13 Chaos Storm

Sonic blasted through the dark metallic complex, evading robotic guards and traps meant to maim and torture. The air was thick with smog and the scent of death, this place was a slaughterhouse. It was enough to drive anyone crazy. Sonic wasn't there to save lives, that wouldn't end well for anyone. He hated to see this kind of injustice, but he couldn't put Tails at risk. It could've been considered selfish, but Sonic no longer cared what anyone thought. He was in this to survive this corrupt system, survive the Algorithm. He would help if he could, but he couldn't. So he did what he could to instead slip under the radar.

Sonic and Tails had stopped, so Tails in particular could catch his breath. "You okay?" Sonic whispered, as Tails coughed and gasped for air.

"Yeah… it's just, we've hardly stopped for a second since we left Station Square," Tails panted. "I know running around is your thing, but as for me? I don't know."

"You've been doing just fine," Sonic replied. He smiled, and Tails did too. Until in the blink of an eye, Tails had been swiped. He forgot about catching his breath, and yelled as long as his worn out lungs could last. "Tails!" Sonic cried, reaching out for Tails as he was taken away. It took him a moment to register what had happened, but Tails was being flown away by a claw sticking out from the bottom of the Rob-O-Matic.

"Robotnik!" Sonic shouted. He instantly gave chase. Though Robotnik supposedly had an IQ of 300, he didn't appear to have the common sense to fly upwards. He was within vertical range for a Homing Attack, and Sonic almost instantly caught up on foot.

"Ah, Sonic! I'm glad you've finally crawled on back to me. Have you come to resign your power after all this time?" Robotnik taunted. Sonic simply smirked.

"Sure, take my power! Let's see how you like it!" Sonic exclaimed. He ran ahead and then turned around. He kept running backwards, and summoned a lightning bolt. He threw it directly at the core of the Rob-O-Matic so quickly and strongly that he almost dislocated his arm. It exploded upon impact, and the machine sputtered and jolted as it began to lower. Sonic grabbed Tails from the claw, and the Rob-O-Matic crashed onto the ground. Robotnik fell out from it and tumbled onto the floor, rolling and bouncing to a stop.

"You miserable rodent…" Robotnik growled. He glared at Sonic, void black sclera and red pupils showing through his broken glasses. Sonic skidded to a stop in front of Robotnik. Robotnik suddenly grinned, and pressed a button stored in his pocket. "You've fallen right into my trap!" Robotnik activated a jetpack on his back, and flew away into the sky.

Sonic looked around as the ground began to rumble so much that he could hardly even keep his footing. He and Tails fell to the ground. The sound of metal breaking off its hinges could be heard as the floor was torn up from the dirt underneath. Then, jet thrusters. The surrounding floor departed from the surface of Erius. Revealing that this strangely out of place blue part of de-mil was actually an airship.

In the blink of an eye, the airship had rocketed all the way into the sky, the upwards motion slamming Sonic and Tails onto the ground with no hope of moving at all. When the airship reached a steady altitude above de-mil, Sonic was finally allowed to get to his feet. "Where'd Robotnik go?!" Tails asked. Sonic looked to Tails.

"I don't know… but can't we just get out of here now?" Sonic asked. "Just fly me down."

"Sonic, look out!" Tails cried, looking to Sonic's left. Sonic felt something grab him by the throat, and slam him down onto the floor of the airship. He looked up, and saw that Robotnik had circled around to grab him. Sonic couldn't speak, he couldn't move. His grip was too tight and too unyielding. Tails looked up at Sonic, and without hesitation, jumped in to save him. But Robotnik turned to Tails, and punched him. THWACK went his fist as it landed into Tails' comparatively tiny face.

"Tails!" Sonic choked, kicking his legs in fight or flight. Robotnik tightened his grip on Sonic as he held Tails up as well with his other hand, ready to drop them over the edge.

"You ingrates! For all that I have done for you, you still try to run away with MY emeralds?!" Robotnik shouted, shaking Sonic and Tails until all the Chaos Emeralds fell out from their grasps. "You owe your lives to me! You owe EVERYTHING to me!"

"You liar…" Tails rasped, glaring at Robotnik. "You wanted… my friends power. You hurt him."

Robotnik was seething. "What would you know, fox boy?!" Robotnik shouted. "Who even are you?! A nobody! Just worthless cannon fodder, always kneeling down to the traitorous rat you see before you." Robotnik turned Tails to face Sonic. "Tell me you can look at him and truly believe he thinks of you as anything more than a tool." Sonic couldn't speak. "That's right. You're nothing to him. Begone!" Robotnik threw Tails to the ground, knocking him out.

Sonic tried to scream. Tails was the only thing in this world that mattered to him, and now his life rested in Robotnik's hands. They had come so close, but now, it seemed they would both die.

"And you," Robotnik said, turning to Sonic with hatred. He took his free fist and uppercutted Sonic. "I gave you everything… shelter!" Robotnik punched Sonic across the face. "Food!" Robotnik shot his fist directly into the bridge between Sonic's eyes. His showy golden mask shattered on one side and the pieces fell from the airship. "Home!" Robotnik delivered punch after punch into Sonic, until Sonic began to black out, now reduced to a broken mess. "And now I'll take it all away! I no longer need your power, I can always rebuild the Metal Sonic that you destroyed. I can have a legion of loyal replicas given time." Robotnik held Sonic up in the air. His voice was the only thing that could even somewhat be heard over the ringing in Sonic's ears. "Your death will not be remembered as a tragedy, it will be a time for the nation to rejoice in unity. Because you are filth. You are a worthless treasonist. Nothing but a runaway child with dreams of a better life. The Robotnik Empire is the only true way to live! And if you cannot accept to live, you will perish instead."

"And after you, it will be your precious Tails," Robotnik chuckled, gesturing towards the comatose fox. "Let's see you try to fly without him." Robotnik kicked Sonic and let go of his throat. Sonic then fell off the sky-high airship. He fell, and fell, and fell. He was going to die, wasn't he? Sonic got a sudden sense of deja-vu. This was how it had all started, right? Falling from the sky, only to be saved by Tails. But Tails wasn't there to help him anymore. Sonic began to faint. The last thing he saw was Robotnik turn his back to him, and walk off with Tails in hand.

"No…"

"No, please…" Sonic whimpered. He was surrounded by a pitch black void. Was it his mind? A state of subconscious beyond that of our day-to-day awareness? Or was he simply dead? Was this the next stage of existence past the mortal plane? "I don't want to die… I can't die, I need to save my friend. He's the only reason I need to go back." Sonic didn't know what he was talking to. He just knew something was there. This hope wasn't based in fact or odds. It was hardly even based in reality. It was based on what he wanted and knew had to be true.

"Well, don't you want to leave this horrible place?" His own voice asked him. As if it had echoed and came back as something new.

Sonic looked up to the source of the voice and saw a bright, shining and crackling blue light. "Of course. But what's the point of being somewhere else if I'm all alone?" Sonic asked.

"That's what I thought you'd say," the light replied. Sonic could almost hear a friendly chuckle. "Listen, I know what you said about me being a curse and all, but I still want to help you. After all, I'm nothing if not YOUR power." The voice paused. Sonic realized he was having a heart-to-heart with himself. "So, since you're falling, we'll have to do this pretty quickly."

"That's kind of my whole deal."

"Yeah, yeah. Anyways… I actually have a lot more to do with those emeralds than you think. So I'll say this to help you get them back. And then, it's all you. I would say goodbye, but I'm not going anywhere."

The voice paused. Sonic listened attentively.

"The servers are the seven chaos. Chaos is power, enriched by the heart. The controllers serve to unify the chaos." The voice echoed all around, and slowly the repeating sound faded.

"Go do your thing, Sonic."

Sonic snapped back awake, just above the ground of de-mil. He looked all around him frantically, and saw the seven Chaos Emeralds. He then realized he was floating midair. The Chaos Emeralds were closing in. And then, they had reached him. They phased right into him.

Sonic started to glow in a brilliant golden light. It shined brighter than the sparkles on his now fully restored mask. It might have even shined brighter than the stars. Sonic felt his cloak turn into a large poofy red cape with pure white outlines. The light exploded, faded, but didn't cease. One could see that Sonic's fur was now a bright gold, and he was sparkling with not only the power of the emeralds, but his own electric powers. The now Super Sonic (if you will) chuckled, as he felt raw power coursing through his veins. He charged up a spin, and then dashed off into the sky. After Robotnik's sky base.

Super Sonic was closing in even faster than he could run at full speed normally. He wasn't quite flying as much as he was perfectly lining up his spins and then charging forward. In an instant, he disarmed the weapons of the Sky Base. He saw Robotnik with Tails in hand, and he was ready to throw him off the edge of the ship.

"Sonic! How did you---" Robotnik shouted. His mustache then drooped, and it looked like he was frozen in fear. He then smiled weakly. "My boy! You've done it! You have used the power of the Chaos Emeralds successfully!" Robotnik racked his brain to think of something to say, as Super Sonic floated midair fearlessly. Super Sonic smirked, and Robotnik looked down and grunted in defeat. "Look, please don't hurt me! I'll give you everything I have. My factories, my throne! The empire will be yours, Sonic!" Super Sonic didn't reply, only stared into Robotnik's soul. Robotnik grumbled. "Ah, to heck with it! Move, and I kill Tails!" Robotnik shouted. He held Tails over the edge of the ship once more. Tails then woke up, confused at first. But he quickly realized what was going on.

"A costly oversight, Robotnik," Tails muttered. He looked to Robotnik with a defiant glint in his eye. Robotnik stopped, knowing not even dropping him could stop him when he was awake. "If you were going to say that, you probably shouldn't be pointing me where my tails can so easily reach you." Tails spun his tails rapidly, and slashed away at Robotnik's arm, until it was sliced right off. Robotnik cried out in pain as his arm fell from the Sky Base. Tails flew behind him, as did Super Sonic.

Robotnik turned around, thoroughly backed into a corner. A weak and scared rat, still standing only because of the apparent mercy of an unstoppable force of energy. "No! No, away I tell you!" Robotnik wailed. "Sonic, you were like a son to me! Doesn't that mean anything to you?" The confident smile on Sonic's face fell.

"Liar," Sonic said, gritting his teeth and gripping his fists. "That old trick won't fool me anymore." Robotnik looked up at him defenselessly, and surprisingly, began to weep. Super Sonic could feel the sincerity in his tears as they formed a small puddle on the floor. Super Sonic looked down upon him in shame. "Even if your care for me was real, if only a little bit, you still mistreated me for your own gain." He growled. "And I'm not the only one." Super Sonic grabbed Robotnik and forced him to struggle and watch the empire he had ruled over for decades now fly by. "Look at this land! It's full of living, breathing people, people that YOU force hardship upon for your own gain everyday. They adore you, they LOVE you. And I did too." The sun rose, breaking free of the chains of the night.

"Sonic is right," Tails followed up, looking at the ground. "I worshipped you when I was little, maybe just as much as I worshipped Sonic. Everybody sees you as this paragon of justice and a force of good because of the propaganda fed to them each day of their lives. I see you now for who you really are. A deceptive and pathetic coward. You're not fit to be the lord of anything."

Robotnik continued to cry, face red with a mix of shame and dissipating rage. "Tails! Sonic! You have opened my eyes! I will never do anything to hurt anyone again! I swear to God!"

"How the mighty have fallen," Super Sonic replied sharply. "I don't buy it for a second. Because the whole reason we're here right now is because you lied to me for my whole life. Who is to say you aren't doing it again? I would have believed you years ago, but now I'm beyond that kind of manipulation. I have broken free of those chains."

Robotnik struggled for words. He could find none but the most obvious to him at the moment. "Please don't kill me…" Robotnik whined, his voice now a whisper. "I really will give you everything you want." Sonic's resolve did not falter.

"Truth be told, I don't want any of it," Sonic said. "I am not power-hungry, and I'm no leader. I don't think I'd even be any better than you at it. In fact…" Sonic dropped all seven Chaos Emeralds voluntarily. He transformed back into his regular self. Blue fur and all. As soon as the Chaos Emeralds met the floor, they shot off into the farthest reaches of Erius. "I will let these go. Such power can only lead to corruption. I could not stand to lose myself as you so clearly have."

Sonic set Robotnik on the ground. Robotnik scrambled to pick at the floor in hopes there was even a shard of the emeralds left over. "Nevertheless, you're still missing an arm," Sonic told Robotnik, who looked over to him. "I wouldn't try anything. Run away now. Before I change my mind. I believe this regime would be even worse off without a leader, however wicked he may be. If you truly care for me, you will transform your ways and this land. But I want nothing to do with you or your dictatorship anymore."

Robotnik looked down towards Sonic. Sonic looked up towards him, blankly. Robotnik gazed back upon the demilitarization zone as it faded off into the distance. "What about my airship?" Robotnik asked.

"We're taking your airship," Sonic said.

"Okay…" Robotnik sighed sadly. "I suppose this is… goodbye, Sonic. You dastardly little hedgehog." Robotnik looked at him one last time, before activating his jetpack and flying back to his empire. Sonic watched as he became a speck in the distance.

"That was… uncharacteristically mature of you, Sonic," Tails said. "Letting Robotnik go after all he's done to you. Are you sure it's a good idea to let ROBOTNIK of all people go, though?"

"Good idea, bad idea, what does it matter?" Sonic asked. "We won't be there to see how this plays out. I'm sure someone better than me will someday overthrow him and take back the land for the people. Until then… welcome to paradise, Tails!" Sonic looked over as the airship neared the Iron Dominion's beach.

"Haha, that was also pretty well said all in all," Tails chuckled. "Since when could you… SAY things like that? You seemed so calm, too."

"Are you kidding? My heart was beating right out of my chest!" Sonic replied, grinning. "I'm no grand poet. I'm just Sonic! Sonic the runaway!"

END.