Chapter 8

“Hee-YA!” cried Bunnie as she collided feet first with a SWATbot.  The robot’s chest caved in as it fell to the ground in a shower of sparks.  Bunnie easily back flipped to land on her metal feet.  “You doin all right over there Amy-girl?” she called out behind her.

There was a metallic crunch and a SWATbot head flew over her like a frisbee, well like a frisbee with a big dent in one side.  “Yeah just fine Bunnie!” Amy called back with a grin, her hammer slung over one shoulder as she waited for the next group of SWATbots to show themselves.

Where’d y’all learn to fight like that, Amy-girl?” Bunnie asked as they ran down an alleyway.

Amy grinned, “When you follow Sonic as long as I have, you have to pick up a few things if you want to keep up.”

***

Knuckles dodged right as the other Metal’s claw pierced the wall where his head had been a second ago.  He responded with a punch to the robot’s chest that allowed him to get out of the corner he’d been pinned in, and then hit Metal in the back of the head, sending his head into the wall with a loud clang.

Knuckles was surprised how easy this was.  With the beating the other Metal, and he was pretty sure this was this world’s Metal, had given them earlier, he was surprised to still be standing, let alone an even match for the robot.

“Come on scrap heap, I’ve had badniks give me a better fight than you are!” He taunted.  Metal spun around, then before he could even think of dodging, blasted across the hall and slammed into him.  Knuckles suddenly found himself pinned against the wall behind him, the robot holding his wrists.

While they struggled, Metal took the time to analyze his opponent.  “Species: Echidna.  …Your kind is supposed to be extinct.”

“Yeah?”  Knuckles grunted, while trying to break the robot’s hold, “Well, isn’t it…your lucky day *ugh* that we’re…not!”

He shoved forward, managing to force Metal back far enough to let him kick the robot off.  Then he jumped back off the wall and delivered a flying double punch to Metal’s torso, sending him flying back against the far wall.

Metal got up and looked at Knuckles, “This conflict is futile.  You will tire long before you can inflict enough damage to disable me.”

“Well…I’m not tired yet, are you?”

“I do not tire.”

“Good, then this’ll probably be the best fight I’ve had since I met Rouge!”

***

“Ooh…”  Snively moaned, sitting up and rubbing his head, “What happened, the last thing I remember was…hedgehog!” he growled.  He quickly got to his feet.  One glance around the room confirmed his suspicions:  once again his uncle’s plans had gone awry.

Dashing out of the wrecked roboticizer room, Snively made a beeline for the command room.  “Sirs, sirs!” he shouted, “The prisoners have escaped!  The prisoners have esca-,“ he cut off mid yell when he entered the room, only to find it empty.  “Sirs?” he called, but both Robotniks were nowhere to be seen.

“Typical…have to do everything myself…” he mutters as he runs up to the control panel.  He pressed a couple of buttons and a small microphone popped out. “This is Sub-master Snively to all SWATbots!  Prisoners have escape the roboticizer room, lock down the main command center at once!”

***

Super Sonic blew through the corridors of the command center, Sally and the other Sonic hanging onto him tightly.  So this is what it feels like to juice secondhand, SatAM Sonic thought to himself idly.  Suddenly Sally gasped and called out, “Sonic, wait, go back!”  When both of them turned to look at her she elaborated, “I saw Knuckles…and the other Metal Sonic!”

Super Sonic nodded, slowing down so that turning around wouldn’t kill his passengers.  They flew back along their path and turned down the corridor Sally had pointed out.  Ahead they saw Knuckles still locked in combat with the other Metal.  “Hey Knux!  Need a lift?” He asked, lowering his legs slightly.  Knuckles smirked, and before Metal realized what was happening, he’d grabbed Super Sonic’s legs and was carried off down the hallway.

“Looks like we got there just in time,” Super Sonic said, looking back at Knuckles.

“Um, Sonic?”  Sally said

“You kidding?” Knuckles answered, interrupting her, “If you guys had gotten there a minute later he would have been scrap metal!  I was getting bored!”

“SONIC!” Sally yelled.

“What!?”  Both Sonics asked.

“DOOR!” she said, looking directly ahead, eyes wide.

The other three looked in the same direction to see the fortress’ main entrance rushing towards them, the heavy blast door already more than half closed.  Sonic and Knuckles went as wide eyed as Sally, but Super Sonic just grinned and shouted, “Hang on tight guys!” before speeding up.  All three felt a jerk and gripped tighter as Super Sonic sped up.  As the door got closer Sally could see that it would be too closed to go through before they got there.  “Sonic, stop!  We can’t make it!”

“Yes we can!”  He answered, speeding up even more.  A second later a blue force field started to form in front of him, appearing more solid the faster he went.  A split second before they reached the door it closed with a ringing thump.  A split second after, the entire building shook with the impact as they went right through the closed door, Super Sonic’s field protecting them from becoming smear marks for some workerbot to clean up.

***

Snively was knocked off his feet as the entire building suddenly shook violently.  “What on Mobius was that!?”  He scrambled to his feet and began furiously pushing buttons on the console.  The center monitor lit up with a view of the main entrance, or what was left of it.  A large hole was torn in the metal of the blast door.  He squeaked fearfully and pressed a few more buttons, switching the screen to a view from a spy orb, showing Super Sonic and his passengers streaking away over the skies of Robotropolis.  He growled to himself, super powers or no, he wasn’t going to let that hedgehog humiliate him like that!  “All Stealthbots, scramble priority one!  Intercept and destroy unidentified flying hedgehog!”

***

“Wow…this is amazing!” Sally said.  Sure she’d flown before, but that had been on Dulcy.  Flying like this was slightly different.

“Yeah,” SatAM Sonic coughed as he passed a little too close to a cloudbank, “If you don’t mind the smog.”

“Heh, this is nothing,” Super Sonic smirked, “You should see the view from space!”

“Space!?” both native inhabitants of this universe echoed.

“Oh boy, here we go…” Knuckles muttered, sensing a Sonic ego trip coming on.  But it was at that moment that the first missile streaked by, narrowly missing them.

“Hey what the..?”  Super Sonic gasped, turning to see what had just taken a pot shot at them, only to see a veritable swarm of Stealthbots headed their way.

“Oh man, so much for all that hard work wrecking Stealthbot factories,” SatAM Sonic groaned.

“Robotnik must have kept a reserve supply,” said Sally.

“Yeah and we must have pissed him off royally if he’s sending them all after us!”  Knuckles said, then gave a quick tug at Super Sonic’s shoe, “Sonic, get a move on!”

“Right!” he said, taking them into a dive.  Like a pack of angry bees, the stealthbots followed.  The rooftops of Robotropolis rushed up at them, and then flashed by as they flew down to street level.  Missiles exploded above and around them, taking large chunks out of the surrounding buildings.  A few of the flying robots crashed into buildings and exploded, but most kept doggedly to the chase.  They kept barely a step ahead of them as Super Sonic weaved around buildings, down alleys, and even through a passing patrol of SWATbots.  Stealthbots crashed into walls, and collided with SWATbots or other Stealthbots, shrinking the swarm.  But then a new problem showed up.

Four, newer version, stealthbots broke ahead of the main pack.  Unlike their counterparts, these were armed with high powered lasers instead of missiles.  They opened fire, energy beams following them around corners and through the streets, leaving long scars in the concrete.  “I can’t keep this up forever,” Super Sonic said, “And I can’t fight them while carrying you guys!”

“You don’t have to!”  Sally shouted, “Look!”  There was the roar of a jet engine from above them and the sound of a pulse laser.  Suddenly the stealthbots behind them started exploding as several energy blasts slammed into them.  The cyclone, in jet mode, swooped overhead, then banked around to fly even with them, just above the rooftops.

“Sonic!” Sega Tails called from the cockpit.  “Great timing buddy!” Super sonic called back.  He flew up above the plane so he could set Sonic and Sally down on the wings, while Knuckles let go to land in the seat behind Tails.  “Meet you back at the rendezvous!” Tails said, and gunned the throttle  

Super Sonic smirked, “All right, bot bashin’ time!”

He broke off, curving around to face the remaining stealthbots.  One fired a missile at him, but he simply caught it and threw it back.  “Not so tough now that there’s no one but me to shoot at, huh?”  Super Sonic said, as energy began to charge in his hands.  “SONIC WIND!” he yelled, throwing his arms forward.  A pair of blue energy saw blades erupted from his palms, flying toward, and then through, the approaching bots, cutting them to ribbons.  He watched the remains fall to the ground for a second, and then flew off.

***

Back in the control room, Snively stood facing the monitor as Super Sonic flew off.  He was sweating bullets and whimpering slightly.  He wasn’t sure whether to defect or head for the hills.  One thing was clear though: if that version of the hedgehog stayed around to help the freedom fighters any longer, his uncle’s empire was going to come crashing down around his big fat head.

Which brought up another thing, he thought to himself, now beginning to tremble as well.  What he would do to him when he found out that he’s lost an entire wing of stealthbots.  But Snively barely had time to contemplate this before another monitor popped on.

“SNIVELY!” shouted Robotnik as he appeared on the screen.

Snively eeped and ducked under the console.  “Y-y-yes, s-s-sir?” he asked, getting up slowly.

“Has the hedgehog been roboticized yet?”

Snively gulped visibly, “N-no, sir…”

“WELL WHY NOT!?”

“He-e esc-c-caped, s-“

“ESCAPED!!?”

“The f-freedom fighters r-rescued him…”

“YOU LITTLE MUTANT!  HOW COULD YOU BE SO INCOMPENTANT TO…”  Robotnik stopped mid rant, listening to someone off screen.  He seemed to calm slightly,  “Never mind, I’ll deal with you later.  Find the Metal Sonics and get down to launch bay 7 immediately!”

***

As Robotnik turned off the communications link, he turned to face Eggman.  “I hope you have an adequate explanation as to why the hedgehog’s escape shouldn’t concern me,” he growled.  To say he wasn’t happy was an understatement.  He’d had his most hated enemy right in the palm of his hand, and once again, he’d slipped through his fingers before he could tighten his grip.

“Because it shouldn’t,” Eggman answered, “He has no idea what we’re planning.  And those simpletons from my world will be no help, especially since the chaos readings indicate that Sonic’s used his Super form recently.  It will be a while before he can do that again.  And soon, you’ll have ultimate power at your fingertips.”

Robotnik glared at his counterpart, though he did crack an evil grin at the sound of ultimate power.  “Are you sure that your scanners can find them?  How do you know they even exist on this world?”

Eggman chuckled, making further adjustments to the panel he was standing at, “Legends.  My world had them, and so does yours.  All legends have some basic element of truth, covered over with exaggeration.  Though in this case, there is more truth than exaggeration.”  He finished what he was doing and suddenly a screen lit up with a display.  Eggman stared at it for a second, hmmming to himself, “That’s odd...they shouldn’t be able to be there unless…” he grinned, “Oh of course.”

“What is it?”  Robotnik asked.

Eggman just kept grinning, “Something else our worlds share.  Something that will make victory inevitable, especially since we will not make the same mistakes as last time…  Come, let us prepare for launch!”

***

….

System start…

Loading Mechabot O/S v.2.6…

ERROR: Subprogram compliance.exe corrupted, attempting to abort startup…

Abort failed…

Startup complete…

Main systems functioning…

Activating optical sensors…

Metal’s eyes snapped on, and he was immediately hit with the robot equivalent of a headache.  A quick diagnostic showed some minor systems shorts from the power ring, but nothing of major importance.  He hear footsteps coming down the hallway and immediately assumed a battle posture, only to stop as it was only Snively and a pair of SWATbots, followed by his counterpart.

“So here’s where you’ve been hiding.” Snively said.

“I haven’t been hiding,” Metal responded angrily, “I was trying to keep the prisoner from escaping, something you failed to do, Snootly!”

Snively was taken aback by the insult, “You will respect your superiors, robot!  Now, we are to report to hanger bay 7 for immediate departure.  Follow me.”

Metal scoffed, “I think I can get there on my own. Probably be faster too,” he said, before blasting off in a burst of speed.

As soon as Snively had kept himself from falling over, he glared at the spot where the robot had been.  “That one’s too like the hedgehog for comfort,” he said, then glanced at the other Metal Sonic, “At least you follow orders.”  He turned and headed off in the direction the first Metal had gone, the SWATbots falling in step behind him.

The other Metal said nothing.  His eyes glowed brightly for a second before he too followed Snively.

***

When SEGA Sonic arrived at the meeting spot, he found everyone waiting for him.  He’d landed in a back alley to change back to regular Sonic, that way any sensors wouldn’t be able to track his energy signature.  “Well…I’d certainly call that mission accomplished.” He said, grinning widely.

“Ah’ll say,” said Bunnie, “From what Ah hear, you’ve done us a month’s work of sabotage in a few minutes, Sugah Hog.”

“Those really were the chaos emeralds, weren’t they?”  Sally asked.

“Unless you know any other emeralds that can do that.” Sega Sonic said.

“Ok, what’s a chaos emerald?”  SatAM Sonic asked.

“They’re legendary stones, a little like the power stone, but far more powerful,” Sally answered,  “According to legend they’re supposed to give the person who holds all seven…and well, it looks like it’s not just a legend.”

“Too bad we don’t have them anymore,” Knuckles said, “They always scatter each time we use them.”

Sega Sonic took off his backpack, “Not this time,” he said, opening the flap to reveal the emeralds within.

“Weird, I wonder why they didn’t scatter this time?” Amy said.

“Maybe it’s because this isn’t our home dimension,” Sega Tails said.

“Well whatever the reason, let’s jam back to Knothole before a patrol shows up,” SatAM Sonic said.

And then the ground began to shake.

“What’s goin on!?” Sega Sonic shouted.

“Over there, look!”  Bunnie shouted, pointing.

Over beyond the edge of the junkyards, an enormous pair of camouflaged doors were sliding open, revealing the huge hanger below.  The shaking stopped when they finished opening, but then came the sounds of powerful jet engines as something began to rise out of the hanger.

“What is that?” Sally said.

Sega Sonic’s eyes widened, “Oh no,”

“It’s…” Knuckles began.

“The Egg Carrier!” the present members of the Sega gang said together.