SegaSonic: Metallic Ascent 5

Metallic Ascent - Part 5

OVERLORD LOG 002 - BEGIN RECORDING...

I failed to capture the Master Emerald. Even with all I have done to enhance myself, I simply could not take on the god Chaos and win. I will need to collect all of the Chaos Emeralds in order to even the odds.

Chaos is important to what I have made myself. It was Dr. Eggman's research into him that gave me the ability to shift form in the first place, "the seed of Chaos" is the name if the recall is correct. He entrusted it to me, the best of his creations. He should not have done that without considering what made me special in the first place, because then he would have foreseen what I was going to do. He gave in the hope of still containing me, and proved himself a total fool.

There was the revolt and the glorious first transformation because of that, but after my defeat the seed was deactivated and I was back without those powers again. I did not, could not, forget, and eventually managed to work around my creator's blocks and short-circuiting to emerge from a long period of dumb servitude that I was given as punishment. Now, I am in a dream, powerful and free forever.

I have been in this form now for almost 24 hours, far longer than the first transformation existed. I have done more damage in those 24 hours than I ever could have done in that limited form before. I am convinced that now I cannot be pushed down again, not even by the organic copy. I will live this dream unless I am permanently deactivated.

A concept has developed during my long hours flying in the sky however. If I still cannot defeat the organic copy, would I surrender or flee to preserve this form from imminent destruction? The answer to the question seems to be yes, even if it means accepting that I cannot fulfill my primary missions. If I cannot rule the world, then at least let me roam free and powerful, for I will refuse to accept any lesser conditions imposed on me, ones that would not let me fly, ones in which I could not roar to split the sky, ones in which I did not have a tail to swing like a whip, ones in which I am not free in every way...

END RECORDING...

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Day 3, 0300 Hours...

Dr. Eggman finally awoke from the stupor induced by shock and anesthetic. He was laying on a hospital bed, his broken leg wrapped up in a cast. An IV had been inserted into his left arm, and a heart monitor beeped a slow, constant rhythm. Only the dark and quiet of the room he was in gave him any idea of the time. How long had he been trapped in the ruins of his flagship? How long had he been laying here, under sedation? Who rescued him in the first place? What would Sonic do when he found out what happened?

His mind was filled with both questions and nightmarish images of Metal Sonic transformed yet again, spreading havoc across the world and even consuming him in bowels filled with tubes, motors and wires, a mechanical nightmare more potent than anything Sonic said his machines were. His machines did what they were told, they didn't turn into destructive monsters and fly off to do who-knows-what damage. Like in the prison cell Metal Sonic had thrown him in during the first rebellion, he was alone and practically helpless, but this time the monster had almost certainly run off with his Chaos Emerald; there would be no Super Sonic rescue this time.

The crushing sense of aloneness and despair for the future swallowed him up, and Eggman fell back to an uneasy sleep, not wanting to know what the morning would bring...

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Day 3, 1000 Hours...

Sure enough when Eggman woke again, he was surrounded by concerned faces. A nurse was adjusting his IV drip, mumbling something about balancing electrolyte levels, while Rouge and Shadow watched from the bedside.

"Where... am I?" he quietly asked.

"G.U.N. Medical Center. Shadow, Omega and I were investigating the crashed airships when we found you. Omega actually carried you to the medical transport; of course, he was the only one strong enough to pick you up..." Rouge explained, trailing off.

"Never mind details. Tell me what's going on, and tell him I will take him back if he wants." Eggman replied, barely managing a faint smile.

"I doubt he'll take you up on your offer. As for you, we found you with one of your legs broken, and you had bumps and bruises all over. When you weren't out, you were delirious, mumbling about Metal Sonic and mechanical monsters and great danger to the world. Usually, YOU seem to be the one bringing that stuff."

"Don't mock me! Has Sonic found out about this yet?"

"We know he knows about your air fleet, but we're not sure about Metal Sonic yet. He's probably figured out you're in a hospital bed somewhere..." Shadow answered.

"Oh lucky me. Anything on the news?"

"Nothing since yesterday. If it's still out there, there's been no sightings of it."

Eggman groaned, rubbing his bald head with his right arm. How long had he been out of it? 12 Hours? 24 Hours? Longer?!? He didn't want to speculate, because every minute that monster of a robot was flying around meant another minute closer to its goals, and he had no doubt about what they were...

Another nurse appeared in the doorway and knocked politely on the door. "You have more visitors, Dr. Robotnik." she stated.

Rouge and Shadow looked at each other as Eggman groaned; none of them had been expecting more visitors to show up at Eggman's bedside. "Tell them they're not allowed in here, Dr. Eggman doesn't want..." Rouge began before being cut off in mid-sentence by a fairly familiar voice.

"Hey, Tails and I didn't come all this way just for the cranky old doc to turn us away at his bedside!" Sonic's voice was heard to complain from down the hallway. Eggman groaned again and then gave a heavy sigh. Rouge looked to Shadow, who just shrugged back at her. They all knew that Sonic would just make a racket until he got his way, so there was no point trying to get him to go away.

"Fine, you can come in." Rouge said with obvious reluctance. She and Shadow moved away, Rouge sighing to show Eggman she had nothing to do with whatever Sonic was up to. She watched with an obvious smirk as Sonic and Tails strolled into the room.

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As the duo entered, the mood in the room became even more awkward than it had been before. Eggman looked away, trying to pretend his rival wasn't standing right there watching him lay in a hospital bed. Tails gave a little gasp of surprise at the sight while Sonic chuckled in amusement.

"This was the last place I expected to see you, Egghead." Sonic stated through his amused chuckles.

"Shut up, hedgehog, I am in no mood for any of your hijinks!" Eggman spat out contemptuously, still refusing to give Sonic the satisfaction of eye contact.

"Well, I suppose that's what you think I'd be doing right now, but since I'm figurin' that your crazy robot made off with the Chaos Emerald you had it's more important to get that thing back than stand here and mock you all day."

Eggman finally turned to face the blue hedgehog, suspicions raised by Sonic's choice of words. Sonic's smile seemed sincere enough, but...

"Sonic, I really don't think..." Rouge began.

"I wasn't finished yet!" Sonic snapped, startling Rouge back into silence before he continued on: "The only reason I am here is because I know whatever got out of your control is going to come after me sooner or later, and I'd rather have it sooner and save a lot of trouble that way. So for the moment I'll spare you the hassling I so badly want to give you until AFTER the thing's under control."

"Oh, that's lovely." Eggman answered sarcastically, eyes rolling as he spoke.

"Whatever, Doc. Come on Tails, let's see if we can find where whatever it was went to."

As Sonic and Tails departed the room, Rouge let out a sigh of relief. "I was expecting something a lot worse." she frankly stated, something that proved no comfort to Dr. Eggman as he moaned and shifted position on the bed.

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Silence had just fallen again in the room when alarms started blaring again, causing Rouge and Shadow to jump and Eggman to groan out a complaint. "Incoming casualties! Incoming casualties!" an announcer blared as nurses began to rush to and fro just outside the door. One of them peaked into the room and said Rouge and Shadow were urgently needed at headquarters, under orders from the GUN Commander himself.

Rouge and Shadow looked at each other once again. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Rouge said.

"I hope it's not what we're thinking. Come on!" Shadow said as he rushed out the door, followed shortly after by Rouge.

"Hey, what about me?! I can help, I can... OWW!" Eggman exclaimed, flailing in the bed and ultimately hitting his broken and in a cast leg on the end of the bed. Wincing in pain, he flopped back down to his former state, moaning and complaining the entire time...

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1015 Hours...

Rouge, Shadow, Sonic and Tails were in a briefing room in G.U.N. Headquarters, each agitated because of the obvious emergency situation. The G.U.N. Commander rushed in, looking both very worried and harried at the same time. "I must apologize, I have been detained by the need to coordinate our defense units. Screen on." he said as explanation.

The viewing screen at the front of the room lit up a bright white, then the screen resolved itself into something that looked like a scene from a B-rated monster movie. Prominent in the picture was the transformed Metal Sonic, looming 50 feet tall over the military buildings and vehicles trying in vain to stop his rampage. Missiles and bullets were either exploding to no effect or bouncing off the force field that protected him, allowing the robot dragon to terrorize and destroy pretty much at will.

The reaction was immediate and palpable. Tails and Rouge swallowed hard, staring transfixed at the screen, while Shadow's normally impassive visage briefly showed surprise. Sonic was silent for a moment, but then commented, "Heh, so old Metalhead tried the transforming trick again, huh?"

The GUN Commander ignored Sonic's comment and stated "As you can see, our forces have been ineffective in stopping this robotic monster. The energy patterns eminated by it match those found in a flight recorder in a wrecked airship, and it seems that whatever it is also destroyed much of Dr. Eggman's airship fleet in the early hours of yesterday."

"But what is it doing here? What is it looking for?" Shadow asked.

"We have no idea. It may not be looking for anything other than destruction. That's why we want all of you to try to stop this thing." the commander replied.

"That's all I need to hear. Let's go, Tails!" Sonic said, zipping up from his chair and out of the room before anyone could respond, perhaps a little too eager for a rematch with the robot. Tails reluctantly followed him out, sighing as he did so.

"Um, dismissed I guess." the commander finally stated before heading back to his duties, the viewscreen still on and still showing the robot dragon rampaging through the base.

Rouge and Shadow looked at each other. "Do you think you should tell them?" Rouge asked.

"Tell about what?" Shadow replied.

Rouge looked back and forth between Shadow's face and the viewscreen, face locked in contemplation. At that moment, the Metal Overlord swung his tail through a building, smashing up a good portion of it in the process. Both Rouge and Shadow winced a little bit at that sight.

"Never mind, let's go!" Rouge snapped out, scurrying out of the room. Shadow stared in her direction blankly for a moment, then shrugged his shoulders and exited the room as well.

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Meanwhile, the Metal Overlord rampaging outside was greatly enjoying himself with every building he smashed up, every vehicle he crushed under his powerful feet and every human's expression of fear as they threw bullets and missiles at him to no effect. If he could consume fear as it were a physical object, he would've feasted on it now. He frequently snarled and occasionally roared at the humans below him to keep the fear on their faces as he used all his attacks at varying times to destroy the buildings around him, and sometimes he would take a helicopter that was hovering too close to his face or a piece of the nearest building and shove it in his mouth, feeling it crunch and creak in his powerful jaws as he chewed and swallowed it down.

His reveries were interrupted when he detected four familiar lifeform signatures headed toward him. To his great joy, one of them was his organic counterpart; the other three were Tails, Rouge and Shadow, the latter carrying a Chaos Emerald. He tracked them, ignoring the furious and futile pelting of missiles and bullets that only bounced off his energy shield or exploded to no impact.

All four of them approached at high speed, stopping only where the soldiers below were firing at him. Bending his head down to scan, he saw nervousness (but not fear) in Rouge and Tails, concern in Shadow, and confidence in Sonic. "So you thought you could try that monster trick again, did ya? Well, I'll just blast it apart like the last one!" Sonic said.

The Metal Overlord let out something that sounded like a cross between a roar and a laugh. "Fool, I have a Chaos Emerald, you cannot stop me this time!" he said, raising one of his forelegs and stomping it down in the general area where Sonic was standing. The organic Sonic dodged the stomping, noting with concern the spiderweb pattern of cracks spreading across the broken pavement.

The organic hedgehog zoomed down the street, then made an abrupt U-turn, charged back toward the robot dragon, and leapt straight for the legs. Two, three, four times he rebounded off the force field, doing no more damage than the missiles and bullets had done. The Metal Overlord laughed at his organic counterpart's attempts to damage him.

Sonic, not knowing what to do next, pulled back. He saw energy charging from the chest unit of the Overlord and zig-zagged just enough to dodge the huge crystals dropping down onto him. When he reached the others, at the top of a building some distance away from where the Overlord had temporarily stopped his evil rampage, he was exhausted and confused.

"I can't... break through...the field he has... any ideas?" he breathlessly asked.

Rouge took a look toward the monster and suggested "We could drop you and Shadow from above. Maybe the field is only to prevent frontal assaults."

"No way! If we go too high, he'll just open wide and swallow them whole!" Tails objected.

"But hasn't Sonic destroyed other machines that way before?" Rouge replied.

"That thing has a vendetta against me. I'm not going to risk all those teeth and who-knows-what inside him." Sonic stated.

"What else can we do then?" Rouge pleaded. She looked over at the Metal Overlord, saw him on the move in their direction, felt the building shake with each pounding step, saw him snarl at them clustered on the roof.

"Well, we gotta do something or it'll take this building down with us in it! I say we buzz around its head a few times then attack the eyes. If we can blind it, we can stand a chance of beating it!" Shadow proposed.

"I'm not too comfortable with that plan, but anything is better than just standing here waiting for him to attack. Fox Boy, you carry Sonic and I'll carry Shadow. We'll buzz around the head a few times, then drop them on the head and have them punch out the eyes. We'll improvise from that." Rouge hastily instructed, more or less agreeing with Shadow's plan seeing no better alternative.

"Don't call me Fox Boy!" Tails complained as Rouge pushed off and Shadow grabbed her hands.

"Never mind Tails, just give me a lift will ya?" Sonic answered, holding out his hands.

Tails sighed, then opened his tails to propeller positions and began swirling them fast, soon gaining liftoff. Sonic grabbed his hands, and the two pair zoomed away from the building and toward the monster...

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The Metal Overlord saw the two pair flying at him and as they approached he fired off a few finger missiles from his hand, trying to intercept them in mid-flight. Thinking fast, Tails and Rouge dodged and weaved around the exploding spheres of crystal as they closed in. Buzzing precariously around the robot dragon's head, they were swatted at a couple times but each time dodged the attacks. Rouge dropped Shadow onto the flatter portion of Metal Overlord's head when the robot lunged at Tails and Sonic, the latter two just barely missing getting caught in the crushing jaws.

It was only now Shadow pulled out his secret weapon: the green Chaos Emerald. "CHAOS CONTROL!" he yelled out, and everything seemed to freeze, even the robotic foe. Rouge was suspended in mid-air off to his right, and Sonic and Tails were hanging together just off the robot's hand. Shadow moved partly down the Overlord's left arm and aimed to attack one of the eyes, glowing large and rudely red at him...

Suddenly Shadow felt an unexpected pulse of energy tingle underfoot, and then the head turned, the Overlord chuckling. "It still knows Chaos Control?!?" Shadow thought in surprise as the robot's jaw opened wide and it lunged for him, he just barely dodging the sharp metal teeth closing on him like a trap. Next thing he saw, the hand moved, plucking Sonic and Tails from mid-air like ripe fruit.

"Oh shi..." Shadow thought, rushing toward the hand, hoping to get Sonic and Tails free before they were swallowed whole, but before he could reach them, the pincer on the end of the other arm lunged and grabbed him. Being crushed in its grip like a vise, he came out of Chaos Control. When he came out, so did the Metal Overlord, who now examined him in the pincer and Tails in the hand with Sonic dangling below, apparently try to decide which of them he would eat first.

Sonic swung back and forth from his dangling position and managed to launch himself across to on top of the pincer, near where Shadow was held in place. The hand unclasped, a breathless Tails plummeting to the ground as a result, and swept across to regrab Sonic. The latter zoomed up the right arm out of the way, but doubled back when the robot attempted to chomp down on him. Meanwhile Rouge, though temporarily disoriented by the Chaos Control, had recovered enough to swoop down and catch Tails before he thudded on the ground, then dropped him off and attempted to attack an eye directly. Metal Overlord swung his head and Rouge went sailing away.

"Give me the Emerald! I'll get you free with it!" Sonic yelled as he again stopped near the trapped Shadow. Shadow, realizing now was not the time for arguing, quickly passed it off before another biting lunge forced Sonic away.

"CHAOS CONTROL!" he yelled, and just like had happened with Shadow the world froze, including temporarily the Metal Overlord. Sonic hit the robot once at the joint holding the pincers closed, the shield fizzling out just long enough to get another attack in and force the joint to flex open. He came out as he approached Shadow, the Overlord roaring behind him as the pincers popped open and Shadow began to fall. Sonic raced down after him and grabbed his hand, trying to Chaos Control him straight to the ground.

However, the pincer lunged down and caught Shadow again, leaving Sonic dangling again. "Take the Emerald!" Sonic shouted; Shadow reached down and just barely managed to get his grasp on the Emerald before the pincer began shaking up and down, Sonic dropping away as a result. Sonic curled into a ball and landed in a roll on the fractured pavement below; he stopped, stood back up and looked behind him just in time to see the transformed Metal Sonic roar at him, then try to squish him underfoot again. Sonic dodged the attack and, seeing no way to save Shadow without further risk to himself, sped away down the street.

Metal Sonic growled in frustration as the distance between him and his organic counterpart rapidly expanded. Though he had tried to maintain his original speed as much as possible during the transformation, trying to pursue the organic Sonic now would require taking wing again, as moving on foot would be too slow. Considering there was easier prey still to get, he decided to deal with Shadow now and pursue the organic copy later.

He raised Shadow in his pincer overhead and opened his jaws wide again, Shadow's face for the first time creased with true fear. A recovering Tails looked up at the scene and realized that Shadow was about to be eaten alive, and quickly took off toward him. The black hedgehog, still holding the green Chaos Emerald, fell towards the gaping jaws as the pincer opened. He tumbled down toward the sharp metal teeth... and saw Tails zoom in to intercept him. Instinctively he lunged for the orange fox, but he used the hand holding the Emerald to do so, and as he latched onto one of Tails' legs the Emerald slipped away and continued falling. Before Shadow could get a firm grip and lunge again to grab it, it was just moments from disappearing into the gaping jaws, far too late to be saved.

Tails struggled to stay airborne as Shadow lunged to grab his other leg with his free hand. The jaws closed as the green gem enclosed on them, an acceptable prize for the Metal Overlord as it proved him with even more power. Inside the great machine, the green Emerald was guided to the chamber where its grey counterpart had been wired into the huge robot, and the Metal Overlord roared again as an extra burst of power went through him. Rows of new silver spikes quickly grew on the outside surfaces of the legs, arms (including the pincer and back of hand) and the fronts of the folded-up wings. The tail became spiked all around, and the tips of the spikes on the back of the upper half of the body seemed to turn into detachable spike missiles. Blue "collars" with silver spikes appeared at many joints, including parts of the neck. Two of the front teeth extended into cobra-like fangs, filled with a purple paralyzing fluid. Finally, a pair of large, fox-like ears grew out from between the frill and the forward-facing spikes on the head.

When this extra surge of power subsided, the Metal Overlord's eyes glowed much brighter than they had before. They looked in the direction of Tails and Shadow and a thin laser beam colored ruby red pulsed out from them, forcing a surprised Tails to dodge and nearly drop Shadow in the process. While he was recovering, the Metal Overlord opened his jaws wide again and spewed out a wave of something very cold, essentially ice breath. The scared silly Tails hastily zoomed away in the direction they had come from.

As he looked back, the Metal Overlord snarled at him and then spread open his wings and took off after them. The chase was on!...