Chapter 12: Triple Threat
Chapter 12: Triple Threat
“Take this!” Rainbow yelled.
As an unfortunate badnik approached her, she thrusted her hoof into its face, crushing its head and sending it flying back into its partner.
Another badnik attempted to grab her from behind while she was distracted. It didn’t go unnoticed, as she leaned back as to avoid his hand. Using her back hooves, she pushed herself fore hooves first into its gut, ripping it in half.
“And this!”
Keeping her momentum, she flipped through the air and struck two different badniks with her back hooves. The bots fell back as their round, egg-shaped bodies rolled into the rest of the growing crowd of enemies.
As Rainbow got herself upright in the air, a shot sped past her from above, narrowly missing her. She looked up at the culprit to see one of the flying badniks charging straight at her, his cannon still smoking from the shot. He was also being flanked by two bipedal ones with the jetpacks. Not backing down, Rainbow forced herself upward, cutting through the air in a streak of rainbow, all the while her body glowed with a shiny red tint.
The three badniks all started shooting at her again. Rainbow, however, was easily able to maneuver through the barrage. She looked like a ribbon forming in the sky as she weaved back forth, the yellow shots following but missing.
“And one for you!”
Before the round bot could even react, she flew straight in his face and bucked him, sending him spiraling to the ground. The two that were at his side, were quick to respond, aiming their weapons at the aggressing pegasus and firing. Rainbow grinned, loving how they thought they had her. With a push from her wings, she shot upward instantly, the two shots sailing by underneath her. The two badniks didn’t stand a chance at surviving the projectiles souring right at them from the opposite side. As they impacted, their bodies blew apart, orange and black pieces of metal flying in every direction as they fell.
Rainbow was finally able to take a breather, at least for the next few seconds before another badnik decided to test their luck. She took a moment to look back down at the battle that was going on below her. Well, if you could even call it that. In short, it looked like an absolute mess down there. Badniks were swarming in every direction, taking shots at their opponents whenever they thought they had a straight shot at their target. Usually they didn’t.
Ever since the fighting started it just turned into one big brawl. Her and Sonic had taken to fighting off separate portions of the massive horde of bots, so she had no idea where he was in that mess. Metal? She lost track of him before even that. It wasn’t easy to spoke either of them at that. She swore that these bots were brain dead or something. Due to all the destroyed badniks that now littered the street, clouds of black smoke had begun to form over the battlefield, creating a smokescreen to anyone who was caught in it. This was causing a lot of confusion within the ranks of badniks. They were having so much trouble locating their targets that some of them have begun firing blinding into the smoke, hoping that at least one of their shots hit their mark. From what she can tell, they’ve all missed at best, and some of them have even impacted their own allies.
As her eyes continued to scan the field, out of the corner of her eye she saw a flash. With all the fire flying in every direction, this was nothing new to her, but it did quickly catch her attention. She got a good look at its place of origin, seeing that there was a plethora of destroyed or maimed badniks littering the whole area. Another flash encompassed the area, seeing now that it was a badnik exploding in a spectacular fashion. Soon after, even more badniks join him, all being struck by what looked like a lightning storm. She didn’t even have to question who was at the center of all that.
“Alright,” she said to herself, “it’s time for me to get a little payback.”
“BY ORDER OF THE GREAT DR. EGGMAN, YOU ARE TO BE EXTERMINATED. SURRENDER YOURSELF AT ONCE,” the badnik toward the front of the large group said as they all continued firing at their target.
“I don’t know about you guys,” Sonic said while simultaneously zipping around their shots. “When you say it like that it just doesn’t sound that inviting.”
Spinning up into a ball, he launched himself at the bots, hitting and bouncing off them all as if he was a large pinball. The badniks all got either thrown through the air or destroyed as he impacted with them. As he neared the last one, one of the massive badniks wielding a sledgehammer, he hopped off the ground. Letting his aura flare, he uncurled and delivered a powerful kick to its face, a sonic boom forming from where he hit. The force of the strike caused it to topple over onto its back, crushing a couple of smaller badniks that were unlucky enough to be stood under it.
Sonic landed with a triumphant smirk as he looked at his work.
“Heh, too easy,” he said rubbing his nose.
It really has been. These guys may have had the numbers, but ‘Eggman’ must not have given them much in the way of brains. If the explosions in every direction were any indication, they must be accidentally destroying each other faster than he could take them out himself. Although, looking at the man who made them, he wasn’t too surprised.
He did have to wonder where that pony was right now. It didn’t take long for them to get separated from one another once the fighting started. He did get the feeling she didn’t like him that much. Whatever for, well, he didn’t really have time to sit and think on it. Whatever the reason, one thing he could say about her was that she was like him in a lot of ways. Albeit a testy, older, colorful version of him, but if the speed he saw her going at was anything to go off of, heh, he may have a new racing buddy.
Sonic had to halt his train of thought as a badnik impacted the ground just in front of him, its body crumbling upon contact. Its insides were sparking from being torn apart, but the outside of its body was sparking wildly with orange electricity that was emanating from no clear origin. But Sonic had a pretty good guess what happened to this poor guy. Looking to where the bot’s body flew in from, he noticed a very familiar face, and he couldn’t help but smirk at him.
Metal Sonic was a few yards away from him, staring at him with the same look of hate that he had since their eyes first met. The bright explosions in the background really emphasized his stature, as it did with Sonic’s as they eyed one another for what seemed like an eternity. Metal’s hands were at his sides, leaving his guard down on purpose. It was obvious that he really didn’t care about what was going on around him. His only focus was on Sonic. Only Sonic.
As Sonic kept his eyes pinned on Metal, he couldn’t help but notice the small group of badniks that finally found out where they were, currently in the process of charging Metal from behind, most of them wielding melee weapons. Sonic was almost tempted to alert his doppelganger to the approaching bots, although he quickly noticed that wasn’t necessary. Just as the badniks encroached on Metal, Metal’s eyes lit up. Metal raised his hand with his palm facing toward the group, but he didn’t even bother looking at them. The bots didn’t have time to rethink their approach before they were all struck with a wave of electricity, the bolts piercing their chests and causing them to implode. The smoke settled, and there was nothing left but a pile of scrap metal on the ground where they once were.
Sonic was a bit taken back by the way he took down those badniks. They may look like one another, but their fighting styles were clearly different. Sonic was very straight forward when he fought, but Metal was a lot more malicious and cold with how he went about defeating his foes. Sonic glanced at his own wounds that he received from Metal earlier, remembering clearly how precise he went about his strikes. One thing was for sure, he was out to kill.
“It’s about time we found one another Metal,” Sonic said to his counterpart. “I was waiting to see which one of us would finally come out on top.”
To Sonic’s surprise, he got a response. “YOU ONLY FOOL YOURSELF IF YOU THINK YOUR ORGANIC FORM IS SUPERIOR TO MY ARTIFICIAL ONE.”
“So you can talk,” said Sonic. “And here I was think you were the strong, silent type.”
“TAUNT ALL YOU WANT HEDGEHOG. I HAVE NO CARE FOR THEM.”
“Gee, that’s a shame. I guess we really are nothing alike.”
“INDEED, AND I AM…THANKFUL I AM UNLIKE YOU.”
“That’s a bit harsh. Hey, I saw how roughed up Egghead was up there. If anything, we should be on the same team considering how much we hate the guy,” Sonic suggested as he scratched his nose.
“MY BUSINESS WITH THE DOCTOR WAS MY OWN. IT IS ONLY YOU AND THE EQUINE THAT I CARE ABOUT.”
That caught Sonic’s attention. “You mean the pony? What’s so special about her?”
“ONLY THAT BOTH OF YOU ARE TO BE ELIMINATED. ANYTHING BEYOND THAT IS IRRELEVANT.”
“Sure,” he said sarcastically. “I can get why you hate me so much, but what’d she do to get you in a knot?”
For a second, Metal’s eyes lit up in small flashes of green as he processed his information. They went back to their normal color shortly after.
“UNKNOWN,” Metal said.
“Unknown?” Sonic questioned. “Man, not even knowing why you’re supposed to be doing something? Sounds like someone needs a tune-up.”
Sonic’s ear twitched. He heard that distant ringing that drew ever closer. Leaning his head to the left, he nonchalantly let a stray shot fly past him, feeling the heat radiating from it. Now Metal was right in its path, but likewise to his counterpart, he too simply moved his head. The shot went straight past him, disappearing into the mess of badniks and smoke.
“I TOLD YOU, I HAVE NO CARE FOR YOUR TAUNTS, OR YOUR INSULTS,” Metal said in his monotone voice. “HOWEVER, WHILE WE MAY HAVE DIFFERING PERSONALITIES, WE SHARE ONE THING. THE WANT TO PROVE WHO IS THE TRUE SONIC BETWEEN US.”
Sonic couldn’t help but let a wide smirk loose on his muzzle. Finally, this guy was starting to speak his language.
“So that’s what this is about huh?” he said. “Well, I won’t disappoint you then. We’ll just keep going till we drop; last one standing is the winner. The world already has one Sonic. No need for another.”
Sonic then took on his fighting stance: one foot in front of the other with his fists at his side. His white aura lit up as it enveloped his body. Metal simply stood up straight with his hands at his side, his own, dark purple aura lighting up as well. The two stood there for some time, staring right into the eyes of the other. Sonic’s were quivering with excitement, while Metal’s were still and cold. The distant explosions made a dramatic backdrop to the two figures, emphasizing their shadows.
One more explosion later, and the two charged one another, a colored streak behind them both. Sonic’s legs were forming his figure eight while his hands were thrown behind him. Metal was sailing towards Sonic as his jet carried him off the ground. Sonic reared back his fist, more than ready to deliver the starting blow. Metal looked to have had the same idea, however. Metal’s hand began to spark wildly, his claws radiating with condensed energy. Just one more second and—
Metal suddenly crashed straight into the ground when an unknown force crashed into his head, his hand harmlessly dispersing the energy. Metal couldn’t see what had happened, but Sonic could. Rainbow Dash had just appeared out of nowhere, crashing her hoof on top of Metal’s head and causing him to faceplant against the hard ground. Normally, Sonic would be all for this. Right now, however, he was all but that as his eyes went wide with realization. He pulled his fist back and, with all his strength, attempted to come to a complete stop. He let his shoes skid against the ground as dust and smoke formed from the friction, but it was too late. Before either of them new it, Sonic had slammed right into Rainbow, their bodies colliding hard as they were both sent flying away from Metal.
The force from the impact was enough to send them skipping off the ground. Thankfully, they were able to recover and stop themselves from going any farther, using their hands, or hooves, to come to a halt. Rather than look back at Metal, the two speedsters shot a look directly at each other.
“Hey! Watch where you’re going pin head!” Rainbow yelled across to Sonic, annoyance evident on her face.
“Me!?” Sonic responded. “You’re the one who got in the way!”
“This guy was mine from the start! Go play with some of the other bots kid! Plenty of them to go around!”
“Hey, just because you’re older than me doesn’t mean a thing! I actually know how to handle these kinds of things lady! I do this king of things every day!”
“Gee, look at you.”
The sound of roaring jets pulled them from their argument, prompting them to look back at Metal. The sounds didn’t lie. He was charging straight at them at insane speeds, a cone of air nearly forming around him. His eyes were red with what could pass as anger for him.
“Just let me handle it from here Colors!” Sonic suggested. “If I need ya I’ll be sure to call for moral support!”
Sonic left Rainbow in a dust cloud, he himself once again charging Metal as he did before. Rainbow, however, didn’t sit back in the slightest.
“Why you little…” she grumbled under her breath.
Following suit, she chased after Sonic, her red aura covering her body. Reaching for her new power, she let it strengthen her body as she overtook Sonic. Without even looking back at him, she threw her own punch as Metal quickly approached her. Metal threw one as well, keeping it charged with electricity coursing through it. Their attacks collided in a mix of red and purple energy, both combatants coming to a halt.
Rainbow winced when she felt the electricity pour into her body, but this wasn’t like earlier. While it wasn’t nice, it wasn’t unbearable. It was like what happened back on the Death Egg. When her powers activated she could not only dish out more hits, but take more as well. Man, she may have questioned this at first, but right now she was very thankful for it.
Metal seemed surprised that his attack didn’t have the affect he was expecting. Rainbow pressed on this. She poured her power into her wings and gave them a hard flap, doing as much as she could to push back against him. With one final push, she caused his arm to falter, allowing her hoof to impact with his stomach area. While he didn’t show any sign of pain, it clearly caught him off guard as he was sent flying back by the strike.
Rainbow grinned widely. Now this was more like it! It was about time somepony brought him out of his own arrogance.
Rainbow continued to watch him sail back, getting ready for her next charge. That was until what he did next. Metal planted one of his feet down to the ground hard, causing a rut to form where he tore through it. Ever so slightly, he managed to bring himself to a complete stop. Without missing a beat, he charged up his jet, and in a much bigger burst of speed, he charged straight at her again.
She didn’t even have any time to respond. Before she knew it, Metal had slammed into her head with his own. This time, she was the one that got sent back. A great pain shot through her head, a sudden dizziness coming over her. She quickly fought it off as she extended her wings. While not as quick or as sudden as Metal’s maneuver, she was still able to slow herself as she set herself gentle back on the ground.
“Ow ow ow!” Rainbow yelped as she winced in pain.
“Coming through!” she heard from behind her.
Suddenly, she felt some weight on her back. She looked back to see Sonic vaulting over her, landing perfectly and maintaining his speed.
Sonic kept his eyes locked on Metal, intent on not getting interrupted like last time. He launched himself into the air, enveloping himself in white aura as he flew at his counterpart with a jump kick. Metal quickly planted his hand down on the ground and got into a hand stand. He extended his leg, his meeting with Sonic’s as they collided. A small shockwave pushed back the air from the impact, and in a quick set of motions, the two had jumped back from each other.
Rainbow saw her opening. As the two landed, she charged pasted Sonic and went hooves first into Metal. The metal hog had to quickly bring his arms up to protect his body, resulting in Rainbow colliding with him. She didn’t stop there. Her attack had lifted him off the ground, allowing her to practically push him across the street. It wasn’t more than a couple of seconds that they had finally crashed through a cloud of smoke, and right into a massive group of badniks that were still looking for them. Well, more like they were tearing through them as they flew by, bits of metal flying I every direction.
“ENEMY IDENTIFIED!” one of them yelled, alerting the rest of the group. “PURSUE AND TERMINATE TARGETS!”
Rainbow and Metal weren’t even worried about what was now flying by them. Their focus was only on each other. Metal was able to lower his arms, albeit only slightly, enough to show his upper face. His eyes looked straight into Rainbow’s, a small flash of red shining brightly in them before he let his aura explode around him.
Rainbow was pushed back slightly by the purple aura that had suddenly exploded in her face. She was now no longer pushing Metal, but they were still maintaining the momentum that they had, him flying backwards while she flew straight at him. It was then that Metal through a punch, aimed right at her head. Rainbow brought her hooves up to block it, a tiny jolt sent through her legs. She responded by throwing one of her own, but it too was blocked, Metal catching her hoof in his hand. He then brought his leg up, attempting to knee her in the stomach. She dodged it, angling her body to the left while she struck him with her back hoof.
The rest of the time it looked like two blue blurs trading blows with one another, a badnik here and there getting caught in the confrontation as they sped through the group. Occasionally, they’d separate for a split second in a flash of red and purple before they collided again. There were even bolts of lightning getting shot out in random directions, obviously directed at Rainbow Dash. Unfortunately for Metal, they missed every time, usually taking out a few badniks with every shot.
Rainbow was now catching him in a flurry of punches, forcing him to protect his face again. In her mind, things couldn’t be going better, at least when compared to how they were going before. It was a rush. Her body felt like it was being pumped with adrenaline, her mind much more focused and perceptive. It was like she could see where he was going to strike, watching every little movement he made and predicting where he wanted to attack. She couldn’t help but be more than a little gleeful. She didn’t know how she went on all these years without this. If it were up to her, she’d have it going all day long once she got back home.
Metal on the other hand, was starting to get really fed up with this equine. He just couldn’t land a hit like he used to. Her speed and power had surpassed all the data he had collected on her. He wasn’t sure where she got this sudden burst of strength, but she was still no more than an annoyance that he needed to be rid of. Still, he couldn’t deny that he was surprised. She had gone on to become nearly an equal to him. He was impressed with this organic, yet at the same time, exceedingly livid with her, unnaturally for him.
Rainbow continued her assault, not letting up in the slightest. With her burst of energy, she didn’t feel as fatigued as she would have normally. She felt as if she could go on all day long until this bucket of bolts finally decided to give her an opening. That is, until a shot flew right past her, causing her to flinch and respond to a second one that was sent straight at her. She retreated back a bit, ending her attack as she looked for her new attacker. She quickly identified him as one of the badniks that they had caught the attention of. Well, more like several badniks.
Rainbow grunted in annoyance, but Metal, he took the advantage he’d been looking for. Seeing how Rainbow had left herself open, he charged up a ball of electricity in his hand and thrust it forward. Rainbow didn’t have enough time to respond before his palm had impacted with her stomach. She lurched back in pain as the shocks poured though her body, along with all the air getting punched out of her.
The attack had sent her back, giving Metal some much needed room. Rainbow tried to keep herself in the air, but her wings were locked up from the jolt she had just received. Instead, she skipped hard off the ground before slamming into something into one of the large badniks. The huge automaton fell over from the impact in its stomach, landing with a echoing boom, all while she simply fell to the ground with a thud, shortly before managing to pick herself back up in pained aches.
Rainbow shook her whole body, doing her best to rid her body of any leftover charge that may have decided to stick around.
“Uhh…” she got out. “Feels like somepony sent me to the moon and back after one of Pinkie’s all night chimichanga parties…uhh…and the chimichangas were filled with nothing but candy and hot sauce…”
“HALT!”
Rainbow looked to the voice to see many badniks aiming their weapons all at her, all of them with their fingers on the triggers.
“IN THE NAME OF THE GREAT DR. EGGMAN, YOU ARE TO BE TERMINATED!”
Rainbow groaned, mostly in annoyance. “Yeah. I heard you guys the first time, and the second, third, and every time after that!”
Rainbow was more than happy to start smashing up some badniks again. After all, she felt that she deserved something after today. But she couldn’t help but notice the twitch she had in her ear, along with the faint sound of static in the distance. She turned her attention away from the badniks, looking back to Metal. It wasn’t a sight she really wished to see right now.
All the natural light around that area of the street seemed to have been completely overtaken, long flickering shadows stretching from the feet of the badniks, and even her own hooves. Flashes of lightning shot into the sky as the sky turned from its nasty red color to a bland grey mix of clouds, like storm working its way the whole planet. She looked to Metal himself. He was surrounded by a layer of purple energy, the energy taking a perfect sphere shape. He was currently floating high in the air as all the badniks around him focused in on what was going on.
“Oh boy,” Rainbow said to herself as a single bead of sweat fell down her face.
Metal eyed all of the individuals in the crowd, robot and pegasus alike, and extended his arms to where his fingertips brushed against the inside of the sphere. Suddenly, all the lightning stopped, an eerie silence taking over the battlefield. It didn’t last though. In an instant, a bolt much larger than the rest formed from the energy and struck right in the middle of a large group of badniks.
Rainbow jumped as a massive explosion took place, the entire field lit up by the blast. Another second, and she felt the shockwave, her mane waving as it passed her by. The badniks that were around her had now lost interest in her, all of them surprised at the pieces of their allies that had begun raining from the sky.
Almost without delay, another bolt shot out. Then another. And another. It wasn’t long until the entire place was getting bombarded by lightning strikes. The blasts were strong enough to not only blast apart the hordes of badniks, but blast apart the metal on the ground as well, leaving huge gashes where it tore through it.
Rainbow looked on in awe. She had to admit that it was a spectacle to see. She’d even go as far to say that it was beautiful if it wasn’t such a devastating attack. Metal obviously didn’t care where they landed. It seemed that all he cared about right now was to take everything out at once.
She caught Metal’s eye, and she could swear that he looked directly at her. It was that look that sent a bolt straight at her.
Rainbow felt the hairs on her back stand upright.
She quickly shook herself out of her stupor and jumped out of the way. The bolt blasted apart the ground where she once stood as black smoke brushed past her.
“Ok, that was too close,” she said as she wiped her brow.
Another crack entered her ears, and she saw another bolt coming in her direction. She instinctively jumped back, the explosion nearly taking her off her hooves. She very quickly found herself dodging more incoming attacks, using her wings to lunch herself away from the impact zones. Rainbow was doing rather well, but she could feel herself getting slower as this went on. Metal was obviously targeting her now, and it was starting to take its toll on her body. Even with her boost, she quickly realized that she still wasn’t invincible. While not as easily, she could still get tired, and constantly dodging these attacks wasn’t gonna work forever.
As she flipped away from another attack, she thought back to all the other times she had used this power. So far, she seemed to have a lot more stamina than she normally would, along with being able to move faster and with more control. She couldn’t help but think back to her fight with that big robot back on the Death Egg, however.
Rainbow gulped. She had an idea, but she had no idea if she’d be able to get it to work. Nearly everything regarding these powers has been used by accident rather than purposefully. Still, if it worked, she just may be able to get the drop on him.
She dodged once more, but once the attack struck the ground, she landed and stayed her ground. She dug her hooves into the hard ground as much as she could and tensed her body as she waited for the next attack. Surely enough, it came, although much larger than the rest. Rainbow suddenly started to have second thoughts as she watched the bolt approach her, but it was too late to back out now. She didn’t have enough time to dodge again, so she just had to trust in her own abilities and hope for the best.
She watched as her vision was suddenly overtaken by the blinding yellow bolt, her body tensing up in both readiness, and fear.
“Now or never. Just please, for the love of Celestia work,” she silently prayed as she braced for the impact.
Then came the explosion.
“RAINBOW!” came the voices of her friends on the earpiece, but they were drowned out by the deafening sound of the blast.
Rainbow’s entire being was overtaken by fiery blast of smoke and flames. All eyes were now on the tower of smoke, leaving only a few badniks to continue firing at Metal, who was still safely encased in his bubble of energy.
Sonic’s eyes in particular widened as he sidestepped through the horde. He easily saw the explosion, and he knew better than anyone that Metal was the cause of it.
‘Man,’ he thought, ‘I hope Colors wasn’t in the middle of that. That looked like it could fry just about anyone.’
He scanned the battlefield, looking past the many badniks that he continued to effortlessly avoid. He narrowed his eyes as he spotted Metal amongst the horde, still blasting away at anything that dared move. Sonic sped up greatly, determined to finally get a shot in at this guy.
As he neared Metal, the metal hedgehog darted his eyes right at him, immediately sending a bolt at Sonic. Sonic flipped to the right, twisting his whole body as to let the bolt sail right past him, his blue hairs being pulled to the static energy. The bolt hit the ground with another explosion, all while Sonic had landed and charged once again. Many more bolts were sent his way, but he danced his way around every one of them, sometimes with a sidestep, sometimes with a great burst of speed.
Metal was now ignoring all the badniks and was now focusing all he could muster on Sonic. Seeing the flurry of bolts that were now coming at him, Sonic flared his white aura and disappeared in a blur of speed. Metal was surprised that he had lost sight of his opponent. That was the first time that had happened. Almost immediately, he began scanning the area, looking for any sign of the hedgehog.
However, he didn’t have to look for long. Without warning, Sonic suddenly reappeared as he had forcefully slammed his foot into the head of one of the flying badniks, sending it soaring into the distance while he used his new leverage to jump right to Metal.
“Time to take you off charge Metal!” he yelled as his aura overtook him.
Metal had finally managed to set his eyes on Sonic, but he was coming in far too fast for him to get off an attack. He never anticipated him getting this close so quick. He never had an attack ready. Still, his priority took place over his slight panic. He charged up another bolt, determined to have it fire off before he was struck. Coming in at that speed, Sonic would surely be able to break through the barrier.
“Oh no you don’t!” Sonic said as he saw the buildup of electricity. His aura suddenly started to shine brightly. It was so bright that neither of them could be seen past the light.
‘Let’s see how that perfect body of yours can stand up to this!’ he thought as he readied his fist.
And his aura immediately faded from existence.
The light was suddenly gone, and Sonic’s advance had suddenly slowed greatly as he continued to sail toward Metal. Sonic’s eyes had widened at this, feeling as if a part of himself had suddenly vanished. Everything seemed to go in slow motion from there, his fist still trained on Metal, not that it would matter now.
Metal’s eyes had what could only be discerned as an evil glint, an almost arrogant air about him all of a sudden. Sonic’s focus was drawn to his index finger, Metal wagging it in a very familiar manner. His manner.
Sonic did his best to stop himself, but without wings like Colors had, that proved to be impossible. This made it impossible to avoid the attack that came. A bolt struck Sonic head on, enveloping him in a torrent of electricity that sunk down to the bone. Sonic yelled in the immense pain that he felt coursing through his body. His hairs were now sticking up on end and it was starting to become singed and black.
The whole area had lit up again, this time with the light that was now Sonic being electrocuted in midair. It wasn’t long till the light faded, the bolt vanishing and Sonic being dropped to the ground. He hit it hard, his breath getting knocked out of him on top of the pains that now littered his whole body.
Sonic struggled to even open his eyes at this point. His vision was in a daze and his limbs felt completely numb to him. He could barely even feel that his right arm was twitching. Even so, he managed to look up to Metal, that being easier than most other things, seeing as that he was on his back. His eyes met with Metal’s, and he could feel the amount of killing intent behind them. While it did send shivers down his body, he actually laughed at it, only a bit, however, as it hurt to even laugh. He never knew why, but he was always really good at getting people to hate him for one reason or another.
He moved his eyes around, trying to see what was going on around him. He could see badniks in his peripheral vision, but they were keeping they’re distance. Sonic didn’t know if it was possible for a robot to feel fear the same way normal people did, but these guys seemed to prove him wrong. These guys looked as if they were about to start shaking the nuts and bolts off themselves. Nearly all of them were slowly backing off as they dropped most of their weapons.
He heard the clank of metal on metal in front of him. He looked up to see that Metal had gotten rid of the barrier and had come down to his level, well, he was standing.
Sonic gave him a cheeky smirk as they looked at one another. “Hey…I gotta admit…that one actually hurt you know. Talk about a lucky shot…”
The evil glint in Metal’s eyes returned and Sonic felt another shiver go down his body. He had never felt like this before. What was it about those eyes that made him feel like this so badly?
“FOOL,” Metal said coldly, raising his hand above his head and charging it full of electricity. “LUCK IS A MANIFESTATION OF YOUR FEEBLE MIND. FROM THE MOMENT I WAS CREATED, YOUR DEATH WAS DECIDED.”
With his hand now fully charged, he prepared to bring it down on Sonic. Sonic just watched as he grit his teeth. No way was he done just yet. He just needed one more chance. He just—
BOOM!
The ground shook as a loud boom was heard over the whole area. Metal even dropped his hand in the sudden surprise that took over. Sonic himself felt the shaking more than Metal, as he was flat on the ground. But he felt something else as well. Everything. The numbness in his body suddenly began to fade, and his chest started beating a thousand miles an hour. He was burning up.
“Heh, you’re in for it now,” he said to Metal in a snarky tone.
Ignoring Sonic’s statement, Metal had an easy time find the source of the blast. In the sky, there was a massive shockwave that was colored like a rainbow, along with a rainbow streak that tore through the sky of the small planet.
“THAT SHOULD BE IMPOSSIBLE,” he said.
Scanning the streak, he saw that it was Rainbow Dash, her Sonic Rainboom in full effect once again. What confused him, however, was that she was still alive. She took his most powerful blast, if anything she should be laying back in the blast zone with chard fur littering her body.
That was far from the truth. Rainbow herself was alive and well, and she felt exhilarated. She failed to land a hit on him with this last time, but she was determined to do it this time. Instead of flying straight for Metal, she started plummeting toward the ground, right in the middle of the biggest group of badniks. Her plan was working so far. Metal was weary of her, but he wasn’t throwing up his shield like last time. He didn’t think she was gonna hit him with the way she was going. Oh boy. He’s going to have one heck of a wakeup call.
She could feel her red energy cover her body again, the red hue mixing beautifully with the streak she left behind. She was now nearing the ground, and if she didn’t time this perfectly, *gulp*, well it wasn’t going to be pretty. Her eyes narrowed as she closed in, and already she could see the badniks taking potshots at her, but the just whizzed right by. Just a little closer, and—
“Now!” she yelled to herself.
At the last second, just before her hooves kissed the ground, she brought out all the energy she could and managed to change her direction on a dime, making a perfect 90-degree angle. She was now sailing no more than a few inches off the ground, her streak still following behind her as she started tearing through the endless sea of badniks. The bots were now getting flung in every direction possible, the lucky few who were getting torn apart being sent flying into the sky.
Metal was not expecting her to pull off that kind of maneuver, but now wasn’t the time to get distracted by that. If she thought that tactic would work after what happened last time, then she really was a fool. Extending his arms, Metal prepared himself for the incoming attack, only a moment’s notice away from forming his dark shield.
“JUST GIVE UP WHILE YOU CAN EQUINE,” he said as the shield quickly began to envelope his body.
“Funny,” he heard Sonic’s voice from below, “I was about to say the same thing to you Metal!”
Before Metal could even react, Sonic suddenly sprung up, his body no longer feeling the overwhelming pain that it once did. This caught Metal off guard, allowing Sonic to quickly slam his head into Metal’s face. While Sonic definitely felt the pain shoot through his head, he got the shot he wanted. Metal was sent stumbling backwards as what had formed of the shield had now dissipated, leaving a very exposed Metal. Without another plan in mind, Sonic simply let his body fall forward as he caught himself on the ground. Right now, he wanted to see if what happened next was worth seeing.
Metal was taken back at how quickly Sonic had been able to recover and he couldn’t help but wonder where he went wrong in his calculations. He tried to bring up another barrier, but it was too late. Rainbow had finally made contact.
“This is what happens when you underestimate a Sonic Rainboom!” she yelled to him as she struck hooves first into his steel torso.
As she made contact, a powerful shockwave imploded where they met, sending nearly everything in front of her flying back. She wasn’t done there, however. Pushing with all her might, she continued the Sonic Rainboom, only this time she was dragging Metal along with her. The bot could do nothing as he was being taken away by the flying equine. The two continued to crash through the many badniks, only now Metal was taking all of the hits.
Sonic looked on as he eyed the rainbow streak right above his head, the colors slowly fading as the sparkles gently rained on his head. Of all the attacks he’s seen in a while, none of them have been as colorful, literally, but at the same time extremely effective. To say the least, he was very impressed with it.
Meanwhile, Rainbow was still taking Metal Sonic for a ride he would never forget, if he could even survive what came next. They were now speeding right toward a massive building that they had been near to for quite some time. It was a massive, metal dome, but that’s not what caught Rainbow’s attention about it. With every meter as they got closer, she could feel her heart start to burn more and more. It was the same feeling that had given her the boost she had for the longest time. Whatever that building was, it was linked to her somehow. What better way to find out than to use this guy as a battering ram right into the heart of it.
It wasn’t more than a few seconds later when Metal’s back finally impacted with the large building. Rainbow felt the resistance from the surface of the building, but pumping more of her energy into her body, she impacted with much more force than normal. It was so much force that not only did the glass on one of Metal’s eyes burst completely off, but both of them went straight through the side, quickly being surrounded by metal. With one push after another, however, Rainbow managed to push all the way through the outside layer, finally having the force on her hooves alleviated as they came into a large, open room.
That was it. She may have had more energy than normal, but she could slowly feel the fatigue starting to affect her body once more. She pulled herself away from Metal, letting him sail back on his own before he skidded on the ground to a halt. She finally landed, breathing heavily as she rested her wings.
This gave her some time to get a look at her new surroundings. With the large hole they came through behind her, she was now inside of a large, dome like room, a massive pillar like construct in the center. It was obviously another machine, as she could hear it whirring and sending out visible electrical currents to these antennae looking things on the ceiling. Now that she looked at it all closer, it reminded her of some of Twilight’s machines she kept in her basement, only on a much larger scale.
She looked to the middle of the tower, seeing the lower and upper portions of it shrinking as they met in the middle, the tiniest gap separating the two. She had to squint, but there was something small sitting in the middle.
“Hey! You alright in there Colors?!” she heard call to her.
Soon after, the blue hedgehog rushed through the hole they made, taking his place next to Rainbow. “You know, I gotta admit that was a crazy attack. Old chrome dome didn’t know what hit him.”
Rainbow had now turned her attention to Sonic. “Heh, now you impressed?”
“Well, I never said that. But give it some time lady and it’ll get there.”
“Ha ha…”
“Hey, you were in that big explosion weren’t you. How’d you get out of that anyway?”
“Come on,” she said in mock disbelief. “You didn’t think something as namby pamby as that could stop me did ya?”
In truth, it just may have done her in if it had directly hit her. Thankfully that wasn’t the case. In the moment, she thought back to the Death Egg encounter where she had accidentally thrown up a barrier to protect Sonic. Sure, it was an accident, but she knew the feeling that came with it afterwards. It was a gamble, but it paid off this time, as she was able to replicate it and protect herself from the bolt earlier.
But, it didn’t come without its consequences. Yes, it was worth keeping herself alive, but afterwards, she felt like her stamina had been cut in half. She took no damage, but in the moment she felt her energy drain itself as she brought it up. Now, after performing a Sonic Rainboom, she feltlike her legs would give out nearly any moment, despite only using her wings to perform it.
Deciding to change the subject, Rainbow looked back to the middle of the machine and pointed. “Hey, you see that?”
Sonic looked to where her hoof was gesturing. It was pointing right at the shining object in the middle, one that quickly caught his eye. He knew that glow.
“Hey!” he exclaimed in surprise. “That’s a Chaos Emerald!”
“Egghead had one of those here?” she asked. “What the heck is this thing anyway?”
“Whatever it is, it’s just another thing to break to me,” he said as he cracked his knuckles. “Anything that Eggman may have made is ripe for the picking.”
‘At least we can agree on that,’ Rainbow thought. And she was very willing to join him it that, if it hadn’t been for what she saw in front of them.
Both Sonic and Rainbow were shocked to see Metal beginning to stand back up, his body seeming to work perfectly fine from what they could tell. As the metal hog stood back up, he turned back his opponents, and the one eye that was still intact had killing intent written all over them, even more so than before. His one eye was almost completely red, and his dark purple aura had grown, rising like flames to almost three times his own height.
With the glass over his other eye missing, it was probably one of the most disturbing images Rainbow had probably seen so far. She could feel her legs start to tremble, from both fatigue and the sudden shivers that were being sent through her body at the sight. Even Sonic had stopped his previous advances at the how his counterpart looked right now.
“Wow,” Sonic said in astonishment. “Forget what I said. This guy is a lot sturdier than he looks. Gotta hand that one to Egghead, he built this guy good.”
“No kidding,” Rainbow responded. If only this kid understood what was probably really keeping him up.
Without any warning, Metal had suddenly disappeared, his afterimage left behind for a slit second. Rainbow and Sonic were taken back by the amount of speed the had just witnessed. He was now far faster than he had ever been before. They could even feel the delayed breeze of air that had originated form him.
Rainbow was just about to start making a bee line for the Chaos Emerald, hoping to do something before they were both overtaken by Metal. Unfortunately, that was impossible once Metal suddenly reappeared and latched his cold hand around Rainbow’s throat, not gently either. In the span of a millisecond, Rainbow’s supply of air was quickly extinguished.
“Colors!” Sonic yelled in surprise, right before making his move at Metal. “Hey! You get off her you outdated toaster!”
This was short lived. Just as Sonic lunged at Metal, the bot raised his empty hand and perfectly caught Sonic’s neck in his grasp. Now with both of his enemies’ throats in his clutches, he began to squeeze, slowly, even lifting Sonic off the ground, as he was shorter than Rainbow was.
Rainbow could see that Sonic was in the same predicament as she was, and with every second that passed she could feel her throat getting tighter and tighter as air was getting much harder to take in. Without thinking, she took her back hooves and bucked him in the torso as hard as she could must, even bringing out some of her leftover energy from before. She made contact, but the look he gave her afterwards said it all. ‘It won’t even matter.’
Her attack had did absolutely nothing to him. He didn’t even budge! She was about to try again, hoping to get something out this, but Metal was way ahead of her. In response to her attack, he suddenly squeezed his hand even tighter, even further closing his grip on her neck. Rainbow gasped for air at the sudden squeeze, but all she got out was a choked attempt. She could no longer feel even the smallest amount of air pass through her throat, Metal’s hand completely cutting it off. She wasn’t even paying any attention to Sonic at this point. Her only goal right now was to get free.
Ever so slightly, she felt herself start to get woozy, her brain slowly starting to shut down due to the lack of air. She wanted to attack again, but she didn’t have the strength for it. Her body just didn’t have the fire in it anymore. Was this it? Was this how her story ended? At the hands of a killer robot, next to somepony she wasn’t that fond of to begin with? As of right now, that seemed set in stone, but she still couldn’t believe it.
Rainbow could feel her consciousness fading, her eyes slowly shutting as the cold, metal claw closed on her windpipe.
Then, all in one moment, air surged back into her lungs, and she was dropped on the ground, a loud and thunderous noise heard in front of her, the floor shaking. Rainbow gasped and breathed as much in as she could as she laid on the floor, as if she was preparing for it to happen again. Thankfully, it never came. As her senses returned to her, she slowly looked up, her vision still slightly hazy, but clearing rather quickly. She saw Sonic across from her, he too in the same position on the floor. But as she looked at him, she also noticed Metal on the floor as well, or, more like his face making a huge dent in the floor. Sitting on top of his head was a big…hammer?
Her senses finally fully returned, she looked at the scene in its entirety. There actually was a big, red hammer sitting on top of Metal, presumably was had caused him to let go and forced his face to damage the floor. She looked to the hammer’s wielder and saw…
‘Wait…her?!’ Rainbow screamed in her head.
At the end of the handle was none other than Amy, the hammer in hand and the bag of Time Stones on her back. She looked to be breathing like she had just run miles without rest. Her arms were shaking. Whether it was from her state, or if she was scared, Rainbow didn’t know. But one thing was for certain now, there was a lot more to this little hedgehog than she originally thought.
By now, Sonic had noticed her as well. His reaction was just about the same as hers. “Hey *cough* Ames. Didn’t expect to see you here.”
Amy smiled slightly at him as she spoke between breaths. “Of course I’d be here. Anything for you Sonic.” She then looked over to Rainbow with the same smile. “And any friend of Sonic’s is a friend of mine.”
Rainbow couldn’t help but smile back at the girl. At least she found one person in this world that she couldn’t help but like.
Their quick reunion was interrupted, however, was Amy felt her hammer start to move in her hands. The trio looked down and saw that Metal was slowly starting to raise his head out of the small dent. Amy instinctively lifted her hammer off him and raised it over her shoulder. This allowed Metal to look up at her. Rainbow had to be honest, while he was still intact, he had seen better days. His nose was now bent completely and now a crack was shooting over his other eye. That still didn’t stop him from shooting the pink hedgehog a death glare.
Amy’s legs trembled at the sight, remembering when she first saw him. She was scared out of her mind back then. But. She audibly gulped, swallowing down her fears. She looked at Metal dead in the eye, shooting him a glare that Rainbow and Sonic even flinched at.
“This is what you get, when you hurt my Sonic!” she roared.
Before anyone knew it, Amy had swung the hammer once again. This time, the strike came from underneath, slamming straight into Metal’s chin. With another yell, Rainbow completely lifted the bot off the floor and sent him flying back at a great speed. Both of the speedsters’ eyes widened in shock at the display of power this girl held. How a little girl like this could have so much upper body strength, they’d never know.
Nonetheless, the strike had sent Metal flying, sending him right on a collision course to the giant machine. Within seconds, he impacted, bursting right through the outer layer and into the inner workings. Sparks and bolts of electricity flew in every direction from the damage.
Rainbow and Sonic had finally picked themselves up and stood by Amy, who had caused her hammer to strangely disappear in a puff of smoke. Those were questions for some other time, however, as they all had felt a low rumble as the machines lights suddenly started to flicker. Before long, the entire room became completely dark, the only illumination being the Chaos Emerald still held in suspension, and all the noises of the machine becoming silent and all of the electricity that once shot out to the antennas stopped along with them. Very soon, the whole room was eerily quiet, as opposed to how it was before.
“Hey, what’s going on?” Amy asked as she attempted to hide behind Sonic, the echo of her voice now clear in the silence.
“No idea,” responded Rainbow. “But whatever you did, I’m not complaining. Talk about pulling our flanks out of the fire girly. Not bad.”
“You said it,” Sonic agreed. “You know, I bet this is some kind of power supply Egghead keeps around. He must’ve been using that Chaos Emerald to keep this place up and running.”
“That tiny thing was keeping letting him run this whole place?” Rainbow asked with a hint of disbelief. “You sure about that?”
“Since when have I been wrong about something like that? You’re the one who doesn’t seem to know about how these kinds of things work Colors.”
“I’ve told you so many times now squirt, my name is Rainbow Dash! Not Colors!”
“You act like there’s a difference,” Sonic laughed as he scratched his head.
Rainbow let out a growl. She was this close to beating this kid to a pulp. However, all three of them froze up at the sound of a rapid beeping noise. They knew that sound, and it wasn’t something they needed right now. They all looked up to the generator to see metal Sonic pulling himself out of the whole he made, his joints all jittery as he struggled.
“Are you kidding me?!” Rainbow asked in fear and surprise. “What does it take to take this guy down?!”
“You’re guess is as good as mine,” said Sonic. “Hey Ames. You think you got another trick up your sleeve for this one?”
“ME!” she shrieked, partially from the idea and partially from Sonic being the one to request it. “I was lucky to hit him the first time! I don’t know about another!”
“Well, had to ask.”
They were all interrupted by a violent shaking as the lights on the machine lit back up. Even Metal was surprised by the sudden shaking as the machine sparked and rumbled with him half inside it. Just as he was about to jump out, the whole thing was engulfed in a light blue energy, the energy flowing out of the Chaos Emerald like water. In the next second, the whole machine burst apart, a massive explosion engulfing the whole thing, Metal being taken with it.
The group below all jumped in shock at the torrent of flames suddenly approaching them.
“Whoa! Gotta juice ladies! Let’s get out of here!” Sonic yelled as he picked Amy up bridal style, eliciting a blush from the girl as they dashed toward the hole. Rainbow quickly followed suit, following closely behind Sonic.
The two rushed out the exit before throwing themselves on the ground, the fire from inside erupting like a volcano where they came out of. They could feel the heat brushing over their backs before it finally subsided, the cool air encompassing them once again.
By now, both Sonic and Rainbow were breathing heavily. Them and Amy all turned back to look at the hole, a burning red glow coming from inside as smoke flowed out.
Rainbow just laid her head down with a thud, letting out a large held in sigh that it was finally over. “That’ll work…”
“Is he finally gone?” Amy asked still clinging to Sonic’s arm.
“Yeah,” Sonic answered between breaths. “I think Metal finally bit off more than he could chew with that one.”
“Good riddance,” said Rainbow still tired from the whole ordeal. “Any more of that would’ve driven me crazy.”
Amy was about to speak up again, but she felt something rubbing against her back, or more like, multiple things. She looked back and her eyes grew wide.
“Guys. Look,” she said, the others looking over to her.
They all saw that the bag on her back was starting to move around frantically, like something was trying desperately to get out.
“Open it!” Sonic said.
As the group all huddled around the bag, Amy pulled open the top, and she had to throw her head back as several objects flew out of it. The group all looked up to see that the Time Stones had flown out on their own, now hovering in the air as they circled each other. It wasn’t long before they started to spin rapidly around one another, a bright light now shining in the middle of them all. It was getting so bright now that they all had to cover their eyes.
“What’s going on now?!” Rainbow questioned at the sudden phenomenon
“No idea!” Sonic answered. “Whatever it though, doesn’t look like we can stop it now!”
Before long, the light disappeared, and the group could finally look once again. What they saw was…nothing. The stones had completely disappeared along with the light. There was just now trace of them.
“Wait,” Amy spoke up in confusion. “What just happened to the Time Stones? They just disappeared.”
“No idea,” Sonic answered. “Hope Robuttnik didn’t have anything to do with that.”
“Hey, I just noticed something,” Rainbow said, catching the attention of the others. “Where’d all those bots get to? There were hundreds of them out here earlier.”
Sonic and Amy finally noticed it to. There were no longer any badniks to be seen. Not even any of the flying ones. The street was now strangely empty.
“Huh, talk about weird,” said Sonic. “You’d think that they all flew the coup.”
It was then that the sound of bending metal caught their attention. They looked all over, but there was no sign of where it was coming from. However, if they didn’t know any better…
They all looked down, and what they saw forced them to back off a bit. The metal ground beneath them was starting to pull itself apart, entire sections of the street being pulled off one another as some even lifted in the air. It wasn’t long before the piece that they were standing on was taken up as well.
“Oh come on!” Can’t we just catch a break for even a second!” Rainbow yelled out.
“Rainbow!” she heard Silver say on the other end. “You did it!”
“Uhhhh, what’d I do?! We’re lifting off the ground on basically a metal surfboard!” she yelled back, although Sonic and Amy were too invested in what was going on to hear her.
“It’s said that the Time Stones are some kind of protectors of Little Planet. You guys collected all of them, but something must’ve been suppressing them and keeping too much of their power from leaking out, like a Chaos Emerald.”
Suddenly, that started to make sense to Rainbow. It would make sense, knowing about how much power those things apparently held.
“But what’s happening now?! The whole place looks like it’s coming apart!”
It was true. They were much higher now, and they could see that their area wasn’t the only place on Little Planet being affected. Entire sections of the industry on the planet were being lifted into the air, the smallest of pipes to the largest of buildings. All around them, debris were starting to stack up and litter the sky.
“It must be the stones. They’re reverting everything back to the way it was before Eggman took over.”
“Ok,” Rainbow said in partial agreement. “I can live with that if it wasn’t for all the scrap flying around.”
“You say something Colors?!” she heard Sonic yell over the wind.
She winced, hoping he hadn’t heard too much. “Umm, I said I think that Time Stones may be making all this scrap fly around!”
“Really? I was thinking along the same lines.”
“Sonic! Look out!” Amy yelled as she pulled him away from the ledge.
At first, they were confused as to what she was doing, but it soon became apparent that she was saving him. A yellow bolt of electricity shot right past where he once stood, shooting into the now blue sky. No. It couldn’t have been.
It was. On a now rising section of metal separate from them, they saw none other than metal Sonic, glaring right at every single one of them with a glare that would send grown stallions crying to their mommies.
“You know, I’m actually starting to get tired of this guy,” Sonic said as he returned the glare.
“You’re just now starting to?” Rainbow questioned as she faced him as well, eyeing the open air between them.
Metal was probably in the worst start they’ve seen him in so far. His last eye was flickering on and off again as the red glow was no longer steady. His head was busted right open, his internal circuitry open to the world. What was most glaring, however, was that he was missing his entire left arm, sparks flying from where it was assumedly blown off. His purple aura was still present, but it was far less prominent than before. Even with all this, he was still getting into crouched position, like he was ready to pounce at a moment’s notice.
“What are we going to do,” Amy questioned as she once again hid behind Sonic, feeling rather helpless as they were all still flying through the air, getting further and further away from Little Planet with every passing moment.
Sonic didn’t answer her this time. Rainbow looked to him, wondering what was going on in that head of his. Until she saw him cracking his knuckles, a grin every evident on his face.
“Hey Colors,” he said, begrudgingly catching her attention with that. “How about one more race?”
“Huh,” was her only real response. Another race? What’s he getting on about now?
“You vs me. First one to land a blow to Metal’s bent up face is the winner. Plus, when I win, you can get me one of my favorite chili dogs.”
Rainbow was surprise by the offer, albeit a bit confused as to what a chili dog was, but she had an idea form in her head at the sound of what seemed like a bet.
“Alright,” she answered cockily. “But when I win, you have to stop calling me Colors. You got it pinhead.”
“Heh. Like that’s ever gonna happen. You’ll just have to pick up the pace if you want that to happen.”
Rainbow grit her teeth slightly at that. Never, attack her speed. Ever.
Metal, on the other hand, was tired of waiting. Without warning, he jumped from his platform and launched himself at his adversaries, readying his one clawed hand.
“You just try not to fall kid you got it,” Rainbow taunted as she eyed Metal. “Kind of defeats the whole reason I’m here if you did.”
Not waiting for him, she took off. While she couldn’t see it, Sonic couldn’t help but flash a grin. He thought that would ruffle her feathers.
“Amy,” he said, “you better hang on tight. Things are about to get wild!”
Doing what he says, she wrapped her arms around his neck from behind, wondering where he was getting at—
Her question was quickly answered as Sonic had suddenly jumped off the platform. Sonic definitely heard her screaming right in his ear. He swore he was gonna have a busted eardrum after this, but right now, his focus was just ahead. Eyeing many different pieces of scrap flying through the air, he used he one as a stepping stool to keep up with his pegasus rival, doing his absolute best to reach Metal.
Metal himself eyed the two coming at him. He knew he couldn’t strike both of them. He only had one arm, and his power was at its limit. While he wanted more than anything else to strike at Sonic while he could, a weird, unnatural sensation was overriding most of his protocols. He didn’t know what it was, but one thing was for certain. He wanted to kill Rainbow Dash now above all else.
As the three closed in on one another, they all readied their strikes, Sonic and Rainbow readying fists, while Metal readied his still sharp claws, his targeting parameters focusing in on Rainbow Dash. This didn’t go unnoticed by Rainbow Dash, however. She saw that glint in his eye. Well, she wasn’t about to fall victim to him again. This time, it was his turn to feel scared.
She readied herself, her hoof at her side, ready to thrust out to her target. She eyed Metal intensely, but ever so slowly, her vision started to turn white again.
“Oh come on. Not again,” she thought as she was once again taken out of reality.
Rainbow looked on at the incoming attack. She couldn’t tell what was going on, or where she was, but one this was for certain. She was in the middle of a battle, and she was flying straight at a gloved fist that threatened to strike her dead on.
Her vision came back, and Metal was now right in front of them, his claw seconds away from striking her. In fact, they all were mere inches away from colliding with one another.
“Not today buster,” she growled at him.
With the claw on the verge of piercing straight through her magenta eyes, she leaned her head ever so slightly to the right, the claw firmly scraping her cheek, leaving a nasty gash. Unfortunately for Metal, that wasn’t enough to stop her. The claw sailed right past her, and she had brought her hoof up. Sonic did the same with his fist, bringing it up in an uppercut motion. Metal, with his energy all but gone and his body in great disrepair, sensed the attacks make contact.
Rainbow watched as her hoof struck the chin of the dark figure she was fighting, its head getting thrown back violently. She saw a gloved hand joining her hoof in the strike, and she also noticed something else. This didn’t look like her hoof.
Both hers and Sonic’s attacks made contact with Metal’s chin. With no way to stop what came next, Metal’s entire body was flung much higher into the air, two firm dents now imprinted in the underside of his steel muzzle. He just kept sailing on. At this point, his sensors were so scrambled that he didn’t even know if he was going up or down anymore. His eye flickered as the glass cracked even more.
He didn’t know how long he was in the air, but it soon didn’t matter anymore. He felt the last of his energy vanish in an instant. He could see his one hand, along with the strange purple glow he once had. The glow had vanished, and while he couldn’t see it, the very bright red glow in his eye had vanished as well.
What had gone wrong? He had calculated every single variable. He had taken every single detail of opponents into account. So why had they of all things bested him. Was he not supposed to be the perfect machine? Was he not supposed to become the world’s greatest fear? Was he not…supposed to be the real Sonic?
As he eyed his hand, it was quickly covered up by a shadow. He rotated his body around, only for his entire body to be crushed against the tower shaped like his creator, its weight and mass dragging him to the ground below Little Planet.
Meanwhile, Sonic, Rainbow, and Amy had carefully landed back where Rainbow had first got here, at the edge of the lake. Rainbow had an easy time getting down as she just weaved between all the pieces of scrap metal. Sonic had to jump from piece to piece before finally sliding down a small incline, his passenger screaming his ears off the entire way down. Now, all of them watched as the massive tower, still in the shape of Robotnik’s, or Eggman’s, face, crashed into the lake, water exploding into the air around it. Rainbow covered herself with her wing as it started to rain from the impact, Sonic and Amy simply using their arms.
Many more pieces of Egghead’s once great industry continued to rain down, some landing I the hills, some landing and sinking beneath the massive lake. Even the large chain began to buckle before the links were broken, pulled out of place as it fell to the water. Little Planet, now free from its restraint, began to fly into the distance. It wasn’t long, however, before it quickly disappeared in a flash, sparkles raining down from where it once sat.
Rainbow was about to leave it at that, but something else caught her eye. If her eyes weren’t lying to her, she could swear that the sparkles were forming the shape of a lightning bolt, all before the shape dissipated in the wind. She actually couldn’t help but smile at this. It was as if the planet, or maybe just the Time Stones, were thanking her for freeing it. While she didn’t know if that was true, it brought her joy at the thought. She let out another heavy sigh. Now that this was all over—
“Wow,” Amy spoke up at the sight, long after she had finally stopped screaming. “I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s so beautiful.”
“Heh,” Sonic laughed. “You sure don’t see that every day.”
“Curse you Sonic!”
The moment was broken as an all too familiar, and to some, annoying, voice. The trio looked up, their eyes catching the glint of sunlight beaming off a familiar flying vehicle. Eggman.
“Arggghhhh,” he growled. “You all may have won the battle, but I assure you, the war is far from over!”
“Yeah!” Cubot shot up. “You tell ‘em boss!”
“I wouldn’t go around telling everyone that Egg for Brains,” Sonic said as he walked in his general direction. “After this kind of butt whooping I’d think it’d be pretty embarrassing to show your face again.”
“Don’t get too overconfident you annoying little pincushion. You don’t show your whole hand without keeping an ace up your sleeve.”
As if to punctuate his sentence, he pulled out a blue Chaos Emerald from his pocket, showing it to the group in a very taunting manner.
Amy looked on with a shocked gasp, all while Sonic looked on with a sly grin on his face.
“Man, you must’ve fought tooth and nail to get that thing out of that place when it was all falling apart. I underestimated you Eggman.”
“Believe me, it was far more work than I’d rather do to get something done. But it doesn’t matter anymore anyway,” he put the emerald back in his pocket. “I’ll be generous and let you all live. Just know that one day I’ll be back, and once I’m ready, this Chaos Emerald will be there to help me conquer the whole world! And this time, you won’t be there to stop me. Tah tah.”
On that note, he turned the eggmobile in the opposite direction and started his flight away.
“Hey!” Amy yelled out to him in anger. “You get back here! What kind of guy are you, acting all tough and then up and running when you’re down! You come back down here so I can beat some—”
Her words were cut off as she felt something fly right past her. At first she thought it was either Rainbow or Sonic, flying off to catch him before he got away. She quickly realized that it was neither of them. It was a rock.
She watched it sail into the air, curving upward in a way that seemed to defy physics. Even so, it angled up in such a way that it impacted with the bottom of Eggman’s eggmobile, causing the whole thing to explode in the distance, the smoke left afterwards humorously forming into the shape of the doctor himself. She quickly looked back and saw Sonic in a throwing position, like he had just spun up and released it.
“Strike!” he yelled out, pumping his fist in the air. “You’re out egghead.”
“Sonic,” Amy managed out in surprise. “You did that?”
“Hmm? You surprised?”
Amy felt like she didn’t have the strength to answer. Every rational thought she once had was thrown out and her mind was replaced by nothing but hearts, most of them with Sonic in the middle.
Sonic saw that she wasn’t answering, and she was getting the weird expression on her face again. Heck, he liked this girl, but man did she freak him out at times. Deciding to ignore it, he turned back to Rainbow.
“Hey Colors. I gotta say, you really pulled our butts out of the fire a ton this time. Thanks a…bunch?”
He would’ve continued, if Rainbow was anywhere to be seen.
The whole gang, including Silver and Blaze, all huddled around Rainbow Dash as she had just appeared through the Time Gate. She was breathing heavily, and everypony could see the many injuries that littered her body, big and small. She was bruised, scratched, and most noticeably, there was a huge cut on her right cheek, small amounts of blood staining the wound.
“Rainbow!” Twilight spoke up, worry evident for her friend. “Are you ok!”
As for Pinkie, she was on the opposite end of that spectrum. “DASHIE!” she jumped in. “That. Was. AMAZING! You were all like, ZOOM, ZIP, BOOM. At that Sonic Rainboom! Wowie! That Metal meanie didn’t even know what hit him with that!”
“Pinkie dear,” Rarity stepped in. “I don’t think that now is the time for that.”
“Hey, Dash?” Silver said, doing his best to get her attention on him. “You ok? I know that was a lot to go through for only your second time through, but you did great. I probably couldn’t have done it better myself.”
“Heheh,” Rainbow managed out, catching the attention of everypony around her. “Not too bad…for a…little pony huh…”
She got out another laugh, which elicited some chuckles out of the rest of the group…all before she passed out, Silver having to catch her before she struck the ground.
To be continued…
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Thank you for that ending with Eggman.
8445644
I felt that it was appropriate lol.
Looking forward to the next arc.