Sonic and the Reaper/Chapter 22: Prepare for Battle

Mephiles woke weakly to find himself in what would appear to be a prison cell. There was no one around, but he knew he wasn't at the core of Mobius anymore. He tried to remember what had happened, but he couldn't.
The Soul of Darkness looked around and smiled. Foolish... whoever trapped me here, he thought. I can get out of here easier than Sonic can run; and last time I checked, Sonic can run very easily. He instantly melted into a pool of liquid darkness, then slowly started to move towards the bars.
There was a violent electrical shock, and Mephiles was frozen as the liquid darkness was forced to take his shape, then solidify and send him flying back towards the wall of the cell. "What the hell?" Mephiles shouted.
A laughing with a recent familiar voice emerged, and Mephiles raised his head to see a black hedgehog figure with streaks on his semi-flared quills, and high-tech white shoes. A figure that had only recently been embedded in his memory.
"Shadow?"
In a blue flash, Mephiles was sent flying backwards as the figure appeared in the prison cell. "Foolish, Mephiles," he stated, "to assume that a familiar figure means a familiar persona." There was a flash of white, and figure was illuminated. It was almost identical to Shadow, but his streaks and the trim of his shoes were gold as opposed to red.
"Who are you?" Mephiles demanded. "And why do you resemble Shadow the Hedgheog?"
"I am Shadow Android," the figure stated. "The sole survivor of the Shadow Androids produced by Doctor Ivo Robotnik. A copy of Shadow the Hedgehog, superior to him in every way. But I need more power if I want to eliminate him and his friends. That's where you come in."
Mephiles realized what Shadow Android was saying instantly. "What? No!" He got into a defensive position, and his body started to mold, forming similar to those of Shadow and Shadow Android, but instead of red or gold it was an amythest. "You'll sooner be in hell than seal myself within your soul!"
Shadow Android laughed. "Androids do not have hell," he noted, then raised his hands. In them were two grey Chaos Emeralds. "And you won't see the sunrise until I've killed Shadow!"
Before he could do any more, Mephiles turned into a dark gas that sped behind the android, then kicked him, grabbing the Emeralds from him while still retaining his Shadow-like form. "Synthetic Chaos Emeralds?" he asked. "And you attempt to seal me within your soul with them?"
The android picked himself up and took a battle stance. "Synthetic Emeralds have the same properties as the real thing," he stated. "And that includes the capability to seal Solaris within one's soul! Now eat this!" In a black-and-gold blur, he rushed into Mephiles, knocking him into the electrical bars. When the shock sent him flying back at Shadow Android, he delivered a kick, then a spin-jab, then an open palm before evading his next flight.
The Darkness of Terror crashed into the wall and was suspended there, nearly unconscious. "I'll take those," the android said, and the Synthetic Emeralds flew back into his hands. He crossed them before his face as he began his incantation.
"Eternal Moon! The living shadow that petrifies hearts with fear! Fall into slumber within my own shadows, Darkness of Terror!"
Mephiles was reverted to his crystaline form, then slowly faded in dark whisps towards Shadow Android. "You're going straight to hell," he gasped, "if I have to take you there with my own bare hands." At that point, he raised his head as the black whisps increased in number until Mephiles had vanished.
Trapped in the soul of an android.
Infera's eyes widened upon hearing Shadow's statement, and she approached Shadow. "We've got to get to that thing and kill it before it has the chance to do anything with Mephiles. Who knows how much power you'll have in half of a god of time."
"A lot," Shadow agreed. "Let's get moving." He carefully took Infera's hand, then opened his inhibitor rings. A dark energy coated him, and he shot out of the core, taking Infera with him. Silver and Blaze nodded to each other, and Silver took Blaze's hand as well while he started to fade into silver energy lines. As soon as the teleportation reached the point where Blaze's body connected with his, however, there was a sudden energy fluxuation, and the warp faded. Blaze looked towards him.
"What's wrong?"
"I'm not sure," Silver replied. "Sonic, any ideas?"
Sonic thought for a second. "It must be because of Iblis," he said finally. "If the two have not come together, than the one who remains is entrapped." Sonic turned to Blaze. "And I'm afraid that means that you are trapped too, Blaze."
Blaze's eyes widened. "But..."
Silver stepped forward. "Are you honestly telling me that our best Sol Artist and the only one capable of Crossing with Shadow is trapped here?"
Sonic nodded slowly. "I'm sorry," he replied. "But I have no choice in the matter."
The psychokinetic dropped his head and turned to Blaze. "I'm sorry, Blaze," he said. "I would give anything for you to come with, but I don't have a choice either." He closed his eyes and turned away, slowly vanishing in his energy blur. Blaze stepped forward as though to grab the lines of energy, but quicker than her flames they vanish and she is trapped.
Suddenly, there was a rumbling. Each of the openings to the surface slowly started to seal itself, and Sonic grabbed Caliburn turned to Amy, reaching his hand out for her. "Quickly!" he shouted. Amy took the hand, and Sonic shot into the air towards the nearest opening.
Nearing it as it was about to seal, he used all of his power he could muster and hurled Amy ahead of himself, then wrapped into a torpedo and barreled through the sealing opening right behind her. The holed too narrow for his wingspan, he gripped Amy's arm and stretched his legs to one side and his remaining arm to the other, just managing to keep himself up. Releasing Amy onto the sealed entrance, he dropped, and the two of them climbed quickly out.
Shadow and Infera were the first to leave, and as such were the first to try and find the Shadow Android. The two of them were already moving, speeding forward on Shadow's motorbike. "Alright," Shadow said quickly, "the Androids have a unique energy signature that is part Chaos and part technology so if I just use a Chaos Emerald to try and lock onto that energy then we'll be able to find him sooner."
Infera nodded. "Agreed. Where do you think he'll be hiding Mephiles seeing as Zyx destroyed Mobius?"
Silver suddenly appeared at their side, on his own motorbike, yet alone. "I don't know about you two," he stated at the same rapid pace, "but I think I saw a strange little building around Casino Park that looked like it could easily have Chaos worked on it and would make a good holding place so I'm headed there."
Shadow stared, but planted the red Chaos Emerald in a slot at the head of his bike and seemed concentrate. Infera turned to him. "Where's Blaze?"
"Long story that we don't have the time for," he answered quickly as Sonic and Amy came up on the winged motorbike.
"Shadow got a location yet?" Sonic asked.
Shadow snapped his eyes open, then veered towards the side of the canyon and pulled a half pipe off the edge, landing with a skid. Silver warped there with his psychokinesis, and Sonic worked his wings as Caliburn asked, "What did you get, Lancelot?"
"A perfect timing to see Shadow Android sealing Mephiles within his own soul," Shadow responded. "We need to get back to the cave and prepare for battle properly."
Sonic cursed, then smiled. "Let's get to it, Chaos boy." Raising the blue Chaos Emerald, he shouted, "Chaos..."
Shadow whipped out his own Chaos Emerald and shouted at the same time as Sonic, "CONTROL!"
The blue rift appeared, and Sonic was the first to speed through it. Shadow followed through, then Silver. They arrived at the cave with no problems, then prepared up, Shadow moving to a far side of the cave as though requiring secrecy.
Silver started out with a quick movement of Cross Chaos Control with Sonic so he could get a few things from his time. When he came back (holding the rift open with an extreme amount of psychokinetic effort), he was holding a small, wide-barrelled weapon with a small indentation in the back. It was an energy beamer, standard from his time, and all Silver had to do was connect the white Chaos Emerald (which he had found in Metal Sonic's lab) to the back to power it.
One shot blew a clean hole in the cave's roof.
Infera was concentrating her black pyrokinesis over herself, blasting pure bursts of dark fire onto her body. This not only tested her endurance, but it also empowered her, and for a finality she coated herself in pure dark fire, lighting her fur aflame.
Sonic was charging more than just himself. He started off by drawing power from the Scabbard of Excalibur and taking on the golden armour of his Excalibur-form. After he had finished the transformation, he turned to Shahra, asking for the World Rings. When they had materialized around him, he turned to Amy, who had been rummaging through Zyx's equipment. She looked up to see Sonic and gasped.
"No," she stated. "You're not seriously..."
Sonic nodded. "Since Zyx took away your Dracon transformation, there's no risk of your power clashing with that of the World Rings." He notioned to four of the rings, which spun, then rotated Amy; white, aqua, yellow, and blue. "And besides, our team has sort of been leaning towards fire the whole time. We need a little ice on our side."
Amy smiled and embraced the armour-clad Sonic suddenly. Then she stepped away carefully, standing in the middle of the four World Rings that had parted from the rest of them. The pink hedgehog closed her eyes as the rings spun around her, then locked themselves onto her arms and legs. She gave a pained scream as a harsh light emitted from her.
Silver gasped and stepped forward, but Sonic held him back. "No," he stated. "This is normal. Just wait."
When the light faded, Amy was transformed. Her quills had unfurled, parting and flaring low. Her fur had turned the same icy green that Sonic's had before, and a deep black line streaked each quill. Her shoes and gloves had merged in on her body, her dress had turned the same cold green, and her wrists and ankles were each adorned with a golden ring.
Amy had achieved a Lightspine form.
Amy actually looked over herself in shock. "This... this power..." she gasped. "No wonder you chose the World Rings over Excalibur against Zyx."
"Sorry to interrupt the drama," Infera called, which caused everyone's head to turn. Infera was standing at the entrance to an off-cave, which she slid away from as she said, "But look who's finally ready to play."
Shadow stepped out of the crevice. Except on his head was a firm steel helm that fit his quills perfectly. He was wearing a bulletproofed vest over another vest loaded with ammunition. On his waist was a belt loaded with ammunition. He was wearing a set of bulletproof leggings, with the pockets holed out to make an entranceway for a pair of ammunition-loaded leggings that just extended bellow the bulletproof.
Sonic, Amy, and Silver all looked towards him before simultaneously stating, "Woah."
He was in total hell mode, and it was time to play.Category:Sub-pages