Flames of Fate and Destined Dark/Sonic: Stage 5 - Castle Siege

==Sonic: Stage 5 - Castle Siege==
Ancient Ruins, Dusty Desert, Soleanna - September 20, X014, 11:23 AM UTC
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{♫} If it were possible for one to kick themselves in the head, Sonic would want to do it a hundred times over for having fallen for the mad doctor’s ploy to keep him and a good chunk of Soleanna’s forces away from the castle and use that to his advantage. How the hell didn’t I see him pulling something like that coming!? the blue hedgehog berated himself internally with rage. Sonic, you fucking dumbass.
"If I may be so bold, it seems our frequent bouts have apparently dulled your common sense in regards to dealing with my genius," Eggman began in a mocking tone, his signature grin still plastered on his face. "I may be more than a little crazy, but I can damn well be as much of a clever and conniving bastard when I need to be, especially if it means getting closer to fulfilling my master plan!"
"Sonic, if we head back to Castle Town now, we might still be able to stop the Badniks from kidnapping the princess!" Tails immediately cried out to his best friend, who was torn between following the two-tailed fox cub’s suggestion and dealing with the mad doctor while he still could.
"I suggest you heed the fox boy’s words, old friend,” Eggman responded as his Egg Mobile slowly raised its altitude. "You wouldn’t want anything to happen to the citizens back in Castle Town, not least of all their beloved princess, would you?"
"Damn it all!"Sonic loudly cursed, both of his fists tightly clenched, as Tails cried out once more, "Sonic, there’s no more time! We have to go now!"
The two-tailed fox promptly flew his way out of the ruins while Sonic stood his ground for a few brief moments, watching the mad doctor fly away as he broke into his all-too-familiar maniacal laughter. I’m still gonna even the score with you, Egghead. Just you wait! the blue hedgehog thought to himself with determination before rapidly sprinting out of the ruins.
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Arce de Solis Magna, Castle Town, Soleanna - September 20, X014, 11:32 AM UTC
---- {♫} It was utter chaos in the streets of Castle Town. Several of the mad doctor’s robotic soldiers were indeed in the middle of besieging Arce de Solis Magna, while many more were roaming around the general area, gunning down any other Soleannan guardsmen who just so happened to be in their way and any other civilians foolish enough to directly oppose them.
Meanwhile, well within the castle’s walls, Bianca was fighting her way through as many Badniks as she possibly could on her way to Elise’s quarters, greatly fearing for her safety. With her was a smaller squadron of her fellow guardsmen that surprisingly managed to hold their own against the robotic goons, both up close and from a distance.
"Commander Helios, the Badniks have completely surrounded the castle!" an operator with a female voice chimed in through the guardswoman’s earpiece. "Any slight possibilities of escaping have been dashed to almost none, over."
"Damn! Do you have a status on Prince Friedrich?" Bianca responded promptly. "Is he safe, over?"
"He is currently confined in his personal chamber as we speak!" the female voice on the other end of the transmission replied back with some hesitation in her voice. "He informed us that there was an urgent matter that needed his attention."
"What?! With all due respect, that urgent matter of his can wait!" the guardswoman cried out in disbelief. "He of all people should know that his safety is of high priority, especially considering his position as sovereign!"
"We’ve tried to convince him to leave, but he’s explicitly ordered us to not intervene!" the operator replied once more, sounding slightly more panicked. Bianca then briefly recalled what Sonic had said earlier regarding Friedrich’s earlier request for him to leave himself out of the matter and how the hedgehog had found it asinine. She soon began to have a better understanding of the Blue Blur’s thought process and, after a brief second of pondering on what course of action, immediately turned to some of the guardsmen with her.
"You two, make your way to Prince Friedrich’s chambers, on the double!" the guardswoman firmly ordered them. "Disregard whatever milord may say for the time being - do what you must to ensure that he is safely evacuated from danger!"
"Yes, ma’am!" the two guardsmen responded in unison with a salute before making haste towards the duke’s chambers. Bianca watched as they dashed off before turning to her other fellows and commanding, "The rest of us continue fighting our way through and ensure that Princess Elise is safe! She must not fall to the doctor’s hands at all costs!"
After a collective salute from the guards in response, Bianca immediately continued to charge through the halls, taking down or slipping past any Badniks that happened to be in her way while her fellow guardsmen continued to hold their own. Just hold on for a little longer, milady, the guardswoman thought to herself as she continued to fight her way through. This will not be the day I break the promise I made you all those years ago!
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Castle Town, Soleanna - September 20, X014, 11:44 AM UTC
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Back on board the Tornado 2 and with the rest of the Soleannan forces close by, Sonic and Tails had just made their way back to Castle Town, where the guardsmen that had stayed behind were fighting their hardest against Eggman’s robotic minions while many others were directing the civilian towards safety to their best of their ability. Well, at least that’s one less matter we gotta worry about, Sonic thought to himself as he examined the scene from above before exclaiming, "Alright, I’m going in!"
With little hesitation and not a chance for Tails to get a word in, the blue hedgehog immediately leapt off of the wing of the biplane and dove straight towards the pavement. He was eventually intercepted by a flying Badnik firing a shot from its blaster, which Sonic managed to evade by rolling to the side before zeroing right into it in kind, destroying it upon impact. Only then did he discover that more of the doctor’s airborne soldiers were closing in on him, prompting him to home into the lot of them as quickly as possible, making his way down to the ground all the while.
He soon found himself back down on solid ground, managing to avoid falling flat on his face and landing perfectly on his feet. "Alright, there’s no time to lose! Gotta go fast," Sonic muttered to himself before promptly speeding off towards the castle!
As he sprinted across the streets of Castle Town, the hedgehog saw several Badniks zeroing in on him. Reacting quickly, Sonic made swift work of the incoming robotic minions, rapidly zipping towards many of them with multiple homing attacks and spin dashing through the rest along his path, maintaining his momentum all the while.
It thankfully didn’t take too long for the blue hedgehog to finally arrive at the castle, where he immediately saw much of its exterior overrun with even more Badniks. Still without a hint of hesitation, Sonic then charged his way in through the front gate, slipping past the gunfire from the Badniks in front of him as he did so before finally making it into the hallways by the entrance, which were visibly damaged - likely by the Badniks that had stormed the castle.
"Alright, got quite a bit of ground to cover and not much time," the blue hedgehog muttered to himself as he quickly tried to recall which direction would lead to Elise’s quarters before quickly zooming off to the hallway on his right. Hang in there, princess! I’m not letting that Egghead kidnap you under my nose that easy!
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Arce de Solis Magna, Castle Town - September 20, X014, 11:51 AM UTC
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Making it through the castle halls was not as easy as the blue hedgehog was hoping it would be, as several of the mad doctor’s minions were around just about every other corner, either forcing him to stop and fight his way through or take a different route entirely. "Eggman’s really pulling out all the stops, huh?" Sonic commented as he continued running. "Guy must be hella desperate to get a hold of the Flames of Disaster if he’s going this far!"
Sonic spent a few more minutes traversing the castle before finding himself in a hallway that he was sure had the door to Elise’s quarters just ahead. However, unlike the other areas of the castle he had been through so far, this hallway remained seemingly untouched. Going from what happened earlier, I’m pretty sure something’s up, the hedgehog thought to himself as he walked through the hallway, fully prepared for something unexpected to happen.
Not five seconds after he began walking, the wall directly to his left suddenly broke apart as he felt a metallic hand grip him by the throat, crashing through more of the walls behind him as the source of the metallic grip continued to charge forward! Eventually, he found himself rolling on the ground just outside the castle and, as he got himself back on his feet, saw that the one who had gotten the jump on him was none other than Metal Sonic - the robotic doppelganger of the Blue Blur!
"Shoulda known you’d be involved somehow, Metal," Sonic commented with a smirk as he dusted himself off. "I take it you’re ready for that rematch I offered a while back?"
As the hedgehog’s robotic double slowly approached, the all-too-familiar voice of the mad doctor suddenly spoke through him, "Ohohohoho, as much as I’d enjoy another opportunity to test Metal Sonic’s full power against you, I’m afraid he’s only here to keep you away from Princess Elise. If you want any chance at saving her from the rest of my Badniks, you’ll just have to fight your way through!"
"That so?" Sonic cockily asked as Metal Sonic assumed a battle-ready stance. "Well, maybe I’ll play some other time then."
Right as he had said that, the blue hedgehog quickly sped away in an effort to create some distance between himself and his robotic double, only to find Metal Sonic right beside him in a near-instant before being sent flying to the side by a swift swing of the arm, slamming onto one of the buildings along the road and landing face-first onto the ground. "Agh, what the…?" Sonic muttered to himself, recognizing the technique he had used as he got back up once more. "Metal can still use Chaos Control? How the hell-?"
"I’ve given Metal Sonic a few appropriate upgrades since the last time he was in action," Eggman answered through the metallic doppelganger. "He may have gone a little off-the-rails that time, but the kind of power he had in his possession was simply too enticing for me to pass up, especially for a chance at finally defeating you!"
That Eggbreath’s really not making it easy this time, Sonic pondered with a grim expression as he caught his breath. Maybe it’s time I stepped up my game a bit myself.
Without so much as another word, the blue hedgehog dashed towards Metal Sonic at near-warp speeds and lashed out with a solid blow to the robotic double’s forehead. As the metallic doppelganger was sent flying from the impact, Sonic took this opportunity to blast off away from the scene as fast as he possibly could. Metal Sonic, however, managed to land feet-first onto the wall and, with what seemed to cold hatred and fury in his optics, quickly shot himself towards the hedgehog’s direction!
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===Sonic VS Metal Sonic - Blitz Duel=== 
{♫} Both Sonic and Metal Sonic were speeding across the streets of Castle Town like cerulean streaks of light, with the blue hedgehog trying his damnedest to outrun the metallic doppelganger - something he found to have only gotten even more difficult with every encounter with him, he had just come to realize. Just keep your cool, Sonic, the hedgehog thought to himself as he sped across town, with Metal Sonic neck-and-neck with him. This isn’t like the last time you had to tango with him. You got this.
All of a sudden, out of the corner of his eye, Sonic had seen his metallic clone about to tackle him from the side just soon enough for him to deftly lay himself down on the ground, sliding along the surface right as Metal Sonic zipped past by a mere inch above him! Still not missing a beat, the hedgehog then quickly curled himself into a ball before shooting himself right towards the robotic double, only for him to react and catch the hedgehog’s spherical form, stopping his counterattack even as he continued to grind his spines against Metal Sonic’s cold clutches.
Ever the determined hedgehog, Sonic simply continued to push past his limit and spin faster, hoping to slip through his doppelganger’s grip if he span fast enough. However, he soon felt steel claws dig into his skin, stopping him in his tracks as he then heard a distinctly-robotic and monotone voice speak, [Terminate.]
Whirring sounds of a compression chamber could be heard within Metal Sonic’s chassis as his chest cavity gradually began to brighten until, in a brilliant flash of light, a powerful blast of pure plasma shot out of the metallic clone’s torso, sending the blue hedgehog flying across town and causing everything else in its path to be blown to smithereens.
Feeling as if he had been run over by a freight train, Sonic struggled to pick himself back up, using nearby debris that had miraculously not fallen directly on top of him. "Okay, so maybe this might just be a little harder than I thought," the blue hedgehog muttered to himself with heavy breaths as the metallic menace hovered over to where he weakly stood.
"Oh, give me a BIG! FAT! BREAK!" the mad doctor cried in frustration through his nemesis’ robotic double upon seeing him still able to stand on his own feet. "How are you not dead after a point-blank blast like that?!"
"Honestly, Eggman... I have no idea," Sonic weakly responded, trying to laugh off his predicament as he struggled to keep his trembling legs from making him fall over. “So, is that the best you’ve got?”
"No, but thank you for asking," Eggman answered in an affable but mocking manner mere moments before his blue adversary attempted to briskly sprint away from the scene. "Oh no, you don’t!"
Before he was able to take two steps away from Metal Sonic, the hedgehog immediately felt the robotic doppelganger tightly clench his clawed hand around his throat. He slowly turned his field of vision towards the metallic menace and saw only a cold, murderous intent to in Metal Sonic’s blood red optics as he pulled back his free hand, claws primed to kill.
Not one to simply throw in the towel, even in the face of death, Sonic struggled to break out of his robotic doppelganger’s chilling grip while desperately searching for any other way out of the chopping block. As he did so, however, he immediately felt his metallic double’s grip tighten itself as he prepared to land the fatal blow. As the blue blur braced himself for his imminent death, a hail of gunfire suddenly pelted on the robotic menace’s head!
As both Metal Sonic and his organic counterpart promptly turned to the direction the bullets had come from, they saw a familiar blue plane coming in hot from above! "Now I’ve gotcha! Take this, Metal!" Tails cried from the pilot’s seat as he fired a small barrage of missiles that homed in on the metallic doppelganger, who promptly threw the hedgehog aside like a ragdoll and brought his arms in front of him just as the missiles seemed to impact the robotic menace, resulting in a small explosion that completely obscured his immediate area!
"...did ya get ‘im, Tails?" Sonic asked as he slowly lifted himself back on his feet. As the smoke began to dissipate, both the hedgehog and fox could see that Metal Sonic appeared to be shrouded within a black, octahedral barrier that covered all of his metallic frame. Soon, it was clear that the robotic double had not received a single scratch from the missile barrage!
"Aw, crap," Tails cursed under his breath as he laid eyes on the hedgehog’s robot clone as Sonic could only look on with an equally-exasperated expression on his face.
"Alright, you’ve done well holding Sonic off long enough, Metal," Eggman’s voice spoke through Metal Sonic once more. "I already have Princess Elise in my clutches, so let them go for now. I’d rather we settle that score at a more appropriate time, and we have work to do."
As the mad doctor finished his statement, the metallic doppelganger turned his attention towards the Tornado 2 and the young fox on the pilot’s seat before turning towards the barely-standing hedgehog as a deafening silence maintained itself for what felt like more than a few minutes. However, Metal Sonic eventually simply lifted himself off of the ground and began to hover away from the scene without another word, his current objective complete.
While watching his metallic double fly back to wherever Eggman was, Sonic wanted nothing more than to chase after the both of them. However, at the instant he attempted to move his body forward, he immediately flinched and fell face-down on the ground as he felt the injuries he had sustained from his fight with Metal Sonic catch up to him.
His vision slowly began to black out as he heard the muffled but still-recognizable voice of Tails cry out his name in worry and could barely make out that his two-tailed friend had run over to his side and lifted him up as best as he could. As he felt himself being dragged along the ground, he muttered through shuddered and heavy breaths, "I... I failed..."
With the last vestiges of consciousness about to leave him, the blue hedgehog’s vision went fully black as he passed out from the pain of having been bested twice in a row.
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-Sonic: Stage 5 - Clear-
Previous Chapter: Stage 4 - Into the DesertNext Chapter: Stage 6 - The Iblis Trigger
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