a long time ago!" he explained with a bitterness in his voice. Sonic shrugged. "So, you copied Tails' dimensional transporter. Good for you." he said, unimpressed. Eggman let out an annoyed growl. "No, it's not a copy! For one, mine uses superior power circuitry, and can find any dimension I want, unlike Tails' whose portal only linked to Nega's dimension!" he snapped. "Blaze's dimension." Sonic corrected. "Who cares, it's a dead dimension!" the doctor snarled, the two archenemies now glaring at one another fiercely. Just then, a jingle played from the PA system, and the monitors started to display an alert. "Intrusion detected within city limits!" Eggman's pre-recorded voice announced, "Area guard robots, proceed to the indicated location and seize the intruders!" On the screen, Sonic and Eggman could see the intruders caught on camera. It was Amy, and she was being followed by Metal Sonic! "What? That's MY Metal Sonic! How'd he get here??" Eggman stammered. Sonic already started to speed off, leaving the doctor behind. "Hold on, Amy! I'm coming!" he shouted as Eggman watched him go. "Hmph... Run all you want. There's nowhere to escape to. In the meantime, I think I'd like a tour of my city while I look for wherever Firepaw landed..." he said to himself.
The doctor was fairly pleased with the sights of the futuristic city as he explored, but he had to put the tour on hold when he finally located Firepaw. The feline robot was hanging around the Robotnikland version of Casinopolis, which was certainly more brightly lit than its counterpart in their world. "Boss! I swear, I wasn't slacking off! Meowr!" Firepaw babbled. "You certainly won't. I've got one more thing I want you to pick up." Eggman grunted, rubbing his chin, "I've had time to think about it, and there's no time like the present. So, I'm sending you back to pick up my ultimate weapon!" he announced, pulling the lever to fire up his dimensional transporter again. Firepaw tilted his head. "Yeah, right. Which 'ultimate' weapon?" he questioned. Eggman growled softly. "The one that's actually perfect! Listen carefully, because you'll need these instructions to get back!" he began...
Meanwhile, Amy had her hammer clutched in her hands as Metal Sonic cornered her somewhere in the futuristic city. "I'm in no mood, Metal! I just saw my son go poof! You wanna know what that does to a mother?? DO YA!?" she shouted. The robot simply stared at her. "I only require you to lead me to my creator and Sonic... I have no other need of you... I have no need to harm you." he stated. Amy blinked, lowering her hammer. "Huh? ...This some kinda mind game?" she murmured. However, the sirens of several Cop Speeder robots suddenly caught their attention. These robots seemed to have more heavily armed vehicles than the ones from their world, and they started off firing shots at Metal Sonic, who leapt aside quickly. "Looks like we're on the same side for now!" Amy realized. "Yes...for now..." Metal murmured.
The Cop Speeders were fast, and there were quite a few of them, but Metal Sonic was easily faster. The robot leapt into action, evading their incoming lasers and then launching into homing attacks to take out the Kikis driving the vehicles! Amy dodged and parried some of those lasers with her Piko Piko Hammer, growling angrily at the robots and their annoyingly blaring sirens. "You...asked for it!!!" she yelled, leaping at the nearest speeder and smacking the driver out with her hammer! With the driver out of the way, she took control of the speeder and turned it in place, firing its lasers at other robots! "Don't mess with me!! I'm a mom on a mission!!" she cried. It seemed like they'd made short work of the robots, but a sudden laser blast took Amy off guard, knocking her speeder on a crash course with the wall! "Aaaahh!!" She hurriedly hopped out of the speeder before it crashed, while Metal Sonic looked in the direction the shot had come from. The speeders had gotten backup. A red robot and a black robot approached, "E-102" and "E-101" printed on their chassis. "...Gamma? Beta?" Metal said in confusion. They were and they weren't. These versions were quite a bit upgraded, more powerful than their counterparts had ever gotten back in Amy and Metal's own world. "Prepare to be exterminated..." Gamma stated. "...In the name of the Eggman Empire!" Beta added. Amy panted, a bit worn down, but fortunately she wouldn't be relying on Metal Sonic. "Hey, metalheads!!" The robots all glanced in the direction of the voice, to see Sonic standing with hands on his hips and a cocky smirk on his lips, "Were you all lookin' for me?"
Beta flew forth to meet Sonic, while Gamma put his focus on Amy and Metal Sonic. Amy looked at the warped version of her former friend a bit nervously. "You wouldn't by chance remember a time when we saved each other, would you?" she asked. The robot fired at her without speaking, forcing her to block quickly with her hammer! The blasts still knocked her back, however. "I...take that as a no..." she grunted. This was not the same Gamma...this was one that this world's Eggman had successfully built into a ruthless war machine! Metal Sonic fired a laser back at Gamma, catching the E-series robot's attention! "The doctor wastes his time on his pathetic E-series! I was always the perfect, ultimate robot!" he shouted. Gamma's red targeting sight aimed right at Metal Sonic. "Faulty data. It was not Metal Sonic who aided in the Eggman Empire's final conquest of Earth. You were a failed experiment." Gamma stated matter-of-factly. Then, once the targeting system was locked on, a hatch on Gamma's back opened, and multiple small missiles launched in pursuit of Metal Sonic! The robot sped to evade them, leading them on a chase around the area, but they had a powerful lock on him. "Hey! Call off the attack, Gamma! Listen to me! Y-you're not a bad robot! You don't have to do this!" Amy shouted. Gamma pointed his gun hand at her, a coldness in his digital eyes. "You...are correct. I am not required to..." he stated, making Amy sigh in brief relief, "...I have chosen to!" the robot added, starting to charge a laser blast! However, Metal Sonic suddenly landed in front of him! "You...are too slow!" he said, as the homing missiles suddenly struck Gamma in the back while trying to catch Metal Sonic, causing him to explode! Amy gasped, jarred by the event, but she had to accept it. This wasn't her former friend...and once again, Gamma was gone.
At the same time, Sonic was dashing around Beta, who was charging and firing a powerful laser at him again and again. Beta was essentially his Mark 2 design from Sonic's world, but with improved agility and speed. Still, Sonic was proving quite difficult to hit. "C'mon, you're supposed to be some ultimate Eggman's epic guard! This all ya got?" Sonic taunted. Beta had nothing to say to him. This robot had always been more silent and calculating than Gamma. It sped down into Sonic's path, swatting at him with its powerful arms before launching missiles of its own to rain down on the hedgehog's general area! Sonic leapt back to his feet after being knocked back, and swiftly leapt between the falling missiles, avoiding their explosions as best he could! Meanwhile, Beta was taking extra time to charge his laser. With Sonic distracted, the robot charged a massive amount of energy, and fired in Sonic's direction, resulting in a tremendous blast! "Target eliminated..." Beta determined. However, seemingly from nowhere, Sonic appeared behind Beta! He had moved so fast as to fool the robot's scanners! "I've got a message for Eggman! You'll never catch me in ANY dimension!! Hyaaaaaa!!" Sonic curled into a ball and struck Beta with immense force, causing the robot to spark a little. He then ran a distance ahead, circled back, and did a spin dash right into Beta as the robot struggled to charge another shot! Beta exploded on impact, and Gamma had exploded by now as well! Sonic emerged from the smoke of the exploding robot, and found himself face to face with Metal Sonic, while Amy nervously watched them from the sidelines. Metal Sonic pointed a clawed finger at Sonic, and the hedgehog nodded. "Yeah, that was a decent warm-up, huh? Guess it's main event time!" he smirked.
Eggman had arrived in the control center of the city. Being an Eggman himself, it wasn't hard to get in. He was eager to meet the architect of this glorious technological wonderland. But as he stepped in, he sneezed, noting an odd amount of dust built up. "Cleaner-bot must be in the shop..." he murmured, stepping slowly to the lit up control panel where a figure was slumped over in the seat. "Hello, Emperor! I'd like to introduce myself, but I imagine I need no introduction!" Eggman said cheerily. There was no response. He growled softly, never pleased to be ignored, and grabbed the seat, giving it a spin. "You will acknowledge me!! ...GAAAH!!" the doctor shrieked to find a dusty, rotting, mustached corpse. Mostly a skeleton, in fact. This emperor, the version of himself who had won completely and decisively, was dead. Long dead, by the look of it. "How? How did this happen?" Eggman stammered, holding his head as he leaned against a nearby console, letting all this sink in. "He defeated his Sonic. Conquered this city, then the world. Everything became robots. No one to oppose him... Except the robots. Is that what happened? Did they malfunction? Or...or did he go mad for some reason? Did he bring about his own end?" Eggman wanted to understand, but he wasn't exactly equipped to run an autopsy... Nor mentally equipped to perform one on himself. He heard his own pre-recorded voice from the computer at that point. "Intruder detected!" it said. Eggman sighed. "Put it onscreen..." he ordered. He looked at the screen and started to smile to himself. "Ah, Firepaw, excellent timing. I needed something to take my mind off this... And destroying Sonic once and for all is just the thing! I'll show you, old skeleton! I'll conquer this universe, and in the end, my reign will outlast yours by...generations!!" he shouted, storming out of the control room and leaving the corpse alone in the dark, lit only by the glow of self-sufficient computers...
Chapter 55 - Project 30
Stage 25 - Robotnikland
Note: Sonic the Hedgehog and related characters are (c) SEGA. You knew that, right?
GeneX and related OCs are (c) 2BIT (TheGreatGator), the author.
"Well, I won't look back, I don't need to.
Time won't wait and I got so much to do.
Where do I stop, it's all a blur and so unclear.
Well, I don't know but I can't be wrong!
This fight is not for anybody, this is purely for myself.
There is no way I'm gonna give up 'til the very end!
I can't tell what is wrong and what is right, I've got to find the answer!
But until I do, there's no way I will ever give up.
Place all your bets on the one you think is right!" - It Doesn't Matter, Sonic Adventure
Sonic and Metal Sonic had been clashing for a few minutes, and Amy became a bit annoyed. "Stop it, stop it!!" she shouted, causing both Sonics to glance at her while grappling. "You okay there, Amy?" he asked. "Stay out of our battle!" Metal warned her. The pink hedgehog growled in frustration. "You two are so busy beating each other up, I think you forgot where we are, and what's going on with the bigger picture! We're trapped in an alternate universe and the Lost Ones are back in our world, creating a timeline where our kids will never be born!!" she shouted. Sonic nodded to himself. "Hm, yeah, when you put it that way, there probably are better uses of my time..." he murmured, releasing Metal from the grapple and speeding over to Amy. "Coward! Where are you going!? We need to finish this!" the robot shouted. Sonic scooped Amy into his arms. "Nope. Maybe you need to finish this, but I'm not a robot. I can choose to do what I think is right. And at the moment... That'd be finding us a way back home, fast!" he said. Amy held onto him tightly. "Any idea how we get back?" she asked as Sonic started to speed away from Metal, carrying her. "Well, Eggman sent us here. He oughta be able to send us back. Now, where did I leave that doctor again...?" Watching them speed away, Metal Sonic clenched his clawed fist. "No, you're a coward... I'm the superior Sonic..." he growled, firing up his engines to chase after Sonic. "...Come back here!!" the robot shouted. Sonic already had a pretty decent lead, however...
As Sonic ran along, searching for Eggman with Amy in his arms, a massive robot nearly dropped down on top of them, causing Sonic to stumble and drop Amy in surprise! He got up quickly, turning to see what looked a bit like a cross between the Death Egg Robot and a Metal Sonic! Instead of Sonic's eyes was a windshield, and Eggman could be seen piloting the robot inside! "Hoho...hohoho... HOO HO HO HO HO!!" the doctor laughed, "Now, Sonic! It's been a long day, but here we are, ready for the final clash! Does my machine look familiar?" he asked with pride. Sonic chuckled softly. "You keep tryin', doc, but you just can't quite capture my likeness!" he teased, "I hope that thing's equipped with the means to send us all home, though!" he added. Metal Sonic was arriving at this point, but stayed out of sight for the time being. "Home? Forget about that, Sonic. This is where you meet your end, in MY dream home! So many of my designs have failed, even Metal Sonic 20.0! But forfeit isn't in my vocabulary! So I've tweaked and perfected the design further, and now you see before you Metal Sonic 30.0! This is the apex mecha predator! Every encounter I've ever had with you, poured into this project, every imperfection weeded out! And once I prove my ultimate power with this robot by destroying you, nothing will stop me from conquering...every universe...in the MULTIVERSE!!" as he cackled, a familiar whirring sounded from inside the robot...a Phantom Ruby! Sonic turned to Amy, wanting to run her to safety, but the machine was already prepping a powerful laser powered by the Ruby! Before it could fire, though, Metal Sonic struck the robot with a homing attack, causing it to turn and shoot the beam at a building, blasting a massive hole in it! "What!? Metal!! How many times do I have to wipe your memory to keep you from betraying me!?" Eggman shouted. Metal Sonic stood beside Sonic while Amy fled for cover. "You betrayed me first, doctor... By your own admission, you erase my memory... And now you replace me!! But I'll show you your fatal mistake!!" the robot declared. Sonic shrugged. "Well, more Sonics the merrier, I guess."
Eggman growled. He wanted to focus on Sonic. So, with a few button presses, he activated the Phantom Ruby inside his robot, and created some backup! Other versions of Metal Sonic appeared; The prototype from the original Death Egg, Mecha Sonic, and even GUN's Techno Sonic were conjured by the Ruby! "You said it, Sonic! Hehe..." Eggman chuckled, letting the phantom robots go after Metal Sonic and Amy while his massive robot stared down the real Sonic. "Lost Ones give ya this Ruby, like Infinite?" Sonic asked. "Puh-lease! You didn't think I wouldn't create a backup of the ruby from my ultimate Death Egg Robot, did you? But that's not all this mean machine's got up its metallic sleeves!" Eggman smirked, various weapons popping out of hatches on the robots arms to demonstrate the point! "...Unfortunately, I ran out of space for a robotisizer, so... I'll just leave you as a blue smear on the road!!" Missiles started firing from the robot's arms, forcing Sonic to start running! Eggman followed after him, his machine impressively fast! The missiles crashed into the side of another building as Sonic dashed up the wall. "Get down here, you little blue pest!" the doctor snorted, pointing Metal Sonic 30's clawed fingers at Sonic and shooting black lightning up the building at him! Sonic swerved and then leapt off the building, startled by the attack! "Whoooa!! Your robot study under Despair??" Sonic stammered as he landed behind Eggman. The robot turned around, fingers sparking. "I had an opportunity to study the Darkseeker's abilities. Ophiuchus also lent me one of his magical stones!" he smirked, the robot's other hand snapping its fingers, and then the entire robot vanished in a burst of bright light!
Sonic looked around carefully. A shadow was cast over him, and was growing quickly. "Uh oh!" He rolled out of the way as fast as he could as a massive blue cube crashed down where he was standing, the shockwave caused by its impact sending him flying anyway! The cube then reverted back into the form of Metal Sonic 30! "Still equipped with the finest Wisp powers, as well! Wispon tech has helped me refine those weapons since last time, I'll admit!" Eggman snickered, firing some "meteor" Wispon projectiles from one of the many weapons attached to the robot's arm while Sonic staggered to his feet. "Ooff! Ahh, look at you! You're just like a kid playin' with your new toys! Do ya got Zavok powering that thing, too?" the hedgehog taunted, getting his momentum back as he started sidestepping Eggman's shots. "For your information... My takeaway from the Deadly Six was to Zeti-proof this thing so they couldn't control it. Not terribly relevant to this fight, but yes, I'm not kidding when I say ALL of our little adventures go into upgrading these ultimate Metal Sonic robots!" The Phantom Ruby whirred again, and Eggman summoned phantoms of some of his greatest robot creations to surround Sonic! The Egg Dragoon, the Ultimate Death Egg Robot, the Arachnoegg, and even the mechanized Time Eater! "What'll ya do about this, huh? Huh!? Just admit it for once in your miserable life!! I've finally outwitted and outmatched you, you smug little needlemouse!! You've got no way out of this one!! Even Metal Sonic 20.0 was about to kill you, but your friends swooped in! Where are they now, Sonic??" the doctor shouted, breathing hard, his hands trembling at the controls as he felt absolutely certain that this was it...his moment of victory at long last!
"You done, doc?" Sonic asked. All through Eggman's gloating, the hedgehog had been busily stretching, preparing himself, "I'll admit, you do have one over on me. If I do wreck your machine, for all I know, I'm stuck here in this world, and I'll never see my friends again. Congratulations, ya made me hold back a minute..." he said, lightly clapping. Eggman tilted his head. "What? Oh, don't kid yourself, Sonic! It's over! Holding back, hah!" the doctor scoffed. Sonic then crouched down, getting into a stance to prepare for takeoff. "What? Hehe...You think you're the only one who's grown stronger over the years? What do I do, sleep? But by all means...catch me if you can!!" As the phantom machines and Metal Sonic 30 started to open fire on Sonic, the hedgehog seemed to vanish from sight! He was moving at blinding speed, and as the doctor looked frantically for him, he occasionally saw a flash of blue before one of those phantom machines crumbled and vanished from existence! "I-I've clocked your top speed... You aren't...this fast!! Not without Chaos Emeralds!!" Eggman shouted, starting to shoot off all his weapons in random directions, trying to hit the blazing blue blur! A Chaos tendril whipped across the street, pink spikes jutted out far from the robot's back, the mouth seemed to spew a magical fire, and black lightning arced across the sky in front of the robot! "You can't get near me!! You'll perish if you try!! I'll have your head for real this time, Sonic!! I will!!" Eggman roared. "Look out belooooow!!" The doctor gulped at hearing Sonic's voice from directly above. He hadn't put any defenses up there! He had to reel back his other shooting weapons before he could move the robot's feet as well! "Come on, come on! Divert power!!" he shouted frantically. Sonic had raced up one of the buildings to dive back down as a blue wrecking ball, smashing through Metal Sonic 30's head!!
The Metal Sonic phantoms vanished as Metal Sonic 30 exploded. The Egg Mobile shakily staggered out of the wreckage, while Sonic sped out to find Amy, who looked a bit exhausted from fighting the phantoms. Still, she threw her arms around Sonic. "We...did it..." she huffed. Sonic nodded, gently returning her embrace. "Yeah... Juice'd be proud." Eggman growled as he watched them, but there wasn't time for threats of vengeance. Firepaw came running over in a panic. "MEOWR!! Time to go home, NOW!!" he shouted. Metal Sonic glanced in the direction Firepaw had come from. Dozens, perhaps hundreds of angry-looking robots were coming. "They appear indiscriminately hostile..." Metal Sonic stated. Glancing around, Eggman could see robots were coming from all sides, in fact. "I think the robots in this world actually aren't too fond of me..." he gulped. "Then send us all home!!" Amy shouted. Firepaw jumped in alarm. "Meowr! Right!" He produced an object similar to what Eggman had plugged into the Egg Mobile and now plugged it into his nose, which resulted in a conical laser popping out of his metallic chest! "Ughh, this feels nasty, but I had to get back here somehow..." he murmured. The conical laser then shot out another rift just like the one Eggman used to send them to this world in the first place. Metal Sonic wasted no time leaping into it, followed by Eggman's barely functioning Egg Mobile, and then Firepaw. Sonic held onto Amy's hand as they headed for the portal. "This time, we'll try not to get separated!" he told her. Amy smiled and nodded. "Let's go home!" she replied, the pair of them stepping into the rift before the robot hoards could reach them. The rift promptly closed behind them.
When Sonic and the others emerged, they were back home... In Eggman's first villainous "home," Scrap Brain Zone on South Island. "...Shouldn't we be on Demon Island?" Sonic murmured, "Ehh, never mind..." he sighed. "This was where I transported, hedgehog. Deal with it, meowr!" Firepaw grumbled. Interestingly, only Metal Sonic seemed to have landed elsewhere. Shrugging, Sonic motioned for Amy to follow him. "C'mon, I know the way outta this dump." he told her. Eggman growled, standing up in his seat. "It's no dump! I've revamped the facility! I had six months where you were out of commission to do things like that, if you'll remember!" he shouted, trying to retain some superiority. Amy glanced back at him and stuck out her tongue as she started to follow Sonic. They weren't impressed, and the doctor was once again defeated. "Rrrrgh... Go on! Turn your backs on me! I don't...care either... I'll be...fine..." the doctor scoffed, sounding more and more unsure of himself with each word. Despite Eggman's words, the base really didn't seem all that operational, and Sonic and Amy made their way pretty far without issue. However, they soon found their path blocked...by the Doomsayer. It was the future version of Sonic, and present Sonic groaned softly. "I thought you were sent to Eggman-world with us! How'd you get here? No, lemme guess, 'future knowledge' led you here..." he huffed. Once more, it was raining inside a building. "There's more than one way to traverse dimensions. Or did you forget?" He was alluding to a dark corridor, of course. "Perhaps you will understand me... If I tell you my story in full." the cloaked hedgehog sighed. Sonic shrugged, looking just a tad impatient. "I'll listen, but try and make it fast..." he replied.
"My timeline was...very different when the Lost Ones attacked. We weren't remotely prepared. One by one, my friends died... Apocalos wasn't even interested in consuming their souls. He took great pleasure in leaving the bodies for me to find. Ultimately, with nothing left to lose, I took him on in a final clash...or it was supposed to be. But as we battled, a bolt of lightning crashed down, and struck both myself and Apocalos while we grappled. It should have at least killed me... But instead, our powers mixed and merged. I gained the power of time travel that Apocalos had taken from Mephiles during the Time Eater incident. Apocalos gained my speed. Both of us, charged with lightning, gained power over the climate, the weather. But despite our power being nearly equal now, I could not do much to alter the timeline. I saved Tails here and there, delayed the inevitable now and then... but Apocalos had gained the favor of the Zodiac Council, and there were only so many changes I could make without them resetting the timeline with their magic. Apocalos was also held back by those limitations, but now that Zodiac is gone...he's amassed too much power to stop." the Doomsayer explained. Amy looked sympathetic as she listened. "You've endured so much, all on your own..." she sighed. Sonic tapped his foot impatiently. "Too much power to stop? Are you kidding? Now that there's no more time-resets, this is OUR big chance! We could save everyone still here, and everyone still to come...and maybe everyone transformed, somehow! We just gotta work together!" he said, offering a hand to the Doomsayer. The rain started to pour harder, and the glowing eyes of the alternate Sonic burned brightly. "I'll save myself the suffering... By taking you down here and now!!" he declared!
Lightning crashed through the base, surrounding the Doomsayer as Sonic and Amy backed away. "Stay back, Amy!" Sonic warned. She looked quite worried, she hated to see Sonic fight himself. The Doomsayer had grabbed a lightning bolt in each hand, ready to use them as crackling weapons against Sonic! As the black robed one sped towards him, swinging the bolts, Sonic leapt up and tried to hit him with a homing attack, only for the Doomsayer to leap in a balled up form as well, the lightning sparking from his curled body and knocking Sonic back! The younger hedgehog stumbled to the ground, but was quick to get back to his feet. He started to chase the Doomsayer through the base, both of them evading flamethrowers and buzz saws as they raced to try and find an opening, a vantage point to strike! Sonic eventually went for broke, bouncing off the wall and crashing toward the Doomsayer in his balled-up form! The Doomsayer saw him coming, and crossed the lightning bolts together to block him, electrocuting the blue hedgehog as he repelled him! "Aaagh!!" Sonic's body sizzled a bit as he stood up, the tips of his quills looking a tad burned. The Doomsayer pointed the lightning at him, but then scoffed, choosing to instead exert his control over the elements to send an icy blast of wintry winds blowing Sonic's way, trying to freeze him on the spot! "I control speed, time, and the very elements! All this power, and yet I can't save this world! What nonsense is it that makes you think you can do any better!?" he shouted as Sonic struggled against the wind, battered but not beaten. Sonic was standing his ground, step by step, marching towards the Doomsayer. "I... dunno..." he replied, not stopping, "But I still got somethin' to fight for...and that's enough!"
The Doomsayer halted the wind, and Sonic tried to charge him, only to be grabbed by the throat! He wasn't used to someone being as fast as he was, he wasn't prepared for the Doomsayer to simply outwit him like that. His legs kicked under him as his own future self carried him outside and threw him to the floor. Sonic coughed for air and glanced up to see the Doomsayer pointing a lightning spear at his heart. "It would be so easy to finish you..." he grunted. Sonic panted for breath, but started to chuckle softly. "You won't though..." he giggled. The Doomsayer raised the spear. "What makes you so sure?" he growled. Sonic had a light smirk. "You can't. Because somewhere deep, deep down, I know you still haven't given up, either. I think you're here, in this time, when you could be anywhere else... because deep down, you wanna see how this all ends. And you wanna see it end right!" The Doomsayer growled, lifting the lightning bolt higher, readying to strike. He started and stopped, and started and stopped again. Finally, he let out a frustrated snarl. "Aaaaaarghh!!" He hurled the lightning bolt into the sky, letting it strike where it would, and lifted his hood over his eyes. "What I want, what you want, it makes no difference!" he huffed. Sonic sat up, watching him. "We could work together, you know..." he stated. The Doomsayer shook his head, lightning booming in the background. "It's too late. Much too late. Demon Island has arrived..." he stated, motioning into the distance. Sonic turned around, looking out across South Island. His eyes widened. Demon Island had indeed arrived, and ominously loomed above. Of all skylines to park itself, the Lost Ones had brought the island to rest above Green Hill Zone. "It all ends...where it all began..." the Doomsayer sighed.
Chapter 56 - Apocalypse Part 1
Note: Sonic the Hedgehog and related characters are (c) SEGA. You knew that, right?
GeneX and related OCs are (c) 2BIT (TheGreatGator), the author.
The Keyblade & other Kingdom Hearts elements are (c) Disney & Square-Enix.
Moogles are (c) Square-Enix.
"On that day, when the sky fell away,
Our world came to an end.
In our eyes, did a fading sun rise in the dark,
Glimmering shadows..." - Lifelight, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
Tails and Fera made their way to an area on the edge of the island, where they found Lucky and Whisk wandering about. Knuckles and Violet came running up as well, glad to find some familiar faces. "Tails! Watch out, it's Fera!!" Violet shouted. "Whoa, whoa whoa! She's on our side!" Tails said hurriedly. "What did I ever even do to you?" the wolf asked Violet, "...Oh, your sister's wedding. Sorry..." she sighed. Lucky and Whisk couldn't help noticing Tails' injury. "What happened? Tails?" Lucky asked with concern. The fox sighed. "Thanks to Infinite and Apocalos, I think it's just Miles now..." he told them. Knuckles placed a hand on his shoulder. "No way. You'll always be Tails to me! Now point me in those jerk's direction! I'll tear some of their slimy limbs off!" he growled. Lucky nodded. "We gotta pay them back for our kids, too! They all vanished!" he told the group. Knuckles gasped. "Wha... all of them? No! L-lara!! I JUST met her!!" he stammered. Fera growled softly. "They murdered Skye the old-fashioned way, too. I think they've officially replaced Gunner on my hit list. So, how do we find their boss and end this?" she asked. Whisk quickly cast a spell with her wand. "Discovereva!" And with that, a guiding light appeared. "Follow that light! It'll lead us to... Apocalos?" she asked. "Meee-yow! How can you find him if you don't even know who you're looking for!?" Lucky asked. Whisk chuckled softly. "The spell is looking for the Lost Ones' leader. Hey, if you had to know everything it wouldn't be a great spell." she babbled. Knuckles and Fera pushed past the bantering cats and looked out over the edge of the island where the light was going. "Hey, that place look familiar down there?" Knuckles asked as Tails stepped over to look as well. "Green Hill... Why are we here?" he wondered.
Speeding off on his own, Sonic raced away from Scrap Brain Zone, passing many familiar locales swiftly on his way to Green Hill. He didn't have time to reminisce about the Labyrinth or the Spring Yard, he had to get to that island and do whatever he could to stop the Lost Ones before it was too late! Being the fastest thing alive did have its advantages, though; Sonic must have set a new record for traversing South Island as he arrived in Green Hill, and approached the imposing structure of a massive loop that Demon Island was floating above. Atop the loop stood Apocalos, holding the Scepter of Despair up for Sonic to see. "I knew you wouldn't keep me waiting, hedgehog! It is ever our destiny to meet at the end! But this time, there is no Zodiac Council to repair the timeline... And no one in present-time can stop me! My recreation of Mephiles the Dark has gathered countless souls for me, and trapped their energy in this scepter... You may know some of those souls... An ancient echidna, a foolish police officer..." he said with a sneer. Sonic stomped his foot and pointed up threateningly. "Let those souls free! I won't ask again!!" he shouted. Apocalos chuckled softly, releasing the scepter and watching it rise into the sky. "Those souls will feed Demon Island, and empower the beast within. Then, it will smash through the Gaia Wellsprings' barriers, and feast on the life of the WORLD!!" he roared, snapping his fingers. In response to his snap, a portal emerged in front of Sonic, and out flew Lospecter, followed by Loskeletor, Losipher and Loscream! "Here we are! Your four horsemen of Apocalos!!" Lospecter proclaimed, bowing as he shut the portal with his key, "And we're ready for war!!" the spirit smirked.
Loskeletor pointed the Chaos Sword at Sonic. "Any final words, knave?" he asked. Sonic's ear twitched and he smirked. "Knave? Ha!" he took off, a blue blur speeding among the four fiends as Loscream and Losipher each tried to grab him in their tentacled grips! Sonic caused Loskeletor's head to spin around dizzily, and he snatched the Chaos Sword from his bony hand, slicing the tentacles reaching for him before leaping back to where he started to taunt them! "I'm the Knight of the Wind!" he declared, twirling the sword expertly in his hand! "Nighty knight, then!" Lospecter chuckled from behind him, surprising Sonic by creating a portal at his feet, dropping him right into Loscream's vines! As Sonic struggled, the pumpkin had a sadistic grin on his carved face. "At last, a feast I've waited for..." Loscream bellowed. "Gonna have to keep waitin!" shouted Knuckles as he dropped down from above, slashing the vines with the Chaos Claws to free Sonic on the way! Whisk flew by above them, having given Knuckles the ride, and behind Lospecter some dark portals brought Fera and Violet, along with Lucky and Tails! "We've got your back, Sonic!" Tails cried. Lucky summoned his Keyblade and took up a fighting stance, "Yeah, try and stop me now!" he shouted. Losipher glared at them, snarling. "More suffering, then... More death!!"
Knuckles stayed to battle Loscream while Sonic dashed to deal with the big gun, Losipher. In fact, most of the group was heading that way, but Tails could see that Loskeletor wasn't one to turn one's back on, either, so he ran for the skeleton, materializing the laser cannon over his arm as he approached. Loskeletor laughed and fired a beam from his eyes at the fox's feet. "Why Bard, you doth appear more pitiful than last I laid eye socket upon you!" he mocked. Tails stood firm, aiming for his skull. "No idea what that means, but somebody's about to pay for Skye!" he growled, firing his laser only for Loskeletor's laser to meet it, resulting in an explosion that threw him back! Whisk caught him in her arms and flew him into the air as Loskeletor fired repeatedly at them! "I gotcha! You just worry about blastin'!" she smirked. Meanwhile, Knuckles was slashing Loscream's vines furiously as the pumpkin tried to grab for him. "Grrraaah!! Why won't you die!?" the pumpkin snarled. Knuckles grunted with annoyance. "I'd like to ask you the same thing... Didn't I leave you splattered in the castle?" he questioned. Indeed, thanks to Apocalos, this battle might not matter in the long run...
Lospecter floated around, taunting Fera and Violet and goading them into portals, which then dropped them into Losipher's tentacles, only for them to warp out of his grip. "Slippery vermin... But darkness won't do me harm! You cannot kill death itself!" Losipher declared. Sonic bounced into his face, making him groan in rage while the hedgehog landed close by and examined the lack of damage. "He's a chunky one. Guess I should try the sword..." he murmured as Losipher contorted his face into a terrifying fang-filled visage, roaring at him as he clashed his own flaming blade against Sonic's! Lucky added his Keyblade to the mix, helping Sonic to knock his blade back! "Now we got him!!" he smirked, only to fall down a portal and start plummeting towards Losipher from high above. "MEEEE-YOOOOW!!" he wailed, caught by Violet as she warped up to him, and then warped him back down, holding the cat in her arms. "We need to get that key from him..." she sighed. Fera smirked. "We're on it..." she said, glancing to Sonic. She hurled a blast of darkness at Losipher's face to distract him while Sonic sped to her, leaving the Chaos Sword in her hands as he sped away again. "Now..." she warped herself above Losipher, raising the sword to strike! "Let's see how he likes this!!" But a portal opened under her, causing Fera to plunge the sword into the earth in front of Losipher instead! Lospecter chuckled and twirled the key, only for Sonic to leap through him from behind in a ball, knocking the Chaos Key a distance across the grassy green hills!
Fera struggled to pull the Chaos Sword free, and was forced to warp away without it as Losipher grabbed for her. The Lost Ones were regrouping, banding together as the heroes mostly did the same, but Lucky tripped over the Chaos Key. "Huh?" he murmured, glancing at it. Watching above, Apocalos changed the weather, making it rain a bit heavier. "Lospecter!! The time has come!" he shouted. "Whoop!" the spirit yelped, floating off into the loop and pulling out his Chaos Card. "Here we go! Time for my trump card!! Watch closely!!" he announced, activating the card to summon forth in a brilliant light, an Eggman Capsule! The fighting had stopped for the moment, and Sonic recognized the capsule. "Hey... I saw that in that ruined world!" he realized. Lospecter snickered, and phased through the capsule, humming to himself. "That eggy doctor... Made the capsule special for us... But nobody knew why except the boss! Eureka!!" he laughed as he managed to open the capsule from the inside! Within could be seen what appeared to be the Chaos Relics...but they were radiating dark energy! Lightning struck as Apocalos gave a wide, toothy grin. "You didn't think ours was the only world in the multiverse with Chaos Relics? Out there... We found Dark Chaos Relics... Ones more suited to obey a Lost One! Take up the key, Lospecter! It is time for our full force to join us... and crush Sonic the Hedgehog and his friends once and for all time!!" he commanded, more lightning crashing around him!
Losipher, Loscream and Loskeletor proved effective at blocking the heroes from chasing as Lospecter picked up the Dark Key, pointing it out through the loop. "If you thought it was impressive back at the Security Tower, getta load-a this!" the ghost snickered, a massive black beam shooting from the key out into the distance, opening up a tremendous portal behind where Demon Island was floating. It was a portal so large it could have consumed the island itself, and out of it, ALL Lost Ones started to march forth, aside from some that came dropping down from Demon Island above, seeming to sense that now was the time to gather! Every variety was swarming out, slimy losol, smaller loslimes, massive golems, loskels, loskulls, losolanterns, ghastly losohsts, Losohst Knights and lospirits, arachnid lospides, batlike losoars, losharks swimming into Green Hill's rivers, lostalker zombies, a Lospirit Lord, and naturally an army of Eggman's possessed robots as well! They seemed to be chasing one single person who wasn't a Lost One yet, Dark Spiny. "They ate everyone!! Everyone!! They're monsters I tell you! Don't be fooled by their capacity for speech!! Aaaaahh!!" Before he could get far, though, the horrific, slimy form of Hydrasmo swooped in and chomped on the porcupine, mauling him a bit before tossing his body aside to be possessed by losol! The other Darks seemed to be joining Darkosmo, except for Punky, Xezek and Raven. Vanitas, Thrash and Zapp arrived in slimy skeletal forms, while Mephiles, Soleil and Aries marched in seeming perfectly normal...but they had come from Apocalos to begin with. It got worse, too, as Lost Zombies of the Coconut Crew, the Battle Bird Armada, and the Covenant of Despair marched out of the portal, led by the slimy forms of Infinite, Howler and Batte Lord Kukku. Losipher also did a little dividing of his own body, releasing slimy copies of Zazz, Zik, Zor, Zeena and Zomom to help block the heroes path. Ophiuchus led Lost One versions of his Zodiac Council through the portal, Nova and Tabitha shambled out, and even a loskel with a familiar gun attached to its arm crept through, roaring in agony! Apocalos laughed in triumph as his army gathered. "I had to go across dimensions to regain some of these familiar faces, since you destroyed some of them... But now they are eternal... Eternally Lost! And your world will join them!!" he proclaimed!
On a far off plateau ideally situated to overlook the action, the Doomsayer stood. A harsh thunderstorm stretched across the island from his position to Apocalos', and it threatened to consume all of South Island. A tear dropped from the golden eyes concealed under his hood, and he clenched his fists, leaping off the plateau...
Despite the odds, Sonic had leapt into action and charged up to Apocalos' perch, trying to take the fight directly to him! "It doesn't matter how many you have! If I stop you, it ends!" he shouted, launching into a homing attack toward the undead hedgehog-tyrannosaur hybrid! Apocalos' body erupted in sparks, and as he raised his arms, bolts of lightning seared directly from him into Sonic! "I am the literal end!! You are nothing against me, nothing!! Your golden-eyed look alike got lucky gaining the power to survive this far!!" he roared as Sonic was electrocuted, screaming in pain before falling backward towards the earth below, caught in Whisk's arms before he could fall into the clutches of any Lost Ones. As she tried to return to the others, though, Apocalos brought down a bolt of lightning onto her back, and she shrieked as she and Sonic fell in a smoking heap amongst Tails, Knuckles, Fera, Violet and Lucky. Violet was on her knees, looking at the force gathered against them with dismay. "They've been toying with us this whole time... We never had a chance..." she choked. Tails helped Whisk up, handing her the wand she dropped. "Agh... Cura, Cura!!" the divine stammered, using healing magic on herself and Sonic as fast as she could. Knuckles looked at the ground, not wanting to quit but not seeing a way. Fera offered a hand to Sonic. "I guess we're going out together after all..." she sighed. "We haven't had our last fist bump yet, buddy!" he said, though his expression was grim. Lucky watched them, and nodded. "You're right... We can't let it be over..." he said. Apocalos grinned widely, letting out a sadistic laugh. "Finish them!!" he roared, setting his army to surround them!
The Doomsayer stopped his approach, seeing the last force of good becoming surrounded by insurmountable evil. "...and so it ends. This was my last run. Doomsday...has passed." he sighed, hanging his head...
Lucky saw his friends forming up around him, preparing to fight for their lives as the Lost Ones surrounded them. There was no time to waste. Lucky took up the Chaos Key, and held it in one hand while holding the Keyblade in the other, turning in the opposite direction to point both keys. "May my heart be my guiding key..." he whispered, "...our hearts... Yeah! Just try and tear us apart, try and overpower us... you can't stop the power of our hearts' connections!!" he cried, dashing forward with the keys held out! Lospecter saw him, and scoffed, flying up over the heroes in his path to chase after Lucky. "You think you can do the same as me? Your friends are scattered everywhere! Also, I'm about to feast on your soul!!" he shouted, only to be startled by a round object crashing down into the dirt in front of him! It looked kind of like a bumper, but flat. Lospecter examined it and chuckled, picking it up. "Someone thinks they can stop me with a frisbee?" Suddenly, the "frisbee" jolted him with an electric shock, causing him to shout in alarm and release the disc, which rose up to the one who threw it, who was standing on the wing of a familiar ship... the Galestrom! "He's got his friends right here!" shouted Miles, as the shield attached to its magnetic handle and he waved down to Lucky! Winston the Moogle was piloting, and aimed the ship's guns right at Lospecter. "Sorry we're late, kupo!" he shouted. Lucky laughed cheerfully, and Whisk waved up at Miles. "Hey, thanks for the phones!!" she cried. "Huh...?" Miles asked. "Oh...I guess you haven't technically built them yet, hehe!" she giggled. Lucky's focus stayed on the keys, which started to glow with power. "It doesn't matter where our friends are... How long we're apart... If we keep them in our hearts, then our hearts connect us! Now follow that connection!! Everyone...we need you, now!!" The Keyblade and Chaos Key's beams shot out, twisting and combining, and then scattered into dozens, possibly hundreds of separate beams, opening a multitude of portals, following every connection Lucky's heart could find, even if it had to jump from his friends to theirs! Lospecter's eyes widened to see it, as did Sonic and their allies. "What...is that?" Knuckles asked. Sonic smirked. "It's a REAL party!"
"Every soul contains a whisper of light,
growing louder as it calls to unite!
From the distance sings a chorus of souls,
rising slowly, stirring heat from the coals.
Colors weave into a spire of flame!
Distant sparks call to a past still unnamed!
Bear this torch against the cold of the night!
Light will guide you, on your way to the ultimate fight!"
Out of the portals, everyone started to emerge. First, Rainbow, who glanced back into her portal and waved her arm. "C'mon! Follow me!!" she shouted as Punchy leapt out to join her, followed up by Heather and Illusi, and then Guard soaring into the air! "Been lookin' for these creeps!!" Punchy shouted. Heather's hands caught fire as she nodded. "Looks like we're not a moment too soon!" she added. From another portal floated Silver, carrying Blaze in his arms with Marine holding on! "Land ho!!" the raccoon yelled. "The Lost Ones...all of 'em!" Silver gasped. Blaze jumped out of his arms, landing in the grass. "Now's our chance to really settle this!!" she huffed.
From Resistance HQ, another group arrived. Bunnie Rabbot, covered by Antoine D'coolette, led the way. "Alright, roll 'em out, Charles!" she shouted. Uncle Chuck came out, guiding some heavy objects as they were being pushed through the portal by Dulcy, Mighty, and the combined effort of Patch & Daisy. They appeared to be huge Wispon-like cannons. Ray came gliding out, cheering them on. "One-two-push!! Go go go!!" he cried. "Y-you could be h-helping..." Daisy huffed. "I'll get it, don't worry!" Dulcy smiled. "Gird yourselves, Resistance!" Chuck told them, "Cannons or no cannons, this'll be the fight of our lives!"
More experiments emerged from Demon Island, Crash charged ahead with Vortex following, Talon and Zipp flying above, and Gideon stepping out apprehensively, taking the form of a hedgehog. Through a fairly close by portal, Eggman Nega flew in on his recovered Egg Mobile, Sonata and Bolt holding on to the sides of it. "Alright, I took you back to your friends. Consider us even for the help recovering my vehicle!" Nega grunted. Assessing the situation before him, though, Nega wasn't fleeing as hastily as one might think. "There's not really anywhere to run, is there?" he sighed. Conan flew out of a portal above via the Chaos Wing, carrying Emily in his arms. "This feels like a mistake..." he said. "Don't worry... I'll watch your back!" Emily grinned, holding up a Chaos Card.
One of the portals, surprisingly, started off with a Los Tails leaping out, giving crazed laughter at the notion that he'd infiltrated the heroes' ranks. "Lord Apocalos! I'm here, hehehe!!" he cackled. Then, with a howl, Sonic the Werehog leapt out of the portal and grabbed the zombified fox in his claws, hurling him forcefully to the ground! Behind him, another Sonic and Tails followed, firing on the zonbified Tails with their PCD weapons! Dusk the hare and Cupie the mouse of BIT Squad followed behind them. "Wow! Gator was right, it's nuts over here!" Cupie gasped. "It's been nuts everywhere... Sure lucky that portal just randomly opened for us..." Dusk murmured, "Well, Happy Halloween, folks..." the hare yawned. Booster the reindeer flew by from somewhere at the same moment. "Don't forget Merry Christmas!!" he cried.
Indeed, everyone was arriving, no matter how far, be they across the sea or across dimensions. Previously stranded in the destroyed world that the Eggman Capsule came from, Nack the Weasel led Bean and Bark through a portal, set to get revenge on the creatures that abandoned them. From another portal, Sonia and Manic from the Sonic Underground appeared, touching their medallions to summon their magical instruments. Even more surprising, coming from a very far dimension was Super Mario himself, giving an impressive leap out of his Mushroom Kingdom portal! "It's-a go time!" he shouted. No one was gonna mess with his Olympic sparring buddies! No copyright law in the multiverse would stop him!
Another Demon Island portal led Copter and Gemini to join the fray. Behind them, Libra, Timothy, Adam and Evelyn leapt through! Less enthusiastically, Dr. Nammad followed them. "I'm, uh, not cut out for this..." he stammered. "Well, tough, you're in this!" Adam told him. Gemini looked a bit shaken to see the massive force of Lost Ones. "Can we...do this?" she asked. Copter grit his teeth and took on a fighting stance. "Just bring me Apocalos!! No one poofs my kid!!" he shouted, ready to kick some tail no matter the odds!
A bolt of lightning struck at one of the portals, and Gator yelped on the way through. "Gwaaa!! Wait! I forgot my umbrella!" he stammered, turning to go back. "Hooold it... We got work to do..." said a familiar voice. Out of the portal stepped 2BIT, wearing his old helmet so you knew he meant business. Following behind him was yet another version of Tails, and then the rest of BIT Squad, including Stripes the tiger, Blocky the digi-fox, Vixy the fox, Zed the Zebra and Dogson the...dog. They all looked pretty terrified, and 2BIT turned to address them. "Yeah, our powers are gone. But c'mon, I got a plan!" he told them, "...It's a very good plan! ...I have no plan." he whispered nervously.
Carrie floated out of one portal, followed by Kosmo and Rouge both soaring on bat wings, and then Omega dropping into the dirt with a heavy thud! Shadow popped out of Chaos Control in front of him, opening his eyes slowly and surveying the scene. "Ready for the ultimate battle?" he asked the group. Kosmo landed beside him. "For Starr and Ozzie... I'm gonna blow these creeps right off the map!" he shouted. Shadow nodded, and reached for his restraint rings. "...No holding back." he said.
There were a couple more portals from Demon Island, there having been so many of their friends scattered throughout the island. Firstly, Sally Acorn led Rotor Walrus and Shade the Echidna out of their portal. She held up her handheld computer anxiously as Raven stealthily flew by behind them. "Nicole, analysis, quickly!" she requested. "Power is being fed to Demon Island, Sally. This is likely for the purpose of penetrating the Gaia Wellspring barriers." the computer reported. Out of a nearby portal, Cream strained to fly Big safely to the ground! "Whoooa!!" Once she placed Big, she started to fall from exhaustion! She was caught by Amy, who had dashed out of a portal from Scrap Brain Zone not too far away. "I got ya, Cream! Don't overdo it!" she smiled, yelping as missiles whizzed past them from the Scrap Brain Portal, Dr. Eggman emerging from it aboard his Egg Mobile! "I'm here to tender my resignation from your so-called organization, Apocalos!" the doctor sneered, as he was followed by Metal Sonic, Firepaw, Orbot and Cubot. "Aaaah, wait, we forgot to lock the gate!" Cubot stammered. Orbot grabbed his arm and sighed. "No getting out of this one, chum..." he murmured.
Exactly where Zeke, Zim and Spiny were when their portal opened was a bit uncertain, but they seemed to be having a bit of a "tea party" in a deep forest. Zim threw off the strange top hat he was wearing and jumped through the portal. "Who dares summon ZIM!?" he shouted. Zeke and Spiny reluctantly followed him. "We went to the tea party to avoid exactly this, I want to point out..." Spiny grumbled. "RAWR!! Now that I see it, I realize they NEED me!! Lemme at 'em!!" Zeke roared. The trio were startled when a large, mostly red figure slammed down in front of them. Zim's eyes went wide. "M-m-master...Zavok!!" he stammered. Zavok was wearing an eye patch, but had otherwise escaped Losipher unscathed. "Zim... Come, we avenge our brethren, now!!" he growled, clenching his fists. They charged ahead together, while Zeke and Spiny took off in another direction.
Cosmo the Seedrian looked angry as she stepped through a portal from Tails' Workshop. "What happened to Melody...do you know, monsters!?" she shouted, holding a laser in each hand! Chief Paynson and Dave the Intern found themselves following her. "I'm not cut out for this, man. I'm goin' back..." Dave whimpered. Paynson stopped him, handing him a gun. "We've run from these bullies long enough. There comes a time one must stand his ground!" he told him as Dave gulped uncertainly.
A portal opened at Darkegg Fortress as well, but Hoover refused to go through it. "Uh-uh, no way! I don't deploy fer no battles!" he protested. Terra stomped past him to the portal, his legs repaired. "New directive; Assist Eggman!" he stated. Slash, Sting, Clucky and Borrowbot emerged to join him in his journey through the portal, while Char and his family flitted over, observing the scene. "A battle? Hmm... Grrr, let's get 'em!!" the red Chao cried. Alpha suddenly landed next to him, doing a graceful twirl! "I am the dance messiah!! I challenge them to a cook-off!" he shouted. "Hahahaha!! Whaddaya say, Alphie? One more team-up, for old time's sake?" Char giggled, joining the charge through the portal along with all the Chao from Darkegg Island! Hoover sighed, resolute in staying, and BAS sighed as well. "Think Char shoulda brought that robo-suit?" the alarm system asked. "Shut it, I ain't goin!" Hoover insisted.
From the office building in Station Square, Espio, Charmy and Vector charged out, followed by Max Acorn and Professor Pickle. "You guys sure you don't wanna stay at the office?" Charmy asked. Pickle shook his head. "I've been in a scrape or two in my day, don't you concern yourself with me!" he told them. Max was holding a sword of all things, determined to fight. "My daughter's out there... The office can go to Hell for today!" he shouted. Espio nodded with a smirk, and Vector cracked his knuckles. "We're workin' overtime, boys! Let's show 'em what happens when ya mess with Team Chaotix!" he shouted. Close by, a portal to Wisp Mine appeared, and Yacker led his Wisp friends out into Green Hill, shouting in his alien language as Omochao whizzed by, having arrived through some portal or other. "Whoa! This puts my tournament to shame!" the robot observed.
One of the portals was up in the sky, and quite impressive in size. Coming out of it first was Jet, Wave and Storm, leading the way for what would follow their Extreme Gear boards. "Ohhh, it's payback time, freaks!" Jet squawked, as behind him flew Rick and an army of other growling gargoyles formerly of the mob, all of them surrounding a GUN Warship! Beetles and other robots flew out along with them. GUN had arrived! Inside the ship, the Commander surveyed the scene with a grim expression. "Let's find a place to land this bird..." he ordered the crew. Riley "Spy" Spizzweld was close by, along with Agent 77 (or "Steven"), and they appeared confused. "Uh, w-wouldn't it be safer to blast 'em from up here?" Riley asked. The Commander motioned outside, directing their gaze to the Galestrom, which was being chased off by intense lightning strikes. "I'd be careful bringing any large aircraft into that. There are a few small vehicles we were able to recover, however..." he mused. The President was on the bridge as well, and made an announcement over the PA, listened to by the passengers, which included Zooey the fox, Vanilla the rabbit, Katie the coyote, Chet the cheetah, Mia the cat, Bill & Bob the hedgehogs, Ridley the coati and Tommy the porcupine, among other refugees. "Ahead is the army that forced us from our homes, ravaged our lands, and stole our families from us. I know many of you are scared, but Sonic and his band of heroes have been fighting with all they have for us, for our world... Now, it's our time to step up, and repay their efforts with our aid! Prepare yourselves...this is where we make our stand!"
Just when it seemed that everyone had arrived, even more reinforcements charged through various portals! Every former rookie that once fought alongside the Resistance now rejoined the battle! From the Gaia Remnants, Dark Gaia's Nightmares emerged, siding with the heroes, a gift from Chip, possibly. Alternate versions of friends from numerous dimensions appeared, including Classic Sonic, Classic Tails, Classic Knuckles and Classic Amy! But the biggest surprise came when out of one of the portals created by Lucky came none other than Lucky Junior, dropping into Green Hill with two Keyblades in hand, the legendary Oathkeeper and Oblivion Keyblades! He slung the Oblivion over his shoulder and pointed the Oathkeeper at the enemy army. "We heard our parents in this dimension needed our help... We felt it, in our hearts!" he shouted. Then, joining him at his side, Juice bounced down, followed by Skye propelling in with two tails, and Chopper speeding past him with his three tails! "No worries!" Juice smirked. "We brought plenty of backup!" Skye smirked. "C'mon, guys! Charge!!" Chopper yelled. Following them, Lara glided out, and then Melody flipped out, taking the form of a Mongoose in this dimension! Casey flew in on Starr's back as she roared in the form of a dragon, and Pepper and Minnie flew in behind them while Venice floated down from above! Last but not least, Argyle leapt into the grass, carrying Aurora on his shoulders! She was holding a bazooka, and using the boost Argyle provided to take aim. "Who wants some?!" she shouted. They weren't the same kids their parents had come to know, but even they were more than eager to help!
This impressive army had all assembled very quickly, all before the portals could fade and vanish! Even Lucky was beside himself, tearing up to see the support rushing to their side. Sonic, Tails and Knuckles smiled widely and nodded to each other, turning toward the Lost Ones defiantly, as Apocalos glared down at them with hate. "Our army still dwarfs yours! Our forces made up of countless consumed worlds! Who do you think you are to stand so brazenly against us?!" the villain bellowed. Sonic waggled his finger at Apocalos with a smirk on his face. "We're Sonic Heroes!!" he declared.
And with that, an all-out Apocalyptic War would begin.
"Every soul contains a whisper of light,
growing louder as it calls to unite!
From the distance sings a chorus of souls,
rising slowly, stirring heat from the coals.
Colors weave into a spire of flame!
Distant sparks call to a past still unnamed!
Bear this torch against the cold of the night!
Light will guide you, on your way to the ultimate fight!" - Lifelight, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
Chapter 57 - Apocalypse Part 2
Note: Sonic the Hedgehog and related characters are (c) SEGA. You knew that, right?
GeneX and related OCs are (c) 2BIT (TheGreatGator), the author.
The Keyblade & other Kingdom Hearts elements are (c) Disney & Square-Enix.
Moogles are (c) Square-Enix.
Super Mario is (c) Nintendo
"Can you feel life, movin' through your mind?
Ooh, looks like it came back for more!
Can you feel time slippin' down your spine?
Oh, you try and try to ignore!
But you can hardly swallow
Your fears and pain!
When you can't help but follow,
It puts you right back where you came!
Live and learn!
Hanging on the edge of tomorrow!
Live and learn!
From the works of yesterday!
Live and learn!
If you beg or if you borrow!
Live and learn!
You may never find your way!" - Live and Learn, Sonic Adventure 2
Now, it was war. With Demon Island floating above a huge loop of Green Hill, Apocalos stood atop the loop, feeding energy from the Scepter of Despair into the island. This energy would somehow enable Demon Island to shatter the barriers protecting the Gaia Wellsprings, and then it would be game over. Although Sonic was able to knock the Chaos Key away from Lospecter, his lone Chaos Card summoned a capsule containing a complete set of Dark Chaos Relics collected from another world, and he used the Dark Key to summon the full army of the Lost Ones, a seemingly infinite force of evil. It seemed our heroes were finished, but then Lucky took up the Chaos Key, and combined it with the power of his Keyblade to follow the connections forged by his heart, and his friends' hearts, to open a multitude of portals and bring every possible ally to Green Hill! Every Experiment, every Rogue, every robot, Chao, Zeti, Freedom Fighter, friend and life-loving foe all united, ready to fight for the fate of their world...and every world!
As the battle was beginning, Sonic immediately shot like a blue bullet, taking off in pursuit of a showdown with Apocalos, while Knuckles reached out for him in a futile protest. "S-sonic! Sonic, wait!! We should gather the Chaos Emeralds! And the Chaos Relics!! Argh..." he groaned, turning to see Classic Sonic conveniently skidding to a halt beside him, Classic Tails flying up behind him. "You look troubled, Knuckles! Need a hand?" the younger Tails asked. Classic Sonic gestured to himself as if volunteering. So, Knuckles took off the Chaos Gauntlets and Claws, handing them to the shorter Sonic. "Try tracking down all the gold Relics like this. I'm gonna finish what I started and gather those Chaos Emeralds!" he said. Skye landed next to them and gasped at the sight of his father actually being smaller than him. "...Dad? Whoa, this other dimensions thing is nuts!" he babbled. Classic Tails nodded in agreement. "Yeah... Didn't expect to be called 'Dad' today. Hey, do you know anything about these?" he asked, pointing at the relics Classic Sonic was trying on. Skye nodded, and they were set. Meanwhile, the older Tails was being covered by Fera and Violet as he started backward, heading for the large Wispon cannons that rolled out from Resistance HQ. "Uncle Chuck's that way! Maybe if we, Professor Pickle and Rotor all put our heads together, we can come up with a good plan to end this!" he'd said. Fera glanced back at Skye, tilting her head. "Don't you want...to speak to him?" she asked. "He's not my Skye. We need to win this battle to bring him back for real!" Tails explained. Violet nodded. "Gotta make it safe for my niece to grow up, too!" she added.
Absolute chaos broke loose across Green Hill as soul-snatching spectres swarmed across the land to attack those still clinging to life. Among the many combatants were Sally Acorn, teamed up with Shade the echidna as they attempted to rejoin the Freedom Fighters. Without the Chaos Gauntlets, the duo were forced to resort to the Wispons that Rotor had left Sally with, Sally using the Burst and Shade using the Meteor to push back any possessed Egg Pawns that came at them, even as tentacles ripped off their arms and tried to use them as clubs! A larger robot loomed over them from behind, and Sally gulped. "Any ideas, Nicole?" she asked. "This is outside the scope of my program, Sally." the computer stated. However, before the giant robot could attack them, the voice of her father shouted out. "Rookies, rain fire!!" The large robot was toppled by a deluge of colorful blasts, and behind it, Max Acorn had led a squad of Resistance Rookies to their aid! Shade kept the focus on the Pawns in front of her while Sally waved tearfully to her father. "There'll be time for reunions later! Head in the game!" she shouted.
Chopper and Casey had each other's backs, the speedy half-cheetah, half-coyote leading losoars and lospirits into the path of the fox's Chaos Whirlwind! "Haha! Let's see our dads top that!" Casey laughed, nearly running right into the undead form of Ophiuchus, who was leading Aquarius the albatross and Pisces the shark into battle. "None of you were meant to exist!" the snake snarled in a gurgled voice, grabbing Casey's wrist! "Poppration!!" Chopper shouted, producing a wand to cast a firework spell in the Lost One's faces, causing them to drop Casey in their surprise, enabling them to run to fight another day! "Freeze them! Drown them! Do something you useless peons!" Ophi shouted, setting Aquarius and Pisces loose!
Amy, Cream and Big were teamed up, swatting losharks back into the water as Big fished them out. "Is this even useful?" Amy asked. "We need to make the water safe for Froggy!" Big stated, struggling to pull up his next catch. "Looks like a big one, huh, Cheese?" Cream observed. Indeed, Big pulled out a monstrous blue kraken with watery tentacles and glowing eyes! It was Nova, still able to transform as a Lost One! Amy tried to strike him with her hammer, but he grabbed the hammer in his tentacles! "Gyaaah!! Help!!" she shouted as Cream rushed to her side, trying to help her pull back! Suddenly, a black robot leapt into the kraken, performing a powerful drill kick to splatter the creature into a watery mess! The robot landed on the other side of the river, and Cream recognized him immediately. "Gemerl! B-but you're supposed to be with..." she turned to see her mother in the thick of the battle, commanding a familiar Chao, Chocola, in much the way Cream would command Cheese! "Stay away from my little girl, you brutes!!" she shouted, directing Chocola to smack away some possessed robots! Amy's mouth hung open a moment. "Wow, Cream... I gotta say, I underestimated your mom!" she murmured, as Cream giggled. "Right! Let's do our best, too, Cheese!" she vowed.
One might wonder why a demigod like 2BIT didn't just use his powers to obliterate the evil in two seconds flat. "Lost my powers in my own story's conclusion... I did bring this, though!" he said directly to you, holding up a hand with a different glove on it. The glove was mostly red, but there was a blue orb attached to the back of the hand. "The Infinity--" Gator started to say, only for 2BIT to shush him. "It's the Byte Power-Glove. Don't get another copyright stuffed into the intro here! Now, all I gotta do is snap my fingers..." And so he attempted. "Flwip, flwip, flwap..." Gator watched him, looking bored. "Is something supposed to happen?" he asked. A voice laughed at them from close by. "My idiot brother! Did you forget? You can't snap! None of us know how because you don't!" There stood 8BIT, smirking and holding up a hand clothed in an identical Power-Glove! "I can make this work for me, though, I think!" he sneered. Gator sighed. "We're not gonna have time to finish this here, I guess. Sorry, squad! We showed up for nothing!" he shouted, making the rest of BIT Squad groan. But in actuality, they would be dealing with 8BIT and any additional forces he brought with him...
Dave the Intern really, really didn't feel cut out for this. He slipped away from Chief Paynson and found his way to a cavern in one of Green Hill's many mountainous cliffs, thinking he'd be safe there. However, slimy koalas brought over from the Sol Dimension ended up finding and surrounding him, and he shakily pointed the gun Paynson had given him around as they approached. "G-go away! I don't care if your burgers had too many pickles, I'm not the manager anymore!" he stammered, longing for simpler times. When it seemed he's be consumed by zombie koalas, a boomerang suddenly whipped around the area, knocking them all back! A badger caught the boomerang, and she hissed at the koalas angrily. "Go 'way, flesh-eating aliens from Australia! Ya won't find my burrow!" the badger, Sticks, shouted. Dave sighed in relief. "Thanks, ma'am..." he murmured. "GAH! Gun!!" she shrieked, throwing her boomerang at Dave next. She was a little out of the loop with what was going on...
Yacker tried to lead his people to aid the weaker combatants by transforming them, but it wasn't going well. Those without adventuring experience weren't good at controlling Wisp powers. Omochao was left dizzy after trying to use a laser Wisp. "Aaaah, I'm not cut out for being the hero..." the robot whined. Both he and Yacker yelped as the slimy form of Taurus of the Zodiac Council towered over them, sparks flying from his horns. Yacker hid behind Omochao, who shouted in protest. Then, who of all people but Mario should drop in between them and the bull! "Heee-ya!!" the plumber cried, tossing fireballs at Taurus, only to seem to enrage him! However, Yacker seemed to give a whistle, and a fiery red Wisp flew to Mario, who shouted in alarm as it flew into his body! He transformed into a burning red fireball with a mustache, and he Burst towards Taurus, knocking the bull into the distance before Mario and the Wisp separated! He looked dizzy for a moment, but then Mario gave the Wisp a thumb's up. "Way to go!" he smiled.
Kosmo and Carrie found themselves coming face-to-faces with Darkosmo's Hydra form, "Hydrasmo." It snarled mindlessly at them, not having been left enough brains for its three heads after falling into the vat in Chemical Plant. "I always wondered if I could have extra heads. Guess it's not worth trying!" Kosmo shouted, sprouting wings to fly out of the way as his dark self spewed blue flames at him! Carrie dove out of the way, but Hydrasmo cornered her with his three whiplike tails, trying to grab her up with them! "Yaah! Get off! Gross!" she shouted, noting how slimy the creature was. Starr leapt in to slice off the tail grabbing her with her arm transformed into a blade! "Careful there, lady!" she shouted, waving to Kosmo, "Hi, err... mom??!" she babbled, seeming confused. Kosmo also looked confused as he glanced her way. "You just call me mom?? The heck?! Who's dad, then?!" he stammered. As Hydrasmo turned to blow fire at Starr and Carrie, she grabbed up the mirage, acting fast. "Chaos Control!" she shouted, suddenly vanishing as Kosmo flapped his wings in the air, staring dumbfoundedly. "Alternate dimensions are stupid, and I never want to talk about them again." he grumbled, not wanting to think about the implications.
Knuckles knew where to find some of the Chaos Emeralds, and he raced to locate Rouge the Bat as quickly as he could. He had to climb a bit to reach the clifftop where she, Shadow and Omega were taking on Mephiles and his band of remaining LoShadows. "It's time this chapter of Gerald's research came to an end! Chaos Blast!!" Shadow shouted, crumbling a ledge with his explosive attack as he tried to take down some of the spirits! Rouge was busy getting chased by Mephiles when Knuckles arrived. "Hurry, toss me those emeralds you have, Rouge!!" he called out. The bat growled. "Kinda busy right now!" she complained as Mephiles cackled. Omega was aiming at the Dark, but suddenly turned around. "Eggman! Don't think I won't blow you out of the sky!" he declared. The doctor was approaching via Egg Mobile, Orbot and Cubot clinging to the side. "Wait, hold your fire!" Orbot shouted. "Let us get down first!" Cubot added. Knuckles rubbed his head in irritation. "Great, more trouble..." he sighed. Eggman pulled a switch, firing a rocket from the front of his Egg Mobile that chased down Mephiles and blew him out of the sky, at least for the moment. "That oughta give us breathing room to talk!" he grinned.
Shadow and Rouge were willing to hand over their emeralds to Knuckles for the greater good, bringing his total already up to six, but Eggman was quick to ask for them, which was met with more skepticism. "You were working WITH the Lost Ones, doctor. Don't think firing on Mephiles will make us forget that." Shadow scoffed. Eggman tugged his collar. He knew he had an uphill battle to convince them. "I thought I could take advantage of them. But for once in my genius life, I was wrong..." he murmured. "Once??" Cubot said with shock, earning himself a slap. "Once! But I've seen what it looks like when I actually DO succeed, finally, and... Maybe I don't want to do this anymore. Maybe it's time to retire!" he stated. Omega aimed his guns at the doctor to illustrate how much he believed him, and Rouge scoffed. "Retiring with the Chaos Emeralds? Good one, doc." she yawned. Knuckles clenched his fists. "We don't have time for your games, Eggman!" he snarled. The doctor clasped his hands together desperately. "Don't trust me, fine! But the plan I'm enacting isn't mine! It...it's Bucky's plan. His final message, left on my computer when he contacted my base! All his plan needs is the Chaos Emeralds... A particular Experiment... And the Chaos Key to bring us where it all comes together." he said. They all glanced at one another, and Knuckles sighed. "I hold the Chaos Emeralds until we're ready!" he told the doctor. Eggman leaned forward to shake his hand. "Very well, old friend... But you better deliver the goods if you want to see the best ending here!" he urged him.
Meanwhile, Classic Sonic was speeding about with Skye and Classic Tails following, trying to locate the Chaos Relics in this mess. They dashed past Spiny and Zeke as they were being surrounded by corrupted Covenant of Despair agents, led by a skeletal Basker, easily identified by his still red eyes. "Picking a fight with us is a mistake. We're not like you losers who got eaten who knows how long ago!" Spiny warned. "RAWR!! Let's see if I can swarm 'em with Heartless!" Zeke suggested. However, Basker raised a bony hand toward the dragon. "No... I shall manipulate YOUR darkness! Come forth, Xezek!" he shouted. Zeke snarled, grabbing his head as Basker's fear-power took hold, his body starting to turn black with darkness! "Oh, damn..." Spiny gulped. However, before the Lost Ones could swarm them, Raven dropped down and grabbed their arms. "I won't let Xezek down again! So long, suckers!" she shouted, teleporting the trio away! Basker looked around. "They can't be far... Find them!" he shouted. "Spear Storm!!" Spiny shouted from behind, raining Chaos Spears down on them while Raven tended to Xezek. "Hey, tame that fear... We've got bigger fish to fry... Snap out of it!" she yelled, slapping him! Xezek rubbed his cheek and grunted. "Zeke and I both agree... Don't do that again." he groaned.
Classic Amy was trying to catch up to her Sonic again, but he was a man on a mission and catching up wouldn't be easy. "How could he even bring me to such a dangerous place?" she whimpered. "Are you lost, little girl?" a booming voice asked. Classic Amy looked and shrieked as she saw Loscream slinking towards her, aiming to grab her in his vines! She shakily clutched her hammer to defend herself, but her fear put her at a disadvantage. "Awooo!!" fortunately, Sonic the Werehog's stretchy arms reached out and grabbed those vines, helping to launch him into a kick to send that pumpkin rolling away! "Loscream! Hah! I'm more than ready for YOU!" he shouted in a gruff voice. Classic Amy stared in awe at him. "Oh, my... Sonic, when did you get so big and strong??" she asked in a dreamy voice. A burst of magic struck the ground and a cackle caught their attention as they looked up to see Tabitha. "A feral beast, how quaint!" she laughed. The Nightmare Zone's Sonic growled. "Graa! I shoulda known you'd be back again, Tabby!" he shouted. The Lost Witch cackled again. "Call me Tess... I don't know you as you know me as I hail from another realm, but never mind. I'll crush you in my other self's name!" she proclaimed as Loscream rolled back over to join them! Classic Amy clutched her hammer tightly. "Okay, Sonic... Let's do this!" she cried. "Try not to die like my Amy..." Were-Sonic said anxiously.
Winston had been forced to land the Galestrom, as Apocalos himself had sent lightning to keep the ship from using its weapons to aid the battle. Upon trying to leave the ship, though, the moogle and Miles found Losohst Knights arriving to greet them! These powerful spirits carried burning blades, and Miles could only block their strikes with his shield! "Maybe we should wait inside, kupo!" Winston stammered. "I can't leave Lucky out there like this!" Miles shouted. "Hang oooon!!" came a voice that drew the knight to turn, their blades rising to block the two Keyblades of Lucky Junior as he arrived on the scene! "You leave him alone! He's family!!" Junior shouted, clashing blades with the knights as Minnie appeared next to Miles and Winston. "Everybody off!" she giggled, warping the duo off the ship as Pepper arrived, brandishing a wand like her mother! "Thunder!!" she cried, zapping the knights to give Junior an opening to strike! They collapsed into inert slime, and Miles looked at them with a smile. "Glad to know that even worlds apart, we still stay a family." he said. Winston pointed frantically as more Lost Ones approached, so Miles prepped his shield. "Alright, let's show these kids how it's done!" he grinned.
Classic Sonic finally found some Chaos Relics as he came upon Conan and Emily, the raccoon flying the squirrel in his arms with the Chaos Wing while she rained magical attacks down on loskulls and losolanturns using the Chaos Cards. "Hey! We need those!" shouted Classic Tails, trying to catch their attention. Skye decided to clear the way a bit by firing a futuristic laser that either vaporized the Lost Ones or made them fly off somewhere else. With space to land, Conan dropped down close to the hedgehog and foxes. "You want my relics? You want to take Chaos Relics from Conan, Master of Chaos!?" he stammered. Emily looked at him sternly. "They're trying to save the world..." she pointed out. He clasped her hand in his. "But you're my world. How can I leave you defenseless?" he asked. Skye glanced at his laser. "Err, well... You can give her this?" he offered. Classic Sonic was tapping his feet impatiently, and as he did, a losol golem leapt up behind him, so he swiftly sped back around it, swiping its body with the Chaos Claws until it collapsed into an inert heap! Conan could tell that any version of Sonic was infinitely more qualified than him, so he sighed and took the cape and cards, handing them off to Classic Tails. "Each card can summon something. The longer the card is part of the deck, the stronger its power. Once used, a card returns to the bottom of the deck and starts charging... Once fully charged, it no longer requires the deck for power." he explained before starting to explain the Chaos Wing, which made Classic Sonic yawn, but at least they were making progress.
In the midst of all the struggles, Sonic clashed with Apocalos atop the loop, hoping to stop his ceremony with the Scepter of Despair before it was too late. As Sonic dashed about, the villain hurled bolts of lightning while freezing the floor with icy winds, controlling the very elements to keep Sonic at bay! "You have no power against me, and no power to stop what has begun!" he shouted, grasping a lightning bolt in his hand and swinging it at Sonic, who leapt up high and launched an attack straight at the floating scepter, only to be repelled by a shield of dark energy! "Unhh!! Nice setup you got here, but we're all united now! You think you can stop all of us from tearing your plans down?!" Sonic said defiantly as he stood back up fast. Apocalos sneered, and he snapped his fingers, seemingly able to command Lospecter from afar. A portal from the Dark Key opened, and all of the Dark Relics were tossed through it at his feet, key included. "Have fun, boss..." Lospecter snickered as the portal faded. Apocalos bent down and picked up the Dark Sword, swinging it out to the side. "This is all I require... My own blade, perfected! Run to me and die, hedgehog! I will tear you soul from limb, and scatter the remnants to the winds!!" He then slashed the sword towards Sonic, lightning erupting from the blade and arcing across their high perch! Sonic did his best to evade it, but his quills did get a bit singed along the way! However, he couldn't turn back. "Just stay right there... I'm comin' for ya, Apoca-loser!!"
Knuckles was hot on the trail of that final Chaos Emerald. He, along with Punchy, were frantically chasing Alpha through Green Hill Zone, trying to persuade him to allow them to open him up and take the emerald. Their chase took them past Loskeletor, whose eye-holes burned in preparation to fire his beams at them. However, some energy blasts pelted his skull, and he turned to see Guard flying toward him, with Heather following. "Grrr! What cowardly tactics are you using now, bone-head!" the gargoyle growled. Loskeletor fired his beam-eyes up at Guard, and Heather tried to retaliate with her flame only to get shot in the shoulder by another laser! Looking, she saw a second skeleton with an attached gun-arm. He wailed in agony, his voice familiar. "Freaks...freaks...die!!" Heather gasped at the realization of who it was. "G-gunner? Stress has REALLY gotten to ya!" she stammered, running out of the way of his next shot as Guard landed close by. "Grrr! So, boss... I see you've become the very thing you swore to destroy!" he mocked. Loskeletor's beam cut between Guard and Heather, forcing them apart! "Ahh, every tragic story needs lovers, their hearts torn asunder! Allow me to pen your final act!" the articulate skeleton sneered. Heather glanced back briefly at where Knuckles at Punchy had gone. "Good luck..." she sighed.
"Outta the waaay!!" Punchy leapt up high, and kicked off Nack the weasel's head as he passed by, knocking off his hat! He grabbed for it quickly, growling. "I oughta pop ya while yer back is turned!!" he shouted, pointing a gun toward the echidna. However, Bark nervously tapped his shoulder. "Wat??" he growled, glancing where the polar bear was looking. Lospides were charging towards them, and even seemed to have Bean caught in a web! "Haaalp! My best strategy is to kaboom myself!!" the duck screeched! Bark whimpered, hiding behind Nack, who palmed his face and snarled. "You goons are like CHILDREN!! I gotta do it all fer ya!? Fine, then!! Take dat!!" he shouted, shooting bullets at the webbing to tear it up, which caused Bean to fall loose and drop a few of his bombs on the way down. "Ohhhh no!!" he cried, explosions scattering the slimy spiders as he landed among the blasts! Bark dashed into the smoke cloud to check on his friend, and found a blackened duck coughing and groaning. "Gee, thanks, Nack..." he moaned. The weasel reloaded and aimed for the next closest Lost One. "Get it together! There's worse than spiders out here!" he yelled, making the nervous Bark gulp.
Knuckles glided right over a goofy-looking trap set up by Clucky and Burrowbot, and the two robots started arguing. "I told you this dumb trap won't catch anything, much less Sonic!" Clucky squawked. "Shows what you know! There's like, six Sonics out here! We're bound to finally catch one!" Burrowbot protested. "Meowr!! You're supposed to be fighting monsters, you twits!" shouted Firepaw as he marched over to them, arms folded. "Alright, alright, we're goin!" Clucky groaned. However, they didn't move. "Mewr? When were you plannin' on going?" Firepaw asked. Suddenly, the slimy form of Cancer the vulture emerged from behind a tree, and with his eyes glowing menacingly, he commanded Clucky and Burrowbot to turn on Firepaw! "Strange, my techno-powers can't control you... You've a soul of your own... Tasty..." the vulture grinned, marching toward Firepaw with his allies. Firepaw bared his claws. "Meowr!! G-guys, cut it out! I don't wanna take you apart!" he stammered. Seeing him in trouble, Libra stepped in, the fennec pointing defiantly at Cancer. "You made a big mistake a couple years back... You made me the Deathbringer!!" she shouted, firing a blast of dark energy that knocked Clucky and Burrowbot into scattered pieces! "Hey! Not them, him!!" Firepaw shouted. Libra chuckled awkwardly. "Forgot, Ophiuchus took back my Deathbringer power. I just have dark magic now!" she admitted. Cancer raised his wings toward them, and Firepaw hid behind her. "Well, dark him up, then!!" he shouted. "And put us back together..." Burrowbot whined. "Some help you robots are..." Libra grumbled.
Since Punchy was occupied, this left Rainbow on her own for now, and she quickly ran into an old foe, Corky the frog, who as usual tried to grab her with his long tongue! "Uny 'asht 'ords?!" he shouted as he lashed his tongue at her! Rainbow held out her hands towards him with an angry look on her face. "Go 'way, Hopper!" she shouted, knocking Corky back with her shockwave-based power, cheering that she'd been able to make it work. "Yeah! I'm gettin' the hang of this!" she smiled. However, black mummies suddenly clawed up from the ground, surrounding her as the skeletal remains of Anubis approached, cloaked in fire! "Scream for me... Bring the other echidnas..." he growled. "Mom! Stay put right there!" shouted Aurora, dashing toward the group of undead creatures! Flying alongside her was an odd, dark blue Wisp with its tendrils in the shape of an X. It was known as Experiment 626, the last of all the GeneX Experiments in her alternate universe. 626 flew into Aurora's body, and she transformed into an arching "ChaosBolt," a powerful form that typically would hone in on Chaos energy, but it worked well enough as a wild, charging attack! It tore around the area, ripping the mummies to shredded black confetti, and broke Anubis into a busted pile of bones before 626 popped out of Aurora and dropped her next to Rainbow! She dropped dizzily into her mother's arms. "Yaaa! Don't use up all your energy bein' a show off!" she babbled. "C-can't watch you die in this world, like in mine..." Aurora sniffled, hugging her.
Alpha was still evading Knuckles and Punchy, and Char wasn't exactly helping. "Nya nya, you can't catch us, knuckleheads!" the Chao teased. Alpha shot some loskulls out of the way as he flew, keeping low to the ground. "I don't wanna play with them anymore! I want to play in traffic!" the robot babbled. Knuckles groaned and turned to Punchy. "We need to corner him somehow!" he told him. "I'm open to ideas! All the monsters around are kind of a distraction!" Punchy grunted. Alpha was laughing, seeming like he'd never be caught, but suddenly, Terra stomped into his path and heaved a heavy punch at him, knocking Alpha to the ground! Terra glanced at Punchy as he approached. "You spared my metal life... Consider my debt repaid." he said, Punchy nodding in reply as Knuckles pried open Alpha's chest compartment to find the two identical emeralds. "H-hey! Don't touch me! Nothing gives you that right!" Alpha babbled. "Sorry, but you got the last, uhh... Emeralds?" Knuckles murmured, lifting both emeralds at once. Without Skye's knowledge of how to contain them, the duplicate quickly blinked out of existence, leaving just seven Chaos Emeralds on the timeline. "Okay, I'm not questioning that..." he mumbled, closing Alpha's chest while Char flew up to kick him. "Why are you being mean to Alphie!? There's monsters to pick on!" he shouted. Punchy helped Alpha to his feet and groaned. "I dunno, maybe the Chaos Emerald?" he pointed out. Knuckles nodded. "Come on, Char. You can help me find Eggman again." he stated. Char pouted, but Alpha jumped excitedly. "Egg Salad! Where is he? I'm hangry!!" he babbled.
Tails, Fera and Violet were heading for the Wisp-cannons brought in from Resistance HQ, behind which a gathering of the greatest minds on the battlefield was organizing. This meeting needed protection, as Lost Ones were swarming around those cannons. While Fera and Violet used their dark power to try and cut a path through the losol for Tails, they passed by Mighty and Ray, busily keeping the Lost form of Dark Spiny at bay. The flying squirrel flew circles around him as he tried to strike with his dark version of Chaos Spears. "Ha! Missed! Missed again! Hey, are those bite marks all over you??" Ray babbled. Dark Spiny snarled. "My fault for not simply surrendering to the Lost Ones... And there'll be holes in you, as well!" he shouted, only for Mighty to roll into him while he was distracted, knocking him over! "Just try it! You can't poke holes in my tough shell!" he taunted as he uncurled. Dark Spiny stood back up, snarling like a beast. "We'll melt you down, then!" he shouted, his body erupting in blue fire! Mighty and Ray both backed up with a simultaneous gulp. "This looks like a job for the cannons!" Ray declared, starting to run off. "Right behind ya!" Mighty added.
Patch and Daisy were covering the other side of the area to defend the cannons, and found themselves faced with old friends, Simon the gecko and Mitch the weasel. Both had guns firing slime-covered bullets, trying to infect them with lethal force. Daisy did her best to dodge, using her katana to deflect bullets as needed, while the much more agile Patch leapt about, keeping Mitch plenty occupied trying to shoot him. "I thought we saw the last of both of you in the jungle!" the skunk shouted, taking advantage of Simon running out of bullets to charge in and slash at the gecko! He quickly started to heal, smirking at her. "As long as Apocalos exists, we cannot die..." he told her. Patch was busy trying to pull his bladed nunchuck out of Mitch's skull as he heard this. "Hee...hee? We need weapon upgrades, Daisy..." he whimpered, abandoning his nunchucks as Mitch tried to shoot him, leaping off the weasel just in time! "Agh, you always was a major headache, Patch!" Mitch groaned, pulling the blade out of his head. The effort to defend the cannons wasn't going well.
Antoine, Bunnie and Dulcy were the ones manning the Wispon cannons. They were essentially large Wispons that could fire powerful blasts of Hyper-go-on energy. It took careful aim to avoid striking any allies, but the trio were blasting Lost Ones in waves, knocking out slithering loslime swarms, vaporizing small squads of loskel, and even taking out a huge Lospirit Lord. "Haha! I am liking this cannon too much! Be saying bonjour to mon petit friend!!" Antoine laughed, feeling in control for once. "Don't get too cocky, sugar! Look, there's a guy chasin' Mighty an' Ray!" Bunnie pointed out. "Oui! I shall be covering their tails!" Antoine grinned, yelping as he saw a losoar bat land on his cannon. "I got it, Tony!" Dulcy said, blowing fire at the slimy bat to chase it off. The dragon was busy covering the sky, but it wasn't easy keeping the occasional critter from getting through. "Just don't look up..." she said to Antoine as she focused her flame on the losoars, lospirits and losolanterns above...
Tails finally reached Uncle Chuck, who was also met by Rotor and Professor Pickle, both having braved quite a bit to get there. Even Dr. Nammad was with them. "What the heck are YOU doing here?" Fera snarled to Nammad. "Well, uh, it was here or that, uh, island..." he said, pointing to Demon Island. "Good lord, you look awful, Tails! Are you certain you don't need rest?" Pickle asked. He shook his head. "Not 'till we got a plan. Figure anything out?" he asked. Uncle Chuck nodded. "We thought Tikal's barrier for the Gaia Wellsprings was fading, but in actuality the spell was settling. It was going to make the wellsprings immune to the Lost Ones' power..." he began. Rotor had a grim look. "But it seems to us like the Lost Ones have found a way to enhance their power, and beat any immunity. When that ceremony up there finishes, well... I don't think we wanna know what happens next." he said. "It's uh, very simple..." Nammad sniffed, "Our best solution is the, uh, Chaos Relics." he suggested. Violet nodded. "Yeah, what would happen if someone got all of them?" she asked. Professor Pickle rubbed his chin. "Well, no one's ever used all of them before. I'd surmise... That person would become...legend." he stated. Tails' ears drooped. "And if the Lost Ones have their own Dark Chaos Relics?" he murmured. Uncle Chuck frowned. "...Then Chaos help us all." he said. "Not necessarily..." Pickle mused, "No one knows the proper way to use all the Relics together. Through the proper distribution of power, our relics might be able to defeat theirs..." All of it was just theories and long-shots, not an actual plan. Fera sighed. "Tails... These Tailbands are needed there, not here." she pointed out. Tails glanced at her and nodded. "You're right... We belong in the fight! Good bye, guys! And good luck!" he said, heading off with Fera and Violet again. Chuck, Pickle and Rotor waved farewell. "Godspeed, Tails!" Pickle said. "We should probably fall back to GUN... We can't hold this position." Chuck sighed.
Lucky and Whisk had joined Vortex, Zipp and Crash, forming up around Gideon as various Lost Ones tried to seize upon the pure GeneX creature. "Blizzaga!!" Whisk shouted, freezing several slimy creatures solid as Crash charged through the area, smashing the ice into pieces with his horn! "Gahh!! I'm gettin' gunk on my hat!" he groaned, examining his bowler a moment as Zipp buzzed next to him, shooting up some lostalkers as they staggered towards them. "C'mon, stay dead, ya corpse!!" the hornet shouted. Vortex and Lucky stood back to back, the chameleon blasting approaching loskel with his Chaos powers while Lucky slashed them to bits with his Keyblade! "I sssee what Whisssk ssseesss in you, now..." Vortex hissed. "Uhh... Thanks?" Lucky murmured. Eggman arrived on the scene and fired some missiles among the Lost Ones, giving the Experiments some breathing room. "Hey, key cat! I need a ride back to my tower! And I'm also going to need...you!" he said, pointing at Gideon. "Me? I have no value for your machines." it told him. Just then, Alpha came zooming by, screaming in a crazed fashion as Knuckles followed after him. "There ya are, doc! I got the emeralds, so what's the plan?!" he shouted. "Aw, Knuckles, no..." Lucky whimpered. Knuckles did have quite the reputation with Eggman, everyone pretty much knew. The doctor let out a frustrated sigh. "I need Experiment 20 to put Bucky's cure to work! Can I get some cooperation!?" he shouted. The Experiments glanced at each other, and Lucky tossed the Chaos Key to Knuckles. "I don't know his tower." he sighed. Knuckles nodded, and pointed the key, opening a portal to Darkegg Fortress. "Doggone it, leave me be!" Hoover's voice could be heard inside. Orbot and Cubot were quick to hop off the Egg Mobile and head in, followed by Alpha. While Char considered whether or not to follow, Metal Sonic ran up. "You summoned me, doctor? This better be good..." the disillusioned robot grunted. "Oh, you'll love it, Metal. Anyone else coming along?" Eggman asked. Gideon started toward the portal, and Vortex took its arm. "Hold on... I'm going with you. I'll keep you ssssafe." he stated. Knuckles handed them the Chaos Emeralds, planning to stay. "I belong in the fight!" he smirked. As the group was entering the portal, Eggman turned to Char. "I want you along, too... I've a job for you. One last job." he said. Char hesitated. "You're a jerk..." he murmured, "I'm going to watch over Alphie!" he huffed, flying in after the robot. Eggman shrugged, and at last returned to his tower. "Hopefully the Doomsday Protocol actually works..." he murmured, anxiously rubbing his bald head.
Chapter 58 - Apocalypse Part 3
Note: Sonic the Hedgehog and related characters are (c) SEGA. You knew that, right?
GeneX and related OCs are (c) 2BIT (TheGreatGator), the author.
The Keyblade & other Kingdom Hearts elements are (c) Disney & Square-Enix.
Moogles are (c) Square-Enix.
Super Mario, Pokemon & hylians (c) Nintendo
The Mobius Stomp song is from Sonic Underground
"Heaven can't save us,
Hell is a joke,
No place left to go!
What you see,
You cannot believe,
But when we rise, you'll know...
Well, we're almost dead,
Almost dead,
Almost dead to the world!
Almost dead,
Almost dead,
Almost dead to the world!" - Almost Dead, Shadow the Hedgehog
A desperate battle raged across Green Hill Zone, as all surviving allies had banded together against the tremendous army of Lost Ones. Sonic was busily keeping Apocalos occupied atop a huge loop, although his efforts weren't enough to stop the Scepter of Despair as it was feeding soul energy into Demon Island. Meanwhile, Classic Sonic was speeding about, gathering up the Chaos Relics with Skye and Classic Tails following to offer guidance. He sped by with roughly half of them gathered, passing the scene of Gaia Nightmares, Resistance Rookies and Chao all fighting alongside one another, clashing with loskel, losohsts and lostalkers, neither side letting up, though the Lost Ones were gaining ground as they struck down some Rookies and converted them into Lost Zombies. At the same time, Knuckles had gathered the seven Chaos Emeralds for Dr. Eggman, and with Lucky's help opening a portal, the doctor was taking those emeralds and Experiment 20, Gideon "the GeneX," back to Darkegg Fortress to enact a plan. Though Knuckles had elected to remain with the battle, Vortex had chosen to accompany Gideon. Some robots were joining Eggman as well, including Metal Sonic and Alpha, whose inclusion got Char to tag along. Little did Eggman know, one more stowaway followed behind him, too distrustful to let the scientist take the Chaos Emeralds without following...
Meanwhile, battles continued to rage across Green Hill. The Babylon Rogues were doing their best to provide air support with their weaponized boards, and found themselves battling the undead Battle Bird Armada. "Well, now we know exactly what happened to these guys!" Storm grunted, smacking away some of those slimy birds with his fist as they got too close. Flying up on a jetpack, Speedy arrived, glaring at the Rogues. "You let me down... Now, it's time to pay!" he said, his voice a bit demonic. Wave scoffed at him. "You let us down, too. Where's our blimp, huh??" she asked, turning her board to shoot at some Battle Birds as they tried to sneak up on her! Speedy chuckled softly. "Ohh, you can have it back... once you've joined us!" he hissed. Jet fired some shots from his board at him, giving a taunting smirk. "Catch me if you can, ya slimy slug!" he squawked, taking off as Speedy began to chase after him!
Illusi the shrew found the skeletal form of Eddie the hyena, cackling manically as he used illusions to chase frightened Chao towards him! The shrew sent his Wrongos to strike the fearsome, shadowy illusions down, and the Chao escaped! Turning to him, Eddie cast an illusion over his form to appear as his former blue-furred self. "Eee hee hee... It's an illusion duel you want?" he snickered. Illusi held a pair of spiked Wrongos like chakrams in his hands. "I don't know where you learned these powers, but I studied for eons... Have at me!" Eddie smirked and created some blades in his hands, and the pair started to battle... Little did the undead hyena know, the real Illusi was casually chatting with Classic Sonic behind a large boulder. "Ah, yes, I took the Chaos Boots for safekeeping amid all the chaos on Demon Island. Here you are..." he said, holding out his hands, the boots suddenly appearing! Classic Sonic nodded and took them. He still had a few more Relics to gather...
GUN's forces had formed up around the warship they'd flown in on, forced to land due to the poor weather conditions caused by Apocalos. "There are refugees aboard that aren't able to defend themselves, so we make our stand here, everyone! Hold this line!" the Commander ordered. Riley and Steven, or "Spy" and "Agent 77," both shakily held their guns, joined by Chief Paynson. "Steady, men..." he murmured, glancing to see Ridley and Chet rush up to the front lines. "Officer! Where is your partner?" Paynson asked. Ridley glanced back at him. "...Fallen in the line of duty, sir. I'm going to fight on in his memory!" he stated, holding up his hand and creating a Chaos Splash ball to illustrate his point. "Here they come! For Razor!!" Chet shouted, speeding ahead to take on the incoming Lost Ones! Mia's taxi rolled onto the scene as well, carrying Katie, Tommy, Bill and Bob. "How my car wound up on the warship, I'll never know, but I'm glad it did!" Mia sighed. Tommy hopped out of the cab, clutching a Wispon. "Coming, Katie?" he asked. She hopped out, shakily holding an artificial Chaos Sword. "I'll do my best..." she murmured. Bill and Bob nervously followed them. "Why we even here, Bill?" Bob asked. "Moral support... And I'd rather throw some rocks at 'em than do nothin' at all!" he babbled. Riley felt a hand on his shoulder, and he gasped to see the President. "S-sir! Shouldn't you be in the ship?" he asked. "We can't protect you out here!" Steven added. The President armed his own pistol, looking out at the incoming monsters. "I belong out here with my people..." he said, "Let's win this together!"
Mephiles had moved on from Shadow and was now terrorizing Silver, Blaze and Marine with dozens of tiny copies of himself. "All your efforts to save the future, time and again, always in vain... How does it feel, knowing I will always win!?" the Dark taunted, floating ever out of reach. Blaze yelled furiously, burning through those mini-Mephiles creatures as she charged towards him! "You monster! You were the Iblis Trigger all along!" she shouted. Marine glanced at Silver awkwardly. "Any idea what she's yammering about?" she questioned, kicking a mini-Mephiles as it approached her. Silver was using his powers to hold the creatures back from doing any real harm to her. "Weirdly, she seems to know some things about time that I don't..." he said. Mephiles tossed Blaze back with a powerful dark blast, and Silver leapt up to catch her, while Mephiles started charging a stronger blast to strike them with! However, a blue ball struck him from behind, and he growled, looking to see Classic Sonic, as well as Classic Tails! "Waah!! What is that thing!?" Classic Tails stammered. "Amusing. Your small selves have forgotten me. And so, you'll meet your end to an unknown shadow...!" Mephiles snarled, only for the Kosmogon to fly in front of him, blasting him into the distance with a powerful flame blast! "Run away from Shadow, will ya!?" he yelled, morphing back to normal next to the Classics. He then passed the Chaos Crown towards them. "My daughter was holding this... Run it to where it'll do the most good." he asked as Classic Sonic accepted it, smiling at him reassuringly while Marine led Silver and Blaze in chasing after Mephiles again. "No one runs from Captain Marine!! After 'em, mates!!" she cried.
Back at the warship, Howler was leading an army of undead Despair agents in an attack, planning to claim the warship for the Lost Ones! They were tearing through the robots on the front lines, the beetles and hunters proving ineffective at stopping the Lost Ones, especially with Howler there to wreck them with his dark power! "Steady... Fire!!" the Commander shouted, bullets and Wispon blasts raining from behind their cover as humans and Mobians alike attempted to hold the line! Ridley and Chet were out fighting the slimy dogs and bears more directly, though the odds were against them. "Chaos Splatter!!" Ridley shouted, using a massive burst of Chaos-charged water to knock away several foes and free up some breathing room! "Agh... Never thought I'd die like this..." he huffed. Chet sped next to him and patted his shoulder. "Don't quit on me, yet! I got a score to settle..." he growled as Howler approached. "...Didn't I kill you once?" the wolf said, snorting at Chet. "Well, this time it's my turn!" Chet yelled, charging at him only to be knocked onto his back by a jolt of dark energy! "Chet!! Hey, careful!! Razor would kill me if I let you die!" Ridley stammered. "Too bad..." Howler growled, "Now, any last words?" he sneered. "We've got a few words for ya!" shouted Rick the gargoyle, flapping above the two experiments. Guard flew beside him. "Grrrr!! We are, all of us..." more and more gargoyles joined them in the air as his voice trailed off, and with one voice, they finished his sentence, "Guardians!!" Together, the gargoyles charged the Agents of Despair, and against these numbers, even Howler found himself backing off, enabling Chet to get back to his feet! "Let's gooo!! Let's win this war with Despair once and for all!!" he shouted.
"Eggmaaan!! What are you planning to do with those Chaos Emeralds!?" shouted Amy, the stowaway who followed Eggman through the portal to his base. She smacked Orbot and Cubot aside with her hammer as they tried to restrain her. "Welp, we triiiied..." Cubot whimpered as he rested on the ground. Eggman shrugged and motioned for Amy to follow as he climbed out of his Egg Mobile. "See for yourself, but first I need to activate the Doomsday Protocol here. I trust preparations have been made?" the doctor asked Hoover as the beaver robot munched on an iron bar. "Yeah, yeah, but we didn't know what voice was needed for authenticatin'." he murmured. The doctor nodded as he led them all into the main elevator. "Goin' uuuup!" BAS announced. "Wheeee!!" Alpha cheered. Amy stood awkwardly between Metal Sonic and Vortex, and all three of them stared at Eggman curiously. "Alright, I'll explain. Bucky's message, which he left when he contacted this tower earlier, explained the cure he concocted for the Lost One condition. It involves charging the creation, or GeneX energy, of one Gideon the Experiment... That's what the Chaos Emeralds are for, but Gideon itself won't be fast enough to carry all that charged creation energy everywhere it needs to go. Fortunately, Bucky developed a device capable of copying a being's abilities into another vessel. You'll recall it being used by GUN to give Sonic's speed to Techno Sonic once." he explained. Vortex cocked his head. "But that machine isss gone. Dessstroyed." he stated. Eggman chuckled. "Bucky's a scientist. Of course he had a prototype he kept for himself... And I helped myself to it during my tenure as world ruler." he said as the elevator came to a stop. Gideon nodded. "This is why I was created... I will do what I must, no matter the cost..." it stated. Metal Sonic followed Eggman out of the elevator. "This is why I am here... Only I could be fast enough..." he realized. "That's assuming your metal body can handle the energy..." Eggman stated. Metal Sonic clenched his fist. "I can do this! I'll prove I'm the ultimate hedgehog!" he declared.
Copter and Gemini were heading for Apocalos with Timothy, Adam and Evelyn following after them. However, before long, Ophiuchus stood in their way. "Are you kidding me? I thought he was left dead in the future!!" Adam shouted. "It doesn't matter where the Lost Ones have to look... All will bow to their will! ...Also it turns out death renders Lost One immunity null and void." he sneered. Beside him, Capricorn and Cuthburt approached, both prepared to assist him. "Now, you will at last join us..." Cuthburt snarled. Timothy was quick to knock him over with a burst of magic. "Copter, Gemini! You both need to keep going! Just leave these losers to us!" he shouted. "What? No! I can't let you end up like Cuthburt!" Gemini stammered. "You won't! You'll win!" Evelyn smirked, firing her laser at Capricorn as the slimy ferret dodged out of the way! Copter grunted. "Chaos Whirlwind!!" he shouted, using his wind to force Ophiuchus out of the way and clear a path! "Come on, Gemini! Let's end this, once and for all!" he said, reaching his hand out to her. She took it, smiling as Copter spun his tails and flew her past the snake! "Where do you think you're going! Don't you turn your backs on me!!" Ophiuchus shouted, only to be struck in the back by Timothy's magic! "They're finished with you! ...But I'm not!" he said. Ophiuchus turned, holding his own wand. "You will be...very quickly!" he growled.
Eggman Nega found Slash and Sting, two of Eggman's old robots, being chased about by possessed Egg Pawns. "You're pitiful. I should leave you both to your fate!" he growled. "Aw, c'mon, future-boss!" Sting whined. "My claws just bounce off 'em!! Heeelp!!" Slash wailed. The doctor growled in frustration. "Just watch out..." he muttered, glancing back. From the direction he was glancing, Bolt's shell came spinning onto the scene, a frantic Sonata chasing after him! "Careful! Careful! Bolt!! Aaah!!" the unicorn cried, hiding his face as Bolt's electric-charged body crashed into the possessed robots, causing them to explode and splatter the slime inside all over, forcing Eggman Nega to float out of the way! His Egg Mobile was then struck by a stray boulder, causing him to spin out! "Whoooa!! Who threw that!?" he shouted, looking to see Punchy squaring off against Soleil. He pointed at her. "It was her fault!" he shouted. "Hah! Too cowardly to fight me on your own?" she laughed. Eggman Nega growled, pressing some buttons quickly. "I'm fed up with this... I'll blast anyone who gets in my way!!" he shouted, popping numerous weapons out of his vehicle! Punchy sighed. "There's gotta be a way to catch up with the others at the big boss battle..." he grumbled.
Tails had gotten separated from Fera and Violet on his way to get his Tailband to Sonic, and now his path was blocked by all the Zeti that had been previously devoured by Losipher. "Haha! Looks like we got ya cornered again, runt!!" Zazz shouted as Tails backed up, pointing his hand-cannon around. "I won't go down so easily this time!" he warned, but the Zeti kept closing in on him anyway. "You might as well give up. The Apocalypse is inevitable..." Zor mumbled. "And you can't possibly beat all of us..." Zeena added with a smirk. "But maybe I can!!" came a deep voice. To Tails' surprise, Zavok leapt over his head and slammed his fist into Zomom's gut, making the gluttonous Zeti cough and choke on some chips he was munching! He was then swiftly swatting away his other possessed allies, knocking Zik and Zor across the grass! "Yeaaaah! Zavok, Zavok, he's our man!!" Zim cheered from close by. "Waah! H-he could use some help!" Tails stammered, charging in to fire some shots at the angry Zazz as he leapt about! Zim sighed, realizing he was right. "Alright... Heartless! Aid me!" he cried, trying to summon the dark creatures to his aid. Instead, Zeena stomped over to him, swiping her sharp nails his way! "Yaah! You dare strike ZIM!? I'll do this myself!!" he shouted, suddenly headbutting Zeena to kick off their battle!
Classic Knuckles was having a fist fight with Thrash, who had become a skeletal rhino after Loscream devoured him. "Hyaa!! Get back, ya bone head!" he shouted, giving his opponent a good uppercut that twisted his skull backwards! While Thrash staggered to twist his head on straight, the bony forms of Zapp and Vanitas emerged to gang up on Classic Knuckles. "Oh, that's fair..." he grunted, backing up slowly as Zapp pointed a gun at him. "Hey! Leave...me alone!!" shouted Modern Knuckles, rushing in to smack the gun from the weird skeletal hornet! The bony chameleon leapt at Classic Knuckles anyway, but Lara jumped in and gave him a powerful karate kick, scattering his bones to the floor! "Uhh... You okay...dad?" she asked awkwardly. Classic Knuckles looked at her in surprise. "Umm... Confused, but whatever! Let's give 'em some triple trouble!" he smirked, the three echidna's standing together as the skeletal Dark Team GeneX reassembled, ready for a rumble!
8BIT, floating in midair and filled with dark power, shot 2BIT down with a powerful strike of black lightning. "Stay down... You are beaten..." he sneered. The rest of BIT Squad weren't looking much better. Their battles had run them ragged. So, it was all on 2BIT, and the fox strained to his feet, lifting his Power Glove to block 8BIT's next black lightning strike! He strained to push back against the power 8BIT had built up, moving only through sheer determination. "I... won't stop!" he panted, even as the sparks seared and burned his fur! 8BIT growled. "You will!" he yelled, pointing a finger-gun and firing to crack reality around 2BIT, causing him to stagger as the world beneath his feet shifted in uncanny directions! 2BIT's jetpack fired up, and he started into the air to pursue 8BIT. "Unlike you, I can't quit... Unlike you... I have...everything to fight for!" he declared. 8BIT struck at the flying fox with more lightning, laughing as the dark energy covered 2BIT and seemingly trapped him in the air! "And I have power fighting for me!" 8BIT snarled. However, a light erupted from the version of Tails that had arrived with 2BIT, who was frozen in time below, and that light started to counter some of that darkness. This was followed by a light from each member of BIT Squad, and 2BIT broke free, flying up towards 8BIT as he glowed with that light! "Gah! You unoriginal hack! You're copying me, drawing power from them!" 8BIT shouted, having drawn power from "allies" of his own. 2BIT looked around in confusion. "No...I'm not. See, 8BIT, you stole your power." he said, charging at the black fox and slapping his Power Glove against 8BIT's own, starting a cosmic arm-wrestling match right there! Blue and black colors swirled around them, and each tried to overcome the other fox! "You think...you can rub off on me, huh? Haha, I'll turn you instead!!" 8BIT shouted. 2BIT clutched his rival's fist tight, struggling against him. "We'll...see!" he grunted. Light erupted from other allies that 8BIT had frozen in time... each adding their power to 2BIT! "Stop...stealing that weak light energy to gain an edge!" 8BIT snarled. "I'm not stealing it... My friends...are giving me strength, 8BIT! And I have plenty more where that came from...where's yours?" 8BIT's eyes widened as the truth of 2BIT's words revealed itself. Lucky, Rainbow, Mario...not just their energy, but more beams of light raced across Green Hill. Every friend 2BIT had summoned but landed elsewhere, every Mobian, Pokemon, human, hylian, or other being that happened to arrive either by 2BIT's power or Lucky's portals, any with ties to 2BIT's heart now lended their aid! And with their power mingling with 2BIT's, the blue light spread into 8BIT's body, and overcame his evil! The cracks in reality began to restore themselves, and the villains summoned by 8BIT began to fade away into dust from whence they came. Furthermore, the Power Gloves also faded into dust, as 2BIT and 8BIT gently lowered to the ground...hugging. ".....I feel like we missed a whole extra story here." Gator murmured, "Naaah, couldn't be..."
Atop the loop, Apocalos had knocked Sonic down onto his back as the hedgehog once again attempted to get at the Scepter of Despair. As Sonic tried to pick himself up, Apocalos pinned him with a lightning spear! The villain sneered, and without a word prepared to strike... But then, another lightning spear blocked him, and forced his spear back! Looking, Sonic could see himself as the Doomsayer, golden eyes glaring at Apocalos! "Haha!! 'Bout time you showed up!" Sonic laughed, hopping to his feet and standing beside the Doomsayer. "We finish this once and for all, then!" Apocalos growled, and together the trio started a tense battle, Apocalos grabbing another crashing lightning bolt to swing at Sonic while parrying the Doomsayer's spear! Their clash of speed and power seemed to put the pressure on Apocalos, but the villain let out a laugh as a mystical beam shot up from the Scepter, feeding all of its energy to Demon Island! "You're too late! Haha... You're too late!!! Now, all worlds end...and my world begins!!" he snarled, hurling his two spears right at Sonic and the Doomsayer to force them back! He then leapt up and grabbed the Scepter, his toothy grin widening all the way across his face. The bridge of his oddly linked together hedgehog eyes rose up, and his two glowing pupils merged, his two eyes becoming one bulging eye, resembling that of a Doomling! "Now...watch as everything you love...withers and dies!!" he growled, his one eye glancing up and drawing Sonic and the Doomsayer's gazes. The slimy tendrils contained within Demon Island suddenly burst out from all sides, seven massive tendrils reaching out from the barely-held-together island! They were so giant, they were able to start snaking around the entire world...and they were seeking out the sites where the Temples of Gaia once stood...under which were the Gaia Wellsprings!
Everyone could see what was happening, but it didn't mean the battles below were over. It did mean that everyone had to fight harder. Manic and Sonia found themselves trying to pass a group of Battle Birds led by their leader, Lord Kukku. "Hey, outta the way, uglies!" Sonia snapped. "We gotta try to get to our dimension-bro! ...Ah, they listen like Sleet and Dingo. Ready, sis?" Manic asked. They summoned their instruments in preparation. "And a one, two, three!!" Sonia counted off, ready for a...song?
"We’re gonna tear down the house,
Rip up the joint,
Doin’ the Mobius Stomp!!
We’re gonna shake up the street,
Blast out the beat,
Doin’ the Mobius Stomp!!
Gonna turn up the amp ‘til the speakers are blown!
Rock off the roof ‘til the cows come home!
Come on, come on, come on,
The thing’s ready to bloooow!!"
The noise sure aggravated the undead birds, most of them holding their ears with their slimy wings. However, Kukku was unimpressed. "I didn't get humiliated by that fox's friends and left for dead just to be deterred now by a little screeching!" he growled, leaping towards the siblings! He was knocked out of the sky by a homing attack, and Juice the hedgehog landed between his dimensional aunt & uncle! "Hey, ugly! I liked the song!" he shouted. Melody the mongoose flipped over the Underground and landed next to him. "Need a backup singer? Hehe!" she giggled. Kukku pointed at Melody with a shriek. "Prower!! I'd know one anywhere!! Stop holding your heads and get them, ninnies!!" he shouted to his minions. Sonia and Manic smirked at each other. "All right, bird brains..." Sonia said. "...let's rumba!" Manic chuckled.
Team Chaotix took cover from the Lost Ones they'd been dealing with and gazed up at the giant tendrils erupting from Demon Island. "Don't gotta be a detective to know this ain't good..." Vector grunted. Charmy buzzed about frantically, feeling a bit panicked. "What's gonna happen!? Is the world actually gonna end!? No way! We gotta do something!!" he babbled. Espio looked around at the chaos still unfolding. "Right, break time's over..." he said, "Let's start there!" He pointed out the slimy form of Dragon Gemini, atop which Aries was riding! Charmy gulped. "Do we have to?" he questioned. Vector saw that the dragon was chasing a scrawny young crocodile, and he grit his teeth. "Yeah, we have to! Hey!! You leave my kid alone!!" he shouted, charging out to get Aries' attention! "Huh?! H-how'd you know!" Argyle stammered. Vector chuckled. "It's obvious! Now stand back!" he shouted. Aries looked down at him, unimpressed. "Even if either of you manage to beat my Los Gemini, how do you expect to beat me at my fullest potential?!" he growled. Argyle chuckled softly. "Because we're just the diversion!" he stated. "Huh??" Aries questioned, suddenly crying out as he was lifted off the dragon's back and hurled into the distance by the psychokinetic powers of Venice the hedgehog, who'd snuck up behind him! "There, now it's just a mindless dragon!" he chuckled. "...JUST!?" Charmy yelped. Espio watched the trajectory of Aries and started after him. "Someone's got to take care of that knockoff Copter..." he mumbled. Vector glanced at his son and nodded. "Alright, kiddo! Let's show this oversized lizard who's boss!" he winked, happy to fight alongside him, whatever would happen next.
Booster the reindeer flew about, gawking up at the frightening image of the massive tendrils. "Ohhh, this isn't holly or jolly. I don't like having nightmares before Christmas!" he stammered, looking ahead and gasping as he nearly ran into Lospecter! "Hey! You know where everyone is all the time, don't ya? I got a quiz for you! Lospecter's Quiz Mania! Lightning round! Tell me where that punk took the Chaos Key! Ehh, I'll settle for the location of Gemini. No one deserves to feast on her soul more than me!" he said, floating toward Booster threateningly as the reindeer backed up. "Whoa, there! I-I don't see people all the time, that's Santa's thing! Besides, we don't help n-naughty list punks like y-you!" he stammered. "Aw, shame. You know, I actually will miss all this when it's over... But regrets or no, I can't go back now! C'mere, you snack!" However, before Lospecter could lunge at Booster, a beam of energy grabbed his ghostly form! "What-the-who-the-huhhh!?" he yelled, tugging against the energy beam as a second beam grabbed him from another angle! "Lospecter!! Back again, huh?!" came the voice of Tails from the universe of GeneX Spectre, wrangling the ghost using his PCD and the help of Sonic's PCD as well! "There may only be two of us now... But no matter what... We ain't afraid of no ghosts!!" Sonic smirked. Lospecter struggled, shouting frantically. "You can't touch me!! Aaah, that's cheating!! That's...that's... Gahhh...well played." he huffed, his intangible form starting to be sucked into Sonic's PCD as he gave up. "Forgive me...Astra..." he could be heard sighing as he vanished inside the device! Booster approached slowly, and shook Sonic and Tails' hands one at a time. "The North Pole won't forget this!" he smiled. "Ahh...thanks?" Sonic stammered. "Whoa. I knew ghosts were real, but SANTA??" Tails gasped.
Indeed, the massive tendrils caught everyone in Green Hill's attention, including 2BIT and 8BIT's. "Oh, what have I done? We could have used the Power Gloves to stop this!" the now-reformed 8BIT said with great fear and regret. Tails and Dogson ran up to them, time having been restored for them. They noted the worry on the blue fox's face. "2BIT... We're all still here." Tails told him, grabbing his hand. 2BIT nodded. "That's good, cuz this world may need our help! Dogson, go with 8BIT, rally the others!" he told them. As the others raced to regroup their forces, 2BIT stood alone with Tails for a moment. "Stopping 8BIT took all my power. Maybe some will come back, but I fear it's going to be up to mere mortals to save this world." he said to the kitsune, "I gotta admit...I'm a little scared." Tails squeezed his hand and smiled at him. "Don't worry. We mortals will show you our stuff!" he winked. 2BIT chuckled softly. "Alright then...lead the way!" he said. There was still so much more left to do.
Left without Vortex, Zipp and Crash continued the fight together, the rhino's horn bashing into losol golems and bursting them into dozens of smaller losol for Zipp to shoot at. "Ughh... I shoulda gone with Vortex." Crash groaned, trying to shake off some of the slime residue he was getting all over himself. Zipp became distracted, shooting up at the tendrils in the sky. "Aaaaahh!! Take it, ya bastards!! Rrrgh, if I still had my arsenal!!" the hornet snarled, enraged at those tendrils for destroying Shadow Arcangel and taking his guns - and Bucky - from him! In the distraction, Crash was grabbed by a losol and shouted in alarm! "Agh!! Zipp!! N-noo!!" he grunted. Zipp pointed his gun at Crash's head. "I...I'll kill ya rather than let 'em take you! I...I will!" He was hesitating, though. As Crash struggled to pull away, Talon the griffin landed beside him, and slashed his glowing claws at the losol! "I gotcha, bros! Hey, Zipp, watch it!" he shouted. Zipp lowered his gun hastily. "Aaah, right! I-I've trained you well, kid! ...Just not so much with the guns." he chuckled. The losol were surrounding them, so Talon stood behind Crash to cover him. "It's gettin' tough, but if we let up, we'll just add to everyone's problems! Let's do this!" he said, the rhino and hornet nodding, ready to fight with him.
Cosmo and Zooey found themselves back to back, fighting off Phantoms of Chaos and Metal Sonic using whatever they had at their disposal, be it the Wispon Zooey had taken with her after leaving the GUN Warship, or the fighting skills Cosmo had developed through her years fleeing enemy pursuit across the galaxy. The Seedrian kicked away a Phantom Metal Sonic while Zooey blasted Chaos into a puddle. "Where are these coming from, anyway?" Zooey asked. "Does it matter?" Cosmo sighed. Infinite floated over to answer their questions. "You are...weak... Frail, fleshy bodies... All of you, weak!!" he proclaimed, summoning more Phantoms to surround the girls! A shield flew into the area, bouncing between the Phantoms to knock them aside before returning to Miles. "And how fair is ganging up on the 'weak,' huh?" he shouted. Infinite glanced at him. "Impossible... I broke you! You were weak, too... All of you, weak!!" He seemed a bit one-track as a Lost One. Zooey and Cosmo rushed to Miles' side. "Looks like someone broke you, and all your strength is an illusion!" Cosmo snapped. Zooey looked at Miles with a blush. "Hey, you're a different Tails?" she asked cutely. "T-taken!" he babbled, holding up his shield toward Infinite, "Err, now's not the time for chitchat!" he added.
Tails, Knuckles, Copter, Punchy, Shadow, Silver, Blaze, Gemini, Fera, Violet, Heather, Kosmo, and Lucky were all racing to meet Sonic under Demon Island and help him finish things up. However, Losipher stood tall in their path, clutching the Chaos Sword in his claws, keeping this final Chaos Relic from their grasp! "Use all the power you possess! I cannot be destroyed, my power has been molded to make me an unstoppable force of death!" he proclaimed as an additional pair of limbs burst from his sides, holding blazing swords, his back sprouting broad wings and his lower body becoming a horrifying mass of tentacles! "Ugh, he's always gross... I could just teleport us by, but the Chaos Sword!" Gemini pointed out. Copter and Tails were both holding up the remotes for their planes. "Either way, we'll need a way up there..." Tails stated, gasping as a tentacle came lashing out towards him! Silver pulled him back with his psychokinesis, floating out of reach. "We failed to beat you last time, but this will be your end!!" he shouted as Losipher laughed in response. Violet and Fera tried to warp in and grab the Chaos Sword, only to be blown back by the flapping of his great wings! "Unghh!! Something's gotta work!!" Violet grunted. Shadow tried to blind him with Chaos Spears, while Heather and Blaze poured fire into the monster's chest, but little seemed to matter as his tentacles wildly lashed out, grabbing up Knuckles and Punchy! "Gaah!! Why'd I hand off the Chaos Claws, anyway!?" Knuckles groaned. It was then that Classic Sonic sped onto the scene, slashing the tentacles with those claws to free the echidnas! "...That's why." Punchy mumbled. Kosmo morphed into the Kosmogon and flew behind Losipher, grabbing at his wings to stop the breeze. "Ewww, he's so slimy!!" he groaned. Seeing an opening, Lucky portaled up to his hand with the Chaos Key, and used his Keyblade to slash that hand, knocking the Chaos Sword free! "Enough!!" Losipher shrieked. His tentacles snaked out after each hero. "You will NEVER assemble those wretched Relics!! I will feast on your souls!!!"
Losipher was quick to grab Lucky in his freed hand, and despite this danger, the cat tossed the Chaos Key down with the sword! Classic Sonic sped by, grabbing them up before Losipher's tentacles could reach them, and then sped over to collect the Tailbands as Tails and Fera held them out. "Get them to Sonic, quick!" Tails shouted. "He means our world's Sonic." Fera added. Nodding, Classic Sonic zoomed out of Losipher's reach and started toward the loop at incredible speed. "Graaaaaaaaahh!! You gnats!! Get off me! I'll crush you all!!" Losipher shouted as the heroes teamed up, magic and flames and Chaos techniques raining on him as Lucky wriggled free of his grip! Meanwhile, Classic Sonic ran straight up the wall of the loop, reaching his other selves at the top, and dropping the Chaos Relics to the ground at their feet! "Whoa! You've been busy, little me!" Sonic gasped. The Doomsayer's attention stayed on Apocalos. "Hurry and equip them... They may be our only chance!" he said. However, Apocalos just laughed, his eye peering down toward the collection of Dark Chaos Relics that Lospecter dropped off before his battle with Sonic began. Slime extended from Apocalos' feet, pooling under the Dark Relics and dragging them back to his body, pulling them inside him one by one! "You merely wield power... I become the power. I am one with it... And the multiverse will be one with me!! Every world...every soul...is MINE!!" As the Dark Relics were absorbed into his body, Apocalos rose into the air, lifting up the Scepter of Despair, which glowed with sinister energy! The Sonics watched with wide eyes as Apocalos floated up, and passed inside the mass of tendrils holding the pieces of Demon Island barely together. Then, the slime started to churn, and grow into a gigantic creature, as Apocalos was merging with the tendrils and Demon Island itself!! His twisted, monstrous body grew massive, his one-eyed and dinosaur mouthed head looking down on creation below and roaring as spikes burst from his back, and the island his waist was stuck to burst forth with tentacles and other horrific Lost One appendages! He had become the Harbinger of the Apocalypse... This was the final form of Apocalos!
Eggman was still trying to get the Doomsday Protocol going while Orbot, Cubot and Hoover had left to fetch Bucky's power-transferring invention from the doctor's storeroom. "Alpha, could you bring Char here, please?" the doctor asked from his seat in the Control Room. Alpha carried Char over as he struggled. "Hey! Put me down! I have nothing to say to you, meanie! You threw out my family!!" the Chao shouted. "Did I recycle?" Alpha asked. Eggman turned to the Chao with a miserable sigh. "I... need voice authentication." he murmured. "From who? Who would you pick besides yourself? You only love yourself!!" Char shouted as Eggman held the microphone up to him. "Voice authentication accepted. Doomsday Protocol, ready to activate!" BAS announced. Char blinked a couple times as Alpha released him, letting him hover in place, staring at the doctor. "Why...me?" he murmured. The doctor turned back to his controls. "...You've been...my only real friend, Char. The only one I didn't build. Now fly away from here, quickly. The odds aren't in our favor for survival..." he said, the Chao gasping as he finally understood why his family was vacated from the tower. Said tower started to shake, and Vortex stepped over to Gideon. "If you give up your powersss... You will likely disssappear. You aren't like the ressst of usss, you know." he told it. Gideon glanced at him with a light smile. "I won't be gone... I will be a part of each life restored, always." it stated. Amy heard this, and stepped over, holding Gideon's hand. "It's okay...to be afraid, though." she said. Gideon nodded, giving her hand a squeeze. The tower started to shake more as Char protested, Alpha dragging him off to an exit. "No!! I can't let you go!! D-doctor!! Please!!" he cried as Alpha flew him out of a hall window! "You ride with me! Come on, let's watch the fireworks!" Alpha cheered. Once they were clear, Char looked back in wonder as the massive tower that was Darkegg Fortress started to lift off the ground, propelled by huge thrusters! Eggman was bringing the tower and the cure straight to where it was needed, as fast as he could!
As Sonic looked up at the monstrous form of Apocalos looming above, plane engines could be heard approaching. Sonic looked to see the Tornado, the Hurricane, and a certain flying taxi approach! Of course, Tails and Copter were piloting their own planes. Knuckles stood on the Tornado's wing while Punchy stood on the Hurricane's. Silver and Blaze were riding with Mia, and their friends warped onto the loop with Gemini and Fera's magic along with Shadow's Chaos Control! "Well, I'm up here. Now what?" Violet said to herself, glancing at a shrugging Heather. The Tornado and the Hurricane began to circle about with the flying taxi. "If they could magic you up, WHAT AM I DOING HERE!?" Mia yelled, her heart thumping and her face pale. "Maybe I should drive..." Blaze suggested, being the much cooler cat at the moment. Sonic looked around at his friends assembling and smirked. "Alright, guys, now that you're all here, I think it's time to bring out the big gun!" he declared. The Doomsayer stepped back next to Shadow. "How can you not see that it's too late?" he asked. Shadow chuckled softly. "It's 'cuz he's still Sonic..." he murmured. Sonic started to assemble the Chaos Relics, slipping on the Gauntlets and the Claws over his gloves, wrapping the Chaos Wing cape around his neck, the Tailbands dangling on his wrists since his tail was too small to carry even one of them. He hesitated with the Boots, but handed Classic Sonic his shoes to put them on. He knew his sneakers would be safe with him. Next, the Crown was placed on his head, and in one hand, the Chaos Key, while the other hand held the Chaos Sword. "What about the cards?" Fera wondered. As if in response, the Chaos Cards rose up, twirling in the air and approaching the key as Sonic held it, as though drawn to it in the presence of all the Relics! The gold-backed cards attached themselves to the key, spreading out until they formed up a Chaos Shield, with the key for a handle! Sonic stood with the Relics assembled like armor, his body starting to glow with bright, gold light! "Aaaaah!! All right! I'm ready!! Let's see what you got, Apocalos!!" he shouted, taking to the air on golden wings! Knuckles watched him in awe. "Is that... Super Sonic?!" he stammered. Tails looked with wide eyes. "More than that! I'd call him... Legend Sonic!!" he cried. But would Legend Sonic be enough to save all worlds from Apocalos?
Chapter 59 - The Final Run of Sonic the Hedgehog
Note: Sonic the Hedgehog and related characters are (c) SEGA. You knew that, right?
GeneX and related OCs are (c) 2BIT (TheGreatGator), the author.
The Keyblade & other Kingdom Hearts elements are (c) Disney & Square-Enix.
Moogles are (c) Square-Enix.
Super Mario is (c) Nintendo
"Before I say goodbye to you,
One more last fist bump..." - Fist Bump, Sonic Forces
Each run begins with a single step. There will come a day also when we take our last. Apocalos was poised to end all running forever, having used the power of the Scepter of Despair and the Dark Chaos Relics to grow his power, merging with Demon Island and the mass of slime the Lost Ones had cultivated within. The resulting entity's massive tendrils were snaking around the entire planet, seeking out the Gaia Wellsprings. Once Apocalos managed to taint them, the Earth itself would be lost. In order to stop this, Sonic's friends and allies had flown to his side using planes and teleportation, and delivered the Chaos Relics to him. Equipping all the Relics together, Sonic glowed with their power, becoming Legend Sonic, and took off into the sky on golden wings as the world below watched for a moment. They couldn't stare long, as Apocalos' army was still on the rampage throughout Green Hill below. However, brandishing the Chaos Sword in one hand, and clutching a shield composed of the Key and Cards in the other, Sonic rose to meet the bulging single eye of the terrifying Doomling-hedgehog-tyrannosaur-hybrid that was Apocalos. He roared at Sonic, his transformed body dwarfing the hedgehog many times over now. "Run through the sky, run through the stars... It will be the last run you ever have." the massive monster growled. Sonic chuckled softly. "But I'm wearin' the immortality crown! How you gonna beat me?" he chuckled. Apocalos grinned wide. "Inside me, I have absorbed its antithesis. Along with countless souls, and the corrupted power of the Sol Emeralds... There is no power in the multiverse that can overcome me!" he declared. Sonic was prepared to lay it all on the line. This would be their final battle... for the fate of everything, everywhere!
The tentacles rising from the island pieces merged to Apocalos' body all sprouted claws on their ends, and tried to lash out at Sonic! With the power of the Chaos Wing and Chaos Boots combined, Sonic was able to easily soar away from those tentacles, appearing as a stream of light as he arced through the sky! However, in order to strike back, he'd have to get in close and put himself in danger of being grabbed. Sonic clutched the shield and charged up toward the giant eye of Apocalos. "Whenever there's a big bulging eye, the monster never likes getting hedgehog in it!" he snickered, preparing to stab it with the Chaos Sword! Apocalos opened his maw wide, and fired a huge beam of concentrated energy, which Sonic barely evaded even with the added speed of the Chaos Boots, the beam was so massive! "Whoa! That could punch a hole in the planet!!" Sonic gasped, making sure to keep that in mind so that he wouldn't accidentally fly below Apocalos and cause him to vaporize all his friends below. The monster's tentacles came at the hedgehog again while he was distracted by the shock of seeing such a powerful attack, but he wasn't so distracted that he wouldn't strike back with his sword and defend with the shield! The claws at the end of those tentacles scratched at the Chaos Cards that comprised the shield, but they held surprisingly strong. "Can't you weirdo monsters think of anything but tentacles??" Sonic taunted. Apocalos laughed at him. "If you insist... By the power of the Dark Cards... Rain, Hell Meteors!!" Apocalos' hand rose up, and manifested a massive, burning meteorite! It then split into pieces as he hurled it toward Sonic, but each piece still dwarfed the hedgehog! He gasped, realizing this could rain down on his friends, and charged at the fragments, blade in hand! "Hyaaaaah!!" The sword glowing bright, Sonic slashed at the meteors, breaking them into smaller chunks one by one, and trying to knock them into the slimy tendrils reaching out from Demon Island for the Gaia Wellsprings. Anything to protect his friends. He wouldn't let Apocalos destroy their world!
With Hoover's supervision, Orbot and Cubot had brought the power-transfer pods that Bucky had invented, and that Eggman had claimed for himself during the half-year he'd taken over the planet. The seven Chaos Emeralds were hooked up to the machine, their power necessary to refine and enhance Gideon's powers. Amy was strapped into a seat, watching the monitor in the control room. Through it, she could see the monstrous form of Apocalos as Darkegg Fortress was rocketing toward South Island. "Oh my god... I left my friends behind with that... I left Sonic!" she gasped. "He'll be fine!" Eggman scoffed, "I'm not lucky enough for anything less!" he muttered as he was finishing preparations. Vortex placed a hand on Gideon's shoulder, looking at it seriously. "You can ssstill refussse to do thissss..." he stated. "No one else can. Sonic cannot prevail through violence. We have to save them..." Gideon said softly. Once everything was ready, Metal Sonic and Gideon each stepped into a pod, with Amy and Vortex watching nervously. "Good luck..." Amy said. "Be at peace..." Vortex added for Gideon. Eggman threw the switch, firing up the machine, and the Chaos Emeralds started to glow. "I can't believe I'm using the seven emeralds to save the world rather than conquer it! But... genius is genius!!" the doctor said, laughing as Metal Sonic's pod glowed brightly! "Come out, my ultimate robot!!" the doctor smiled. Metal Sonic started to step out, but then his body began to spark wildly. "E-e-ener-g-gy o-o-over-l-load!! I-I... aaaaaagh!!" the robot screeched, grabbing his head and collapsing to the ground in a heap! "...Was that 'sposed to happen?" Cubot asked. "No, ya dern idjut! The plan went in the terlit like always! We're doomed!!" Hoover shouted while Orbot started crying. Eggman's mustache drooped as he looked at his ruined plan. "No... No, I can't fail this time! This can't be how it all ends!!" he shouted, clutching his head. There were no more plans, no more schemes. It was up to Sonic.
Cooling off, some of the meteors had begun to orbit around Apocalos a bit, the massive creature rising higher and higher into the atmosphere, as though aiming to take the fight to space. Despite this, he was pursued not just by Sonic, but by two biplanes and a flying taxicab. "Hang on, Soniiiic!!" Tails' voice cried out as he weaved the Tornado around incoming meteors, all while Knuckles held onto the wing tight! Sonic looked back at them with concern, but also respect. "Guys..." he murmured. Copter still wasn't the pilot Tails was, but it was fine. Dark Punchy was there to punch out any debris in front of the Hurricane! "Haah!! Don't worry about me, me and my other half got an understanding right now!" Punky assured them. Mia had left her cab for a safer place on the ground, but Shadow had taken the wheel while Silver and Gemini hung out either passenger window, protecting the vehicle with psychokinesis and magic while Blaze awaited an opportunity to lend a hand herself. Their other friends had stayed behind to help the fight in Green Hill, so including Sonic, there were nine of them. Apocalos roared, a wide smirk on his fanged face. "I'd hoped for the chance to kill each of you personally... How thoughtful to offer yourselves up!" he cackled as his clawed tentacles lashed out for the vehicles! Sonic tried to slice the tentacles with the Chaos Sword, but there were too many, and they grew back as fast as he could destroy them, so the vehicles were forced into a crash landing onto the orbiting meteors! Despite that, everyone climbed out, seeming okay. "Is that... The best you have... Rex!?" Gemini huffed, clutching her wand. Shadow leapt to a closer meteor, while Silver floated next to Blaze. "Bring us to space, fine. We'll fight you unchained by our Earthly fears..." Blaze shouted. "Whatever it takes!" Knuckles added, giving a warning punch while Tails prepped his arm cannon! Copter and Punky readied themselves as well. "You better not have scratched the paint on my plane, or my mechanic will kill you..." the fox smirked. Apocalos' single eye glared at them. How dare they still resist? How could they? "...I won't even make a meal of your souls. I will scatter your broken bodies across the universe!!" he roared!
Although Sonic's friends had arrived to help in whatever way they could, they weren't the only ones to fly up after them. Powerful Losohst Knights surrounded the group, ready to give them the fight of their lives! "Chaos Whirlwind!!" Copter shouted, his winds failing to destroy them, but managing to at least blow out the blue fire enshrouding their blades! One of those blades came straight for Tails, who blocked it with the laser cannon on his hand before Knuckles gave the creature a hard punch to its helmeted head! Silver pushed back a few of these creatures with his powers while Shadow leapt at them, hitting them hard with Chaos Blast! "Don't let us distract you down here, Sonic! Take him down!!" Shadow yelled, landing behind Blaze, who was lighting up an incoming Knight with her fire! Gemini and Punky were busy holding Apocalos' tentacles at bay, hitting them with magic and with meteor bits lifted by Chaos Avalanche to keep their claws off their friends! Sonic nodded at what Shadow had said, and resumed his flight towards Apocalos' massive eye! "Insignificant mortal! Fight me all you wish!" Apocalos snarled, reaching his imposing hand out and manifesting the Dark Sword, sized to fit his huge hand! He clashed his blade against Sonic's, the hedgehog darting up and around, trying to pass his weapon, only to find he had to parry it with his sword again! "Haha, guess we're both trained with a sword!" Sonic realized, pushing back against his huge blade. Apocalos lifted his other hand with a fanged sneer. "Hell METEORS!!!" he roared, sending another massive ball of fire streaming towards Sonic, and his friends if he didn't stop it! Knocking Apocalos' blade back with his shield, Sonic turned his attention to the meteor, slashing it with the energy of his blade, whittling it down to protect his friends! "I see... I will destroy you...by destroying your pathetic friends!! Say farewell!!" Apocalos snarled as he began charging energy in his maw during Sonic's distraction.
Shadow could feel the energy building, and as he looked up, the Lost Ones fled the scene around them. "This isn't good, is it?" Gemini stammered. Copter took her hand, while Punky stood beside Knuckles, and Silver and Blaze stepped beside Tails, all watching Apocalos open his dinosaur jaws. Sonic realized what he was doing, and darted between the monster and his friends. "You won't hurt them!!" he shouted. Apocalos said nothing, tightening his fists as he fired another massive, planet-busting beam of energy, planning to vaporize Sonic and all his friends in one terrible blast! Tails, Knuckles and the others all shielded their faces, but when they weren't instantly vaporized, they slowly looked up. "S-sonic!!" Tails cried. "Hang on!!" Copter shouted. Sonic was blocking the massive beam with all the power he could gather, the Chaos Sword and Shield crossed together in front of him, forming a barrier that was pushing the beam back as his body glowed intensely! "I... have... to keep... fighting!! AAAAAAAHHH!!" Sonic screamed as Apocalos kept pouring the power of the Dark Relics into that beam. It was creation against its antithesis, life versus antilife. It was taking all Sonic had to hold it back, and there was nothing his friends could do. "Don't you have a spell?!" Knuckles shouted to Gemini. "I'm not a GOD!!" the fennec cried. "Maybe I can..." Silver began. "No, take cover!!" Blaze yelled. The clash of powers ended in a final explosion as Apocalos poured a bit more power into the beam before shutting his mouth! To the group's dismay, they saw the Chaos Relics begin to clatter down to the meteors they were standing on, one by one! "No! I-it can't be!!" Tails stammered, bending over a Chaos Tailband as it landed at his feet. Sonic himself crashed down in front of Shadow, still clutching the Chaos Sword and wearing the Chaos Wing, but the other Relics had each landed somewhere else. Apocalos laughed in triumph. "All of you are at my mercy... Will you submit and become my Lost Ones? Or else, how shall I obliterate you... LET ME THINK ON IT!!" he roared.
While he was thinking, the giant tendrils had found their targets, and with a mighty, piercing strike, they burrowed through the Earth, beginning their feast on the Gaia Wellsprings beneath! Storms began to break out across the globe, not just the unnatural storm over Green Hill. The situation was dire, and it appeared life was to be extinguished. Darkegg Fortress had even slowed its ascent towards Apocalos as it rocketed over Green Hill, because with the plan failed, what was the point? Still, those fighting below didn't have the luxury of deciding if it was worth it or not. Heather and Kosmo poured all their energy into breaking a path through the Lost One army for Violet and Fera to go back and search for their loved ones. "Go on! Garen...will be fine. I know he will!" Heather panted, Kosmo shifting back to his normal form and grasping her hand. "Sure you'll be alright?" he questioned. Violet and Fera charged past countless monsters, searching for Rainbow and Illusi. "She's got to be out here!! Rainbow!!" Violet cried, only to hear a scream, and catch sight of Cream and Big desperately trying to pull Vanilla out of a Losol Golem's slimy embrace! "Y-you have to...let go...Cream! I lo-" Vanilla's voice was cut off as her grip was lost, and she was swallowed up by the beast. "NOOOOO!!" Cream shouted as Big lifted her up, carrying her away from the danger. Violet followed. She had to make sure Vanilla's loss wasn't for nothing. Fera, meanwhile, passed by Rouge and Omega, surrounded by Despair "zombies." The robot was ruthlessly firing on any of them near him, while Rouge flew about, looking for safe openings to strike, but they would be overwhelmed before long. In fact, the wolf could see that the tide was turning against them throughout Green Hill. Gargoyles were being knocked from the sky, Wispon-toting Rookies were being swarmed by lospides and loslimes, and even the Wisps were on the run. "It's a lost cause..." the wolf sighed, clenching her fist, "Hang on until I find you... Don't you dare die without me, Illusi!!" she growled.
From his vantage point atop the loop, the Doomsayer watched it all unfold, closing his eyes and gritting his teeth as he grappled with the reality of it all. Sparks fizzled out from his fingertips, and he shook his hand in surprise, looking from his hand to the flying tower on the horizon. "...No. I won't stand anymore. I was born to run..." As he looked out toward Darkegg Fortress, lightning began to strike in an erratic fashion, but he knew how to use it. He kicked off the loop, his feet so fast, that they were able to catch onto the lightning, and dash across the bolts, leaping from strike to strike, until he reached Darkegg Fortress! Char and Alpha saw this spectacle, and followed him into the tower, the robot pointing his laser at him as they arrived in the control room. "Stop! You leave Eggman alone!!" Char shouted. "And teach me to dance like you!" Alpha added. Eggman was examining Metal Sonic, and barely looked at the hooded Sonic. "Oh, whatever. Knock my tower out of the sky, what's it matter. We're all done for..." he grumbled. The Doomsayer chuckled softly. "So, finally you see things my way..." he said. Amy stepped towards the Doomsayer defiantly. "You can't believe that! You just can't! Why would you even come here, just to gloat? Please... Look inside your heart... Help us." she pleaded. Vortex glanced at the pods. "If anyone could hold all that energy, it would be Ssssonic, however... Curing ssso many Lossst Onesss would take everything he hasss. Once the tasssk were done, he would likely vanisssh from our world. From exissstence." he warned. "Oh..." Amy squeaked. It was certainly a lot to ask. The Doomsayer looked at the machine. "You're saying... This will be my final run. Perhaps we'd best delay no further..." he said, making Amy and Vortex gasp. Eggman stood up, holding Metal Sonic. "Gideon vanished after the last experiment, however... Yes, yes! Although Metal is inactive, he may still be housing Gideon's power inside him! I'll just throw him into the other pod!" he said excitedly, eager for his plans to bear fruit after all. It was all a long shot, but it was their last hope...
Sonic stuck the blade into the meteor beneath him, using it to aid him in rising to his feet as Apocalos loomed over him and his friends. "Ahh, good... I was afraid you would miss this. Now, watch me tear your friends limb from limb!" Apocalos roared, his clawed tentacles rising up from below, surrounding the meteor they were standing on! Quickly, Knuckles leapt up and slashed at some of them...with the Chaos Claws! "Give us your best shot!" he shouted! Blaze had placed the Chaos Crown on her head, and with its power, was able to grow vines out of even the barren soil of the meteor, sending them to tangle with the tentacles! "We will fight you to the last!!" she cried. Tails and Copter each slipped a Tailband onto their tails, smacking those clawed tendrils away with mighty whips of those tails while watching each others' backs! "You know, you could go super!" Tails told Copter. "I ain't leavin' you like that! We do this together!!" he declared, clasping his hand in the other fox's as they spun together, their tails smacking away those claws! Silver stood by Gemini, the hedgehog holding the Chaos Key while the fennec had assembled the deck of Cards. "We hold the keys to the future!!" Silver shouted, floating up and zapping the incoming tentacles one at a time with the key, locking them in place! Gemini was then free to strike back. "How's this for magic!?" she shouted, tossing up several cards which erupted in lightning, jolting the tendrils and forcing them back! "Don't forget me, big guy!!" Punky had equipped the Chaos Gauntlets, and started boxing with the tendrils from a distance, sending bolts of energy their way, while Shadow tore through the area with the Chaos Boots, using their momentum to strike furiously! "Keep pushing back! Don't let him through!!" the black hedgehog shouted. This was all amusing for Apocalos to watch, but only for a little while. "Enough...!!" he snarled, snapping his fingers. Following that, lightning crashed down on the meteor repeatedly, catching the heroes off guard! If it weren't for the Chaos Relics they were holding, they would be quickly killed just by those strikes, but instead they all collapsed, smoke rising from the meteor as the strikes ceased!
"Well, now, this has gotten sad..." Apocalos mused, "All there is to do now, then... Is vaporize you all, and then put your world out of its misery forever..." he snarled, beginning to charge up energy for a final blast. However, Sonic rose in front of him, lifted by the Chaos Wings. He clutched the Sword tightly, gritting his teeth as he girded himself to face the fiend anyway. Apocalos' eye stared at him widely, and he had to laugh, long and loud and maniacally. It was absurd, utterly absurd. Sonic had to be an idiot, still trying to fight him. "HAHA... WAAHAHAHAHAHA!! RRRAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!!! FOOL!! When will you understand!? You've lost! You could never triumph over the inevitable! Why won't you accept your fate and perish with dignity?!" he roared. Sonic's quills were blown in the breeze caused by his breath as he shouted, the fiend was so massive. "We...were using the Chaos Relics wrong. Their power is creation, and what is creation but life?" he grunted. Apocalos had time to listen as he charged up, so he indulged Sonic. "One life alone...can go far, sure. But it will eventually perish, to its extinction. You need...more lives. Together, through love and friendship, they grow and multiply... Build families, communities, worlds teeming with life..." Nodding, Tails reached out his hand to Copter, and the other to Knuckles. As they took his hand, their Chaos Relics started to glow. Punky took Knuckles' other hand. Shadow took Punky's. Gemini took Copter's, and Silver, Gemini's, and Blaze linked with Silver. With each link in the chain, the Relics they wore glowed brighter. "Apocalos..." Sonic said, "We won't quit... 'cuz we're Sonic Heroes!!" he declared. "Go, Sonic!!" each of his friends cried, sending the collected energy from their Chaos Relics to his! Sonic's body erupted into a brilliant white light, becoming the true Legend Sonic! Apocalos fired his beam, planning to stop him there, and the hedgehog charged through the beam, slicing into it with the brightly glowing Chaos Sword, stopping its progress and protecting his friends! Shocked, Apocalos recoiled, raising his arms and tentacles in an effort to grab Sonic! The hedgehog only sped up, pointing the sword right at his great eye! "This...is YOUR Doomsday!! Hyaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh!!!" Tails, Knuckles and the others had to shield their eyes from the bright flash of light as Sonic made contact, drilling the blade into Apocalos' eye, as the monster shrieked and howled in defiance!
Darkegg Fortress shook as the rocket moved dangerously close to Apocalos' meteors. Amy, Vortex, Alpha, Eggman and the others present watched anxiously as the pods glowed, and the Chaos Emeralds attached glowed with them. The light faded after a moment, and the Chaos Emeralds were gone, making Eggman very nervous, wringing his hands. "If this didn't work, it doesn't matter if Sonic wins. The Lost Ones left behind will still consume our world..." he stated. "Husssh." Vortex hissed. Out of the pod stepped the Doomsayer, his body glowing golden, just like Super Sonic! However, he additionally was accompanied by a pale blue aura, which lit up his eyes as well. "I think it worked!" Char gasped. The Doomsayer nodded, throwing off his black cloak and heading for the nearest exit. Amy followed after him. "Doomsayer!" she called. He looked back at her, and for the first time in so long...he cracked a smile. "That's not my name... I'm Sonic. Sonic the Hedgehog!" he declared as he turned around, starting into a run. Vortex and Alpha stood next to Amy, watching him depart. "Actually, we could call that form 'GeneX Ssssonic.'" Vortex mused. Alpha fired his laser up into the air. "A better name is 'Sonic GeneX!!'" he declared. A Sonic by any other name was still Super, and this Super Sonic's final run led into a flight as he left Darkegg Fortress, streaming across the sky and heading for Apocalos first! Looking away from the bright light caused by Legend Sonic's attack on Apocalos, Tails noticed Darkegg Fortress flying their way. "Hey! I know our planes are beaten up, but lets try to get them there! We can hitch a ride!" he suggested. "Sure better than riding a meteor!" Copter agreed. While that group was frantically working to get down from their high perch safely, Super Sonic joined Legend Sonic in striking Apocalos, a pale blue hue being added to the light emitting from the point of impact...
Chapter 60 - Final Chapter - Sayonara
Note: Sonic the Hedgehog and related characters are (c) SEGA. You knew that, right?
GeneX and related OCs are (c) 2BIT (TheGreatGator), the author.
The Keyblade & other Kingdom Hearts elements are (c) Disney & Square-Enix.
Moogles are (c) Square-Enix.
Super Mario is (c) Nintendo
"Here I am, (here I am)
Made it to,
The end of you!
Never had a chance while I'm around! (no, no)" - Never Turn Back, Shadow the Hedgehog
"I'm only crying cause I never dreamed,
It'd take this long, it'd take thiiis long!" - Don't Think Twice, Kingdom Hearts 3
Sonic was concealed by a bright light. As he floated within that light, here at the end, he saw another hedgehog before him. He resembled Apocalos...it was Rex the Hedgehog. "I experienced... so much loss through the long years of my life..." he sighed, regret in his voice, "It made me vulnerable to the Doomlings... Their promise of eternity... I just didn't want to feel the pain anymore." he whispered. Sonic placed a hand on his shoulder. "Loss is something we can't run away from...even if you got my speed. You need to face the pain, not hide from it. If you can do that... One day, you'll find the memory of those you lost may not be a burden anymore...but a treasure." he said with a small smile. Another voice caught their attention. "The chosen ones have succeeded!" Looking up, the hedgehogs saw Tikal the echidna descending from above. With her, the souls that were trapped in the Scepter of Despair, including Razor, Firma, Rouletar, Freeze, and numerous others of varying species. Sonic raised an eyebrow. "Didn't you say there were just seven chosen ones? I heard somethin' like that!" he chuckled. Tikal laughed softly. "My ancient soul... could never account for modern science." she smiled. She was referring to the clones. At any rate, the souls were starting to fade into glowing orbs, preparing to cross into the beyond. "Sonic..." Razor said, "My death wasn't you fault... You do know that, right?" he asked. Sonic nodded slowly, and the porcupine continued, "Tell my bro I love him, okay? And tell Ridley I'm proud of him. I'm just sorry I didn't get to see 'em one more time..." he said. Sonic wiped some tears, glancing toward Tikal's spirit. "It's time for us to depart... Live your life, Sonic. Be happy..." she said, a hint of cheer in her voice as the light started to fade around them...
Sonic and Rex were plummeting, the Chaos Wing no longer working! What's more, the pieces of Demon Island were starting to fall, and that didn't bode well for anyone underneath. Sonic grabbed hold of Rex, bracing them both for the fall. "Hang on, Sonic!!" the voice of Tails got his attention, the Tornado speeding its way toward them! The plane nearly missed, but Knuckles reached over the side of the wing and grabbed the two hedgehogs by the wrists! "I gotcha!! We ain't Sonic Heroes without you!" he laughed. Meanwhile, Shadow and Silver had leapt down toward the fragments of Demon Island, preparing all the power they could muster to stop those pieces from crushing everyone below. "Chaos...Control!!" they shouted, capturing the pieces of the island in a huge warp not unlike the one used to return Space Colony ARK to orbit so long ago! They vanished from sight, and as Knuckles pulled the hedgehogs onto the Tornado's wing, they looked around in awe, seeing a pale blue energy raining down from above. "What is...that?" Knuckles asked. Sonic looked at Rex and smirked. "It's...life." he said. Tails gasped, feeling tingles as he was bathed in the light. "What?" He glanced behind him as he gripped the plane's controls, eyes widening as he saw that pale blue energy reshaping his missing tail, and in a flash, it was as good as new! "Ha...haha... YEAH!!" he cheered, tears of joy rolling down his face as he returned his eyes to the sky in front of him, turning toward Darkegg Fortress, where the Hurricane and Mia's taxi had gone for repairs with the others.
The pale blue energy spread across Green Hill, the power of GeneX, being used to cure each and every entity trapped between life and death. Mobians, humans, Chao, aliens, animals... No matter their differences, petty squabbles, or beliefs, they were all healed just the same. For all of them were the same at their core. They were all alive. Although, to be fair, some Lost Ones literally had possessed dead bodies, and those returned to their rest once cured, but some had merely been dying, their souls still bound to their bodies. Those, in some cases, did fully return.
Marine was surrounded by Lost Ones one moment, but the next, she found friends she thought had been lost. "Cobbers!! Colonel, Setter!! Daikun, you're all here!" she cried, rushing to her koala friends and gathering them in a group hug! The Deadly Six were restored to normal as well, all of them looking a bit groggy as they looked around. "What happened? Where in the world are we now?" Zik grumbled. Zim leapt up and kicked Zomom in the head, bouncing off to attack Zazz as well. "You all can't deceive ZIM!! Take this, and that!!" he yelled. "Hey, you little twerp! I'm already hungry and now my face hurts!!" Zomom groaned. Zavok stood observing, his arms folded. He caught himself smiling, and he shook it off. "Alright, Zeti! No more fooling around! We return home to regroup!" he declared. Loskeletor, Loscream and Losipher all roared in protest as they started to shed their evil forms, transforming back into who they once were. "Aaaaahh!! F-forsooth... I am...made flesh again!" said William the raccoon, as Luna the wolf howled, rising from the remains of a pumpkin. "What a nightmare... It was a nightmare, wasn't it?" she asked. Losipher split into multiple souls, any that were able to be restored tumbled over themselves as they groaned. "Who are all these people on top of me!?" Gunther shouted, the older-looking but far younger Nevin Crimm atop the stack. "Ughh... B-bucky, what have we done?" the man groaned. Hope the raven was there as well, and looked around anxiously. "Bucky... Are you here? Did you...bring me back?" she wondered.
Among those restored were countless villains, such as the Battle Bird Armada, the Covenant of Despair, and a rather flummoxed Richard Gunner. "My head...what did that detestable freak do to me!?" Gunner growled, gulping as he heard several guns click, pointed in his direction. GUN had found him and Despair, and had them surrounded. "Hey, boss! You...are under arrest!" Riley waved. "Thank you, Agent Spizzweld..." the Commander sighed, "The rest of you are coming in for questioning!" he shouted. Eddie just chuckled, nudging Corky's unmoving body. "Eee hee, hey get up, you! You're under arrest, too! ...Oh, yeah, he's actually dead." he sighed. The Battle Birds tried to sneak away, but Speedy and the Babylon Rogues blocked their path, guns pointed out from their Extreme Gear! "Tell us more about how you willingly helped those world-eating creeps..." Jet growled. Kukku scoffed. "Just try and take us!" he warned, only to gulp as a horde of gargoyles surrounded his troops.
Weresonic reunited with the Tails of his dimension, and he wasn't the only one to be restored, as some they never thought they'd see again rushed to greet them. The Phantom Fighter Sonic was startled as his PCD burst, and looking behind him, he saw a cat. "Uuuuhhhgh, that was a tight fit. Hey, I'm free, that's good! Immortality's gone, that's bad... Ahh!! My legs are back, that's...good? They hurt though, owow!!" babbled Spiro, the former Lospecter. Phantom Fighter Tails called to Sonic, having found a certain princess they thought had been lost forever, while Spiro turned to see a fennec that he was shocked to find. "A-astra..." he gasped. The old fennec smiled warmly, offering a hand to help Spiro to his feet. "Don't worry Spiro, there's no hard feelings. Let's...pick up where we left off." she offered. The feline blushed a bit. "Did we leave off in a good place? Hey, if I'd-a known that, I mighta sided with you in the first place!" he chuckled softly.
2BIT looked around anxiously. "Squad... We have some people to bring home..." he announced, glancing over his shoulder to see Mario picking up his hat. "Hoo... Let's-a go!" he said with a wave. 2BIT chuckled softly and waved back as Gator stood next to him. "Take an inventory, Gator. There's singing hedgehogs, Classic kids, Sol Dimension residents, Necros and Spectre residents, those dang alternate kids, the people we brought, alternate versions of Ophiuchus, Nova and Tabitha... I miss anything?" he asked. Gator jumped. "I'm still in this story!? Um, uhhh... I don't know, Twobert, I think I missed something." he stammered. 2BIT groaned and rubbed his forehead. "Where's Stripes and Blocky? Boy, this sequence is taking up a lot of chapter space and we're not even close to ending things..." he sighed. He had more work ahead than he thought, too; Entire dimensions worth of people were being restored, Green Hill would hardly have any place to stand if BIT Squad didn't get right on it!
Cream was reunited with her mother sometime after the cure was finished spreading, and the Lost Ones were finally all gone. They hugged tightly, and Cheese and Chocola hugged as well. "I thought... I might never see you again!" she sniffled. Vanilla patted her head. "It's okay, Cream..." she consoled her. A plane engine caught their attention, and they looked to see Tails arrive with Amy and Vortex, all of them hopping out of the Tornado as it landed. Vortex waved and rushed off to find his friends, while Tails ran to Cream, who went from her mother's arms to his arms in a smooth transition. "You made it!" they both cheered, the fox affectionately kissing her cheek. Cream blushed, and Tails bashfully rubbed the back of his head. "Cream, I...I..." he stammered, suddenly finding himself down on one knee, offering his Tailband to her like a ring, "W-will you marry me, Cream!?" he said suddenly. The rabbit gasped, her cheeks bright red. "T-tails... Yes, but..." she stammered, the fox looking up with a nervous sweat, "Yes, but?" he gulped. "...Aren't we still...a little young?" Cream asked with a cute giggle, holding his Tailband anyway. The power was gone from the Chaos Relics, all of it spent to defeat Apocalos, and since they were constructs unlike the Chaos Emeralds, their power wouldn't return. Tails babbled, feeling a bit embarrassed. "Yeah, Cream... B-but I... I know...I want to spend my life with you." he said. Amy cleared her throat, a wide grin on her face. "Whyyyyy don't you two adorable kids... Do a Promise Ceremony?" she suggested. They looked at her as if to ask, so Amy explained, "A mock wedding, promising to do it for real when you're ready. Ohh, I can help set it up!" she said, getting excited. Tails looked up at Cream and Vanilla, the mother smiling warmly, happy to support her daughter. "What...do you say?" Tails asked her.
ONE MONTH LATER...
"This is Katie the Coyote, reporting for SSTV News. It has now been several weeks since the battle that decided the fate of our entire world, and we're all relieved to see that things are finally settling down. Since most of the casualties of the event were actually reversed through the science of the late Dr. Buck Stein, repairs have been moving swiftly. Is it me, or does this past crisis have a feeling of finality to it? It seems to be a shared sentiment as people across the globe settle into a peace we haven't seen since the notorious Dr. Eggman first appeared on the scene. Incidentally, neither Eggman nor his doppelganger Eggman Nega have been spotted since the final battle. Hopefully the villains are taking the opportunity to retire peacefully. In the wake of the battle, some major changes have been coming as well. GUN has formed a partnership with AcornCorp, headed by its new CEO Sally Acorn. They are hoping to work together to maintain peace across the globe. But for all the positives, this is also a solemn time to remember what was lost. In that spirit, I'm here today at the memorial that was erected over the former site of the Troblusk City Clock Tower, to pay respect to those souls that couldn't be returned to us...including a dear friend."
The Troblusk Memorial featured several grave-like stones with multiple names etched onto them. Every soul stuffed into the Scepter of Despair was a soul that couldn't return to the living, and there were others who gave their lives without being captured by the Lost Ones at all. Even Eggman's E-X robots were honored, due to the realization that they, too, possessed souls. There were two special graves at the center, a single name etched on each. "Dr. Bucky Stein, who brought the secrets of life into his death." and the other, "Sonic the Hedgehog; his legend lives on inside all who found a second chance." Vortex, Zipp and Crash stood around Bucky's stone, and behind them was the girl who was essentially their mother, Hope the Raven. "He accomplished everything he wanted... It's a shame his life was spent persecuted." she said with a sigh. Zipp yawned. "Sorry... Thanks, dad. I'll be good." he murmured. Crash was holding his bowler, and glanced at Zipp. "Be respectful. Take your helmet off." he said, Zipp stammering nervously. Vortex knelt by the grave, leaving a black rose there. "Father... I'll carry on for you..." he sighed. Zipp finally popped off his helmet, growling. "Happy!?" he shouted. He turned, his sparkling yellow eyes visible to the world...and to Copter, who stood behind Crash. "Hey, I didn't know you were so pretty, Zipp!" he chuckled, Punchy having a laugh as he stepped up, too. "Grr!! If this weren't a funeral, it'd be YOUR funeral!!" the hornet snapped. "Children, please get along. For me?" Hope asked. The other experiments had also arrived; Talon, Carrie, Kosmo, Heather, Guard, Sonata, Bolt, Lucky, Whisk, Spiny, Zeke, Ridley, Chet and Emily. Some had companions with them, some were actually there to visit other graves. All of them took a moment to share in their respect for the man who gave them their first, or second chance at life. "Here's to you, old man..." Kosmo said, holding up a can of soda before he and Carrie went looking for Ozzie's grave. "I can tell... We all miss you, in our way..." Sonata smiled, wiping a tear. He would know.
Copter had come along with Gemini and Libra, who found the stone with the name "Fred Leo" carved upon it. Timothy, Adam, Evelyn and Cuthburt were gathered there as well. "Wish I knew it was gonna be the last time I saw him before I got turned into a zombie..." Cuthburt sighed. "You were a super-annoying zombie..." Adam murmured, getting an elbow to the side from Evelyn for it. Timothy and Gemini glanced at each other with a nod, and left their wands by the grave. "Can't believe we buried him on that island and those hedgehogs dropped it in the ocean..." Timothy sighed. "Nothing wrong with a burial at sea." Copter told him. Libra placed a hand on the stone. "I searched for my family so long... I'm sorry, Daddy... I couldn't find you..." she sniffled, tearing up. Gemini hugged her. "He'd be happy we found each other..." she said. Copter looked at the group from the future. "What will you all do?" he asked. Evelyn chuckled softly. "While I understand the gesture, gonna need Tim to pick up his wand and whip us back home. I left the stove on and everything!" she said. "So, this'll really be goodbye..." Adam sniffled. "What'll you kids do?" Timothy asked. Gemini took Copter and Libra's hands. "Well... First, we're going to Tails' Not-Wedding, hehe." she winked. "That REALLY gotta be today?" Copter sighed. Busy day.
Chet and Ridley joined Katie at Razor's grave. Tommy was there too, of course, and so were Mia, Bill, Bob and Chief Paynson. Bill was sobbing quite a bit as Bob consoled him. "Who'll pay his tab now?" he snorted. He didn't really care about the money. Tommy left a bouquet of flowers at the grave, trying to keep a brave face. He couldn't, and he hugged Mia as he started to sob. "It's okay, Tom... We'll always be here for ya." she said softly. Paynson placed a hand on Ridley's shoulder. "...I'm retiring, you know. I was past my prime long before supernatural monsters appeared to steal souls. I'd hoped that Razor would take my place..." he said with a soft chuckle, Ridley glancing at him sadly. "He'd have deserved it." he said. Paynson nodded. "So, who better than the man who had his trust?" he asked, patting the coati on the back. Ridley stammered in light protest. "N-no, I... It's not right." he said. "That Razor's not here? No, it isn't right. So carry on for him! Protect the people he loved! I know you're the man for the job, because I know you'll take that seriously." he said. Ridley shut his eyes contemplatively. He'd come a long way from the self-interested guy he started as. Indeed, he didn't want to let Razor down. "Chief Paynson... Thank you." he said tearfully. Chet looked at him with a smile, embracing Katie. "I think... We'll all do Razor proud." he said.
Stepping to the Sonic grave, surprisingly, was Sonic. This grave had been erected in honor of the Doomsayer, but it still felt a bit odd. "Standin' at your own grave?" Copter asked. Sonic chuckled. "Hey there! ...Long time no see!" he waved. It had been almost a month since Sonic had been seen publicly as well. He had some rounds to make today, and this was his first stop. He looked at the Doomsayer's grave, smiling with a nod. "Glad ya made your peace... Knew I could count on me, hehe." he winked.
Sonic wasn't the only one setting off on his way. Emily met Conan when she was done paying her respects. "The police will still be looking for me. I've done awful things trying to bring you back." he said sadly. Emily placed a hand on his cheek. "Come on, then. I think we know a few people who will testify and help get you leniency." she smiled. Conan pulled his hat down over his eyes. He was sure he didn't deserve it. But, for Emily, he was prepared to pay any price. Sonic passed by them, and caught sight of a woman watching over a baby stroller. "Hey, I know that kid!" he smiled, stopping to admire baby Aurora in the stroller. Punchy and Rainbow came up a moment later. "Hey, thanks for watchin' the little bundle of trouble, Rosie." Punchy said to the chipmunk who was keeping watch over the stroller. Violet was coming up the street to meet them, joined by Patch and Daisy holding hands, and also a very much alive Mitch the weasel. "Hey, sis! And whoa, Sonic!" Violet gasped. The hedgehog chuckled softly. "Sorry, I can't stay. Got someplace to be." he said. "You wouldn't be the guest speaker at da 'Victims of Lost' meetin', wouldja?" Mitch asked. It was a support group meeting he was currently heading for. Sonic chuckled awkwardly. "Why would ya ask that?" he smirked. Punchy looked at Patch and Daisy making goo-goo eyes at each other and gagged. "Heehee, I feel the same about you and your girl!" Patch teased. Daisy patted the colorful fox on the head. "C'mon, let's walk Mitch to his meeting." she smiled. They all started to go their separate ways, and Sonic had to move on, too.
Sonic thought he saw Tails as he started to leave, but he quickly realized it was Miles. The shield carrying fox walked by with Winston the Moogle following, the pair meeting Lucky and Whisk just outside the memorial. Miles gave Lucky a hug while Whisk picked up Winston. "Hey! Easy, kupo!" the Moogle grunted. "How are you both holding up?" Miles asked. Lucky glanced back to the memorial briefly. "...We'll be okay. His heart is at peace." he said, placing a hand over his own heart. Whisk placed Winston on the ground and smiled. "Hey, any news on Sora? I know Lucky only met him briefly, but..." she murmured. Miles yelped. "That's right! Master Yen Sid wants to see you! Like, yesterday! Travis came to tell me and everything! No idea why he didn't just come here, heh." he chuckled. "Me-yow!!" Lucky exclaimed, "Right away? Must be important... Think Tails will understand?" he asked. Miles smirked. "Why don't you call him?" he asked, holding up a ProwerPhone.
Although Sonic had places to be, he couldn't help but get a bit distracted by the commotion caused by a bank robbery. There was an explosion, and then Bark the Polar Bear and Bean the Duck rushed out carrying loot towards Nack's newest getaway vehicle as the weasel waited for them. "C'mon, c'mon, hurry it up! Before the cops get here!" he shouted. Sonic watched them from across the street, tapping his foot. "Maybe I should give 'em a minute's head start?" he asked himself. While he considered that, several bullets dinged up the front of Nack's vehicle, making him jump in alarm. "Hey, watch the paint job!! ...Aaa!" he yelped as Omega dropped down from above, blocking him! Looking up, one could see Rouge, the bat who was responsible for airlifting the robot. "He's all yours, sugar!" she said, winking down at Omega. "Surrender or face eradication!" the robot warned. "Screw Nack! Run away!!" Bean shouted, turning with Bark only to run into Shadow! "We've been looking for you! We've got a cell saved right next to Gunner!" he smirked. Sonic gave a chuckle as he watched the scene unfold. "Look at Shadow, all official! When is GUN givin' ya a uniform, huh?" he shouted. The black hedgehog scoffed. "I don't need one... I'm intimidating enough. Right?" he asked, lifting Bean by the collar. The duck nodded frantically, gulping. Maybe they should've gone straight after battling to help save the world?
The venue for the support group meeting on this day was Bill and Bob's reopened Neon Tavern. It was also still operating as a bar, and until Bill and Bob got back from the "funeral," Dave was keeping an eye on things. Interning there, if you will. He passed a drink over to Sticks the Badger, who sniffed it suspiciously. "...Alright, I don't think it's poisoned." she said. "Whew... You're a tough customer." Dave sighed. The actual support group was gathering in an area that had been set aside for them, around the karaoke stage, leaving customers plenty of space to use the bar. Cosmo and Zooey were among those customers, swapping stories while drinking away their troubles. "So, let me get this straight... You're like those people, those copies of people? You're from another world?" Zooey asked. Cosmo nodded. "Yes... I left behind my friends... My beloved Tails..." she said, regret in her voice, "I want...to find my way back. And make everything right." she sighed. Zooey placed a hand over hers. "Hey... We'll figure it out. Let me help you?" she asked, earning a smile from the Seedrian. Guard and Heather walked into the bar next, taking a seat next to each other. "Grr... What would you like?" the gargoyle asked. The phoenix looked at him. "I'd like... If we gave our relationship a try after all..." she said, making Guard glance at her with wide eyes. "Rrr... You said that if I remained with GUN..." he stammered. Heather gently pecked his lips, blushing. "Garen... I trust you. Let's leave it at that." she said softly.
Sonic finally walked in, after moving past his various distractions, and turned toward the karaoke stage where the support group was set up. Taurus the bull sat up and pointed. "Hey, hey! It's Sonic!! Look! Hey, Sonic!!" he waved as Pisces the shark looked at him funny. "So, you're a fanboy now?" she murmured. Mitch and Hope had gotten there quickly, and were already seated among the group, along with Aquarius the albatross, Capricorn the ferret, Nevin Crimm, Astra the fennec, and also the former leaders of the Lost Ones, Luna the wolf, William the raccoon, Gunther, Spiro the cat and Rex the hedgehog. Among others, Silver and Blaze were sitting in as well, accompanying a few residents of their world. It was kind of a packed house, and Omochao was hovering onstage to moderate the meeting. "Ah, thank you, Mr. Bull! Yes, today as a special guest, Sonic has come to say a few words! Come onstage, Sonic!" the robot said, politely bowing out of the spotlight while the others clapped for his arrival. "Sing Fist Bump!" Spiro shouted as William rolled his eyes. "This era's minstrels are too boisterous. A tragedy Bard is left so far in our memories..." he sighed. "I can't believe he's still talking like that, ugh..." Gunther groaned. Sonic clapped his hands back as he reached the stage, smiling at the group. "Hey, fellas, you made it! One whole month without munchin' anyone's souls!" he told them, gaining a few chuckles, "I ain't much for speeches, so I'll just say this... As we keep runnin' forward, it's not that we're runnin' away from our pain. It's that we're runnin' toward something. Make the future you're runnin' toward a good one!" he said, waving as they clapped again. Rex met him as he headed off the stage. "I never got a chance to properly thank you. I spent a long time at this hero 'gig,' as they say now... But it's clear to me that you're better at it than I ever was." he said with a light smile. His quills had grayed in a month's time. He was aging rapidly now that his task was finally done. Sonic gently shook his hand. "Eh, we all make mistakes. I hope retirement treats ya well." he said cheerfully as Silver and Blaze approached. "Hey, Sonic. We'll see ya later, right?" Silver asked. "Huh? You will? Why?" he stammered. Blaze chuckled softly. "Tails and Cream's promise ceremony. Aren't you coming?" Sonic's eyes widened. "Uhhh where was that again??"
Sonic had to rush to the venue, but he had one more stop to make first. As he rushed out of the Neon Tavern, he passed by Zeke the dragon and Zim the Zeti. "Hey, watch where you're running, hedgehog!!" Zim shouted, only to be ignored. The flapping of wings caught Zeke's attention as Raven the divine landed near them. "So, no luck finding those other Darks?" the dragon asked. Raven sighed. "They were all turned into Lost Ones. I guess the cure caused them to...return to their original states. No idea what happened to Mephiles, he might be gone for good, but the others are probably inside their original hosts again...like Xezek." she stated. Zeke shrugged. "Whatevs, it's no scales off my tail. But if you're lonely, you could always come with us." he offered. Zim looked unsure. "She wasn't very nice to us before..." he grumbled. Raven knelt down and patted him on the head. "Aww, poor baby. Well, where are you even going?" she asked Zeke. The dragon smirked, opening a corridor of darkness in a nearby alley. "Wait and see..." he said.
Sonic moved really fast, making his way to Station Square in order to make his next stop. He was swinging by the office building to visit Uncle Chuck, but he was surprised to see the whole Freedom Fighter gang there! "Sugar hog! Great to see ya!" Bunnie cried, grabbing Sonic in a surprise hug as he entered the office space. "Agh! Who...?" he stammered as Rotor and Antoine stepped over to shake his hand. "Chuck talks a lot about you. Heh, it's almost like you're one of the group." Rotor stated. "Sonic Hedgehog, well met! We are, how you say, cut from the same cheese, eh?" Antoine smiled. Sonic chuckled softly. "Uh, yeah, good to see ya. Any sign of my Unc around?" he babbled. "Oui, right that way!" Antoine pointed. Chuck and Sally were both hunched over a video call. It was more a conference, with Dr. Nammad and Professor Pickle both on the line. "Yeah, uh, the Gaia Wellspring on my end seems, uh, intact!" Nammad reported. Sally sighed with relief. "How about you, professor?" she asked. Pickle gulped down a certain type of sandwich he was munching and got right to it. "As far as my findings indicate... Not only are the Wellsprings unharmed, but the life energy that flowed in through those tendrils as they were being undone... It seems to have strengthened the Gaia Wellsprings to an extent! Life on our planet may be stronger than ever." he announced. "Fantastic!" Chuck exclaimed, "Well, you got Dulcy there, right? If ya need anything, let her fly over and we'll getcha set up in a jiff!" he said. "Hey, Unc!" Sonic said, catching his attention, "Ya wanted to see me?" Chuck turned in his seat with a smile. "Ah, Sonic my boy... Sadly it's not a personal call. I got a line on Dr. Eggman. Wanted you to look into it." he said. Sonic held his forehead. "Aw, not today..." he groaned, "I'll have to make it quick!" he added. Sally nodded, lifting up her personal computer. "Nicole, coordinates, please..." she requested.
Sonic had to hurry and get this done, so he had no time to stop and chat as he left the office and sped through the streets, passing the new office of the Chaotix Detective Agency. Vector nearly stumbled as Sonic zoomed past him. "Whoa there, Sonic! Gah! We should be hurryin', too! Come on, guys!! Let's go!" he shouted. Ray and Charmy burst out the door, pointing fingers at one another. "I was trying but Ray was holding everything up!" the bee complained. "Nuh-uh! Charmy's the one who was goofing off!" Ray protested. Mighty picked them both up from behind and carried them through the doorway. "Yeah, ready or not, we gotta get going now!" he said as Espio stealthily emerged in front of them. "There's plenty of time to organize our expanded business... This is a special day for potential clients." he stated. Vector blushed lightly. "Yeah, and... Miss Vanilla will be there..." he whispered, snickering to himself.
Sonic arrived in the Mystic Ruins. It was convenient that both his destinations were in this area. As he sped out of the train station, he passed by Fera the wolf and Illusi the shrew. They were both semi-formally dressed, unusual for both of them. "Hey, Sonic, you're not late quite yet!" Illusi shouted. "I will be if I'm not careful!" the hedgehog shouted back, speeding on his way. Fera sighed. "At least he doesn't really see me..." she murmured. Illusi chuckled softly. "My dear, you look lovely. I dare say you'd make a fetching bride one day if you'd let yourself grow close to someone." he smiled. Fera gave him a small smile back. "Thanks, but I think I'll settle for learning to make friends for now..." she said. "No rush..." Illusi grinned, materializing a fancy top hat and cane as he started on his way, "I'm pretty sure you have your share of friends, though. Why else would we be invited?" he added.
Final Egg, the former Mystic Ruins base of Dr. Eggman, seemed to be where intelligence suggested the scientist's whereabouts to be. Sonic charged through the main entrance, ready for a battle, only to find robots busily boxing things up! Char flew up to cheerily greet Sonic. "Hey! Good to see ya! You come to help pack?" he asked. Sonic raised an eyebrow. "...pack?" he questioned. Terra crept over, carrying a metal crate in his powerful arms. "All Eggman bases are to be decommissioned." he stated. Firepaw was busy interfacing with the computer, while Orbot, Cubot and Hoover were overseeing the release of animals from inside old robots, including Slash, Sting, Clucky and Burrowbot. "Why does this feel like murder?" Cubot asked. "It is literally the opposite o' murder! We're settin' their livin' bodies free!" Hoover pointed out. "Well, technically, our old friends' AI will in fact shut down..." Orbot noted. Some Flicky birds, as well as a pig and a bunny emerged from the four robots, and scampered away free. Alpha waved as they scurried for the exit. "Bye, friends! Send me a text sometime!" he babbled. "Sonic!" Eggman floated over in his Egg Mobile, startling the hedgehog. "What... What's the game now, doctor?" he asked. Eggman nodded. "That sure sounds like me, doesn't it? Loudly proclaim my retirement to make you let your guard down, then whammo! Hit you with the ol' double cross!" the doctor snickered, "...But no. This change of heart... It's different. I've seen what happens when I win, Sonic. Well... I'm unimpressed with the results." he sighed. Sonic scratched his head. "What now, then?" he wondered. The doctor laughed softly. "That's the question, isn't it? I can't go legit, the government wants me in jail forever. Ah, but since when would a thing like that stop me, eh? Changing may be a challenge... But everything worth doing is." he stated. Sonic nodded, giving his old nemesis a small smile. "Well... see ya around, doc." he said. "Oh, Sonic... Watch out for Nega and Metal Sonic. You didn't think the world would just let YOU retire, did ya?" Eggman chuckled. Sonic gave a small laugh on his way out the door. "Me, retire?! I ain't even tired!" he smirked, giving a backwards wave on the way out.
After Sonic left, Eggman hopped out of his Egg Mobile and stepped to the computer Firepaw was interfacing with. "Meowr? Boss?" the feline robot murmured. "Leave me a moment..." he said, and as Firepaw walked away, he played a message archived in his database. The voice heard was that of Dr. Bucky Stein. "I leave you with this urgent message, doctor. My current endeavor to cure the Lost Ones... I have a feeling about it. This mission will be my last. If it proves successful, I will have no regrets...but it must succeed. I know that you took my power-transfer pods, and should I fail, I place the burden on you to enact my Plan B. Experiment 20 has the power, but not the means to mobilize it. You must transfer that power where it will do the most good, and to awaken that power's true potential, the Chaos Emeralds may be necessary. You may ask yourself... 'Why should I do this?' Yes, why should you fix my mistakes? It was my team, we decided to continue my work in the shadows, and we inadvertently unleashed the evil long housed within Shadow Arcangel. But no, don't do it for me... Robotnik, your grandfather was a good man, I know. Don't let his later insanity cloud your mind on that. He would be proud of your intellect already...make him proud of your heart. Achieve Gerald's dream... Bring hope to humanity." As the message concluded, Eggman wiped his eyes and let out a wistful sigh.
Sonic sped up the stairs leading to Tails' workshop, and nearly bumped into Big the Cat at the top. "Whoa! Ah, hey, big guy! Seen the man of the hour around?" he asked. Big looked at him and scratched his head before pointing at the Workshop. "If you're looking for a clock, I'd try in there." he mumbled. Sonic laughed softly. "Never change, dude. Hey, where's Froggy?" he asked as he passed by, making Big look around with alarm. As Sonic headed up another set of steps to the Workshop, he found Knuckles standing close by, with Shade fixing the bow tie affixed to his suit. "How'd you convince me to dress up, Shade?? Big's not even wearing a shirt!" he grumbled. "Quit fussing. I helped you salvage those Master Emerald pieces, so you're gonna look good while we're out together!" she told him. Knuckles shot Sonic a "Help me" look, and Sonic just smiled back, shrugging. Heading inside the Workshop, he found Amy heading through the entrance room with a clipboard in her hand. "Ah, hey, Amy!" he waved. She looked at him with a bit of agitation. "Sonic, where have you been ALL MONTH?? Never mind, at least you showed up! Tails is upstairs, go see that he's ready!" she said, glancing at her clipboard. "Ohhh, the caterers really bailed on us! Why'd they insist on doing this here? I hope Marine's getting Cream ready and not playing around!" she babbled, "Punchy's wedding went smoother, ah... Until Gunner crashed it..." she mused.
Sonic found Tails upstairs adjusting his own bow tie in a mirror, also dressed in a suit, but he was required to as the "groom." At his side was SPOT Mark III, up on his hind legs and holographically displaying a diagram of how to actually tie a bow tie through his eyes. "Sonic has entered the room." the robot spoke, prompting Tails to glance his way before glancing back into the mirror. "No one made you dress up..." he chuckled softly. Sonic laughed. "Not what ya had in mind? Yeah, Amy can go a little overboard..." he murmured, patting the fox on the back, "Ya nervous?" he asked. Tails stood a bit rigid. "Why would I be nervous? We're not REALLY getting married, so there's no need to be nervous..." he said, sounding fairly convincing. However, he then turned towards Sonic, a bundle of anxiety. "I'm totally nervous!" he admitted, shaking, "W-will the real thing feel like this!?" Sonic hugged him, chuckling softly. "Probably, heh!" he replied, "But there's no need to be shy, little bro. You love each other. Don't let it make you feel weird showing everybody how you feel. We're all in your corner." he said, patting him on the head. Tails gave a bashful smile. "Th-thanks, Sonic. You're a great Best Man." he said. Sonic chuckled with a smirk. "Best Hedgehog, you mean!" he winked.
Before long, the ceremony had gotten underway. They held it right outside on the cliff below the Workshop, where Amy had set up a flowery temporary altar, and as many seats as they could reasonably fit to allow the guests to observe the proceedings. A few were standing along the Tornado runway, because people like Tails and Cream were sure to bring a lot of friends, even to a mock wedding. Sonic stood beside Tails as the best hedgehog, while Amy stood across from them as the maid of honor. "You're next, Sonic..." she whispered, winking. Knuckles and Shade were in the front row along with Copter and Gemini, and Fera sitting with Illusi behind them. They weren't exactly split into bride side and groom side, for both pretty much shared the same friends. Vanilla walked Cream between the seats, the rabbit dressed in a pretty white dress with a flower crown adorning her head. "She's so pretty... Ahh, ain't she pretty, Blaze? Didn't I do a sweet job!" Marine smirked, shaking the princess with glee. Silver sat beside Blaze, arm around her. "I wonder... How you'd look in something like that." he whispered, making Blaze flush bright red. "Shush..." she grunted. Vanilla smiled, standing beside Amy as she left Cream with Tails, and Cheese arrived behind them, carrying the two Tailbands on a pillow. Tails and Cream giggled, picking a band up each. They then looked to Astra the fennec, who was acting as the "minister" for the ceremony. "Y-you're... so beautiful, Cream..." Tails whispered. The rabbit blushed and smiled as Astra began to speak. "We are gathered here... To witness the promise made between these two promising youths. And if anyone has anything to say against it... Keep your mouth shut, spoilsport, it's not the real thing!" she stated, earning a few chuckles from the crowd, "Now, then, I'm very old, so let's keep this succinct. Miles Prower, Cream Rabbit, you are here to promise that your love will continue burning strong, and one day, it will join you in matrimony. If you indeed promise this, you may exchange Tailbands... These objects of creation, now symbols of the life you both will share." she stated. Tails and Cream looked into each others' eyes, and handed off the band in their hands, Cream placing hers on her wrist, while Tails slipped his on a tail. "Hehe, force of habit..." he giggled. "It's cute like that." Cream said cheerily. Astra smiled warmly at them, and waved her hand between them. "By the power vested in me... I don't really pronounce anything at all! But aren't they cute!" she laughed, everyone clapping cheerfully for the couple. "Kiss the bride!!" Ray shouted. Tails' face went bright red, and Cream had a bit of a blush as well. Despite his hesitation, though, Tails took her in his arms, and gave her a kiss right there, resulting in louder clapping and a few cheers...some tears as well. At the very back of the ceremony, gathered around the steps leading down from the cliff, some unexpected guests were clapping, too. Melody and Skye, paying a visit from their time, witnessing the moment their future was secured. Next to them, Juice the hedgehog, standing with Lara the echidna. Behind them, Chopper the fox, Casey the coyote, Argyle the crocodile, Venice the hedgehog, Starr the morph, Aurora the echidna, and all seven of Lucky and Whisk's children, including Junior, Pepper and Minnie. It was a crowded stairway. "Way to go, dad." Skye smiled. "Yuck, such mush..." Juice gagged. "Don't knock it, haha!" Chopper giggled. The future was bright indeed.
Thankfully, some of the guests had brought food since Amy's caterer didn't make it. So, they rearranged the chairs and set up a small buffet on that cliff so they could have lunch to close out the little event. There were some brief toasts made to the cute couple, but this was followed up by some announcements. Copter stood up with a glass...of "Chaos Soda" since not everyone was exactly drinking age, and cleared his throat. "Ahh, first I wanna tell Tails congrats on his, uh... Relationship?" he chuckled, "But I have an announcement of my own." he began. "You and Wanda are getting married??" Rainbow shouted, making Copter turn white for a second. "No, no!" Gemini stammered, blushing, "Not...yet." she added. Copter coughed softly. "We're...leaving. Libra's coming with us." he said. Tails looked a little sad. "Leaving? But where?" he asked. Libra shrugged and glanced at her sister, who looked to Copter. "Well... They decided to stay in this time at least. But we all discussed it, and we kinda wanna really see the world. Without it being about to blow up." he stated, everyone having a bit of a laugh about that. "Well, you're always welcome at our home if you need a place to stay." Vanilla offered. Punchy stood up next with his own glass. "Well, ah... We're not going quite as far, but, Rainbow and I are moving to Troblusk City. Gonna stay with Violet until we're ready to get our own place. I hear the police might be hiring..." he said, Knuckles pointing at him suddenly. "You're gonna leave the Master Emerald all for me to guard after everything!?" he shouted. Shade patted him on the shoulder. "You know, Knuxie, I do think your island could use a woman's touch..." she smirked. Knuckles stammered a bit, starting to blush, and Rainbow giggled. "Viola wanted to be here, by the way, but Rosie could use a break from babysitting." she stated, "But between all of us, we'll clean up that dirty trouble city!" she said, referring to Troblusk. Illusi smiled at Punchy. "I'm proud of you, Dark One." he stated, to which Punchy nearly snapped at the name, but the nostalgia of it got to him. "Thanks, Illusi..." he sighed. The shrew stood up with Fera. "We may be exiting the dimension for a time, but I'm sure we'll be back." he smiled. Fera nodded, a bit shy-looking with everyone looking at her in her pretty clothes. "There's some questions for us still to answer. Plot holes we need to fill..." she murmured. Tails raised a glass to her. "You'll figure it all out, heh!" he assured her. Kosmo grudgingly stood up next at Carrie's urging. "All right, now I'm standing too! All of us standing in a circle... Buncha-" Vector interrupted him before he finished. "We're reopened, by the way! Chaotix Detective Agency! Now with more staff to solve all your mysterious needs!" the croc winked. "Thanks for that, that broke the ice..." Kosmo groaned, "Well, my son, Ozzie, he came here from our planet. He must've left a ship somewhere. Shadow's promised to help find it, and Carrie and I are gonna... Go see where I came from, hopefully." he announced. "Wow, sounds like quite a trip!" Amy gasped. "Does that mean you won't come back?" Cream asked. Kosmo glanced at Carrie uncertainly, but she smiled. "If the future's anything to go on, we'll be back." she assured them. "Alright, but is anybody STAYING??" Charmy asked anxiously. "Well, I mean, we are!!" Tails stammered, the group erupting in cheerful laughter. Sonic was fairly quiet through it all, partly listening, partly eating, partly reflecting. He wondered about the ones responsible for allowing them to share all this laughter together. He hoped they were all at peace...wondering what their final moments had been like.
A month ago, the version of Sonic the Hedgehog that had long been known as the Doomsayer had become a special form of Super Sonic, casting aside the Doomsayer's robes to aid in taking down Apocalos once and for all. After he and Legend Sonic flew into Apocalos' eye, the creation energy of the two worked together to overpower the villain, and cure him of his evil form, restoring him to the identity of Rex the Hedgehog. But Super Sonic's work wasn't done. Moving fast as light, he soared across Green Hill, radiating the power of GeneX to restore each and every Lost One to their rightful state of being. When his work was finally done, Super Sonic found himself floating high above South Island, his body feeling light as he slowly was starting to fade. "We have done it..." came a soothing voice. Sonic looked to see Gideon the GeneX floating beside him, looking transparent like a ghost. He took the glowing being's hand and smiled softly. "At least...we won't fade alone." he sighed. Gideon shook its head. "This isn't fading. This is...a new phase in our existence. Instead of one corporeal form, we exist in the hearts of all who are gathered here... A part of them, a part of their world." it said, smiling warmly. Sonic let out a soft sigh, a tear rolling down his cheek. "Hey, no tears, Sonic..." another familiar voice softly spoke. Sonic's eyes widened as he saw a long lost friend before him. "...Chip!" he gasped. Light Gaia was manifested before his eyes, but was he real? Chip flitted to the hedgehog and hugged his chest. "You...you've done good, Sonic." he said, overcome with emotion. The tears still flowed for Sonic, happy to be reunited with his friend. "Yeah... I finally...set things right." he sniffled, smiling wide. Chip flitted between him and Gideon, reaching a hand out to both of them. "Now, we can all go to rest...together." he said with a warm smile. Gideon took his hand and lightly chuckled. "I would like nothing more." it said. Sonic took Chip's hand as well, and the trio began to disappear in a bright glimmer of sparkles. "All three of us... A part of this great Earth..." Chip sighed. Sonic nodded with a warm smile. "Always..." he whispered, and all three of them vanished together...
With the Promise Ceremony over, Sonic had started on his way. He was actually one of the first to leave, ever and always on the run. His run brought him back to Green Hill, where he found a cliffside overlooking the place where the battle had taken place the month before. For a brief moment, he thought he heard something, a familiar voice maybe? He looked around, but no one was there. Taking one last grateful look over the lush, green hills that started him on so many adventures, Sonic turned and started to run, in search of new adventures...on the great journey called life.
And our heroes lived the journey to their happiest ever after.
"Doesn't matter what they say, think or feel!
Speed, power, smarts we're the real deal!
We can make it right, bring the light!
Hold on till the end of the night!!
We're gonna show the whole world that we're not afraid of them!
The haters and the baiters ain't got nothin' to defend!
Side by side, on this road, you and I are gonna see,
We're speedin' on and on to our destiny!!
To our destiny!
What is wrong, what is right? Gotta stay hard as nails!
The one that falters is the one that fails!
We'll find the treasure of our dreams, it's inside of you!
Just stick with me, there ain't nothin' we can't do!
We're gonna fly high, and reach for the stars!
Our friends are waiting, no matter how far!
Doesn't matter what they say, think, feel or fight!
We can make it all right, gonna bring back the light!
We're gonna show the whole world that we're not afraid of them!
The haters and the baiters ain't got nothin' to defend!
Side by side, on this road, you and I are gonna see,
We're speedin' on and on to our destiny!
Shadows of despair... Loss and chaos in the air...
Everyone deserves their chance at life.
Don't give up the fight!
~ Don't give up tonight ~
We're gonna show the whole world that we're not afraid of them!
The haters and the baiters ain't got nothin' to defend!
Side by side, on this road, you and I are gonna see,
We're speedin' on and on to our destiny!
~ Before I say goodbye to you... one more... ~
Side by side, on this road, you and I are gonna see...
We're speedin' on and on, on and on...
Together to our destiny!" - Speed Destiny, Sonic GeneX Main Theme by 2BIT
