Chapter Seven: Her
{Third POV}
The portal lead them to an Equestria armageddon. The sky was red, the clouds black, and any civilization in sight was in ruins. Gale was carrying Lisa bridal style while Cyber Beast followed behind them.
“What the hell happened here?” Gale asked to no one as he looked around in shock while he set Lisa down. They appeared to be on a floating island above a bare field of grass. In the distance Canterlot was almost completely destroyed. When they turned around they found a huge black castle with a hole in a wall leading to a throne room where signs of a battle were seen.
“Gale…” Gale looked over to Lisa who was staring at something and shaking. “...you...you need to see this…”
Gale walked over and placed a hand on her shoulder. “What's wro-” He held a hand over his nonexistent mouth to keep himself from throwing up which, in all honesty, he couldn’t really tell if he actually could or not, as he saw what had Lisa spooked.
There lay Metals head, with the top tore in half as if something had burst out from inside. Looking a bit up they found the rest of his body in a similar state. To make matters worse there was a large puddle of blood by the body.
Lisa shakily knelt down and took the head in her hands and rose up again. She just stood there, staring at the shell that was her friend. As she looked inside it she found multiple scrapes in the metal, like something had tore him apart from the inside. “We...were too late.”
Gale wanted to comfort her, but then the shaking started. Gale could only watch as the unheard of, never before seen and only told in the most horrid of scary stories, Lisa Mad Mode Four, was brought to life. The ground cracked, a red aura built around Lisa, and that cut on her face reappeared. Her tendrils came out, and became jagged and nightmarish. Her hair began to float a little as magic coursed through Lisa’s veins. Her hands sharpened into claws, and the world itself seemed to darken around her.
“Who did this? WHO?” The castle shook violently as Lisa’s rage began to grow. “I swear when I find whoever did this, I will make them WISH THEY WERE DEAD!”
“LISA!” Gale rushed up to her and hugged her from behind. At first she was going to attack Gale, but her instincts realized who it was so instead of killing she tried to wrestle out of his grasp.
“NO! LET ME GO! I’M GOING TO KILL THE BASTARD THAT DID THIS!”
“I know Lisa. I know the pain you’re feeling, the sadness, but you need to calm down.”
“Calm down? CALM DOWN?! YOU EXPECT ME TO CALM DOWN?! NEVER! I WILL NOT REST UNTIL I FIND THE BASTARD THAT DID THIS!”
“I know Lisa, I want to find them too, but getting mad like this will do nothing! Do you really think Metal would want you consumed by your own rage like this?” That made Lisa stop dead in her tracks. Gale was right, getting angry like this wouldn’t help anyone. Lisa began to return to normal as she broke down into tears, turning around and crying into Gale’s shoulder. Gale hugged her close as he looked at Metal’s destroyed body. He swore to himself, he would find who did this, and he would end them.
”Wait.” Gale and Lisa both stopped and looked to see a mobian limping towards them, Cosmo the Seedarian. ”Metal isn't dead. Those parts are merely a shell, notice that the way the metal is torn, it was torn from inside. Something came out of Metal Sonic, he is not dead, but if you do not act quickly you may lose him forever.”
Lisa pulled away from Gale and walked towards the injured Cosmo. “Really? Metal is alive?”
”Yes, but he is still in danger of losing his life to something else. That blood does not belong to him, but someone he cares very deeply for, someone from his life on Earth.”
“How do you know this?” Gale asked.
Cosmo hesitated for a moment, not sure whether or not to reveal herself, but trusted these two with Metals safety. ”Because...I am Metals mother.”
Gale and Lisa froze, having to take a couple of seconds to let that info dump sink in.
“WHAT?!”
”I know it's hard to believe, but…” She sighed and sat down. ”Twenty five years ago, I was just an ordinary woman with an adorable son and beautiful daughter.”
“Metal has a sister?!” Lisa exclaimed.
”Yes, let me continue. One day, when I was sitting in my home watching my six year old daughter play with her little Sonic the Hedgehog toys with my six year old son, of course Metal Sonic was his favourite, I suddenly felt lighter than air and appeared in some kind of white void. There I was approached by a strange figure, who reassured me, and told me of all the things my son would do both on Earth and in Equestria. I thought I was dreaming at first but it started to become all the more real as time went on. The figure that approached me, was Metals father. Apparently his father was a Void Dweller that had decided to live on earth where he met me. No wonder he always dodged the question of what he did for a living.” She chuckled slightly before continuing. ”I was offered a position, to be my children's guardian Angel of sorts. But, that would mean leaving them for twenty years, it's twenty because of Metals ten years asleep. So, for the future of my children I accepted the position...sometimes I wish I hadn't...so I could be there to comfort my two children when they were sad, or take care of them when they were sick. But it was all to preserve their futures.”
Lisa and Gale let all of this new information sink in. “So, Metal is the son of a displacer?” Gale asked.
”No, his father isn't a displacer, just a being from the void. Now enough talking, you need to go help my son before he's lost forever! I can't do anything right now, I'm too injured to walk right and I'll only slow you two down. Now go!”
As the two were about to run Lisa turned back. “Wait, if he's your son then why are you calling him Metal and not his Earth name?”
”You’ll find out soon enough. Now, get, going!” With a nod Gale and Lisa ran out of the castle. Gale picked Lisa up, bridal style, and took off, with Cyber Beast close behind. Eventually, they started flying across the Everfree, and there was noticeable evidence that something had gone on a rampage through here. Gale descended to the ground and let Lisa down.
“Damn, wonder what did this.”
“Do you think it was Metal?”
“Maybe. If it is, then it’s a good thing I’m in my super form. We may need to fight him to calm him down.”
“I hope not.” Gale nodded and they all began to walk along the path. Cyber Beast diffused back into Gregar and Falzar, and both went back to their respective masters. As they walked along, the sings of something rampaging through the forest became clearer and clearer. It was all heading towards a mountain. As they neared it, Gregar suddenly stopped and began to growl.
“Gregar? What’s up buddy?”
“I sense something hostile.” Gale nodded and looked around. Lisa turned to her robotic bird and got an idea.
“Falzar, I want you to fly up and see if there’s anything nearby.”
“Alright.” And so he flew up above the small group before he looked around. At first he saw nothing, but then he noticed some strange magic, moving towards them.
“See anything?”
“There’s some weird magic heading towards us!” As if on cue, a pack of timberwolves jumped out of the bushes. They were all adults, and their eyes glowed orange, and they had orange smoke coming out of their eyes. One growled, and then leaped at them. Lisa impaled it with a tendril, before throwing back into another one. Gale blasted one’s head off, causing the rest of the group to take a step back.
“Yeah that’s right, back off!” Then, out of nowhere, a metallic growl was heard. The other timberwolves lowered their heads before taking another step back. Some nearby bushes started to shake, and Gale and Lisa could only assume that it was because the pack leader was arriving. And then, out of the bushes, stepped something they had never laid their eyes on before.
“M-Metal?”
The creature they saw before them was on all fours. It’s eyes were glaring at the intruders. Lisa and Gale could only look on in shock at the thing their friend had become. It leaped at them, intending to kill, but Gale roundhouse kicked him to the side. Metal recovered, and roared at them.
“Metal, I don’t know what the hell is going on, or why you’re like this. But, I’ll tell you one thing. You beat the monster out of me once, now it’s my turn to beat the monster out of you.” Gale leaped at Metal and Metal leaped as well. They clashed mid air with their hands locked together. Gale brought up a knee into Metal’s stomach, grabbed him by the quills, and threw him into a tree. He was about to go in for another attack, but then a tendril wrapped around him.
“STOP!” They both froze and turned to Lisa. She had tears streaking down her face. “Stop it you two. We came all this way to help Metal, and fighting won’t do anything.” Metal looked to Gale and growled before turning away from him and towards the Slenderwoman. “Metal, it's me, Lisa. Don't you remember me? Don't you remember Gale? Please Metal, calm down so we can help you.” She pleaded with him.
As Metal stared at Lisa, something clicked in his head, past the corruption and anger. He remembered her. He remembered that he could trust her. He seemed to calm down a little as Lisa approached him. She kneeled down and put her hands on his head as she continued to cry.
“Oh Metal. What happened to you?” Metal just whinned while leaning into her touch, then walked off. He stopped and looked at Lisa, then jutted his head as if telling her to follow. Lisa nodded, and followed. Gale tried to, but Metal just growled at him.
“Uh, babe? I think it’ll be best if you just stay out here.”
“What? But I-... Oh alright fine.” Gale sat down with a huff as the two walked away. One of the timberwolves walked up to him with curiosity. This did not go unnoticed by Gale as he turned and glared. “What’re you looking at?”
Lisa walked silently beside the corrupted Metal Sonic, the energy he was giving off made her afraid, it was something that she felt shouldn't even exist, yet his body seemed to be full of it. She attempted to read his mind, hoping that it would work this time as she was unable to every other time.
She managed to get through, but found nothing, nothing but a few instincts and some faded memories. In some of the memories she could make out a figure that looked to be her, but the images were too cloudy to tell. Her friend was gone, something else was in control, with only faint memories to go on.
She could still sense the real Metal inside him, but it was a faint spark of life, everything else was wrong. Metal had sensed her distress and looked up at her with curiosity but still keeping an angry look with his current form. He stopped for a moment and retracted the spikes on his back, leaving a smooth surface but still keeping his quills. He then jutted his head as if to tell Lisa to get on.
She looked unsure but sat down on his back and placed her hands on the smooth parts of his quills for balance as he began to walk again.
As they went further into the forest Lisa started feeling the energy of the chaos emerald, only much, much stronger. She then noticed multiple trails in the dirt as if someone had dragged something through there. They reached the mouth of a cave hidden deep in the forest but had a large open space in front of it where a pack of the Apocalypse Timberwolves were walking around or sitting up on the rocks. ‘He must have overpowered their alpha and taken control of the pack.’ Lisa thought to herself as Metal walked through the small crowd of wolves, growling at a few that got too close to his passenger.
As Metal let Lisa off his back and extended his spikes a rebellious timberwolf walked up to challenge him. Metal just growled and swiped a claw at it, slicing it to pieces and blasting it with a huge blood red beam.
‘He did that with just a swipe?’ Metal gave out a loud metallic roar which caused any wolves thinking of standing up to him to back away or lower their heads. ‘I need to remember never to mess with Metal after this is over, he could still contain this power if we find a way to cure him.’
The two of them walked down into the cave.
{Lisa's POV}
As I walked further down into the cave in the side of the mountain I felt the presence of the emeralds growing stronger. Suddenly, Metal growled furiously, turned into a huge ball of blue and silver spikes and shot down the cave. I wondered what was happening until I felt a familiar presence, and immediately knew why Metal had shot off. Whatever he had down here he was protecting, and somehow a Nightmare had found its way into the caves.
I ran down the lengthy cave system, following the sound of a battle taking place as I came to multiple crossroads. Eventually I found myself in a beautiful circular wide open chamber with colourful flora and trees all planted in small ponds of crystal clear water. In the middle of the huge chamber there stood a large detailed shrine with the Super Emeralds on pillars surrounding the Master Emerald which seemed to be bigger than I imagined. I noticed that the stone that the shrine was made out of was freshly cut. “Did Metal build this?”
My thoughts were interrupted as I spotted Metal fighting a Nightmare Fuel drone that knew it was outmatched and tried to flee, only to get caught in Metals claw and savagely torn to shreds. As the Nightmares corpse turned into an orb Metal stood between it and the shrine protectively. I walked up and took the orb.
“I’ll hold on to this until I can find Symbol.” Metal just growled again, but stood aside, allowing me to see something that made me gasp. Now I could see why Metal was hovering over the shrine so protectively. There was a girl on the master emerald. I started to walk up to her, but Metal jumped in the way and growled. I was shocked at first, but then I realized that she must be very important to him.
“Metal, you can trust me, I won’t hurt her.” Reluctantly, Metal stood aside and allowed me to pass. I walked up to her, and saw that she actually looked a little like me when I was human, except she had brown hair instead of black. It was to the point where some would call us sisters. I’m pretty sure Metal had once told me that I looked and acted like someone that was once important to him. This must be her. She didn’t look too hurt, but her face was contorted in pain. The damage she suffered must be internal or mental. If it was mental, then I could help her. There was however a noticeable red patch on her stomach, like she had been stabbed, the blood back at the castle must have been hers.
I began to read her mind. What I saw was a mess of memories and thoughts, but not enough to cause her this much pain. Just as I suspected, the real injuries must be internal. I began to organize and fix everything the best I could. It certainly helped that her mind was already trying to fix everything, so it was able to guide me on what to put where. Once that was all done, the girl seemed to relax a little. Metal came over and sniffed her, then looked at me.
“I’m sorry Metal… I fixed her memories and thoughts so that should ease the pain a little, but most of her injuries are internal. I can’t fix that.” Metal looked back at the girl before he huffed and hopped onto the emerald. He curled around her before setting face down next to her head. He whinned and nudged her a little before laying his head down. I sighed, on the brink of tears. “I-I’m sorry Metal, but I don’t know what we could do for her. I can see that the emeralds are doing their best to keep her alive, but something is stopping them from healing her.”
He noticed my distress and rose from the emerald while carefully walking around the girl. He hopped off the huge green gem and nuzzled my hand. It did comfort me a bit, but it was strange, to see my friend reduced to an animal that seemed to act completely on instinct, luckily it acted on Metals instincts which could turn in my favour.
Then a thought came to me, Metal had used the emeralds to heal others before, and I think on a visit Gale tried to use Metals emeralds to advance his super form but the emeralds wouldn't respond but responded to Metal just fine, the emeralds must have bonded with him and granted him control over their power. He just can't use them with his corruption and lack of memory. If we get rid of the Apocalypse Magic we get Metal back and he can save this girl, whoever she is.
I suddenly started to feel tired, I hadn't slept in awhile and I was starting to fall asleep. Metal noticed this and wrapped his tail around my torso before carrying me up to the emerald. He carefully moved the girl over slightly and placed me on the other side of it before his tail stretched and wrapped around us both protectively. He then retracted his spikes, now giving a friendlier appearance, as to not hurt us while lying down close to us. Even when excluding the Apocalypse Magic in this world, I could feel something else leering in the shadows, and it was too familiar, I just couldn't wrap my head around it, but I think Metal sensed it too as he slightly tightened his hold on us.
I then began project my thoughts into Gale’s head. ‘Gale?’
‘Lisa? Are you okay? He didn't hurt you did he?’
‘What? No! He isn't going to hurt me Gale, he's actually protecting me, I don't know what from but there is something in this world apart from the Apocalypse Magic.’
‘Well then I'll come down there with you to track it down.’
‘That's not a good idea Gale, Metal isn't just protecting me down here and I have a feeling he doesn't want anyone near us at the moment.’
‘Is there someone else down there?’
‘Yeah, there's this girl that's injured, Metal is protecting her as the emeralds try to heal her, and what's weird is she looks like me!’
‘What? Wait...didn't Metal say something about knowing someone like you? Exactly like you?’
‘He did, I guess this is her. Look Gale, find a place to rest up for the night, I'm going to get some shuteye.’
‘Got that covered, a group of the timberwolves are letting me bunk with them, I'm guessing Metal told them to help me since I'm with you.’
‘Ok, goodnight babe.’
‘Night Lisa. Hey wait.’
‘What?’
‘How can I hear you?’
‘I’ve gotten so used to the presence of your mind that I can project my thoughts into it.’
‘Oh. Huh, that’s interesting. Well anyways night Lisa.’
‘Night babe.’
I broke the link and wrapped my arms around Metal who shifted slightly to let me get more comfortable as I cuddled up to him. “I'll help you, I'll get your friend back...so I can get all of my friends back. I promise Metal.” He gave what seemed to be a silent huff before laying his head down on the gem, but not closing his eyes. “I guess being a robot and being powered by dark magic means you don't need to rest. Goodnight Metal.” With that I closed my eyes and let sleep take me.
But before I slipped into a dream I felt my subconscious being moved out of my body and into a place I didn't know.
Suddenly, an echoed voice rang out. ”Hello, Lisa.”
‘Who's there?’
”Relax my dear. My name is Jasper...I'm Metals father.”