Capítulo 61: Dragon Dance
Sonic ran right up the wall of the sky-piercing Relic Spire in a blue blur, turning the Swatbots guarding the entrance into scrap metal and not losing any momentum. Dashing up the side of the large sacred tower, he looked all around. The sun was beginning to rise, turning the sky a mixture of purple and orange. Sonic had been awake for days on end, but the longing for sleep was not enough to outweigh his determination to get Tails back. With any luck, he could save his friend and shut off the machine. After that, it was up to Zor and the others to finish the job. Finish Robotnik. Sonic had a feeling they wouldn't let him down, despite how much he had let them down.
Sonic blasted through the clouds and came to a stop on the roof of the spire. There he was in Sky Road Zone. He took a look at his surroundings from above the clouds. He could see beyond the forest, into Frozen Factory. More importantly, he spotted Lava Mountain in the far distance amidst the small floating islands and structures. It looked like it was sweeping away some green mist. That couldn't be good. Sonic turned his head towards his cloak, which was flowing upwards. He then ran towards the edge of the spire and jumped in the direction of Lava Mountain.
Sonic thought about Tails as the wind carried him along the sky.
Sonic realized that as it stood, he was all alone up on the Lost Hex. The lofty feeling that had immediately come from practically flying faded. But he didn't stop. He knew he had people to protect, and at least one person who was awaiting his return back on Erius. For them— for her— he would not give up.
Sonic suddenly heard an electronic audio loop. He determined the source, landed on a floating island, and took out the Tails Electric. It was from Amy. Sonic accepted the call, and saw Amy's face pop up on the screen. Sonic noticed how pale she was. She looked starved, and he could almost see little bits of ice on her face. "Amy?! What's wrong?!" Sonic asked, shocked at the almost corpse-like appearance of the one person he could always count on to constantly be full of life and energy.
"Sonikku? Something bad is happening," Amy told him. Her voice sounded weak and out of tune. It was clear she was crying, but it appeared that she had run out of the energy necessary to shed tears. "It's hard to explain but it feels like I'm dying." Sonic felt like he had been stabbed in the chest. "Ever since this morning when all that purple fog was taken away, I've felt cold and sick."
"The Dark Battery…" Sonic muttered, staring at Lava Mountain, to the green fog being siphoned out of the world below. He heard a tumbling sound coming from the Tails Electric. "AMY!" The camera displayed only the ceiling of her motel room.
"Sonikku? Are you there?" Amy asked, on the floor as she struggled to cling onto life. She picked up her Tails Electric with the last of her strength. Her eyes were dull, and it looked like she was struggling to keep them open. But they were beginning to close forever. "Please don't leave me here… Please don't leave me to die."
"Amy, I— I promise I'll fix this! Just like always!" Sonic vowed, gripping the sides of the Tails Electric. It was all happening so fast. Everything was crumbling so instantaneously that Sonic felt like even he was struggling to keep up with everything going on. His vision was blurring together. "Please, please don't leave me!" A weak smile formed on Amy's face. Sonic then ran, jumping from island to island in a last ditch effort of reaching Lava Mountain before the last person waiting for him died along with the rest of the world.
"It's t-t-too late for me, Sonic-c-c-c-," Amy stuttered. At the end of her sentence, it sounded like her synthesized voice nearly crashed entirely. She began to drift off. "S-save the rest of the world. Do it for me, okay???"
"No, don't say that!!!" Sonic shouted, struggling to stay strong. He watched as even the call began to glitch and break under the stress of the battery life being drained from Amy's Tails Electric. "Amy! SAY SOMETHING!"
"I—I-I- l-l-love you," she stuttered, smiling before collapsing out of frame of the camera. Sonic's heart didn't sink, it drowned. Drowned in misery and a sense of failure. He had just lost everything. He had nothing left. The call ended.
Sonic stopped running, and fell to his hands and knees. He screamed out into the unending sky in the worst pain he could imagine. The flow of life energy going into the Dark Battery stopped, as the world was drained completely. The alarms sounded. "WARNING. DARK BATTERY IS OVERFLOWING," a synthetic voice stated. Sonic inhaled through his teeth sharply and shakily. "IF MACHINE IS NOT SHUT DOWN, THERE WILL BE AN EXPLOSION OF APOCALYPTIC PROPORTIONS IN 3 HOURS. OVERDRIVE INITIATES IN 2 HOURS. THERE WILL BE NO ESCAPE."
As if things couldn't get any worse, Sonic saw something heading towards him. It zipped right by, but time momentarily felt as if it had slowed down as Sonic made eye contact with… Zavok. His heart beat grew faster. As time resumed for both of them, Zavok swerved around and flew her Dragon Mech back over to Sonic. "I've finally found you, you impudent Pollyanna," she announced. "This is the en—?" Sonic looked towards her, sobbing uncontrollably. "What is this?" Zavok growled, unamused. She then switched to looking concerned. But not for Sonic. Her eyes darted around, and an expression of worry grew on her face as well as several beads of sweat.
"W-what…?" Sonic mumbled in complete and utter defeat, standing up and wiping the tears from his eyes. Zavok's raged eyes landed back on Sonic. "Weren't you supposed to shut down the Dark Battery? Why are you so far away from it?" Sonic hardly even looked angry as much as he was confused and scared.
"That doesn't matter. I have time before it starts to affect my world! Now… where are my friends that you manipulated into following you?!" Zavok roared. "What did you do to them?!"
"No, it does matter!" Sonic yelled back, his voice dry and strained. "Everyone and everything down on my world just died because you turned away from the Dark Battery at the last second. WHY?!" Zavok took a deep breath.
"You endangered the people I care about with your crusade," Zavok replied coldly. "Robotnik has sent out orders to have them all KILLED. Your people are the reason we were banished here in the first place, and now a man from your world is trying to kill us all! It was your planet and friends, or my own." Sonic gritted his teeth and clenched his fists in indignation, shaking. "Tell me where I can find them. Or I'll break you in half."
"Not a chance, Zavok!" Sonic shouted in a crazed fury. Sonic opened his hand, and unleashed a bolt of lightning from his palm. Zavok waved it away like it was nothing, sending it flying to the side.
"Tsk, tsk. Have you forgotten that I control magnetic fields?" Zavok asked. "You stand no chance against my might. Not even with a Chaos Emerald for a heart!" The lightning pierced a nearby orbiting loop-de-loop, and with all his strength, Sonic swung it right at Zavok. She watched as the colossal shuttle loop headed towards her. Zavok jumped off her Dragon Mech and passed right through the mouth of the loop. Sonic swung it in circles, eventually going so fast that he became a tornado. Zavok was struggling to keep up with him, jumping as Sonic gained further speed. She then landed on the loop. "You've picked up some tricks from Zomom and Zeena, eh? You're shameless. How dare you copy their fighting styles after abandoning them to fend for themselves against certain death? You are a reprehensible rebellion leader, chasing dreams of freedom where there is none to be had!" She shouted, shooting both hands in front of her and unleashing a large firey blast towards Sonic. Sonic was surrounded by the flames coming from all sides, as he tried to stop spinning. He jumped up in ball form, and smashed the loop-de-loop Zavok hitched a ride on into the ground. The floating island they were on dipped significantly, eventually bouncing back to its prior altitude. While Zavok pulled herself out of the wreckage, Sonic saw an opportunity to steal the Dragon Mech.
Sonic ran for the mech, and tried to take off as soon as he reached the head, but Zavok took remote control of it and commanded it to try and shake Sonic off. Sonic struggled to stay atop the mech as it flew around in a frenzy. Zavok tore an entire tree from the ground and hurled it at him. Sonic was hit by the tree, and grabbed onto the side of one of the mech's segments to avoid falling. Zavok made a mighty jump onto the Dragon Mech, and stood over him. She stomped her foot down onto his fingers, but felt electricity course through her entire leg. She jolted back, as Sonic used his nearly broken hand to pull himself up.
"You're the reason Amy is gone!" Sonic shouted, tears blurring his blue eyes. Sonic Spin Dashed into Zavok. "Not just her— but Knuckles, Ata, Iron Queen! For them, for everyone else back on my planet that your incompetency led to the deaths of, I won't stop until you're another piece of space junk, orbiting lifelessly across the skies of your dying world!" Zavok blocked the rapidly spinning spike ball with both arms as it tore into her skin. Her arms were harder than anything Sonic had ever tried to cut through.
"At least my world isn't already dead," Zavok replied. She forced him away, and held her new wounds. Sonic, not knowing what else to do, repeatedly shot himself forward, scraping her face as he jumped into her with her guard down. She hit him back to where he came from. He kept Spin Dashing into her every time she punched him away. But this wasn't doing him much good. She was hardly even moving from her original spot. She began to march forward. She grabbed an exhausted and wounded Sonic by the arm and swung him over her head with such force that an entire segment of the Dragon Mech fell off.
Zavok got a tight grip on Sonic's head and leapt to the next segment, pounding his face into the metal until the little cyan orb began to crack. She then snapped her fingers, and a laser shot into Sonic's eye from the orb. Not only was it blinding, but it was scorching. Sonic sharpened his spines, and they pierced through the outer layer of flesh on Zavok's hand. She screamed, and threw him far out of reach of the wind. He went into freefall, and Zavok followed.
"Tenacious little hedgehog. You have nothing left to live for, so why are you even trying? Just to ensure the death of my planet?" Zavok asked, the Dragon Mech shooting towards Sonic like a bullet. Despite his eyes feeling as if they were on fire, Sonic opened them wide as he looked on towards Zavok in fear. She flew the mech straight down, as she wailed on him. Punch after punch, kick after kick, Sonic didn't know how much more he could take before he truly shattered. "Your precious Tails will be turned into a robot. Your friends and your world are gone! Accept that. Lie down, and DIE." He was then punched so hard he crashed into the ground in the time it takes to snap your fingers, a mushroom cloud of dust rising from the spot in Silent Forest where he landed.
As the dust settled, Sonic hardly opened his eyes. Zavok and her Dragon Mech floated above him. Zavok hopped off the Dragon Mech, and skated down into the crater Sonic had formed when he landed. "You're still not dead?" Zavok asked. "Why?" Sonic couldn't even muster up the desire to get to his feet. Zavok exhaled through her nose. "I commend your willpower, little hedgehog. But willpower is fleeting. You have—!"
"Nothing. I have nothing," Sonic chuckled. Zavok raised an eyebrow. Sonic grinned hopelessly, looking up at her as his right eye faded back to green. Sonic's tears ran down his face as his head rested back onto the rocks. His smile fell, his face scrunching up in bitter sorrow. "... Tails is going to be turned into a robot. The last time he saw me, he thought he wasn't good enough. He thought I didn't care about him anymore." Sonic sobbed. "Now he'll die thinking that, because I never told him that he's the most important person I've ever met. That I need him more than anything. Now I'll never be able to." Zavok was shocked.
"Why are you telling me all this?" She asked.
"Because I have nobody else left. The love of my life is dead. I've burnt every bridge between myself and everyone else I cared about, and it's all my fault. I have a feeling you want to save your friends, and I think you still can, so go," Sonic answered. "I wouldn't wish this pain upon you. I wouldn't wish it upon anyone."
"Fine. You've wasted enough of my time," Zavok growled, walking off.
"Just tell them I'm sorry," Sonic pleaded. Zavok stopped in place, and clenched her fists until they hurt. "Tell them I'm sorry for ever taking them on this stupid adventure. This suicide mission." Zavok then heard a familiar ringtone.
"Zomom?" Zavok asked, running back to Sonic. She noticed a Deadly Seven communicator lying on the ground. She picked it up, and accepted the call. "Hello? Zomom? Are you okay?!" Zavok asked as a hologram of Zomom appeared from the communicator.
"I'm fine. Why do you have the communicator Sonic stole?" Zomom asked from the other side of the call. She looked away, holding her arm. "Did you… do something to him?" Zavok turned to Sonic.
"He's alive," Zavok reported. Zomom exhaled in relief. "But… I was pretty rough on him." Zomom growled in rage. Zavok thanked every god of every Zone on the Lost Hex that Sonic couldn't see the fear on her own face.
"Well… you'd better make up for it!" Zomom ordered. "Bring him to the base in Relic Spire, NOW. And take your Dragon Mech."
"Yes ma'am!" Zavok exclaimed. The prouder part of Zavok was ashamed that she was yielding so easily to the happiest and most carefree member of the team she was supposed to be the leader of. She walked over to Sonic, who had his eyes closed. He was still sparking with electricity, so Zavok could assume his heart was still beating. She held the comparatively tiny hedgehog in her arms, slinging him over her shoulder and carrying him towards the Dragon Mech. "What are you doing in Relic Spire?"
Zomom was quiet for a moment.
"Taking back what's ours."
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