#and yes the badnik was a lie

[sonicexelle-junkary]

CW: mentions of implied self harm

Self destruction

Knuckles met sonic at an unfortunate time. He knows something is wrong, but he doesn’t know the whole story

EDIT: OLD AND NON CANNON

[son1c]

Actually losing my mind over the recent falling stars fic updates, my god. Didn’t even know you updated until I saw Rouge fanart for it lol oops

Your writing is so god damn good I adore it

Eggman’s a bastard. What the hell. He really did that. My god the whole concept of Sonic getting roboticized is horrifying tbh. The whole fighting against the programming stuff too? Chefs kiss.

I’m so happy that Rouge and Omega are there :)

Also Eggman’s robots becoming protective of Sonic is really sweet.

If Shadow loses his memories again I will quite literally explode /lh

The detail of Tails being adamant that Sonic wasn’t dead is such a good detail too :)

well ya he's sonic t. hedgehog so ofc he's not gonna just lie down and take it!!! even if rouge never showed up he would've broken free eventually. he was already almost there, she just gave him that final push <:)

but yeah lol the badniks at first were like :/ man i dunno about this... isn't that guy our archenemy... but then the longer sonic sticks around and helps them out and is just Nice to them they realize hmmm actually i think i like this guy better as a friend than an enemy. and if anything happens to him i'm killing everyone at this base and then myself

+ SHADOW WON'T. lose his memories again gfhgfghfgh that pod basically just pushed the pause button on his body and mind. like he's been sleepin. when he wakes up he's gonna be like "so what did i miss?" and sonic will be like "uhhhhhhhhhhh no time for questions we gotta get outta here!!!"

and yes <3 first tails mention 15 parts in <333 he has been having just the absolute worst time of his life. living the nightmare. completely off screen <3

[doomfox]

Chef Metal

“Alright I’m comin’! I’m comin’!!” Sonic dragged himself from his hammock, grumpily making his way to the door of his and Tails’ shared workshop. He rubbed at his eyes, unlocking the door... and went still. Green eyes met red, Sonic scanning up and down to find another blue hedgehog, almost identical in appearance, clutching a box of some kind. “... Metal? What do you want?”

Metal, former-Super badnik-turned-organic hedgehog,  simply wore a weird little grin as he scowled back at his counterpart. “Oh, nothing. Just paying a little visit!” He inclined his head, gesturing into the workshop. “May I come in?”

Sonic frowned and shrugged, suppressing a yawn. “Sure, I guess.” He turned and entered the workshop, heading for the kitchen to fix himself a snack. “So what do I owe the pleasure, huh Mets?” He turned and appraised the other hedgehog curiously, Metal setting his box down on the table. “You ain’t exactly the visit-ey type.”

Metal half-shrugged, weird little smile still on his dark brown muzzle. “I figured I’d bring a little... peace offering!” he raised a finger. “One that I think you’ll really like!”

“Oh really?” Sonic made to open the refrigerator and paused, curiously glancing to the box. “And what would that be, huh Mettie?”

Metal grinned. “Come take a look, hedgehog!”

Sonic did, frowning,  nose twitching as he approached Metal and his mysterious gift. The former machine wrapped fingerless gloves around the lid handle, lifted... and revealed the contents. Sonic’s eyes went wide, his nose twitching at the glorious smell of freshly-cooked, piping hot chilidogs.

Metal continued with his little grin. “Told you you’d like it!”

Sonic stared at the row of chilidogs, before giving Metal a very suspicious look. “Alright, what’s the catch Mets?” He folded his arms and tapped a foot, raising an eyebrow ridge as he appraised the other hedgehog. “You hate my guts, Metal! Even after hanging around the last few weeks with the rest of us meatsacks! What’s the game here?”

“No catch!” Metal raised both hands defensively, almost pleading. “No game! I just figured, for the sake of our friends...” Sonic bit back a laugh at that. Metal had proven himself to have changed, and the rest of Sonic’s friends had all but forgiven him, but it would always be weird the former machine regarding his former enemies as friends. “I think it’d be good to bury the hatchet.” He lowered his hands and shrugged. “So what do you say? Truce?”

Sonic frowned, considering how genuine his rival was being. “Well... truce or no, I’ll never pass up the chance for a chilidog!”

Metal’s weird little grin returned. “Good! Now eat up. Before they get cold.”

Sonic shrugged, reaching out and taking one of the ‘dogs. “Not gonna lie, the DO smell good... I didn’t know you made chilidogs, Mets!”

Metal rolled his eye. “I make everything, Sonic. A few crummy chilidogs aren’t going to be much of a challenge.” His stupid grin returned, red eyes glinting as his brow lowered. “Now... eat up!”

Sonic frowned, still mildly suspicious... but decided to heck with it. “Alright! Down the hatch!” He opened his mouth and took a bite.

And went still. Metal’s brow lowered into his usual familiar scowl, and he grinned maliciously.

“Wha’...” Sonic spoke around a mouthful of hot meat and bread, eyes popping from his skull, “wha’ ing ‘deh worl’??”

Metal glared at Sonic, sharp teeth baring as the other hedgehog stared at the chilidog like it were from another planet. “You like that??”

“What... WHAT DID YOU DO????”

Metal slammed his hands on the table. “IT’S GOOD, RIGHT???”

“IT’S INCREDIBLE”

“THE BEST FREAKING CHILDIOG EVER MADE BY HEDGEHOG-KIND???”

“IT’S GLORIOUS. IT’S AMAZING.” Sonic rapidly devoured the ‘dog and snatched up two more. “How... HOW DID YOU MAKE THESE????”

“I AM THE ULTIMATE COOK, SONIC!!!!!”

“I... I...” Sonic devoured the other two and stared at the others, gobsmacked at how GOOD the ‘dogs were. “I think I’m going to cry, Metal. I think I’m broken.”

“Yes...” Metal grinned wide, malicious, scrutinising his counterpart with mirthful glee. “Yes, enjoy them... all part of the plan!”

Sonic grabbed another one and paused, cheeks bulging as he chewed. “Huh? Whu’ p’an?”

“MY PLAN TO DEFEAT YOU, SONIC!!!!!!!” Metal cackled, his muzzle split with the familiar leering grin of a Robotnik, “MY PLAN TO FINALLY WIN!!!!!!!!!!!!” The hedgehog slammed his hands back on the table, leaning over, closer to a bemused Sonic. “You see, my behated copy...” the former badnik cackled, the dark brown fur of his chest hovering over the table, “those... are the finest, most perfect, most delectable, BEST CHILIDOGS THE WORLD WILL EVER SEE!!!!!!! No matter how long you live, how far you run, you will NEVER find any that could possibly match my superior culinary abilities!!!!!!!!!”

Sonic gulped, glancing at the last chunk of chilidog clutched in his fingers. “What are you saying, Metal?”

“I am saying...” Metal hissed, utterly enjoying the moment, “that you... are now in MY debt!!!! I have POWER over you now, Sonic!!!!!!! Every chilidog you ever eat from now on, you’ll be thinking of MINE!!!!! You’ll beg... you’ll come CRAWLING... desperate for Metal to make you more... and I have the power to say... ‘no’.”

Sonic gaped. “You wouldn’t!”

“Oh, I would!” Metal leaned back and folded his arms, unbearably smug grin plastering his face. “face it Sonic, I could swear off of making chilidogs for the rest of my life, and you’ll never experience my craftsmanship again. I have you UNDER my thumb!!”

Sonic remained still, staring at his counterpart... then relaxed and shrugged. “Eh. I’m usually good with the microwaved ones anyway. I’ll live.” He tossed the remaining morsel into the air and caught it, grinning around his chewing as Metal deflated. “Sorry Mets! You’re good but ‘power over me’? Puh-lease.”

“... for Chaos’ sake Sonic!” Metal’s arms drooped to his side as he slumped, “can’t you let me have ONE little victory?? Just ONE???”

“Aww, don’t beat yourself up buddy-boy!” Sonic stood and rounded the table, splaying his hands apologetically, “if it’s any consolation, they were DAMN good!” He wrapped an arm around his doppelganger, Metal sulking as he patted his arm. “Gotta say, you’re a natural at this cooking business!”

Metal frowned. “I am?”

“Absolutely! You kidding me??” Sonic leaned away, giving his rival an impressed look. “Seriously! Everybody says so, don’t they? Even your pops!” Sonic wiped a thumb across his nose, frowning as he considered. “Listen. Mets. The whole ‘killer robot’ thing never worked out, did it? I mean, you gave it a shot but you never got very far with it.”

“Gee, thanks.” Metal glowered at his twin, scowling. “Way to make a hedgehog feel GOOD about himself.”

“No, no! You’re not getting it!” Sonic clapped both hands on Metal’s shoulders, shaking the former machine with intent. “Being a killer robot henchman to an evil villain was never your calling! You were born into it but it was never your real destiny!” Sonic gave the other hedgehog a sly grin. “You ever considered a career change?”

Metal frowned. “Career change?”

“Yup!”

“... doing what?”

“Ugh...” Sonic rolled his eyes. “Mets, that pink mushy thing in your head is called a brain. Use it.”

Red eyes scanned the table, inspecting the now empty box thoughtfully. “Are you saying I should... cook professionally?”

“Not only that!” Sonic replied, “you should start your own business! Open your own kitchen! Dude, you’d make a KILLING!!!!”

Metal looked back at his rival, red eyes meeting green as his scowl faded into uncertainty. “Am I really that good?”

“Hey, you said it yourself!” Sonic clapped his shoulder, “ultimate cook! With superior culinary abilities!”

Metal remained silent, considering. “I don’t think my father would approve...”

“Dude, screw your old man!” Sonic drawled, rolling his eyes at the mention of Eggman, “you’re your own hedgehog now! You make your OWN decisions!” He winked. “We only live once, my dude! Make sure you know what you want  to do with your time!”

Metal looked to the table, still silent. “... alright,” he finally said, dark muzzle twitching as a grin began to form, “alright, I’ll do it!” His brows lowered, the hedgehog now wearing a determined scowl, “I’LL DO IT!” He pushed Sonic away and raised a hand, looking just like his old man beginning a villainous dialogue. “I WILL RUN THE ULTIMATE RESTAURANT! PEOPLE WILL COME FROM ALL CORNERS OF MOBIUS, WORD WILL TRAVEL TO EVERY ZONE, OF MASTER CHEF METAL ROBOTNIK AND HIS CULINARY EMPIRE!!!!!! THE KITCHEN WILL BE MY DOMAIN!!!!!!!!!! I WILL BE THE MASTER OF MY CRAFT!!!!!!! ALL OTHERS WILL PALE IN COMPARISON!!!!!!!!!!” He turned and flashed a sharp-toothed grin at his double. “Thank you, Sonic. For helping me see. For helping me... accept my true destiny.”

“Not a problem, bud!” Sonic grinned back, running his finger beneath his nose thoughtfully. “Say... we’re technically, like, twins right?”

Metal frowned, hands planting on hips. “I suppose?”

“Great!” Sonic raised a finger, eyes shining pleadingly. “Does that mean I... qualify for the friends and family discount?”

“Don’t push it, hedgehog.”

[tenebraevesper]

Sonic the Hedgehog Analyzer, Issue #51: Escaping the Empire

Welcome to the second part of The Battle for the Empire Arc! In the previous part, we have witnessed the battles between Starline and Eggman, Surge and Sonic, and Kit and Tails, each ending with the defeat of Starline, Surge and Kit. Sonic, Tails (who brought along Kit) and Belle attempt then to escape the Eggperial City, but Eggman decides give them a proper “welcome” in his usual fashion - surrounding them with Badniks.

Let’s see how this will end!

We start off with a chase. Sonic, Belle and Tails (who is carrying Kit) are trying to escape a swarm of relentless Badniks that Eggman had sicced on them.

Fortunately, Sonic manages to find an alleyway, yeeting Belle right into it before creating a tornado to deal with the Badniks and quickly running back to Belle to catch her. Belle pretty much tells him that she’s ready for the night to be over, with Sonic agreeing, finding a hiding spot for all of them.

At their hiding spot, they take a moment to recover and assess the situation. Sonic notes how the area is clear, while Tails and Belle check on Kit, who’s just unconscious. Sonic asks what the hell is going on, with Belle solemnly informing him that Starline was the one who attacked the city along with his enforcers, Surge and Kit, but that he’s now dead. Sonic’s response?

“Big oof.”

Okay, not gonna lie, I genuinely burst out laughing when I read Sonic’s blunt response. However, that doesn’t appear to be the kind of reaction other people had, being once again in uproar about how dare Sonic show such a flat reaction towards Starline’s death.

Honestly, I’m not that surprised that he doesn’t care that much that Starline has died, for several reasons. Remember how I asked you to keep count of all the times Sonic and Starline met and interacted? Here’s a list of them:

Issue #14: Misdirection

Issue #23: The Last Minute (Part 3)

Issue #25: A Sudden Shift

Issue #35: Chao Races and Badnik Bases (Part 3)

Issue #36: Chao Races and Badnik Bases (Part 4)

To note, the only direct interactions between the two were in Misdirection and Chao Races and Badnik Bases, and even during those interactions, Sonic was put into mortal danger by Starline, so I’m not surprised that he wouldn’t have much sympathy for Starline. He knew this guy only as Eggman’s henchman, the one who brought Eggman back, and someone who put his friends constantly in danger.

“Oh, but Ten! What about what Sonic told Surge in the previous Issue? He said that he would be willing to give Starline a second chance! Clearly, he’s being a hypocrite!”

That sounds like a good point, but you forget what he added afterwards - yes, he would be willing to give Starline a second chance, but only if the latter changes his ways. If Sonic saved Starline, but Starline continued his path of villainy, there’s no doubt that Sonic would beat him up, second chances be damned. As a matter of fact, that was his reaction when he heard that Starline was behind this attack:

So, Sonic’s response above? Yeah, he is still being true to his word. 

Could he have been more tactful due to how upset Belle is? Sure, but remember, they’re in Eggperial City, surrounded by Badniks. Sonic is already under pressure to get himself, Belle, Tails and Kit out of the city before Eggman gets them. There isn’t really time to process what happened, they need to move on.

Tails and Sonic then talk about Kit and Surge, and their respective fights, Tails noting how, whatever Starline did to Kit, it left him deeply traumatized, while Sonic recounts how Surge fell and was crushed under a ton of junk.

“There’s no coming back from that.”

Sonic is immediately proven wrong as we cut to several conveyor belts, moving the debris towards an incinerator, and out of one pile, Surge breaks out, alive, but tired, managing to escape to another conveyor belt before she got crushed.

She notes to herself that she first needs to recover, then find a way to become more powerful and lastly, grind Sonic into the dirt. On the surface, it’s a good plan, nice and simple. In reality, it might get difficult.

We then check back with Sonic, Tails, Belle and Kit as they’re about to figure out how to escape Eggperial City. Sonic questions Belle about how she knew all that stuff about Starline, with Belle explaining how she downloaded data when she connected to Metal Sonic. Tails figures that, if she can connect to the Eggnet, they could get a map of the city. Belle does that, directing them to a hangar. Tails notes how he could hot-wire a shuttle and fly them out, but he’s worried about the Badniks. Sonic assures him that he’ll distract them so they can escape and pick him up on the way out.

Tails is worried due to the number of Badniks out there, but Sonic reminds him how he’s the only one who can get the shuttle working, and someone needs to carry Kit. Tails agrees, but he still wants Sonic to have backup. Sonic wonders if Belle could do both, but she’s not a fighter so she’ll need protective escort, which Belle sheepishly apologizes for. Sonic replies how there’s nothing to apologize for, as the world needs both. Hence, they’ll split up, with Sonic being the distraction and Tails, Belle and Kit getting to the shuttle.

We then cut to Sonic running up a skyscraper, balancing on top of it and calling out for Eggman’s attention. Orbot informs Eggman how Sonic had been spotted, with Eggman replying how he knows and figures that Sonic is just baiting him. So much for the plan...

Metal Sonic is about to leave to deal with Sonic, but Eggman stops him, saying how the Badniks will deal with the blue hedgehog. Metal Sonic stops, clenching fist, his body language saying how he’s clearly not pleased with this order.

Eggman then explains how Sonic is planning and escape, and how he should go intercept the others to ruin Sonic’s day. Metal Sonic leaves, with Eggman telling him to leave Belle intact, as she might prove him useful in the long run.

Now, I’ll take a moment here to ask you something - why did everyone get aggravated when Sonic allowed for Metal Sonic to be fixed and let him go (albeit de-weaponized), but no one brings up the fact that Belle did the same here? Now, her moment of kindness is going to backfire on all of them.

Sonic is till balancing on the tip of the pole, bored of waiting for Eggman to make his move, only for a communication satellite to appear, with Eggman being surprised that Sonic is holding still for so long. Sonic replies how he doesn’t feel threatened, so Eggman makes the Badniks destroy the building, causing Sonic to fall off.

Fortunately, he manages to get footing and spin-dashes through the Badniks.

As for Belle and Tails, Belle is surprised by a bunch of Badniks marching right past her, but ignoring her, as Tails is smashing the rest. Okay, I have to ask something here: why is Belle so surprised that the Badniks aren’t attacking her? She is still recognized as Eggtech, considering how Eggman wants her back, so she should technically be fine around other Badniks. Or maybe I misinterpreted her reaction?

Tails manages to get rid off the rest of the Badniks and they run into the hangar, where Tails is excited to see the shuttle. Just look a him! He’s adorable! Hell, even the seat is too big for him so he has to crouch on it as he starts the shuttle.

Unfortunately for the three, Metal Sonic is right behind them.

Back with Sonic, Eggman is gloating as he observes Sonic being chased by the Badniks, only to be pissed off when Sonic beats them.

As he continues the battle, Sonic even adds some banter with Eggman, noting how it’s been a while since he bashed all of those models, while Eggman gets more and more irate, yelling how Sonic cannot beat the odds forever.

“Watch me!”

Cue Sonic coming to a halt when he’s suddenly blocked off by Badniks. Again, you jinxed yourself there Sonic.

Eggman is pleased to have Sonic on the defensive, figuring he might join in on the fun with one of his mechas as Sonic dodges the relentless attacks, realizing that this might be a bit too much. Between the running to the city and fighting with Surge and all the Badniks, he’s running on empty (not to mention, he has been awake for a whole night).

Fortunately for Sonic, the shuttle with Tails, Kit and Belle appears, and Eggman is pissed off they’re stealing his stuff.

Inside the shuttle, Belle asks Tails if Sonic knows what to do, and Tails assures he that he does. Sonic has indeed figured out what Tails is planning and is rushing over through the city, just as we see Metal Sonic flying right next to him.

Honestly, I absolutely love this race sequence, with Sonic being completely unaware that Metal is following him as he dashes towards the shuttle, trying to find a good spot to jump on it.

Sonic leaps, with Belle catching him and pulling him inside, much to Eggman’s chagrin. Sonic wonders if Eggman called off the Badniks, but Eggman replies how he just didn’t want to rob Metal Sonic of his moment.

Cue Metal Sonic blasting right through the shuttle, causing it to crash into the ground. Honestly, this is epic and terrifying!

Fortunately, everyone survives, with Kit waking up from the impact. Unfortunately, Sonic’s leg is injured, meaning he cannot run and Tails informs him they didn’t make it halfway to the city limits.

Yeah, that’s a problem.

Links:

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[galionne-speeding]

Journey Through Hex - Chapter 2 (Rough Landing)

Title: Journey Through Hex - Chapter 2 (Rough Landing)

Chapter: 2 / 6

Characters: Zavok, Zazz

Pairing(s): Zavok/Zazz

Warning(s): Mentions of broken bones

Read on Ao3 or under the cut.

—–

The first thing Zavok felt was the harsh rays of the sun beating down on him ; sweat (or possibly blood) rolling in large droplets down the sides of his face. The scent of dust was strong all around him, but not enough to mask the equally sharp smell of hot metal and smoke. The occasional sound of snapping and crackling electricity also made the red Zeti twitch.

Even with all this stimuli however, it still took him several long minutes to realize that he was, in fact, still alive and not yet pulverized into Zeti puree.

The Deadly Six leader inhaled sharply as he felt consciousness coming back to him. He waited quietly, keeping his eyes closed as he slowly breathed in and out. As sensation returned to his body he became dimly aware of the different aches and pains coursing through it and found himself... Surprisingly underwhelmed. For such a heavy fall it didn't seem like he had sustained more than a few bruises… But there was something else bothering him ; a presence that in his dazed stupor Zavok couldn’t quite identify… If said presence was hostile, then of course opening his eyes and revealing he was conscious was dangerous ; but on the other hand he couldn’t just lie there and wait forever… After a few more seconds of deliberating with himself, the red Zeti finally decided to risk opening one eye and take a peak. His vision was instantly filled with an agitated blur of bright pink. “BOSS!!! YOU’RE ALIVE!!! I got so scared, I thought ya weren’t gonna wake up! I thought the fall got ya!” Oh. Right. “I’m so glad Boss, you have no idea! We-!” “Zazz-! Zazz. Give me a minute…” Zavok groaned as he raised his hand slightly to keep the berserker at bay. While he could appreciate his fellow Zeti’s enthusiasm for his well-being, all the screaming and agitation wasn’t doing much good to his head… He took a moment to collect himself and began sitting up. “Uh, wait Boss, maybe you shouldn’t-” Zazz’s sentence was interrupted by a shriek of agony that resonated through the entire ravine. Zavok shot up and went to grab his leg, but quickly found that it was stuck beneath the Badnik's elbow, which was pushing down hard onto his knee. The pain was blinding. It rippled through his body in shockwaves, making him tremble. He dug his claws into the metal while taking in long, deep, shaky breaths in an attempt to steady his nerves. “I take it, it feels as bad as it looks...” Zazz muttered uneasily. “Yes... Yes it does...” Zavok groaned between gritted teeth. Despite the fall turning the machine into a smoking pile of torn cables and bent metal plates, it seemed like it still got the last laugh in the end- indeed, the Badnik’s arm not only had Zavok’s leg trapped, it was bending it in a way that was definitely not good… “We really gotta get that thing off of ya…” “We do. But I doubt it will be painless, and I doubt I’ll be able to do it myself…” Zavok pressed his hands against the metal to give it a small push, but even the slightest flinch of his muscles caused a stabbing pain throughout his entire leg. “You’ll have to be the one to do it…” the Zeti leader sighed before moving to stop Zazz when the berserker put his hands on the metal, “But keep in mind… I am going to be in a lot of pain while you do this. No matter what I say or do, you have to keep pushing. Am I clear?” Zazz gulped and nodded. He certainly didn't like the sound of that, but they didn't exactly have many other options… The pink Zeti put his back to the Badnik’s arm, took a deep breath ; and began pushing. And just as he had been warned Zavok howled- a horrible, terrible, incredibly painful howl… Zazz had to continue pushing for a few more minutes before finally being able to free his boss’ leg- at which point he glanced at it with both confusion and worry. “Uh… Are knees supposed to bend that way?” “No… And they’re not supposed to be that swollen either…” Zavok groaned. Great. There was no way he’d be able to walk on a leg like that. He’d need a cast, or a splint of some kind before he could even think of standing up. The Deadly Six leader paused and looked around, finally taking the time to take in his surroundings.

As expected they were at the bottom of the ravine, sharp cliff walls climbing so high they disappeared into a thick layer of mist. The orange rock felt warm to the touch, no doubt thanks to the magma flowing underground through the entire biome. There was little greenery and almost no vegetation at all, safe for a few stray branches which were dotted here and there along the rocky cliff- although a clear path of broken and torn stumps could be traced from the top all the way to the ground… And looking over at Zazz, it appeared that he was the cause for this. Twigs and leaves were messily sticking out of his mohawk and, looking closer, it appeared he was also sporting a number of scratches and bruises. But aside from those blemishes, he seemed otherwise fine. Unlike his leader. Looking around some more, Zavok noticed short metal rods sticking out of the wrecked Badnik, as well as bundles of colorful cables spilling out like plastic innards. Right… Maybe not the best suited materials ; but he could certainly make it work with a little bit of creative thinking.

The red Zeti motionned for Zazz to bring him a few metal rods, before grabbing a handful of cables and tearing them out with a loud SNAP. "What're ya gonna do with those?" Zazz questioned with a puzzled look on his face as he handed his leader the metal rods. “I need to straighten out my leg…”, Zavok explained as he set the set the rods on either side of his leg and slipped the cables around them, “And if I can just tie this tightly enough-” He gave the knot of cables a strong pull- and let out another howl of pain as it shifted his bones back into place. He groaned and gritted his teeth as Zazz looked at him with a mix of worry and surprise ; but took a deep breath and carried on tying a second knot. Then a third, a fourth ; adding several to make sure his contraption would hold up as he walked. Still doing so was incredibly painful, leading Zavok to take a break for several minutes afterwards as he huffed and groaned. Zazz meanwhile couldn't help but be impressed by his leader's calm and level-headedness in the face of hardships- and, well... Pain. The berserker could take hits during a fight of course ; but as soon as the distraction and adrenaline rush were over things became a lot more difficult... The last time he broke something (a finger, if he recalled correctly), it took the combined strength of both Zomom and Zeena to tackle him to the ground and hold him in place so Master Zik could apply the splint to his pinky. So for Zavok to tackle the pain head on and figure out how to patch himself up despite their situation... To Zazz it was all the more admirable. “So, you sure you’re gonna be able to walk with that?” Zazz asked, holding out his hand. “It's either that or spend the rest of my days at the bottom of a ravine.” Zavok replied as he grabbed on and hoisted himself up slowly. He balanced on his one good leg, sticking a metal rod he hadn’t used for his splint into the ground to aid himself. He was still in pain but at the very least the contraption made moving around much more bearable. Still, looking up at the cliffs and the thick layer of mist above, it was clear climbing up the jagged edges wasn’t an option… “So… What now? Should I try climb up? Or d’ya think the others’ll come get us?” “They won’t. Or rather they can’t…” Zavok shifted a little, trying to get more comfortable. “No one can reach us down here. Master Zik’s powers of levitation may be formidable, but we would need to be close-by to be picked up. Zor’s shadows, too, would be useless here ; they couldn’t climb down or survive the fall. As deep as Zomom can dig, unfortunately I think this cliff is far too deep, even for him. And all of our mechs are still undergoing repairs in Frozen Factory, so unless Zeena can accomplish several months-worth of work in just a few hours, they won’t be an option either.” He paused briefly, wiping the sweat from his brow. “As for climbing, I would recommend against it. The volcanic rock is sharp ; you’ll only manage to tear up your hands if you try.” Zazz seemed disheartened by Zavok’s explanation. “Ya really thought about everything huh…” “It’s my duty as leader.” the red Zeti simply responded. The berserker sighed softly. He looked around briefly before his eyes landed on the winding path ahead. He glanced back at Zavok, who simply nodded at him. “We can only go forward. At least this way we have a chance of finding a safer place to climb out, or maybe even be rescued..” The red Zeti took a confident step forward- only to find his body wasn't quite ready to walk unassisted just yet. He stumbled awkwardly for a brief moment but soon felt Zazz slip under his arm to support him, with his shoulders propping up his elbow and alleviating most of the weight. "We better get outta here fast then, cause now I'm itchin’ to bust up some more Badniks!"

Zavok couldn’t help but let out a gentle chuckle at his companion’s renewed enthusiasm. He readjusted his arm’s position slightly, poked at the ground with his improvised cane a few times to find the right footing and began taking slow, steady steps.

“Good, in that case let's get going. We better find shelter before nightfall…”

Zazz nodded excitedly and followed closely as he tried his best to match his leader’s footsteps.

Above them the sun had just begun to dip. The sky was still blue, but light tinges of orange and pink lapped at the horizon. A light cover of clouds was forming, chilling the air just enough to be noticeable.

As the pair trailed on through the dusty, rocky landscape ; advancing with a slow but steady pace into the depths of the ravine ; online a few hours of sunlight remained before them.

[krafterwrites]

The E(gg)-Team

Chapter 4: A Crumbling Mask

Eggman’s doctor persona begins to fall apart due to his lack of foresight, which leads to Teddy and the others beginning a plan to confront Eggman about his fake personality. However, Eggman has finally started making plans, and kills two birds with one stone by trapping the trio in a room to give them some training

In the early hours of the morning, Luna, Teddy, and Kit were sitting inside of the basement they had stayed in for their entire time they were at Eggman's base, plotting on how they would confront him about his facade of being a traveling doctor. Teddy was the only one who believed the lie in the first place, as it had only been told to him, but he had started to doubt who "the traveling doctor" really was after Luna and Kit had both told him

"Okay, is everybody clear on the plan?" Luna asked

"Yeah, I think so," Teddy answered

"Sorry, I kinda zoned out part way through, I really should've gotten some sleep last night. Would you mind explaining it again?" Kit replied

"Ugh, you need to pay attention, or else this isn't going to work," Luna scolded

"I'm paying attention now, please just tell me what your plan is"

"It's not even really that complicated, we basically just have to all get together and confront 'the traveling doctor'. Once we get to him, we're going to use all the evidence we have, including this poster, to tear apart his fake identity"

"Well, that sounds easy enough"

"Not to give him any credit, but he probably knows we're going to confront him, the basement door doesn't shut by itself. He's probably making plans of his own right now"

"Even so, his plans aren't going to be a match for our plan!"

"Let's hope so"

True to Luna's word, Eggman was indeed making plans of his own, which were significantly more complicated then the plan Luna, Kit, and Teddy had put together. He knew that the trio's plan was no more than walking up to him and pointing out the holes in his disguise, so his plan was to keep them from getting close to him long enough to do so. However, there was more to Eggman's plan then just that, he would also need to convince Teddy once again that he was a traveling doctor, and that was where Metal Sonic came into the plan

"Metal, today's the day. You've been hung up in the workshop for a while, but you're finally going to see a bit of action by helping me out with my plans," Eggman said as he walked into the workshop and took Metal off of his chains

Metal Sonic was very happy to finally be able to walk around again instead of perpetually being hung a couple of inches off of the ground, flying around the lab at blistering speeds using his fully-repaired jet turbine

"Yes, I guess it is good to get used to moving around again before you help me out. But anyways, let's head over to the training room," Eggman said

After Eggman said that, Metal Sonic gradually slowed down before coming to a full stop, and walked over to Eggman's side. The two walked into the training room, which contained nothing except a few plushies and the stands for them. Eggman began moving the targets out of the room (With help from Metal Sonic), and after only a few minutes, the room was completely blank. While the training room was part of Eggman's plan, he did genuinely want Luna, Kit, and Teddy to get some training in as well, as they were going to need it to stand a chance against Sonic and his friends

"Alright, Metal. Now that the room is all clear, I'm going to need you to get some badniks for me, they should somewhere near the workshop," Eggman requested

Following his creator's orders, Metal Sonic began flying back towards the dreaded workshop. At one point, it had felt like a home to him, a place where his creator would fix him up every time he lost a battle against Sonic. But now, it just felt like the place where he had been left to rot while Eggman assembled his team of pathetic little mobians. As Metal was still flying to the workshop, he suddenly had a realization, and stopped in his tracks

There was nothing stopping him from slaughtering the team of Mobians right now. He knew the code to all the doors in the base, and it surely wouldn't take him that long to end all three of them. He could do it and Eggman wouldn't even notice. But he would, he still needed to train those useless members, that's why he was out in the hallways in the first place. Metal slammed his hand against the wall in frustration, causing a loud echoing bang to travel across the halls, before flying back to the workshop to grab the badniks that Eggman needed

A couple minutes later, Metal Sonic had delivered the Badniks to Eggman, and he began setting them up to deploy. The training room actually had the functionality to deploy Badniks, among other features, they just hadn't been used last time since it wasn't necessary. After everything in the training room was set up, Eggman began walking over to the basement before he quickly stopped himself

"Hmm, if I walk over to the basement and then bring them to the training room, they'll have time to ask me about the whole traveling doctor thing. What am I going to do if I can't walk over to the door?" Eggman thought out loud

After thinking for a bit, Eggman realized that Metal Sonic could go to the basement and bring Luna, Kit, and Teddy to the training room, meaning they wouldn't be able to talk to him at all

"Ah, I just had a great idea. Metal, you can go to the basement and bring them to the training room, that way they won't be able to ask me about the whole traveling doctor thing," Eggman explained

Metal froze. He wanted a chance to get near the team so he could harm them, but he knew Eggman was expecting them to get to the training room, so he would have to guide them all the way to the training room after letting them out without laying a finger on them. He mentally prepared himself a bit before going off towards the basement, while Eggman walked back up to his planning room

Back in the basement, Luna, Teddy, and Kit were waiting for Eggman to let them out of the basement so that they could begin their plan, and were beginning to get tired of sitting there

"When is he going to let us out of here already so we can start the plan?" Kit impatiently asked

"He sure is taking his sweet time. It's probably because he's preparing something, but still, I'm getting tired of waiting here," Luna answered

"Hmm, I really hope we can do the plan soon and get this over with, all of this is making me really nervous," Teddy said

The trio began waiting in silence once again, but the door finally opened after a few minutes. Luna immediately began running up to the stairs to begin the plan, but was shocked to find Metal Sonic instead

"What? What is this thing?" Luna asked, surprised by the sight of Metal

Kit began running up the stairs as well to see what was going on, and was also surprised by the presence of Metal Sonic, as she hadn't seem him before

"Whoa, it's a robot. I wonder why it's here though?" Kit asked

At this point, Metal Sonic was trying his hardest to keep himself under control. Two of the team members who Eggman had decided to focus on instead of him were standing right in front of him, not defending themselves in the least. It would have been so easy for him to just attack them now, end their pathetic little lives to prove to Eggman that they were useless compared to him. But he couldn't, Eggman cared about these creatures for some unknown reason, and Metal would probably end up locked away in some dark part of the base for doing so

"Hey, Teddy, look! There's a robot up here!" Kit said, completely oblivious to how much malice said robot held towards them

"Wow, really?" Teddy asked as he ran up to the stairs

Teddy went up the stairs just as Luna and Kit had, and was marvelled by the sight of the robot. He had only seen broken parts of robots in the basement before, but this one was fully operational, and it almost looked like a Mobian. Before Teddy could look at it any further though, it began moving away slowly

"It's moving. I think it wants us to follow it," Teddy said

"Hey, aren't you forgetting the plan? How are we going to confront 'the traveling doctor' if he isn't here?" Luna asked. "Urgh, he must have sent that robot here instead so we couldn't talk to him"

"We should still where it's going to, though," Teddy suggested

"No! Why would we do that? It's obviously a trap," Luna responded

"Well, what else are we going to do? We don't know where the traveling doctor is, and we can't just give up on this whole plan. The only thing that we can do is follow that robot"

"Fine. I'm not giving up on meeting him face-to-face though, he can't behind this dumb little robot forever"

Metal Sonic stopped and turned around after hearing that, but he quickly went back to directing the trio to the training room

"Hey, I think the robot heard you," Teddy whispered as he followed Metal Sonic

"It's a robot. Who cares if it hears what I say?" Luna answered at a normal volume

"But what if it's sentient?" Teddy asked

"Look, we don't have time to be discussing whether robots can feel emotions or not, we're definetly being led into a trap," Luna replied

"We don't know if it's a trap yet"

"Well, we're about to find out. The room's right there"

In front of Luna, Teddy, and Kit was the training room, the same one Teddy had been in before. As the three stood near the entrance, Metal was next to the doorway, looking at them expectantly

"Hey, I've been here before!" Teddy excitedly said

"You have?" Luna asked

"Hey, what even is this room?" Kit questioned

"Oh yeah, I should've mentioned that. This room is a training room, it's where I first tested out my arm"

"You mean, that training you talked abuot yesterday, that's where it took place?"

"Yep, and it's where I got that plushie from as well"

"Oh, they gave you a plushie? That's awesome! Do you think they'll give me one?"

"I don't know, but we should probably go into the room now. The robot looks like it's tired of us standing around here"

"I don't care about the robot, but we should see what's inside of that room"

Teddy began walking towards the room, followed by Luna and Kit. He began getting nervous as he got closer to the room, what if it was a trap like Luna said? What if the traveling doctor was going to get rid of him because he figured out that he wasn't really a traveling doctor. Even while he was thinking of this, Teddy still began walking into the room, eventually crossing into the door and... nothing. Teddy opened his eyes, already beginning to calm down a bit, and saw the empty training room, although it looked a bit different from before

"Whoa. I guess he improved it a little since the last time I was here. Everything's all lit up and glowy," Teddy noticed. "It looks like he also got rid of the plushies though, which is a shame"

Luna and Kit walked into the training room shortly after Teddy, and both of them began looking around. Kit was impressed by the way every surface in the room glowed with a white light, while Luna was looking around, anticipating what was going to happen next

"Whoa, you trained in this place? It looks really neat," Kit remarked

"Well, it didn't look like this the last time I was in here. It wasn't lit up at all, and there used to be some plushies on stands. I wonder why it looks this way now, something's going to happen in here," Teddy said

"You're definetly right about that," Luna replied. "What is he planning? And why is it taking so long to happen? You'd think he would've started his plan already, we've been standing here for a good ten seconds so far"

As soon as Luna said that, Eggman's voice could be heard throughout the room, and he began explaining why the trio were in there

"Today, you'll all be doing some training in the new and improved training room, as something very important is coming up, and you three clearly need all the help you can get before then," Eggman said over an intercom

"Hey, Teddy already knows that you're not a traveling doctor! Just come out here and meet with us face-to-face, you coward!" Luna shouted

"Oh yes, I forgot to mention, I can't hear you over this," Eggman lied. "But I can see you, so don't think about trying to leave the training room until I decide you've gotten good enough for what I have planned tommorow"

"I'm not doing your training! I don't even need it, and even if I did, I wouldn't do it, because there's no way I'm doing any of your plans for you!" Luna yelled

"He can't hear you. And besides, maybe this won't be so bad. You're clearly mad, and this guy is probably going to give us a bunch of targets to break. It'll be a nice way to take out your anger," Kit stated. "That's what I do whenever I get angry, cut up stuff with my sword. It's nice"

Luna was still frustrated about being outwitted by Eggman, but they were kind of looking forward to smashing a bunch of targets to pieces to vent that frustration

"Ok. It will be pretty satisfying to destroy some stuff, I suppose," Luna said. "Especially since it's stuff that he made"

"I'm not super excited to break stuff, but I am kind of wondering what this training will be like," Teddy explained. "What do you think the targets will be? And where do you think they'll come from, because this room looks empty"

"I have no clue, but I'll guess we'll find out soon!" Kit excitedly said

After a breif bit of anticipation from the trio, a small portion of the wall opened up, and a single Badnik, a Motobug to be precise, rolled out of it. Luna and Kit both ran towards it, each trying to be the one to destroy it, while Teddy stood where he was. Luna got to the robot a bit faster than Kit, and tried kicking it, but quickly moved out of the way once Kit raised her sword over her head and tried slashing it into the Motobug. This ended up cutting the Motobug in half, which made Kit quite happy

"Be a little more careful with that thing, you could've cut my leg off!" Luna scolded

"But I didn't! Next time, don't try to destroy the same robot I'm trying to destroy," Kit responded

While Luna and Kit were arguing, another Motobug deployed from the opposite side of the room, and slowly began rolling towards Teddy. He tried to toss an energy orb towards the slowly approaching robot, but it ended up missing by a little bit, so he tried another one. Teddy tried to align his arm with the robot a bit more before throwing attempting to toss another orb, so his aim was more accurate the second try and he hit the robot, causing it to fizzle out from all of it's parts being electrocuted

"Huh? What was that?" Kit asked as she turned around to face Teddy and the now inactive Motobug

"Hmm, I guess the electric orbs my arm throws out can fizzle out robots, but it doesn't look like it breaks them," Teddy said mostly to himself

While Teddy was talking to himself, Kit was already running to the deactivated robot to cut it up once again, slicing it to pieces with a loud clang of metal while Luna watched

"You told me that I'd get to take out my frustration on the targets here, I can't do that if you're destroying all the targets!" Luna angrily told Kit

"I've destroyed two so far, there'll be plenty more. Besides, if you can't get to them in time, you don't really deserve to destroy it," Kit said

"Oh, you want a competition, do you?" Luna asked

"What? I didn't say that, although that is a pretty good-"

"Alright then, lets see who can destroy more of these stupid robots"

"Yeah!"

While this was happening, Teddy was waiting for the next Badnik to get released so he could practice his aim a little bit more. This time, two Motobugs deployed relatively close to each other, so Teddy began aiming for one, but Luna and Kit had ran over to the two Motobugs in the time it took for him to get a good aim, and he didn't want to accidentally hit his friends, so he just let them destroy them for him

"Finally, I get to destroy one," Luna said as she slammed her foot into the Motobug, denting it and knocking it over

"Yep, only one, because I'm getting this one!" Kit exclaimed as she sliced yet another Motobug with her sword

"He should get some new robots in here, those ones aren't even a challenge. Almost kind of an insult to have us train against these things," Luna remarked

After hearing that, Eggman was getting tired of Luna's sarcastic remakrs, so he decided to send out some Crabmeats, which were capable of firing projectiles towards the three. A few panels in the wall of the training room opened up, with the crab Badniks scuttling out of all of them

"I knew he could hear me. Anyways, these ones don't look too different, guess he just doesn't have that many good robots," Luna said

Kit wasted no time with talking like Luna did, and just as before, immediately ran up to one of the robots as soon as she saw it. However, before she could get close enough to hit it with her sword, it pointed it's claw towards her and shot a small missile out of it. Kit quickly dodged out of the way, and the missle continued to fly across the room until it hit the wall and exploded into a small cloud of smoke

"That's what you get for trying that trick again," Luna said to Kit

"Well, I just thought of another trick that'll help me get rid of those missles," Kit responded. "I bet you don't have any way of doing that"

"Don't need it, I can actually dodge. Anyways, enough talking!" Luna answered

At this point, Teddy was getting a bit upset that he wouldn't have the opportunity to test his robotic arm on any robots, but his friends were clearly enjoying themselves, so he decided to let it go. However, while Luna and Kit were destroying the Crabmeats, Teddy noticed something interesting. When one of the robots shot off a missle towards Kit, she would try to cut it with her sword. She wasn't always succesful with this, but it was pretty impressive when they did pull it off

"Hmm, maybe I can use my arm to destroy some missles. It would be pretty hard though, my aim isn't that good," Teddy said to himself

When Teddy looked back Luna and Kit destroying the Crabmeats, he saw that Luna couldn't destroy the missles, unlike Kit, so he decided to help her out and get in some practice at the same time. When one of the crab robots fired a missle from it's claw towards Luna, Teddy threw an electricity orb at it after Luna dodged out of the way. It missed, and Teddy had to also dodge to avoid being hit by the missle, but it turned out that he ended up hitting the Crabmeat that fired the missle

"I guess you finally decided to join the competition, huh?" Kit asked from across the room

"Oh, no thanks. I didn't even mean to hit the robot, I was trying to hit the missle to help my aim," Teddy explained

"Alright. It would be really cool if you hit it though, it would be just as cool as whenever I hit a missle with my sword," Kit said. "Hey, is that where you got the idea from?"

"Yeah, it is really neat," Teddy clarified

"Thanks. Anyways, back to winning against Luna!"

Meanwhile, Eggman was getting frustrated that Teddy wasn't getting any practice in, especially because he needed it the most, as his aim was still pretty bad

"Curse those two and their pointless competition. I need a Badnik that only he's capable of hitting so he can actually get some training in before I move on to the next part of the plan," Eggman said to himself

He looked down at a wide range of buttons sitting in front of them, all labeled with a silhouette of a Badnik on them (he couldn't be bothered to remember the purposes of all the different buttons on the panel). Eggman skimmed over all of the buttons, until he finally stopped on one and pressed it a few times

"Perfect. Let's see if he can actually hit a moving target or not," Eggman said to himself

Back in the training room, more panels opened up on the wall, except this time they were much higher up, almost at the celing. Everybody was wondering what kind of robot would come out of these panels, but once Teddy found out what kind of robots were in there, he quickly wished that the panels never opened at all

"What? Flying bee robots? How am I supposed to hit those?" Kit asked. Just as Kit said, the robots deployed were indeed flying bee robots, more specifically, Buzz Bombers that were flying around in the training room

"You're not," Eggman said over the intercom. "Since you two were hogging all the robots, I decided to send some in that only he can hit, so he can actually improve his aim"

Once Eggman talked on the intercom, Luna suddenly remembered about the plan they had made, and how they got completely sidetracked from the plan by getting in a competition with Kit

"Shoot, the plan! We all forgot about the plan!" Luna shouted

"Eh, we don't really need to confront him that much. Teddy already knows that he isn't a traveling doctor, right Teddy?" Kit asked. "Teddy?"

Kit turned around to ask Teddy again, and saw him looking down at the ground. She walked over to see what was going on, and saw that he looked very nervous, and was quite concetrated on looking at the ground

"Teddy? What's going on?" Kit asked

"Bees," Teddy quietly answered

"Huh? Oh, you're scared of bees, aren't you?" Kit asked

"Yeah," Teddy replied

"Yeah, I get it. These robots do look pretty freaky. But it's not like they're going to hurt you or anything, you just gotta toss those cool electric orb things and you'll destroy them"

"Hmm... Ok"

After Kit's encouragement, Teddy turned around to face the Buzz Bombers, still pretty scared by their appearance, but tried to toss an orb at them anyways. However, before he could throw anything at the Buzz Bombers, they began firing orbs of their own towards him, which made things even worse. Teddy quickly jumped out of the way of all of the projectiles heading towards him, and tried doing the same thing he was doing before

"You're going to get hit if you just do that. Destroy them already!" Luna shouted from across the room

"Yeah Teddy, kill your fears with your cool robot arm!" Kit encouraged

While Teddy was afraid of the robots because they looked like giant bees, he was significantly more afraid of getting hit by any projectiles, so he decided it was in his best interest to destroy them. Once again, Teddy turned around to destroy one of the robots, but this time he threw an orb as fast as he could so the Buzz Bombers wouldn't have a chance to fire at him. It ended up hitting one of the Buzz Bombers, causing all of its electonics to fizzle and consequently fall to the ground, shattering on impact

"Heh, I did it! I hit one of those things!" Teddy proudly said

"Good job, but there's still more of them," Kit pointed out

Teddy began charging up another orb to throw at the Buzz Bombers, but they were doing the same, and were prepared to fire at him. Teddy ran out of the way of the projectiles from the Buzz Bombers, and managed to escape unscathed before tossing an orb at another one of them. He hit one of the robots, which went falling to the ground, but he realized when he looked back up at the swarm of Buzz Bombers and quickly realized that taking them all down like this would take a really long time

"We gotta think of a way to destroy these things faster," Kit said. "I mean, it's good that you're improving your aim and all, but I don't think any of us want you to have to do this for another half an hour"

"Yeah, I just want to get rid of all these things as fast as I can," Teddy responded. "But how are we going to do that? Tossing orbs like this is the only thing I can do to hit them, and you and Luna can't get up there to attack them"

"Are you sure about that?" Kit asked, sounding rather smug

"Oh no," Luna said from across the room

Kit had a plan for how she was going to help destroy the Buzz Bombers, which, like all of her plans, involved her sword and something she once saw in an anime

"Ok, I have a great plan for how I can help you get rid of those bee robot things," Kit explained. "Just follow my instructions, and it should work perfectly"

"Alright," Teddy said, trusting Kit's plan even though he didn't know what it was yet

"So, we're going to do this thing I saw once where somebody tosses up another person who's running towards them, and then they go flying up in the air," Kit described. "Once I get into the air, I can cut up all of the bee robots with my sword"

"Hmm, that sounds like it would work," Teddy said

As Kit was discussing her plan with Teddy, the Buzz Bombers, which were still hovering above the room, fired off a volley of their small orbs towards them, which Luna notified the two of

"Watch out, you idiots!" Luna shouted

Teddy and Kit quickly noticed the projectiles coming at them because of Luna's warning, and ran out of the way before getting back to talking about the plan

"Ok, we're going to need to do this fast, or else those things are going to fire at us again," Kit said. "Are you ready?"

"Wait, you didn't fully explain what I have to do," Teddy quickly replied

"Put your hands together, hold them in front of you like a platform, and when I step on it, throw your hands up," Kit described. "Got it?"

"Yeah, I think so," Teddy answered

"Good, now let's do this!"

Kit began running towards Teddy, holding her sword behind her, and stepped onto his hands once he reached him. Teddy quickly tossed his hands up, and Kit was shot up into the air

"Whoa, it actually worked!" Kit said

Now that they were flying through the air, Kit began slicing at the Buzz Bombers as she passed them, destroying a good number of them. They were feeling pretty good that the plan worked perfectly, until they got close to the wall and realized that they hadn't thought about how they were going to land. Kit ended up slamming into the wall about halfway to the ground before falling the rest of the distance onto the floor, which, needless to say, hurt quite a bit

"Oh my gosh, are you ok?" Teddy asked as he ran over to Kit

"Did I destroy all the bee robots?" Kit questioned in a strained voice

"What? Uh, yeah, I think you did," Teddy said as he looked up towards the celing

"Alright!" Kit cheered as she sprung back up to her feet

"Oh, well I'm glad to see you're not too hurt from that, that looked really painful"

"Nah, it still hurts a lot, I'm just really happy I got rid of all those robots in one go"

Back in Eggman's control room, he was watching all of this with frustration. Kit had still managed to destroy those robots that were supposed to only be for Teddy, but that didn't matter that much now. Now that they had gotten those robots out of the way, it was time to move to the next part of the plan

"Alright, Metal, it's time for you to come in," Eggman said into a microphone. "I need you to go in there and spar with the team members. Focus on Teddy the most, try to rough him up a little bit, but do not injure him"

At this point, Metal wasn't even that upset by all of this, it was pretty much to be expected. Eggman was probably just mocking him by forcing him to fight with the team without actually hurting them. Regardless, Metal Sonic was still going to follow those orders, even if it was going to be hard for him to follow them exactly

Inside of the training room, the door that the trio had entered the room through opened up, which made them assume that their training was over

"Heh, was that all the training he had for us? That was too easy," Kit remarked

"I'm just glad it's over," Teddy said

The three began towards the door to exit, but before they could walk out, Metal Sonic walked in front of the doorway

"Huh? It's the robot from earlier. What's it doing here?" Teddy asked

Metal Sonic stayed in place for a little bit before stepping into the training room, at which point the door shut behind him

"Uh, why did it step in here?" Kit questioned, sounding a bit nervous

"I'm glad you asked," Eggman said from over the intercom. "Since you've taken care of all my other robots, your final opponent is my finest creation, Metal Sonic himself"

After Eggman finished his announcment, Metal Sonic turned on the turbine in the center of his body and began hovering a couple of inches off of the ground

"Whoa, I didn't know it could do that," Teddy said as he watched Metal Sonic bob up and down while in place. "This might be pretty dangerous"

"Eh, I'm sure we'll be able to defeat him pretty easily like all the other robots in here," Kit remarked. "We just took down some other flying robots, if hovering is all that this robot can do, then it'll be easy to defeat him"

Metal Sonic immediately charged forward using his turbine after Kit said that, colliding with her sword and knocking it out of her hands

"Oh, so that's how it's gonna be, huh?" Kit asked as she looked over to Metal Sonic

Kit began running over to her sword to pick it up, but Metal Sonic charged towards her while she was trying to do so. She managed to just barely dodge his attack, and ended up getting her sword back before Metal Sonic could attempt to charge at her again

"Ha! I got my sword back, now it's time to cut you up!" Kit said

Instead of charging towards Kit as he had the few times before, Metal decided to try and attack Luna instead, shooting off towards her. Luna didn't have reflexes as fast as Kit, and ended up getting rammed by Metal

"Gah! You stupid robot!" Luna said as she got up from the ground

"Are you ok?" Teddy asked

"I guess, but I'm gonna feel a whole lot better once I tear that thing to pieces," Luna responded

Metal Sonic was going to charge into Luna again, but before he could, he could hear Eggman talking to him

"Metal, what are you doing? I told you to focus your attacks on Teddy, the other two aren't important," Eggman scolded

Even though he wouldn't be able to fully attack the other members of the team, Metal was still glad that he was going to be able to take out all those days locked in the workshop on Teddy. He charged himself up once again, and rocketed towards Teddy, crashing into him at an incredible speed and slamming him into a wall

"Ow," Teddy said in a strained voice as he layed on the ground

"Oh, shoot, that looked like it hurt!" Kit said as she ran over to where Teddy was. "You're going to pay for that one, robot!"

Luna also walked over to where Teddy was, although it was less to protect him and more because it was the best spot to attack Metal Sonic from

"You're a little more tough than the rest of the robots I had to fight in this place so far, but I'm not losing to a pile of metal," Luna said

While the two blocking Teddy from him would have normally been an obstacle, it just gave Metal an excuse to plow into all three of them, so he didn't mind much. Metal shot forward towards the group, but once he started flying towards them, Kit quickly pulled out her sword in front of her, causing Metal to collide with it and get knocked away

"I can't believe that worked!" Kit said excitedly. "How do you like that, robot?"

Metal Sonic quickly recovered from being knocked away, and decided to change up his tactics a bit to get to Teddy more easily. Metal began hovering much further into the air than he had before, intending to fly over Luna and Kit to get a hit in on Teddy, who was already pretty hurt from being charge into

"The robot's going up into the air?" Teddy said confusedly. "I wonder what it's going to do up there?"

After staying high in the air for a few seconds, Metal shot diagonally towards the ground, flying over Luna and Kit but getting close to the ground when he got close to Teddy. Teddy managed to dodge partially, but Metal ended up slamming his arm into the wall

"It got past us!" Kit exclaimed. "Man, that robot is tricky. You alright?"

"Yeah, it didn't hurt any because it hit my mechanical arm," Teddy said, while looking at his mechanical arm. "Wait a minute, I can use my arm!"

Up until this point, Teddy was too busy trying to not get hit by Metal's onslaught of rams to remember that a hit or two from his arm would probably fry him, or at least stun him for some time

"Using your arm is probably the most effective thing we can do against this thing," Luna remarked. "Although, it's going to be hard for you to hit something moving so fast"

"I'll try my best to hit that robot," Teddy replied. "Hopefully my best will be enough"

While Metal Sonic prepared to attack again by flying into the sky, Teddy was charging up an orb to toss at him. Just as before, Metal flew up into the air before charging towards the ground, but while he was charging for him, Teddy hurled an electric orb at him. Metal managed to move himself out of the way, but he had to stop his charge to do so

"Hey, I stopped it from charging at me!" Teddy said surprisedly

While Teddy was celebrating finding a way to stop himself from being attacked by Metal Sonic, he began charging again from where he was, still aiming for Teddy. Kit and Luna both tried attacking him, but he was too high up in the air for them to do anything, and Metal ended up shooting forward towards Teddy yet again

"Oh, not again!" Teddy said, sounding distressed

Knowing that he probably wouldn't be able to dodge out of the way in time, Teddy put his metallic arm up to guard himself from the brunt of the impact. He thought that any second he would be knocked to the ground by the impact of Metal Sonic crashing into him, but he never felt anything. Eventually, Teddy lowered his arm, and saw Metal had gone back to the other end of the room

"Did... Did it miss?" Teddy asked. "I don't think it hit me! Wow, what are the odds?"

Teddy walked over to Kit and Luna to tell them that Metal Sonic had missed them, when he felt a sharp shock in his side. He froze and looked over to where he had been shocked, only to see that his mechanical arm had been torn open, and small bolts of electricity were leaking out of it

"Uh oh, that can't be good," Teddy said, holding his arm as far away from him as he could

"The robot tore up your arm! That looks really dangerous, I hope you find a way to fix that soon," Kit observed

Eggman was watching all of this happening in the control room, and was somewhat upset that Metal Sonic had torn up Teddy's mechanical arm, but it still allowed him to get to the second part of his plan, so he didn't mind too much

"Alright, now we can get down to business," Eggman said as he got out of his chair. "Just have to be careful of that electricity. I really wish he chose a different way to do that"

After a short while, Eggman arrived at the training room, and opened the door to the room to get started on his plan to coinvce Teddy that he was a traveling doctor again. However, before he could even start talking, Luna and Kit both immediately ran up to him and questioning him about his traveling doctor persona

"We know you're not really a traveling doctor, just give it up!" Kit said as Eggman tried to walk past her

"You didn't really think out the whole plan with the flyers, did you? I took one of them with me, so now he knows that you're really just a villian," Luna stated

"I have no clue what you're talking about," Eggman replied as he tried to walk over to Teddy

"What are you going over there for?" Kit asked

"Can't you two see that his arm is damaged? I need to repair it," Eggman answered

Luna and Kit were blocking Eggman from reaching Teddy, just as they had done with Metal Sonic, so Eggman decided to get Metal Sonic to assist him a bit

"Assistant, please get these two out of my way," Eggman said

Following Eggman's orders, and savoring another opportunity to fight against any members of the team, Metal Sonic shot up into the air before rocketing towards Luna and Kit. This caught the two by surprised and knocking them to the ground

"Thank you," Eggman said as he walked over to Teddy. He went to grab his arm, but suddenly stopped when he saw the electricity leaking out of Teddy's arm

Eggman began thinking of a way on how to get Teddy to go with him without getting electrocuted, when he saw Metal Sonic hovering near him

"Ah, yes! Could you also get our patient here to the room so I can fix his arm?" Eggman requested

Metal Sonic dashed over Luna and Kit, who were still laying on the ground, and grabbed Teddy by his damaged arm before pulling him back over to Eggman

"Hey, let go of my arm! Aren't you going to get electrocuted from that?" Teddy asked

"My robotic assistant here is shockproof," Eggman explained. "But you're not, so let's get that arm of yours fixed up"

Following Eggman out of the room, Metal began dragging Teddy by his mechanical arm. He tried to break free of Metal's pull, but he was too strong compared to Teddy, so he was forced to go all the way along with Eggman until they arrived outside of a room

"Well, we're finally here," Eggman said. "I'll just fix up your arm in here, and then we'll be all set. I apologize for my assitant attacking you"

Even though they were outside of the room at this point, Metal was still grabbing Teddy's arm, and actually increased his grip by a noticeable amount before finally letting Teddy go so he could go into the room. Eggman opened up the door, and inside, Teddy saw the same room that he had woken up in a couple of days ago

"Hey, I recognize this place," Teddy said quietly

"You should, it's where you got your mechanical arm," Eggman replied. "Anyways, go sit down on that table, and I'll get to work on fixing up your arm"

"Uh, hey, wait," Teddy said, intending to confront him about him not being a traveling doctor

"What is it?" Eggman said, picking up a tool to repair his arm

"Nevermind," Teddy quietly responded as he sat down on the table

As Eggman began repairing his arm, Teddy grew more conflicted with each passing moment. He had to confront Eggman about his fake identity, but what would happen to him if he did? He could be locked in a room, he could be kicked out into the forest, maybe he would even be attacked by that robot, which was standing in the doorway and staring at him. While Teddy was still debating what he was going to do, Eggman brought up the topic for him

"So, I understand that those two were telling you that I wasn't a real doctor," Eggman said as he was tinkering with the internal parts of Teddy's arm. "How ridiculous, right?"

Teddy stayed silent. It felt hard for him to talk, because he knew that if he wasn't careful with  what he said, the doctor was going to get angry at him

"You don't want to talk? That's fine," Eggman assured. "You already know that I'm right"

At this point, Teddy knew that Eggman was threatening him. Eggman was going to try to force him to believe that he was right, even though Teddy knew this wasn't the case. He wanted to just stay silent so he could get this entire thing over with and leave, but a part of him still wanted to confront Eggman face to face about his lie. It's what Luna and Kit wanted him to do, and they were his friends, he couldn't just ignore their request because he was scared

"Hey... When I was hanging up those posters, the posters didn't look like they were for a hospital," Teddy nervously said. "Did you print the wrong posters?"

Eggman sudenly paused his work on Teddy's arm and clenched his other hand, cursing the existence of those posters. He had to make up an excuse to cover himself, but that was going to be hard to do for evidence as solid as that

"You see, I must have, gotten them mixed up with some other posters I had. The posters for a villian costume party!" Eggman ad-libbed

The room was completely silent as Eggman waited for Teddy to respond. At this point, both parties were tense, with Eggman praying that Teddy would believe his excuse, and Teddy trying to figure out how he should respond. After what felt like forever, Teddy finally spoke

"Oh, ok. That makes sense," Teddy replied

Eggman was surprised that his excuse worked, as even he thought it was pretty terrible. Regardless, he was relieved that it worked, but that relief quickly faded away when Teddy kept asking questions afterwards

"Hey, if you're really a traveling doctor, how come Kit said your not? You hired them to work here, right?" Teddy questioned

"Well, they, um. They're probably just playing a prank on you, is all," Eggman lied

"They do seem like the type of person to play pranks. They must be really dedicated to the bit though if they kept it up for this long," Teddy replied

"Yeah, I'm sure that's it"

After another brieft bit of tense silence, Eggman decided to just be a bit more straightforward to figure out whether he had successfully convinced Teddy or not

"So, have I rid you of the false notion that I'm not a traveling doctor?" Eggman asked

"Yeah," Teddy answered

After that, Eggman continued repairing Teddy's damaged arm, and after a little while, the arm was as good as new

"Alright, your arm is all fixed up now as well, so we can get you back to your room," Eggman said as he got back up from the table

Teddy hopped down from the table and followed Eggman and Metal Sonic through the halls back to the training room. Eggman opened up the door to the room, where Luna and Kit had been waiting for the past few minutes, and began talking

"I hope you didn't get too bored in here," Eggman said. "I just had to fix up your friend's arm, and reassure him that I am a traveling doctor after all of the lies you told him"

Luna stared angrily at both Eggman and Teddy after what he said, angry at Eggman for being Eggman, and angry at Teddy for being so gullible again

"What is wrong with you, you idiot!" Luna scolded. "Are you actually that dumb?"

"Seriously Teddy, come on," Kit said

"Don't insult him because he doesn't believe your lies. Anyways, the training is over, you all need to get back to your room now," Eggman smugly told the three

Despite how mad she was at everything that was happening, Luna still walked over to Egmman, followed by Kit. The atmosphere was very tense when they were all walking back to the basement, at least for Luna and Kit, Eggman was practically beaming. After a short walk, Eggman opened up the door to the basement, and Luna and Kit begrudgingly walked into the basement along with Teddy

After the three were inside the basement and Eggman had walked away, Luna began berating Teddy, who had only just gotten into the room

"Are you serious? I literally showed you a poster that was showing jobs for a villian's empire, how can you still believe him that after that?" Luna shouted

While Luna was berating him, Teddy began chuckling, gradually getting louder until he was fully laughing

"Why are you laughing?" Luna angrily asked

"Oh, come on, I'm not that dumb. His excuses for everything were terrible, I just had to act all oblivious because I knew he wasn't going to let me out of there until I was convinced," Teddy explained

"Oh..." Luna responded, somewhat embarrased by how rude she had been to him before

"Alright, you tricked him!" Kit said excitedly. "I guess this mission was a success after all, great job, Teddy!"

"Thanks, but I only found out he wasn't a doctor because of you two," Teddy replied

"Well, then good job to all of us!"

"Yeah!"

While the trio were celebrating their victory in the basement, Eggman was sitting in his planning room as he usually was, but this time, things were different. He was actually planning things out thoroughly instead of waiting for an idea to come to him

"Soon, dealing with the insolence of these pests will have been worth it," Eggman said as he was drawing up plans. "I'll finally get to enact this plan after waiting for so long"

The plan Eggman was working on was the finer details of the plan he had began days ago, the one that had started after his last defeat. Now that he had trained Luna, Kit, and Teddy, he was finally going to put them into battle against the rest of his forces to crush Sonic once and for all

However, Eggman wasn't the only one who was making plans. Metal was in the same room, and his anger had reached it's height. Tommorow, Eggman was going to use that pathetic team against Sonic. He was supposed to be the one who completed missions under Eggman, he wasn't going to let himself be replaced by a few Mobians. Eggman couldn't send in that team if they weren't alive, so Metal decided that he was going to finally take matters into his own hands to keep his spot as Eggman's sole helper safe

After Eggman had fallen asleep in his chair, Metal went down to the door that led to the rest of the base. He punched in the code on the keypad, which he had memorized from watching Eggman type it in so many times, and began traveling through the darkened halls. He eventually arrived outside the basement door, and began slowly typing in the same code. As soon as that door opened, Metal was going to finally accomplish what he had wanted to do for so long: put an end to Luna, Kit, and Teddy

[l-sincline]

Cybernetics- Cyberpunk!Sonic AU- Chapter 3

Amy Rose has been working tirelessly at her broken down booth for as long as she can imagine. Ever since Tails left their work to join forces with the revered hero of Mobius, ‘The Blue Blur’, she’s grown lonely and desperate to make her life exciting. A strange customer comes in one day asking her to fix his cyborg arm, what she didn’t know was that he would be the catalyst for a brand new life.

AO3 Tags:

Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Amy Rose/Shadow the Hedgehog, Minor or Background Relationship(s), Amy Rose (Sonic the Hedgehog), Shadow the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog, Miles “Tails” Prower, Dr. Eggman | Dr. Robotnik, Rouge the Bat, Whisper the Wolf, Cream the Rabbit, Knuckles the Echidna, Badnik (Sonic the Hedgehog), E-123 Omega, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Cyberpunk, Angst, Slow Burn, Partners in Crime

AO3 Link

Previous/Next

Amy struggled to follow her mystery customer that weaved through the crowd with ease, it was now no surprise to her that he had managed to sneak up on her the first time they’d met, he practically floated through the crowd. Ducking and weaving through the tightest of spaces and the closest of people, while she clumsily followed with quiet ‘excuse me’s and ‘sorry’s. As she trailed behind him, she took this chance to take in the rest of his appearance in the light of the street lamps. His cloak was heavy, practical, and it was a deep gray with only a few tears and ragged edges. The only other thing she could really see at the moment we’re his shoes, and they looked about as mechanical as his arms. They looked heavy, but he seemed to have no problem walking in them despite their strange metal material. Maybe she’d ask about them if she got the chance, but he seemed to close up at any topic surrounding himself aside from when he’d told her his arms were custom made. 

She’d been so focused on trying to figure out his shoes that she hadn’t noticed they’d traveled out of the outer ring of the city. Now, instead of dirty streets and flickering street lights accompanied by the mass of people, they walked among street lamps in better condition and shops with some neon signs flashing in the windows, there were even a few cars parked on the side of the road, though they weren’t as upper class as the cars she’d seen in magazines and they seemed to be quite old, perhaps from a time before Earth had come to attack Mobius. There were significantly less people milling about in the middle ring, and she finally found herself able to catch up to her mystery customer. 

“I haven’t been to the middle ring in a long time- it seems like it’s cleaned up a bit more though. My friend works here now.” She started enthusiastically, wanting to have a conversation. 

“Wouldn’t you be here more often to visit them then?” He opted to ask more about her friend, which deflated her slightly, but at least he was talking. 

“Ah, well, I’m not allowed to know anything about where exactly he works and he’s constantly on call so... I can’t really just pop in and visit.” 

“What’s he do?” 

Amy paused, she doubted she was supposed to just go around spilling the beans that Tails was the Blue Blur’s personal mechanic, and thought she felt slightly bad to lie, she reminded herself that she would just be saying a partial truth, and that the mystery customer himself hadn’t exactly been spilling his guts to her either. 

“He’s a mechanic too, just on call all the time instead of having working hours.”

“Privately hired then...” he responded, more to himself than to her, but she ‘hmm’ed in confirmation anyways. 

After that, she chose to look around at the buildings they were walking past. A few bars, some convince stores, a reclaimed food place, and eventually they walked by a mechanics. The shop was large, and it had a neon sign in the front with the shops name- it was much nicer than her little booth, Amy could hardly imagine how nice it would be to work in the middle ring, and even past that how amazing it would be to work in the inner ring. Her thoughts were interrupted as she nearly bumped into the mystery customer. 

“We’re here.” He gestured to the building they stood in front of. 

It was a little rustic, made of brick, and without any windows showing the inside. A neon sign hung on the wall next to the entrance that read “Lions Den” in a bright blue. 

“Looks real inviting.” Amy announced sarcastically, this seemed to get some sort of good reaction as he snorted quietly in response. 

He stepped past her and opened the door, pushing it open wide enough for her to follow him in without having to touch the door. The inside was much different from the outside. She stood next to him in awe as he tried to wave over a waitress. It was slightly packed by all sorts of mobians, some cyborg some not. But the most impressive part of it was how it so easily echoed what she imagined the Inner Ring of the city looked like. 

The tiles on the floor were mirrors, as was the ceiling that was lined with bright blue neon lights. The bar was plexiglass, back lit by more bright blue lights as the people at the bar drank neon drinks with straws that glowed in the black light. There were rounds tables that were dotted randomly throughout the large room, mobians sat at them and drank and ate happily, occasionally pointing at the large ProjScreens that took up some blank space on the wall, projecting a live game of whatever sport was currently going on in the Inner Ring. Booths lined the wall with the same flowing plexiglass, but the seats were made of some plastic-y, metallic material that shone in all the light. 

Amy felt something smooth to the touch grab her arm and tug her in a different direction, and soon realized it was her mystery customer dragging her along to follow the waitress that was seating them. They got sat at a booth, and it was when she was handed a menu on a ProjScreen that she got to get a good look at the waitress. It was stunning, a fully automated Android was serving them. She mostly ever saw robots, ones with wheels that looked more old time-y, but the android in front of her had the exact same shape and build as your average Cat mobian. Her metal was a sleek black, and her eyes glowed blue as she handed the man across from Amy his ProjScreen menu before folding her hands behind her back once more. Her tail swished soundlessly, no metal grinding or clinking. 

“May I get you both started with something to drink?” Even her voice seemed perfect. 

“We’ll both have the Strawberry Lights.” He responded. “And some time to look over the menu, please.” 

“Of course. I’ll be back with your drinks, shutting off your ProjScreen menu will alert me that you are ready to order.” She informed before turning and walking away, blending perfectly into the chaos of the bar as she went to get their drinks. 

“Ordering for me?” Amy teased. 

“Well, I’m paying, and I think it’s fun to guess what you’d like.” He shrugged, pushing her ProjScreen towards the wall so she wouldn’t be able to look at it as he swiped through the projections on his. 

“Would it be out of line for me to ask if you plan on keeping your hood up the whole time?” She asked. He paused. 

“...Yes.” He finally replied. 

“Is there at least something I can call you?” Amy pressed, it was getting a bit strange to continue to call him her ‘mystery customer.’ 

“You can come up with something if you want.” He offered. “Seems fair, since I’m making a game out of ordering your food.”

Amy ‘hmm’ed in thought at this, quickly becoming distracted by her own thoughts as she ceased to listen to his muttering as he scrolled through the menu. Mystery customer was a no, she was trying to get away from that. Cloak boy? No, that was dumb. She could do some iteration on Cyborg but that was probably tacky, especially to a man who hid both his cyborg arms. 

“Myst! Spelled with a Y to be cooler.” She suddenly announced proudly, crossing her arms over her chest with a smug smile. 

She could feel his eyes boring into her own, before she could even worry that he thought she was strange again, he laughed and shook his head. 

“Sure.” He relented, shutting down the ProjScreen menu. 

Amy wasn’t sure what to say afterwards, so she was glad to see their waitress heading back over to them with two drinks in hand on a tray. She almost ‘ooh’ed out loud at the sight of them as the cat Android elegantly set them down on the table. 

“You’re ready to order?” She asked as she reached over the table and collected the ProjScreen menu ‘Myst’ had put aside earlier before grabbing his as well and holding them gently. 

“The flamed mango on the compact milk bread for her, and the enhanced beef stir fry for me.” He spoke loudly enough for his voice to be heard over the chatter of the restaurant. 

“Of course, enjoy your drinks while you wait.” She bowed her head slightly before walking away. 

Amy looked back to the drink and inspected in with interest. The bottom of it was bright pink, and it had a slushy like texture to it, the rest of the fancy glass was filled with what seemed to be some sort of clear soda, sitting at the bottom of the soda was a darker pink syrup that she assumed was strawberry flavored as well as the slushy. One strawberry was artfully poked onto the rim of the glass, and the metal straw poking out of the glass was also pink. She looked over to see ‘Myst’ using the straw to poke at the drink and stir it up, so she began to do the same. Eventually it got to a point where it seemed it would be fine to drink, so she did. She was first hit with the strawberry slushy, quickly followed by the strawberry infused soda- it was pretty good. 

“Wow- good guess on the drink. I think I’ll be happy with the dinner then too.” She commented. 

“I’m glad you like it, I don’t come here often but it’s what I usually get.” He replied. 

“Really? You seem so dark and mysterious I’d assume you’d get like something squid ink based, honestly.”

“Squid ink doesn’t sit well with my stomach.” He defended incredulously. “Besides, you just said yourself that this is good.”

“Okay okay!” She giggled before taking another sip of the drink. 

“So what was that woman talking about earlier? The prototype? For what?” He questioned suddenly. 

Amy was unsure if this was his way of starting a conversation or if he was genuinely after this information. Did he have something against Whisper? The previous thoughts of how she knew nothing about him flooded back into her mind and worried her. 

“Why? Do you know her?” She shot back, a bit more biting than she’d intended. He leaned back in the booth seat and shoot his head. 

“No- sorry. I know I must seem untrustworthy to you, I was just curious. I don’t know who she is.” He replied, almost reading her like an open book. She took another small sip of her drink before responding again. 

“Her name is Whisper, she’s a weapons mechanic. Ever since my work buddy left I’ve felt a little more vulnerable so I wanted to have something to defend myself with. I chatted with her a bit and put some units down for her to make me a prototype, she agreed that she would give me the prototype and let me finish it if I paid her extra.” 

“Feeling vigilante-ish?” He asked, maybe she could even say he sneered. 

“Gods no.” She responded. “I’m defending myself, that’s all. That’s more of Tail’s thing.” After the words of defense had spilled from her mouth, she zipped her lips into a straight line, she hadn’t meant to name drop. 

“Tails...?” He echoed quietly, as if he was thinking about something. 

“Yeah- he’s just a friend of mine, sorry, gosh, I shouldn’t have said his name as if you’d know anything about who he was.” She attempted a quick cover up with a bout of short, nervous laughter before covering up said nervous laughter with taking another, larger sip from her drink. 

“It’s just an interesting name is all.” He responded calmly before reaching for his drink as well, clearly still thinking hard on something, which didn’t ease her nerves, but he at the very least seemed relaxed. “Can I ask more about the prototype?” 

“Sure.” She let out a breath she didn’t know she’d been holding. 

“What kind of weapon is it?” 

“A collapsible hammer.” She started. “The hammer itself is hollow, so when I fold the handle away I can take out a strap and turn it into a side bag and store things in it, but even though it’s hollow it’ll be made out of a strong metal so it doesn’t break easily and can still hit hard.” Amy explained. She was pretty proud of her idea, though it was quite simple, she loved it dearly, and thought it had a touch of her personality and would work well for her since it could double as a heavy duty duffel bag. 

“That’s creative.” He complimented. “I’ve never seen anything like that, it seems like it would work well for you.”

“Thanks- I designed it myself.” Amy smiled slightly and took another sip from her drink, the only other person who she’d told about her weapon was Whisper, who after being around weapons for many years was thoroughly unimpressed with its simplicity. It was nice to hear someone say her design was creative. 

“Your food.” The cat waitress��� voice suddenly cut in, setting the two plates of food down on the table. “Enjoy your meal, I will be back to collect the units when you’ve signaled your done by pressing this-“ she gestured to a button at the top of the table. “-button.” She walked away just as elegantly and quietly as she’d arrived, and Amy’s attention was directed back to the table when she heard the clinking of utensils and ‘Myst’ declare, “Time to dig in.”

[waystobuild-blog]

A Hero’s Fall

So this is way long overdue and honestly, I forgot that I even wrote this. So what I do is I write in between my college classes and yeah. This is something I wrote in 2018 as a request for one of my friends. He wanted to see Sonic succumb to darkness and I decided to write that. So, I hope you and everybody else reading this enjoys.

Sonic didn’t know when it started.

He didn’t understand what had changed.

And unfortunately… He didn’t know if he could stop it.

It was almost unnoticeable at first, he would get slightly rougher with the Badniks or a little testier with Amy than usual. It wasn’t like him at all.

But it just kept on getting worse and worse…

A few months prior, Tails had tried to speak to him about him about it.

“Sonic…” The fox tentatively approached him.

“Yeah, bro?” Sonic grinned.

“Are you…” He paused, trying to find the right words. “Are you feeling okay?”

“Never better! Why?”

“Well….” He held the end of that at the tip of his tongue, still unsure of how exactly to put it. “You were a little more… rough on the Badniks than usual…”

He gestured to the land around him to show the busted robot parts scattered all over the place in odd directions, the indents in the ground from thee spindashes and homing attacks that had been done with a little too much fore and the trees that had been sawed in half by the aggressive nature of the supersonic hedgehog.

But Sonic brushed it off. “Eh… you know me. Always getting into trouble. Nothing out of the ordinary, buddy.”

“Are you sure?”

“I’m fine.”

Tails looked tentatively at his older brother and slowly nodded.

“What the hell was that?!” Shadow snapped at him.

Sonic just shook his head. “What’s wrong?”

“You know exactly what I’m talking about, idiot. Breaking the sound barrier in the middle of a city!”

“I had to!”

“No, you didn’t!”

“Yes, I did!”

“You caused immeasurable destruction with that stupid stunt!”

“Eggman was getting away!”

“You’re not this irresponsible!”

“Who cares?!”

“People could’ve died!”

“Well more would’ve if I didn’t catch him when I did! For Chaos’ sake, I didn’t have another choice, Shadow!”

“You always say there’s another choice!”

“Well, this time there wasn’t!”

The Ultimate Life Form glared at the fastest thing alive for a long time, inspecting him, trying to see what was wrong with the fast footed hero. Sonic the Hedgehog was never like this, at least not in the years that Shadow had known him. Shadow knew him as a fool with an ego bigger than the amount of Chaos Energy he had packed into him. But he always respected him for his desire to help others and make sure everyone was safe even if it was in his own unorthodox way.

But what he saw before him today, he had zero respect for. The scowling hog with his back to him, brow furrowed, arms crossed and nose upturned in disgust was more like looking into a mirror than looking into the usually calm emerald eyes of the true blue hero and he hated it. Sonic was reckless but he wasn’t stupid. Not where he would risk the lives of thousands in favor of catching the mad doctor or any reason for that matter. And this whole argument was different than his usual brand of immaturity. He was usually met with snarky remarks, dumb jokes and the coolest smirk the hog could muster not this foolish defensiveness that he was facing today.

Just what was the matter with him?

And that’s when he felt it. Like a slap to the face or a bucket of ice cold water dumped on his head, he felt it.

“Y-your Chaos Energy-” Shadow stammered.

Sonic looked at him, raising an eyeridge.

“It’s negative.” Shadow stated.

Sonic brushed this off. “Please, you must be joking.”

Shadow didn’t stop glaring at him.

“Nothing’s wrong!” Sonic yelled. “You guys keep moaning and groaning about something being wrong with me. But I’m fine! And right now, the only thing I care about is stopping Eggman.”

With that, the hedgehog ran off, not uttering another word.

“I have to admit Sonic,” Eggman smiled. “I’m a little impressed.”

“What are you talking about?” Sonic snapped back.

“Exactly that.” Eggman laughed. “This new attitude you have lately.”

“I don’t have an attitude.”

“Oh, but you do.” Eggman insisted. “But even that’s not the part I care too much about. Not really.”

Sonic continued to glare at him.

“No, I am impressed that you’ve finally put all that power you’ve got to good use.”

He then gestured to Metal Sonic who was missing an arm and a leg, had fire spilling out of the thruster on his back and was spazzing uncontrollably on the floor. The glass that made up his eyes had a spider web of cracks that if one squinted they could see his eye flickering between his usual irises, line of code and just emptiness.

“You took down Metal Sonic as soon as I called him out. I had heard rumors that you had turned to rage but seeing it up close? This is beyond what I ever could’ve imagined.”

“I am not angry.”

The Doctor laughed. “In all the years we’ve known each other and you think you can lie to me? I can read you just as easily as you can read me, you know? And even so, that unbridled rage is written all over your face. It’s hilarious.”

Sonic growled. “Cut the chatter, Eggman. You know why I’m here.”

“Yes, but I’m going to keep talking. I just want to say that this is a good look for you, Sonic. We’ve always been two sides of the same coin, you and I. Playing this game of cat and mouse since you were a mere child. And now? Well, it seems we’re more alike than you’d care to admit.”

“I am nothing like you!”

“But you are. Using your rage and aggression to fuel you; using all the power at your fingertips to take the world and have it bow to your will. Who does that sound like to you?”

At that, he didn’t even get an answer. Instead, his eggmobile shook and he was surprised to see his nemesis had clung onto it. He was so fast that he hadn’t even seen him move. Just as quickly as he landed on it, he had grabbed Eggman by the collar of his shirt.

“Stop it!” The hedgehog snarled at him. “Stop all of it now!”

But the doctor simply laughed. “And this is exactly what I’m talking about. But stop? No. Not when I’m so close to attaining the ultimate power.”

Sonic growled at him, pulling him even closer.

But the doctor was prepared for this and quickly punched a large yellow button on his console.

Immediately, thousands of volts of electricity jumped off of the hull of the pod and into the hedgehog’s body. He could feel himself collapsing to the floor before everything went black.

And now he stood on the day of his enemy’s triumph watching as the world set ablaze and everything he knew and loved was destroyed. It was all his fault.

He looked on in his anger, in his rage, in his pure unbridled hatred at it all.

And he knew he had to be the one to stop it. And with that, he called upon the seven emeralds.

They appeared before him in a radiant flash of light. He dug deep, calling on the power within his heart and within the emeralds.

At that, his fur turned not to the comforting gold that those knew but to a spiteful obsidian; his eyes were not a righteous crimson but instead a soulless black void and his aura an ugly coal color instead of the powerful sun.

Darkness had taken the hero’s heart and as he took in his new form, he couldn’t help but be fueled by more hatred.

Dark Sonic had arrived and he wanted nothing more than revenge.

[blastthechaos]

The Chaos Warrior - Chaos Blur AU

It was a calm day in planet freedom, people going on with their normal life...as normal as stuff can get on this planet but whatever.

Freedom is a planet brimming with both nature and technology, having wonderful and big natural locations as well as intensively advanced technology.

The two actually coexist, with the technology actually being made to help and enhance nature, making plants last longer and be more alive.

Yeah, Freedom was a great planet for that...shame it doesn’t make up for the danger it poses.

You see, Freedom is a Dangerous with a capital D planet, there’s danger at every turn due to a mad scientist trying to conquer the world, he had managed to almost conquer it and sometimes destroy it in more than one occasion.

Not to mention Freedom is filled to the brim with ancient gods and powerful artifacts that may bring the destruction to the world.

Luckily they all have been saved by a really powerful spiky hero.

Talking about him, the inhabitants of South Island could see a golden streak soar across the air, they wave at it with smiles on their face.

In an destroyed base formerly known as Scrap Brain, the mad scientist know as Eggman amassed a great army of badniks, Metallix and the Egg Destroyer Battlesuit.

“Is everything checked out for?” Said the mad doctor to his two companions:Orbot and Cubot.

“Yes sir, everything is coming together” Said Orbot.

“This time our opponent won’t live to see the sun once again” Cubot’s voice chip was working like crap again, but Eggman was fed up trying to fix it.

“Great, it is time for our glorious return, this time this nasty little sewer rat won’t be able to-”

Eggma stopped his speech when a blue blur tore his robots apart in a matter of milliseconds.

He simply let out a sigh, though this didn’t bother him as much as usual for some reason.

Suddenly a blue hedgehog with emerald green eyes appeared in front of him, he was wearing a black short sleeve undershirt and pants with blue flame motif, a STH logo with a boost cone emblazoned in the chest of his shirt, a emerald green sash over his waist, red and white soap shoes, white gloves and some kind of emerald bracelets that shifted colors in his wrist and ankles, he also seemed to have a bracelet with a jade gem on one of his arms.

The hedgehog gave the mad scientist an annoyed stare.

“What do you want now?” The hedgehog tone let it know that he wasn’t thrilled to see him.

Which was weird to Eggman, since he usually was very fond of taunting him and stroking his own ego...which to be fair, he does often as well.

“What’s up with you today” Asked the fat scientist.

“What’s up? Today is Tails graduation! This is an important time for him and i want to be there for him, i don’t have time to be dealing with you!”

“Yeesh, his graduation, like he won’t have many of those in the future, but i can assure you he won’t have anymore after i conquer this world! AHAHAHAHAHAHAH!”

Sonic rolled his eyes in annoyance.

“Eggman, face it, i can beat you easily on my own, been doing it for years now, and with that shitty half assed army you have there it will be even faster” He had a small smirk “I probably won’t need my trump card” But got serious again.

Eggman got annoyed at this, but surprisingly he wasn’t furious as usual.

“Fine, let’s see how you deal with Metallix!” He send the robot copy of Sonic.

Sonic let out a sigh, he would end this quicker, but considering he took out the weakest and larger part of this shitty army, he decided to play with them a little, at least with this robot.

Metallix started with a punch that was easily catched by Sonic, who then charged his hand with a green light(chaos energy) like with a certain friend of his did and punched Metallix, sending him flying.

Metallix managed to eventually stopped himself but now had one half of his face wrecked, before he could come back to attack he was hit by Sonic again with a kick which send him to the ground, leaving a crater.

Metallix barely managed to dodge Sonic’s spindash which made a bigger crater in the ground, his back has been wrecked by Sonic’s kick which luckily didn’t damage his rocket thruster so he could still move fast to “keep up” with Sonic.

Metallix started charging his plasma blaster from his chest as well as his lightning bolts from his hands, he launched all three at the same time in hope’s he hit Sonic with one of these.

But not any of those hit their target and he was instead wrecked by a kick to the side of his head by the chaos blur.

Metallix ended up crashing into a wall of the former base, once he could actually recover from the attack he saw Sonic spin for a bit before having his hand being charged by chaos energy.

“Chaos Wave!” He shouted before launching a barrage of chaos energy based projectiles at his robot copy.

Metallix quickly set up a shield to block the attack and in effect, managed to absorb most of the damage...but the attack ended doing a lot of damage anyway.

Sonic had to say, this Metallix ended up being very disappointing, he couldn’t even keep up with him in his normal form unlike the last one.

It was a bit weird that Eggman was trying another one of his schemes with this, usually he planned for a long time and came up with schemes that took some time to thwart, this was just pathetic.

It could be a trap though.

Despite that he had a place to be, so let’s finish things now.

“Chaos Boost!” He shouted before being cloaked by a blue aura and shot up to Metallix.

The robot fruitlessly tried to set up a shield, but even then the blow ended up being too strong and did severe damage as well as sending the robot crashing into several walls of the base and end in a pile of rubble.

Seeing his opponent wasn’t getting up, he turned to Eggman.

“Well eggy, seems your little scheme has come to an end, kinda time waster, but guess its par with the course with you nowadays” That was a bit of a lie, since his recent schemes that involved Dark Gaia, Wisp, Time Eater and Zeti put the world in mortal danger, he got his work cut out for him those times.

Not that he ever admit it to Eggy.

Eggman didn’t seem worry he was about to face Sonic despite knowing full well he was gonna lose, he had a few ace under his sleeve.

“I won’t be so sure spikeball, Metallix isn’t down for the count yet”

Sonic wondered what he was talking about before a purple aura with pink lightning came from the direction Metallix was, it blasted the debris away and in a second Metallix hit Sonic with a punch, this time hitting him and doing damage.

Sonic remembered that transformation Metallix obtained when he absorbed the ancient core from Lost Labyrinth all those years ago, it was in a way his own counter to his ability, since he could also access it at will.

There wasn’t an official name for that power up, but everyone settled for Primal form.

Anyways, Primal Metallix was pounding Sonic without a moment of respite, he knew he could easily turn this around if he actually got the opportunity to react, so he keep wailing on him mercilessly.

Eggman seemed...actually surprised about how well Metallix was performing.

“This wasn’t part of the plan but i take it, GO METALLIX! ATTACK AND DON’T LET HIM TRANSFORM! THIS CAN BE YOUR CHANCE!” Yelled the egg scientist.

Metallix keep attacking Sonic, from using ancient lightning, blue electric energy that could be used to make attack...so basically another version of chaos energy, to basic punches, kicks and spindashes.

Then he threw Sonic into the ground and lifted his finger up, creating a massive ball of ancient electricity, which he proceeded to launch at Sonic.

“I can’t believe it, Sonic is about to perish, this moment is finally-”

“Oh no! The unstoppable Sonic, defeated by a mere faker, what a dramatic irony!...Nah, just kidding” Sonic says despite seemingly being trapped by an electric ball of death.

Metallix keeps throwing ancient electric blast making the attack bigger in hopes it kills him, but it was too late as he hears the sound of someone powering up.

“Chaos Deflect!” Sonic yells and suddenly the balls of electricity shots back into Metallix, who takes heavy damage from it.

Then Sonic comes up from the hole he was, this time his appearance changed with his fur being a glowing golden, quills stood up, ruby red eyes, his sash turned ruby red, the blue flames of his outfit now golden, the emerald bracelets now gone, he was somewhat buffer now and had a golden aura with green electricity around himself.

Also he was flying.

This is Super Sonic, a powerful transformation that for most people it would require the seven chaos emeralds to achieve and use.

But for this hedgehog, one accident that happened in his youth (or even younger, nobody knows except maybe him) let him absorb enough energy to use it whenever he wants.

This is Sonic’s trump card in most battles he’s been, allowing him to achieve victory even when it seemed impossible.

Granted, the form could be outmatched at times, but Sonic was skillful enough to find a work around those types of situations.

The super hedgehog locked eyes with Primal Metallix, he knew at this point he was stronger than him and had the advantage once again, so this shouldn’t take long.

They both charged power and go at each other, with Sonic having a clear advantage as he continuously overpowered the robot and knocked it down.

The metal doppelganger tried his damnest to keep up, powering up as high as he could, but it didn’t even matter as he was unable to even hurt him.

You see, Super Forms have this little thing called “Invincibility” which basically makes it so as that a super form can shrug off any hit from people who are weaker or even on the same ballpark than them, it needs to be attacked by a stronger being to get hurt.

Which means that even as hard as he hit him, he wasn’t getting anywhere.

Metallix got furious at his current situation, he wondered why he was so weak now, usually Eggman updates and powers him up with the recent data they collected with Sonic so he could keep up with him, a way to simulate Sonic’s progression in power and prove him wrong in that “Mechs can’t grow”

Yet it seemed that Eggman wasn’t even bothered by it, he just send him with outdated data to fight Sonic, why?!

No matter, the robot was gonna try as hard as he could, it was one of the traits he gained when he was formed by his life data.

His determination.

Pushing his power as far as it could go, Metallix purple aura grew in power alongside his electric sparks, then he seemingly was also surrounded by fire.

This was one of his strongest moves, the V.Maximum Overdrive Attack Consisted on overloading his circuits for a burst in speed and power, a dangerous move.

But he didn’t have anything to lose at this point, his entire body was a wreck now from the constant hits he took from Sonic.

Primal Metallix attacked Super Sonic at speeds that took him by surprise, making him unable to dodge and only seemingly catched him by his hands.

They both crashed to the ground, creating a blinding orange light.

Eggman waited intrigued to see who ended coming on top.

By the time the dust cleared, both fighters were still alive, but one was in clear better condition than the other.

Super Sonic managed to set up a barrier to absorb the damage, he may have a few bruise here and there but nothing noteworthy, while the robot barely had a shape and looked more like floating scrap metal now.

The Super Hedgehog smirked as he saw his opponent clearly unable to even continue fighting anymore, he already had enough game for now.

“Chaos Boom” He said and an pulse of energy with the force of a Sonic Boom threw his opponent far away.

The hedgehog then charged a compressed little ball of chaos energy in his hand and then aimed at Metallix, who somehow managed to get himself up again.

“Chaos Flash!” Shouted Super Sonic and a big beam of energy shot out of his hand that completely swallowed Metallix, erasing him completely.

The hedgehog then turned to Eggman, now he wasn’t even gonna waste time with the old man.

“So Sonic, maybe you can take it easy on me and just leave thi-” He couldn’t even finish his sentence when the Egg Destroyer Battlesuit was destroyed by eye beams from Super Sonic’s eyes.

He wasn’t dead, not because Sonic cared mind you, but because Eggy had a knack for surviving things that would kill anybody else.

Having taken care of his enemy, Sonic took out his phone and checked out the time.

“Kay, i wanna be there as quick as possible so...” He put his phone back into...hammerspace.

“Chaos Control!” He shouted and vanishes in a golden flash.

From the wreckage of his robot Eggman emerged, he dusted himself off and addressed his lackeys.

“Orbot, did you get the new data” Asked Eggman.

“Yes sir, the new data has been downloaded” Said Orbot

“This time, our opponent will be crushed by the unstoppable might of the Eggman Empire, and our dad will finally be able to rule everything with the iron fist he was always destined to have!” Said Cubot.

Eggman smirked for two reasons.

First, his plan was going along.

Two, he finally found a good voice clip for Cubot.

Anyways, time to begin is latest plan in conquest

Codename: “Phantom Victory”

Today in central city elementary school is graduation day, little kids were leaving one part of the life and starting another one: Middle School.

Of course this wasn’t always good, since middle school can be know as one of the most soul sucking phase of one life, alongside high school and when you get a job you don’t like, though that varies from person to person.

There’s also dealing puberty, can’t forget about that.

Miles “Tails The Fox” Prower could be considered a weird case, for starters he was graduating a little earlier than most people, at 11 years old, he could theoretically have graduated much quicker, but there’s a reason for that.

Tails was also formerly one of the heroes of this planet alongside his foster father Sonic, he still attended school during that time and actually managed to blow past kindergarten to elementary school, since back when he wa little he was unable to attend school due to not being allowed due to his two tails and people not liking him.

He was kinda popular, with people constantly asking him about Sonic and even his own adventures, it then got to the point people were interested on him as a person.

He actually managed to get friends his age instead of hanging with teens and adults.

One day however, he stopped going into adventures with Sonic and stopped being a hero.

This was actually a major recurrence with the Freedom Heroes, a lot of them ended up stopping the hero business because of injury, family or personal issues, starting a family of their own, work, studies, personal life or simply moving on or retiring from the hero work.

In the end, Sonic was the last hero, luckily he was strong enough to do it on his own.

Tails stopped because of an injury on his legs...which consisted on losing both of them, he managed to create robotic ones to replace them, but sill.

That day it was agreed with everyone that he would stop being a hero and dedicate himself to his normal life, not wanting his future to be cut short because of the danger, even though he was against it at the start he slowly understood and actually felt ok with his normal life.

He was a little scared at first that everyone in school would hate him or stop liking him because he called quits...but surprisingly everyone still liked him and even was understanding of him.

Afterwards he decided to not blow past school to quickly so he could hang out with his friends, school wasn’t actually hard and he doubted middle school and high school would, he mostly just went there to met with his friends and have what someone could call a normal life.

And today he was going to be graduating.

It’s weird, he’s been in dangerous situations and even faced impossible odds, he was still excited for it.

He kinda wished Sonic was ther-

“Heya buddy”

Tails smiled, he kinda expected it.

“You came” Said Tails.

Sonic grinned, he had completely healed from any injury he may have sustained from Metallix.

“Sorry about taking so long, i stopped to play with Eggy and Metal a bit,but luckily I arrived at time” He said.

Sonic is Tails foster parent taking care of him since he found him as a toddler in West Side Island all those years ago even when he wasn’t even a teen, he took him in to his shitty house which was the best he had at the time, raised him, cooked for him, get him to sleep, taught him to fight and everything a good father does.

At the start he was kinda lax about him going with him at his adventures, having fun and seeing it like a father-son bonding activity, but slowly the danger and close calls made him rethink that until the accident where he lost his legs.

That was one of the scariest moments in his life, from then on Tails quit heroism, but still helped with his smarts by making devices and helping Sonic get a better hang of his powers.

It wasn’t just Tails, various of his friends started quitting for several reasons leaving him as the sole protector of Freedom, except maybe Team Dark and that’s just them joining because they work for GUN.

So it was just him and his super form he could rely on to save the day, but he hanged in and managed to pull that off.

He still keep in touch whenever he could, though he and his friends aren’t as close as they were before.

Friends drift apart, he guessed.

Still, he saved the world, traveled through it, actually had a job and raised Tails, that was basically his life.

Now he had some shit to do, he took out his cellphone to take photos.

“You ready?” Asked the Chaos Blur.

“Yup” Answered the two tailed fox.

The two went in.

[isakthedragon]

Super Sonic Thieves Chapter 19

Chapter 19 - That Dark Sinking Feeling

The Set-Up:

Sonic, narrating: “Huh… the last time I was in a swamp, that was when we fought Metal Sonic…”

Sly, narrating: “Hoo-boy. Mz. Ruby… a dangerous crocodile made even more threatening with her powers of dark magic and voodoo. She grew up being feared from others because she was a crocodile and she’s threatening now because of her mystical powers. She’s no stranger to using them to steal money, and even more worrisome when she raises the dead. We were able to lock her away in our world by taking advantage of her magic, but I wonder if we could do it again.”

Sonic, narrating: “It seems she has found herself a home in Lost Jungle and put her magic touch on it. I hope we can stop her before the swamp overcomes us…”

-----

Zone Layout: Mz. Ruby has transformed Lost Jungle into her own personal home. Other than just a heavy presence of ghosts and other haunted things, AND the crocodile, which has been voodoo-ized to an even scarier beast, she’s also placed voodoo dolls around that if encountered, will bring bad luck to you (AKA activate more traps on a path.). Don’t wait around in the swamp water too long, or you’ll be sucked in. Oh, yeah, and watch for the black and green frogs to grow and rot the vegetation as well.

Enemies:

Robotic Demon Turtles: Robotic rebuilds of the original Demonic Turtles. Now the detachable fire head boomerangs around more, and a bit faster, and doesn’t cower when you get close. (Yet they are still pretty weak.) Carries 21-23 coins and has a 10% chance of treasure to pickpocket.

Swamp Monster Robots: Robot copies of Mz. Ruby’s swamp creatures. They can come in a few number of heads and/or fists, but like the originals, just keep whacking at them until they split, and then break away. Carries/drops 25-27 coins and has a 25% chance of treasure to pickpocket.

Mojo Ratbots: Eggman’s robotic recreations of Mz. Ruby’s water rats. Their light now extends a little farther, and they can also throw balls of energy to zap you with along with their regular voodoo attack. Carries/drops 25-30 coins and has a 50% chance of treasure to pickpocket.

Voodoo Practitioner Pawn: A dangerous pawn in dark purple robes that carry around voodoo dolls. They can send out a ball of energy that if touched, will turn you into the animal you are for 10 seconds, which can let other badniks attack you. Otherwise, they’ll just throw pins at you as a last, close combat resort. Drops 25 rings when smashed.

Crazy Egg Hammers: These Egg Hammers just keep spinning around their hammers and spin around like a top, going faster and slower off and on. Perhaps they angered Mz. Ruby, so now they must stay like this? In any case, they have a bit more defense, so it’s going to take a bit longer to take them down, while still avoiding the hammer. Drops 27 rings when smashed.

De-bot: Scary looking demon badniks that are as strong as they look. They use their muscular arms to deflect attack. Only strong character can break through them, and even then, it’s going to be tough. Drops 29 rings when smashed.

Treasures:

From Guards:

Small Ball of Magic: Worth 120 coins and 60 rings.

Medium Ball of Magic: Worth 140 coins and 70 rings.

Large Ball of Magic: Worth 160 coins and 80 rings.

From Pedestals:

Golden Fiddle: Placed on one of the islands in Act 1, and guards will have to be fought if you grab it. Worth 2450 coins and 1225 rings.

Diamond Crystal Ball: Hiding in the brush in Act 2. Worth 2550 coins and 1275 rings.

Mz. Ruby Voodoo Doll: Found among one of the ledges in Act 3. Worth 2650 coins and 1325 rings.

The coins have a voodoo doll of Sly design on them.

-----

Haunted Jungle Zone Act 1: Murray and Vector take to the swampy floor, braving the water and large islands floating to find Mz. Ruby. Unfortunately, there’s plenty of guards and badniks in your way, so you’ll have to fight through them first.The act ends when they find a way to the upper levels, which look quite familiar…

*At the start*

Bentley, over the binocucom: “I hate swamps… so dirty!”

Murray: “Eh, I don’t mind it.”

Vector: “It’s probably our nature to be in swamps like this.”

Sly, over the binocucom: “Just watch out, guys. I’m sure Mz. Ruby has sent out forces of the undead to come after us.”

Vector: “Yeah, we’ll keep an eye out.”

Murray: “These monsters are no match for the strength of ‘The Murray!’ Hell cannot even hope to contain me!”

---

Haunted Jungle Zone Act 2: Tails and Dimitri make their way through the second section, which looks quite a lot like Lost Jungle from Sonic Heroes. It is, so just make your way through the familiar sections as best as you can to make it that much closer to the elusive Mz. Ruby. (At least Dimitri can swim in the water if you happen to fall in it, so you just need to find a spring to get back up.) The act ends before reaching a familiar annoying section…

*At the start.*

Tails: “Hmm… the jungle sure has overgrown itself once Eggman left it so many years ago.”

Dimitri: “Looks like nature has taken over it, bro! Mother nature has kicked butt of technology!”

Tails: “I hope we can still make it through to find Mz. Ruby…”

---

Haunted Jungle Zone Act 3: Sly and Amy find themselves entering the crocodile’s lair, which has changed with having overgrowth to climb on everywhere. Unfortunately, Mz. Ruby knows you are here and is siccing the croc-beast on you. All you can do is keep moving and dodging the beast. The act ends when they end up in a large skull mouth which closes behind them.

*At the start.*

Sly: “Sheesh, it’s getting real tight and overgrown here.”

Amy: “At least our trip will be a bit easier than just jumping across vines.”

*A bit later.*

Amy: “That large skull wasn’t there the last time.”

Sly: “It must be where Mz. Ruby is.”

Mz. Ruby’s voice: “You’d be right there, Sly Cooper! But I’m not going to let you just walk all willy-nilly in here. Croc-beast! Lunch time!”

*The beast attacks and misses them.*

Sly: “Whoa!”

Amy: “The croc! It looks even scarier now!”

Sly: “Thanks to Mz. Ruby’s magic. If it’s as dangerous as her past beast, we better move!”

*Later, after another near miss.*

Sly: “Ah! Jeez, this croc is just as persistent as her ‘Beast’ pet back in Haiti.”

Amy: “It sounds quite scary from what your friends tell me.”

Sly: “Looking like a giant voodoo eel… thing? Yeah. Barely got away from it to get a key to Mz. Ruby’s lair. Least that one didn’t seem to take sides since Mz. Ruby feared that one.”

*Taunts of Mz. Ruby*

Mz. Ruby: “Run, run, as fast as you can, Cooper! Unless you really want to become lunch!”

Mz. Ruby: “You shouldn’t anger a voodoo priestess, Sly and Amy! Don’t you know that’s bad luck?!”

Mz. Ruby: “Maybe I’ll turn you into zombies to do all my bidding… nah, then you’re still around… Hmmm… I know! I’ll just burn you to ashes!”

---

Haunted Jungle Zone Act 4 (BOSS): Mz. Ruby greets Sly and Amy, and taunts them as usual. After a small chase, she forces us to play her deadly game of ‘Dodge Voodoo’.

Mz. Ruby: “You’re stuck with me now, you fools! You guys are doomed!”

Sly: “More like you’re stuck with us.”

Amy: “Yeah! I’m also a magic user, and you pissed off the wrong lady.”

Mz. Ruby: “Like I’m so scared… see if you can even keep up with me first.”

Boss: Mz. Ruby

Similar to when she was fought in Sly 1, the player must dodge her voodoo magic to the beat of her music. Then, once close to her, attack her as she tries to bite back with her mouth. This repeats until she is defeated.

*At the start.*

Mz. Ruby: “Well, I see both are you are still as agile as ever.”

Amy: “Stop running and fight like you should.”

Mz. Ruby: “Sorry… I just like to play with my food!”

Sly: “Perhaps we shall dance again?”

Mz. Ruby: “Yes… another voodoo dance sounds perfect, Sly Cooper. But this time, I ain't letting you win!”

*The Dance begins*

Mz. Ruby: ♪ “Cause you’re in my world now, not yours… cause I got friends on the other side.” ♫

Voodoo Head 1: ♪ “She’s got friends on the other side.” ♫

Mz. Ruby, jokingly: “Hey! Who told you heads to speak! This is my song! You’re gonna ‘throw’ them out of rhythm, heh he…”

Mz. Ruby: ♪ “ *Ahem* See if you can dodge my voodoo, be careful putting your minds at ease. Cause if you relax it will allow me to enable you to anything I please. I can read your future, and even change it round some, too. I’ll look deep into your heart and soul- ♫ You do have a soul don’t you Sly? HAH! ♪ -Make your wildest dreams come true. I got voodoo, I got hoodoo, I got things I aint even tried! And I got friends on the other side.” ♫

Multiple Voodoo Heads: “She’s got friends on the other side.”

*Break to attack Mz. Ruby, then the next part. (You can choose how difficult the path to her will be, with whatever card path you choose.)*

Mz. Ruby: ♪ “The cards, the cards, the cards will tell... the past the present and the future as well. The cards, the cards, just take three… take a little trip into your future with me.”

Mz. Ruby: “Now you, Sly, are from across the sea… you’ve come from lines of thieving royalty.- ♫ Of course, I got my voodoo from my mother’s side myself. ♪ -Now I won’t lie, you’re present is doing swell… but beware Sly, not everything’s well.- ♫ You think I’m lying, but heed me Sly. Eggman is planning something behind the scenes, and even my spirits have prevented from looking. Our world is doomed, Sly, along with many more. Even I don’t know how far Eggman will go. ♪ -Despair, despair! Despair is all I can see! The future’s looking bleak… I think there’s a hero we need…” ♫

*Another attack on Mz. Ruby, then the last phase of dodging.*

Mz. Ruby: ♪ “On you, Ms. Amy, I’ll give you what you already know. You chase Sonic, even though he’s given you many ‘no’s. You’re at least a feisty, fiery little lady, who won’t give on your goal; you want to get married to him, but you’re worried he’ll say ‘no way’... But in the future, the you I see, is exactly how you want to be.- ♫

I can’t spoil it all now, can I? Heh he. Now that I told you the future... ♪ -Are you ready?!”

Voodoo Heads: “Are you ready?!”

Mz. Ruby: ♪ “Are you ready?! … Can you dig that Voodoo?!” ♫

Voodoo Heads: “Can you dig that Voodoo?!”

Mz. Ruby: ♪ “Can you dig that Hoodoo?!” ♫

Voodoo Heads: “Can you dig that Hoodoo?!”

Mz. Ruby: ♪ “Can you dig that Voodoo Hoodoo that I do?! Can you feel it?! The end, the end, the end is coming! I hope you’re satisfied defeating me, but things are only going to go downhill later, and not because of me! So say the spirits from the other side!”

Voodoo Heads: “You got your future told! But how much will you be owed?!”

*Once defeated.*

Mz. Ruby: “NO! Don’t send me back to INTERPOL! I’m going to die!!! NOOOO!!!”

-----

The Getaway:

Sonic, narrating: “We had to work hard to subdue her enough to send Mz. Ruby back to INTERPOL, thankfully, Carmelita’s shock pistol helped with that. But something worried us.”

Sly: “Mz. Ruby… she didn’t really want to go back to our world there, did she?”

Amy: “Being a fellow tarot card user… I’m not willing to throw away what she was saying. I can’t confirm what she was saying, I’m not strong enough, but my gut says we should take her warning seriously.”

Sly: “But how do we stop the ‘end of the world’ as she says?”

Amy: “I don’t know… we’ll just have to extremely careful about watching what happens in the future.”

Sly: “Yeah…”

Next Time: Ugh… an asshole to finish off the group. At least we get the familiar landscape of Dragon Road, Chun-nan.

[isakthedragon]

A Dragon Sized Adventure Chapter 27

Chapter 27: Raiding the Freezer

*Crash and the gang chase Dingodile into the Ice Age Terrarium, but lose him among the ice walls that are around. Most of the floor is covered in snow, with trees and ruins here and there sticking out from the snow.*

While they were walking to the next terrarium, Sonic asks a question that has been on everyone's minds. "Crash? We did hear what Knuckles told us about the mutants, but I still don't feel like we got the full picture."

Crash: "Like I said, I am a mutant too, and so is Crunch."

Crunch: "Yeah, and we won't lie, we were evolved and worked on by Cortex too."

Sonic: "Then who do we know you aren't aiding the enem-D'OH!!" Sonic was hit again by Amy's hammer.

Amy: "Must you always think that just because they were with evil means that they are evil?! Shadow and Silver should be enough proof that you can't use that."

Sonic: "Sorry, Amy, but I do it because you can't always trust someone's intentions. I can't let Eggman get the upper hand like that. I'm not like you or Cream, or the others."

Amy sighs. "Sorry for hitting you, Sonic, you're right."

Crunch: "Sonic is kind of right. Cortex tried using us to lead his mutant army, like all those Magmadons and others you saw, so he could take over the world.

Shadow: "How did you guys escape from that?"

Crash: "I was too much of a goofball to be brainwashed to evil."

Crunch: "Coco was most likely too smart, and Crash helped awaken me from their mind control."

Sonic: "Well, know that I hear that, I trust you guys."

Crunch: "We do kind of feel bad for those other mutants though."

Crash: "We try to help save them from their mind control too!"

Cream: "Does Mr. Crash and Mr. Crunch want us to save any we see?"

Crunch: "If you guys could, that would be nice. Those mutants are quite helpful anyway."

Sonic: "Can do!"

*The others agree to do so as the door opens for the next terrarium.*

Crash and most of the others shiver as a chilly blast hits them.

Sonic notices that Spyro and Cynder are the few not shivering (Blaze is the other). "How come you guys are not feeling the cold like most of us are? Aren't you guys cold-blooded or something?"

Cynder: "Not necessarily, dragons are pretty special compared to other reptiles."

Spyro: "Yeah. We're more warm-blooded. We can produce our own heat. In fact, our blood is so hot (Almost to boiling), it makes us quite warm. Why not grab us?"

Amy is the first to put a hand. "Mmm, they're right! I can feel it. So warm."

*Anyone who was feeling cold, especially Team Chaotix, warm up with Spyro and Cynder.*

Spyro: "Let's go then, and just stay close to us. The faster we collect these crystals, the sooner we can leave."

Sonic: "Heh, now you're speaking my language!"

-----

Level 6: Snowy Depths

Crates: 81

Time Trial

Sapphire: 1:30.00

Gold: 1:25.00

Platinum: 1:20.00

Ratcicles to Save: 5

Helping Partner: Omega

Badniks: Penguinator: Slip-sliding penguins Star Pointer: Sharp ice flying though the air, ouch!

Beasts: Penguins: *Wenk!* Seals: *Bark!* Echidna (It may not be, also called hedgehog and porcupine): *Mumbles about no chuckling.*

Mutants: Ratcicles: Rat + Icicle hybrid who have a deposition to freeze things. Note, it can't stop time. :P

W-w-w-welcome to the Ice Ages-s-s-s-s... *Shakes off the cold*. There's plenty of ice, snow, and more ice, and more snow. The first ice level takes place in an ice canyon with those high cliffs around you. Beside some minor pits here and there, the only worrying things are the beasts, but ever they go down in one hit.

Achievement Unlocked: FREEZE!

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Level 7: Icy Fields

Crates: 110

Time Trial

Sapphire: 2:00.00

Gold: 1:55.00

Platinum: 1:50.00

Ratcicles to Save: 5

Helping Partner: Shadow

We've left the ice canyon of the last level and have entered an open ice field. Thankfully, everyone knows how to ice skate so no face-planting on the ice here. Why not enjoy all the sliding you'll be doing. WHEE!

Achievement Unlocked: An Icy Ballet

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Level 8: Ratcicle Cubes

Crates: 75

Time Trial

Sapphire: 1:40.00

Gold: 1:35.00

Platinum: 1:30.00

Ratcicles to Save: 5

Helping Partner: Rouge

Those icy fields from before have changed into some melted oceans. But it's too cold to swim in. Thankfully, we have Ratcicles here to get you across the ice floes. Ratcicles move across the water by freezing what's below them and riding the surf they make. There are some icy walkways here and there to break up the monotony of crossing the water.

Achievement Unlocked: Snow Rats Walking

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Level 9: Snow Drifting

Crates: 65 (All the crates lay on top of the snow drifts.)

Time Trial

Sapphire: 3:00.00

Gold: 2:50.00

Platinum: 2:40.00

Ratcicles to Save: 5

Helping Partner: Sgt Byrd

New Badnik: Snow Pawn: It throws fast snowballs at you, and it can hurt if you don't smack them away. Luckily, Crash's spin can easily return the snowballs to sender.

Past those ice floes are heavy clouds filled with snow. Snow-covered fields are abundant here and Crash can easily fall into the drifts. Sgt Byrd is willing to help though; Crash can hitch a ride on his feet and be lifted by him. Or you could keep jumping out of the snow, treating it like quicksand, but it's a bit slower. It's quite different to your normal level, but it's pretty easy to cross the snow.

Achievement Unlocked: Adrift in a Snowy Bank

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Level 10: Crystal Cave

Crates: 88

Time Trial

Sapphire: 1:45.00

Gold: 1:40.00

Platinum: 1:35.00

Ratcicles to Save: 5

Helping Partner: Bentley

Now we have entered a cave, and look at all of those pretty crystals. Watch out for the ice and the icicles falling from the ceiling. Around the halfway point, the cave splits in 2, the right being the normal path and the left being the death route. The death route has more ice and icicles and also has logs and pillars crashing from the ceiling that you have to time to pass. If you can survive the ceiling onslaught, the blue gem in the end is yours. The end of the death route meets with the normal route near the end, but I bet you want to return to the checkpoint near the start of the route and take the normal path. Just watch the badniks and beasts, and you'll make it though.

Achievement Unlocked: Snowy Spelunking

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*Our heroes go to the center of the Terrarium where they hear Dingodile laughing.*

Dingodile: "Break out the butter! We're gonna make toast! I'm gonna start with that pink cat, heh."

Blaze: "You don't want to do that."

Dingodile: "Don't tell me what to do!" *He flames her, but nothing happens.* "Uh-oh. Why didn't that work?"

Sonic, in the background: "You shouldn't have done that! Now you're about to experience her fiery wrath."

*Blaze gains her flame aura.* "Flames are a fickle thing, Dingodile."

Dingodile: "The flames love the way I control them! I doubt you can even burn me!" *He stomps his feet, making ice crystals fall from the ceiling, spinning around him as the fight begins.*

Boss: Dingodile

No need for running from Dingodile this time, he's going to stay behind those crystals. There aren't many rings around, so you can't really go super, but if you let Blaze take over, you're practically invincible to Dingodile's attacks. She'll absorb his flame meteors and flame blasts. Those flame blasts will also break the crystals so you can get up to Dingodile and flame him, making his tank overload and explode, knocking out a chunk of his health and pushing you out so more crystals can drop down safely. Do this 3 times to win.

Achievement Unlocked: Singed Dingo and Fried Crocodile

Singed and beaten, laying on the ground, Dingodile says: "You thrashed me, mates. No worries, but you're about to go up against much worse!" *He suddenly turns into a mass of photons as he is teleported from the Terrarium.*

Sonic: "From what I saw, I doubt it. Heh."

*They decide to go to the force field ahead of them, which drops since they have 10 crystals. They move on to the next terrarium...*

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DEATH HEAD'S BRIDGE

*Dingodile is transported in front of Cortex and the others, still covered in his black soot.*

Cortex groans. "I hate that bandicoot!"

Eggman: "Perhaps you should discipline Dingodile for his failure."

Cortex: "Yes! Of course! Dingodile, to your room! No food today for your horrible performance."

Dingodile: "Yes, sir..." *He sulks out the elevator at the back of the bridge as Tiny and Koala Kong rush in, running over him.*

Koala Kong speaks first. "Yo, Cortex! Let me and Tiny here go and smush that orange bandicoot to paste!"

Tiny: "YES! Let Tiny and Koala Kong wish to pwn Crash and others!"

Cortex: "A good idea! Transport! Send them to the Roman Terrarium."

Transport (Who sounds like Cubot, cause it is.): "Yes, sir!" *Tiny and Koala Kong are transported away.*

Eggman mutters: "I give them 2 minutes with Crash and Sonic."

Cortex: "What?"

Eggman: "Nothing! Just that I hope we succeed!"

Cortex: "We will..." *In a whisper* "I hope."

Next Time: Be nice to the lions in the Roman Terrarium