"Well this should be fun. The weakest member of your merry little band thinks that he can beat me all on his own?" Sombra asked, cracking Sonic's knuckles as he approached the warrior. He cast a glance to the side to see that Applejack and Bunnie were gathering up the others. For a moment he considered stopping them, only to shrug and focus completely on Antoine. "I could stop them. It would be easy."
"Oui, it would," Antoine agreed.
"But there's something about you that ticks me off. The pompous air, the way you hold yourself, your choice of weaponry...that's what it is. You remind me of Shining Armor. And there are few ponies I hate more than Shining Armor," Sombra cackled. "Oh, I'm going to enjoy tearing you apart."
"If you can," Antoine replied as he raised his blade.
"If I can. Guy likes jokes," Sombra laughed. Within an instant he was on top of Antoine, hurling a punch towards the coyote's head...only for Antoine to parry the punch with the flat side of his sword before knocking Sombra's legs out from under him. Sombra went tumbling across the ground before rising up to his feet, a stunned look on his face. "What just happened?"
"It's looks like you tripped, mon amie," Antoine said.
"You be quiet," Sombra snapped. He shook out his legs before stretching his neck. "Got lucky is all. That's fine, somepony as pathetic as you would need all the luck in the world to last as long as you have. But now I'm going to end this."
Once more Sombra went on the attack at blinding speed, snapping a punch at Antoine's head before going low to sweep out the legs. Antoine drove his blade into the ground and Sombra's shins collided with metal. The king growled as he rolled back, taking a second to recover before whipping behind Antoine and hurling a kick at his head. Antoine ducked the attack without turning around, leaving Sombra to miss wildly and go crashing across the ground.
"What in the hells is happening?!" Sombra roared. He was back on his feet and on the attack a moment later, unleashing a flurry of blows at the warrior, but to his utter fury Antoine was able to block and dodge all of them. "How the hell are you doing this?! I know you're nowhere near as fast as Sonic! I just watched him mop the floor with all of you! So why! Can't! I! HIT YOU?!"
"Wouldn't you like to know?" Antoine replied.
Antoine took a moment to glance over at the others. Applejack was tending to Sally and Pinkie while Bunnie motioned to him, showing that she had the emerald in her grasp. He needed to move quick then. Antoine turned and dashed back into the park, smirking over his shoulder when he saw that Sombra was following him as best as he could. Despite having the obvious speed advantage, Sombra found that he couldn't catch the coyote who always managed to stay one step ahead of the dark hedgehog.
Antoine finally spied what he had been running to and came to a stop next to the Ferris wheel, turning and blocking with his blade just in time to stop another punch that would have taken off his head.
"Finally decided to stop running?! Finally ready to die?" Sombra snarled.
"For someone who claims to be so smart, you are quite the dummy, are you not?" Antoine asked. Antoine moved to the side and Sombra staggered past, allowing Antoine the chance to slam the hilt of his sword into the back of Sonic's head. Sombra dropped to the ground and roared, but then he rolled over to find a blade pointed at his throat. "I would advise staying down. You cannot win."
"Can't win?! I am Sombra, the dark king! Ruler of the Crystal Empire! And I will not be beaten by a coward like you!" Sombra roared. Then a calm smile spread across his face and he chuckled as he rose back up to his feet. "And I won't be. Because despite being pretty good at evading me, you can't actually fight back. Not without endangering your precious friend. Why don't you go ahead and use that sword? Strike me down now before I catch you. This might be the only chance you've got. Because once I catch you...you're dead."
"And still you are the fool. Have you still not figured it out?" Antoine asked. Antoine backed away from Sombra as he said this, until he was next to the support for the Ferris wheel. "You think zat you are in control of Sonic, but you could not be further from ze truth. You are trying to wrangle ze wind. To corral ze seas. There is not enough of a brain in his head to control."
"You fool. I'm not controlling his mind. I'm controlling his soul," Sombra spat back.
"Ah. An even worse idea," Antoine smirked. "If you were simply controlling his mind, then you would have a chance. But trying to control his soul? You are an even bigger fool than I thought."
"We'll see who's the fool when I kill you. I am in complete control of Sonic. I have his heart clutched in my hooves. And I will use him to kill you."
"Reall? I do not believe you. Let us find out."
As Antoine said this, he slashed his blade to the side and cleaved clean through the support for the Ferris wheel. The tons of metal groaned before the started to collapse, falling right where Antoine was standing. Antoine made no effort to move or get out of the way. He sheathed his blade and kept his eyes locked on Sombra the entire time.
"You're actually doing this? You believe so much in Sonic that you're willing to kill yourself to prove me wrong?" Sombra asked. He then threw back his head and laughed mercilessly. "Oh, and I thought killing you with your friends body would be perfect, but now I get to watch you kill yourself in a foolish attempt to free your friend?! You are the real fool!"
"A fool who knows Sonic," Antoine said as the Ferris wheel came down on top of him.
Sombra threw back his head to laugh...only to look down at his body and realize that he was in his smoky form once more. He took a moment to let this sink in before he looked off to the side of where the Ferris wheel had landed, stunned to see that not only was Antoine still alive...but Sonic had been the one to save him.
"Whew, that was a close one," Sonic said. He then smiled at Antoine and gave him a thumbs up. "Thanks for believing in me, Twan. Putting yourself in risk like that gave me the extra kick I needed to break free. Don't make it a habit."
"Do not worry, I have no plans to do zat again," Antoine sighed with relief. "But I believed in your. Mostly. Fifty-fifty."
"Your faith astounds me," Sonic said. The pair turned towards Sombra, who had regained his physical form and was glaring at the pair through narrowed eyes.
"And there it is. Your ability to perform the impossible to save the day," Sombra snarled. "To break free of my soul cage like that...I underestimated you, rodent."
"Like I said, it happens."
"And as for you, Antoine...I owe you an apology. I thought of you as nothing more than just a coward. But now I see that there is a mind in there. So I will no longer treat you like a fool that is there for my amusement. Now you are a target that must be crushed."
"It is nice to be appreciated," Antoine said with a smirk.
Sombra looked to the side to see the other approaching, weighed his options and decided that the fight wasn't worth it anymore. So into the shadows he vanished once more.
"SUGAR-TWAN!"
A metal missile tackled Antoine and took the poor coyote off his feet. While Bunnie sobbed into Antoine's chest, Sally, AJ and Pinkie walked over to Sonic, relief written on the princess's face. "Glad to have you back Sonic. For a moment I thought that we might have to actually hurt you to stop you."
"Come on, you guys know how it goes. One of us gets mind controlled and the others snap them out of it. We've been doing it for years," Sonic replied.
"Doesn't make it any easier," Sally added.
"But look what we got!" Pinkie said as she pulled out the white emerald. "This would look amazing on a ring."
"We should be getting back to Canterlot. Ah don't want to be here when Sombra comes back with his friends," Applejack said.
"Good idea. I'll let them know we're ready," Sally agreed. She pressed a button on her comms and Celestia's magic activated, taking the group back to Canterlot.
"He really is as chaotic as Robotnik said," Sombra said from the shadows. "I am not one to doubt myself, but even I am starting to wonder if our plan will actually succeed. An unknown variable is a dangerous thing indeed."
Then he vanished into the darkness once more.
||==O O==||
"...And then may sugar-Twan stood there and put his life on the line just to help Sonic break free of Sombra's control," Bunnie finished up saying. All of the freedom fighters had gathered around to hear the story, and Bunnie told it proudly, while Antoine waved off the praise with a smile. "Of course Sonic did, but mah stars was ah worried there fer a minute."
"I told you, ma cherie, there was no need to be concerned. I knew zat Sonic would pull through...but as always, he took his time," Antoine teased.
"Normally I would say something about that, but seeing as you actually did save me back there, I'm going to just say thanks Twan," Sonic said. Antoine bowed in reply.
"But how did you manage to hold your own against Sonic?" Tails asked. "I mean, earlier in the story Sonic was beating all of you up, including you. What changed?"
"It is simple, Tails. Do you know what my job on ze team is?"
"To...make us all feel better?"
"Non. I am the analyst of the team. I studied our foes and figure out ways to counter and adapt to them...but also, when I was younger, I would also do zat for my allies as well," Antoine admitted.
"So you've been watching us all these years, figuring out how to take us down?" Bunnie asked.
"Well, I could never keep my eyes off of you. And non, I did not come up with ze plans or things like zat. I just learned how you all fought and acted. So as to lead you better...or get ze one up on Sonic if the chance presented itself," Antoine teased. "And zat Tails, is how I bested Sombra. He was not used to fighting on two legs or able to use Sonic's maneuverability properly. But above all, his mind was not as fast as Sonics."
"You mean that even though Sombra was controlling Sonic, he still couldn't keep up with his speed?" Tails asked.
"Zat is it. He could only fight in a straight line. Making him ze easy to predict."
"Hmph, he had the body, but he didn't have the skill. Yeah, even Eggman's beaten me when I've gotten predictable. I can see how you could do it."
"I knew there was a reason we always kept you around," Rotor joked.
"Oui, to be ze bait," Antoine replied.
"Non of that, hun, you were great," Bunnie said as she kissed Antoine's cheek.
"And that leaves on three emeralds left," Sally said.
"Yup, we're getting close to the end of our little adventure," Sonic agreed. Then he narrowed his eyes and thought for a moment. "But Eggman's been too quiet for my liking. Sombra's out here taking us on, but Eggman...he's up to something. And I don't like it."
"He's always up to something, Sonic. And it doesn't matter what it is, we'll stop him," Sally promised. Sonic looked at her for a second before his smile returned.
"Of course we will. We always do."