SegaSonic: Metallic Ascent 6

Metallic Ascent - Part 6

Day 3, 1045 Hours

As the Metal Overlord chased after the organic Sonic and his allies, the robot began to put another phase of his plan into action. Using the energy from the second Chaos Emerald, he began producing small black particles all over his flying form. These particles began to fall to the ground below in black swarms, whereupon they scattered across the open country, looking for something to infect. Any animals that came into contact with the cloud were infected with these particles and fell unconscious, whereupon they began to be converted into a cyborg. As these clouds spread, so did the havoc they created.

However, the full effect would be yet known for at least a day, and at the moment there were several fleeing from his direct chase one way or the other. One was Sonic, speeding away from the attacked base, leaving a dust plume that was easily followed by the Metal Overlord. Tails and Shadow were scrambling not far behind him as they attempted to retreat and plan a new strategy.

--------------------------------

Sonic finally eluded the robot by deliberately running in circles around the position below the Overlord to kick up circles of dust to confuse his sensors, then grabbing Tails and Shadow and pulling them into a small clump of trees. When the dust subsided, the Overlord couldn't get a visual lock on any of them, so he roared out a challenge, sure the organic Sonic would be within hearing range, "I know you are nearby! Soon you will bow before me as the Ultimate Lifeform!", then drop a few sets of spikes on the area near the hummock.

The trio watched the explosions of the spikes and black nanoparticle clouds with concern. "When did he learn that trick? And did he get uglier, too?" Sonic asked to no one in particular.

"He's got enough power now to start producing little nanobots that'll take over everything. Sooner or later, we'll run out of places to run unless we can find a way to destroy those things." Tails explained.

"How did he manage to do that? I thought that he only have the one Emerald to keep himself running."

"Actually, he now has two." Shadow quietly corrected.

Sonic turned to face him in shock. "WHAT?!? How did he manage to get your Emerald?!?" he exclaimed in horror.

"Well, you see, Tails and Rouge and I were fighting him, and Tails managed to prevent me from being swallowed alive, but I couldn't keep a hold on it and it fell..." Shadow explained with a nervous look on his face.

"Nice move, genius! How are we supposed to fight this thing now?! If it finds the other Chaos Emeralds before we do, we're sunk!" Sonic answered sarcastically.

"Hey, don't blame me! I was trying my best not to end up mincemeat inside that thing!"

"Guys, guys, calm down! We can argue about this later! Right now though, we need to figure out where the Overlord is going next, and we'll try to beat him to the punch." Tails intervened.

"All right, all right. He's probably going to try for another Chaos Emerald, if I had to guess. Either of you have any idea where one might be?" Sonic asked.

"Not a clue." Tails answered.

"Afraid not." Shadow added.

"Hmmm, could we track him then? If we're careful, we can get an idea of where he's going, what he's up to." Sonic suggested.

"It's risky, but if I can get back to my Workshop, we can prep the Tornado and track him that way." Tails replied.

"That's great, but those black cloud things are coming for us." Shadow added, pointing out toward the swarms of nanoparticles rapidly closing on the hummock. Sonic and Tails looked in that direction with alarm.

"You're right, let's get out of here before we start getting attacked by those things. Let's circle back to G.U.N. if we can and see if they can give us an idea of where he's headed. We can do the rest." Sonic stated.

"Good idea, now let's get out of here!" Tails added with alarm, and with that the trio bolted from the hummock. As they looked back, they saw the black nanoparticles attach to and begin to breakdown the trees. Seeing this, they redoubled their efforts to put as much distance as possible between them and those black clouds...

------------------------------------

Taking a roundabout way back into the GUN base, Sonic and his companions found it in chaos. Not only scrambling to deal with the damage to their own buildings but also trying to combat the black swarms that had begun to infiltrate and alter the technology present in the base into a form dangerous to interact with. Sonic saw a few of them blasting the black swarms with flamethrowers, but it was a slow and dangerous method of fighting them. No one seemed to know what had happened to Rouge or where she was.

"Shoot, there doesn't seem to be any one we recognize! Any ideas?" Sonic shouted over the loud chaotic din.

"We need to figure out where it is going to go next!" Tails exclaimed.

"Shouldn't we find Rouge first? We may need her help." Shadow objected.

"Dude, you couldn't find a clown in all this mess! Rouge will just have to fend for herself!" Sonic answered.

"But we still need a target, a location to go to!"

"Angel Island! The Master Emerald is more powerful than all the Chaos Emeralds put together! He'll go there first!" Tails suggested in a flash of insight.

"Shoot, then we'll have to get to the island before he does, because Knuckles won't be able to stand up to that thing and who knows if Chaos could. You know where the Tornado is?" Sonic asked.

"I parked it outside of town, hope it's still there!"

"Well we don't have a choice! We need the Tornado in working order in order to have a chance at stopping him!"

"We need to leave the place immediately! Those swarms are coming closer!" Shadow interjected, pointing toward black clouds slowly approaching despite the best efforts of flamethrower-wielding soldiers to stop them.

"Right! Tails, lead us back to where you parked the Tornado and lift off immediately if you can! Let's juice!" Sonic ordered.

"Got it!" Tails acknowledged.

"Affirmative." Shadow answered with a hint of reluctance; he didn't want to be taking orders from what he considered an inferior lifeform, but considering the alternatives did so anyways. The trio sped away, Tails beside Sonic as a guide and Shadow behind the pair, as chaos engulfed the G.U.N. base...

------------------------------------

As the trio zoomed through the base and adjacent areas, they heard occasional reports of the black clouds spreading. Apparently Metal Overlord was pumping them out as he was moving, and pumping them out at a rate much faster than G.U.N. soldiers and robots could get rid of them using flamethrowers. General evacuation orders were being issued for everyone in the affected area, with G.U.N. unable to contain the rising numbers of black nanobot clouds.

When Sonic, Tails and Shadow got to the Tornado, still untouched by the black clouds but with several groups rapidly closing on the location, Tails began prepping the Tornado for immediate takeoff. As there was only one extra seat for both Sonic and Shadow, the two hedgehogs began arguing over who would get the seat. Only after much yelling and some bribing on the part of the two-tailed fox was Shadow persuaded to sit on Sonic piggyback-style for the flight.

"I hope you two realize how much I'm breaching my dignity doing this." Shadow complained, Sonic's arms wrapped around his legs.

"You got top, right? Now stop complaining! We gotta go NOW or those black clouds will cut off our escape route!" Tails yelled out, flicking switches and pushing buttons as he spoke. The engine roared to life, and Sonic and Tails quickly buckled in, Sonic passing a linked pair of bungee cords up to Shadow to help hold him in place.

Tails gunned the throttle and the Tornado zoomed down the runway past several rapidly approaching clouds of black nanobots. He pulled up and the Tornado swooped into the sky; Shadow, looking back at the receding ground, saw little spots of black scattered all over the half-ruined G.U.N. base with more spreading out into the nearby countryside.

"Hang on guys! I'm going to be at full throttle all the way to the island!" Tails warned the hedgehogs, gritting his teeth as he leveled off and banked the Tornado towards Angel Island's location...

--------------------------------------

Meanwhile, in New Station Square...

Amy Rose the hedgehog, like so many of the other residents of this new version of Station Square built after the destruction caused by Chaos, was watching worriedly the progress of the Metal Overlord away from the ruins of the G.U.N. headquarters and in the direction of this new city. It crossed her mind that it was coming for her, intending to settle the old score he had, but more likely it was going after the Chaos Emerald stored in the City Bank vault.

She didn't know if anyone would recognize that in time to escape with the Emerald, nor was she sure she could convince anyone with any power to make that possible. She had already heard of the black clouds and the failure of Sonic to stop the robot before; her trying to attack it would be a fool's errand that would lead to her death, or a fate worse than it. All she could do was run.

She would run, she would find Big and Cream, make sure they all got away safely. She would go to Tails' Workshop - she couldn't think of any other place to run to - and wait there for whatever fate would befall them all. And she needed to start now, because waiting until that robotic monster showed up would be too late.

She switched the TV off and hastily packed her purse and a suitcase with a change of clothes and snack rations, saving one last bit of space for the framed picture of Sonic she kept above the TV. She took one good last look around her low-end but new apartment, for fear she may never see it again, and locked the door behind her as she left. She slipped into the nervous stream of citizens fleeing ahead of the attacks and set out to save her friends...

--------------------------------------

1230 Hours...

The Tornado approached the still-floating Angel Island with great relief. "It looks like the Master Emerald is still safe, but we need to find Knuckles now! That thing could show up any minute!" Sonic exclaimed as Tails banked the plane toward the island. He touched the plane down on a grassy strip, noting the areas of burning and trampling in the distant forest.

"Man, it looks like it was already here, but how did it manage to not make off with the Master Emerald?" Sonic commented.

"Chaos is the only one with enough power to drive him off. It must've used the Master Emerald to defend the island." Tails concluded.

"But then what happened to Knuckles? We gotta find him, and NOW!" Sonic proclaimed, slapping a fist hand into an open palm.

"Where do we even look though?" Shadow asked.

"The Emerald Shrine, that's most likely where he'll be. We need to juice, he probably got hurt badly in the attack!" Sonic desperately stated. He sped in the direction of the Emerald Shrine, followed by Tails and a reluctant Shadow.

----------------------------------------

By this time, Amy had managed to escape the targeted city, sorry she couldn't do more to help her fellow citizens. Looking back, she saw the smoke rising over the cityscape and black clouds of nanoparticles penetrating throughout the city, and worried once the new Metal Overlord's wrath was expended on the city she would be hunted down and destroyed. She tried to push the thoughts of Metal Sonic and his powers out of her mind as she approached the house of Cream and her mom, who lived within view of the city skyline.

Amy, breathless and exhausted, knocked on the front door. No response... had they already left? Had they already fallen victim to the Metal Sonic monster? She tried the doorknob, which opened and caused a slip of paper to fall at Amy's feet. Curious, she picked it up and read it:

"Dear Amy Rose,

If you are reading this, it is probably because you have come looking for us. Myself, my daughter, Cheese and Chocola have already left for Tails' Workshop, which Cream said would be a safe haven from the attacks, at least for the time being. Come join us there.

Cream wanted us to wait for Big to see if he would show up here or join up with you, but time is rapidly running out and we can wait no longer. I do not know if he has met up with you already, if not then heaven help him. Joining with Sonic is the only chance we have of stopping that robot monster. Please come find us.

- Vanilla"

Amy looked back at the attacked city. She wished she could find Big, but knew she had no time to search for him or even any idea where he was. With fighting back not an option, she could only continue to run. She dropped the note and wearily continued on toward Tails' Workshop, hoping to meet Cream and her mom there or at least catch them on the way...

-----------------------------------------

1300 Hours...

Sonic, Tails and Shadow approached the Master Emerald shrine, relieved that Master Emerald was still up there glowing for all to see. Rushing up the steps the trio found Chaos and Knuckles, the former tending the latter. The water spirit looked up at the three of them, then back down toward the echidna guardian.

Sonic motioned for the other two to stay back, and tentatively approached where Knuckles was laying. He was unconscious, badly scratched and bruised all over, pulse faint and fast, breathing slow and shallow. No doubt about it, Knuckles had come off worse in an encounter with the metal monster, and it was probably because of Chaos that Knuckles wasn't already dead.

"He's still alive, but he definitely had a run in with that new transformation of Metal Sonic." Sonic stated, looking back toward a concerned Tails and smirking Shadow.

"That's great, but if it's not here now..." Shadow began to speak.

"Then where is it?" Tails finished the sentence.

Sonic momentarily assumed a thoughtful pose. The new form of Metal Sonic had already attacked once, and it was almost certain that it would try again once it collected enough Chaos Emeralds. He worried about leaving Knuckles, but Chaos seemed to have everything under control.

"I don't know, but what I do know is that we need to get the remaining Emeralds away from him. If he gets 'em before we do, we're all doomed." Sonic stated.

"We need to find where he went first." Shadow objected.

"The Chaos Emeralds are more important. Let's get back to the Tornado and once in the air we'll plan out our next move." Tails answered.

"That's the spirit! Let's get going!" Sonic praised, giving a wink and thumbs-up to his junior partner. In reality though, Sonic feared inside that even he couldn't topple that robotic monster...

------------------------------------------

Meanwhile...

The Metal Overlord had left the New Station Square City Bank, as well as much of the rest of the city, in smoldering ruins. The police and local GUN forces had long since given up fighting him, running in fear of the nanites. Now the third Chaos Emerald would be dedicated toward helping the nanites take control.

The Metal Overlord shed thick clouds of nanites which clustered around the Emerald. The Emerald soon became encased in a metallic structure that pumped out nanites like a factory and spread metallic tendrils all across the city. Satisfied, the Overlord spread his wings and flew off: the progress of the nanites had become accelerated far beyond what could be countered with even Eggman's technology, and now victory would be inevitable given enough time for the nanites to work on assimilating and converting what they came across.

With Eggman neutralized and the nanites soon to dominate, there was only one obstacle left to obtaining the remaining Chaos Emeralds: the organic copy, who he had lost track of. Continuing to drop nanites wherever he flew, the Metal Overlord turned toward hunting down and subduing the organic Sonic. Then finally, his dreams would be fulfilled: he would be uncontested ruler, walking over a metallic planet of robots as a god of machines...