Flames of Chaotic Fury
Part 5: No hero

“Reverse Sonic?” asked the doctor raising a brow “Wasn't there an Anti Sonic?” “Who cares? What matters is that I will be your worst nightmare…” Sonic growled showing his teeth “My nightmare include public speaking in my underwear. You’re not even close…” chuckled the doctor, sure of himself. He had no reason to fear Sonic, he already defeated him! Plus his Eggxoskeleton 2.0 was state of the art Eggman tech, superior to anything he had built, even the Metal Chasers! He was superprotected! Invincible! “Are you sure about that? You overrestimate yourself…” Sonic hissed bringing Eggman back to reality “Huh?” “How many times have I defeated you?” he asked, folding his arms as he floated down the bowl “How many? Huh, let's see… Take seven, divide for two… I lost count…” realized the doctor “So what?” “It matters a lot. Yoi defeated me once and now you think you're invincible? Last time I checked it was called overrestimating.” Said the hedgehog landing “You're not superior to me. You have no advantage. No tricks up your sleeve.” “No?” Eggman chuckled “You forget something. Or rather someone. Someone you care an whole awful lot about…” “Tails…” “Bingo! Your precious little friend is still my prisoner. He's in a secret place that you will never…” “He's in the bombproof lab in the undergrounds…” said Sonic without taking his eyes off of him “WHAT THE? HOW DID YOU…?” “You told me during my coma… So stupidly sure of yourself, lulled in the false hope that I couldn't escape… And yet, here I am…” he said widening his arms in a challenging way “Not for long…” Eggman grunted, attacking Sonic with a surprisingly fast punch that sended the hedgehog out of the cell. Then the doctor activated his rocket boots and flied after him.

Sonic landed in a wasteland not too far from the prison’s perimeter, opening a little hole in the ground. He got up and dusted himself off, looking up. He didn't had the time to dodge before a missile barrage exploded a few centimeters from him, sending him against a tree. The dead trunk broke as soon as Sonic impacted with it, a lot of splinters fell on him. A sudden carbon-titanium grip on his neck snapped him into reality as Eggman lifted him and hitted him with a barrage of punches with the free hand then he threw him away again. As soon as the hedgehog touched the ground, the doctor shooted lasers at him which flambéd his fur “HRNGH!!” he grunted trying to get up again. Eggman was faster again: he pinned Sonic down with his exoscheleton’s weight and shooted another missile barrage right on the hedgehog’s face. The doctor grabbed his arms and lifted him “Still feeling invincible? You look kinda broken to me. All thanks to the Eggxoscheleton 2.0! You know it is also capable of mimicking energy and effects of the Chaos powers! It literally can go Super! Just like you!” said the doctor laughing on Sonic's face, but then his laughter froze when he heard that sound: a low, repeating and terrifing sound. Sonic was laughing. But it wasn't his usual cheerful, energetic and carefree laughter but more like a chuckle of mockery and superiority. The hedgehog lifted his head, not a single scratch on his body, and showed his teeth in a satanic grin “Super, huh? So that was the little pinch I felt…” he said with a cold tone that Eggman never heard, at least not from him “HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE?! YOU… YOU'RE NOT EVEN SCRATCHED!! HOW…?” stuttered the doctor, seemingly intimidated “Super Form's overrated…” Sonic simply said coldly “OH YEAH?” growled Eggman as he furiously digited on the main keyboard “Let's see your superiority now! HYPER MODE!!”. The robot was surrounded by a rainbow aura and his grip on Sonic increased enormously “Hm?” he asked looking at the giant hands holding him, then at the aura and then back at his nemesis’s angered face whike a smirk formed on his face.

“Nice lightshow… Let's see what this contraption does, Doc…” he said contemptous “In a few seconds you'll stop acting like this, freak! The Hyper Mode is INVINCIBLE! It uses an energy wave similar to the one of the Super Emeralds! There is nothing stronger!” he said hestatic “Prove it…” the hedgehog challenged him. Eggman didn't wasted time and started thrasing him around before throwing him onto the prison's wall, making it crumble, then he attacked Sonic with rifles, missiles, lasers and even with Tails’s Sonic Cannon. Not giving him a second, Eggman jumped on his hated enemy hitting him with punches, kicks and energy blasts then he grabbed him, dashed up and then he descended at mad speed, letting go of Sonic who flied down and crashed on the ground, then Eggman repeated the weapon assault. Then he landed, grabbed Sonic in his metallic arms and squeezed him as hard as he could “NNNNNNNRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!! COME ON!! BREAK, CRUSH, PULVERIZEEEEEEEE!!!!!” he growled madly while Sonic squirmed in his grip “GAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!” Sonic yelled kicking. Eggman grinned, already waiting to hear Sonic's back breaking until…
“AAAAAHHHHHH… Aaahhh… What a delicious massage… Only Amy hugs tighter…” said Sonic with nonchalance “What? WHAAAAAAAAAAT?!!” yelled the doctor hysterically while Sonic freed himself “HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE?!” he asked “I was wrong… It's not the Super Form what's old… IT'S YOU!! YOU'RE OLD JUNK!! SURPASSED!! OUT OF ORDER!! IN A WORD: POINTLESS!!” Sonic exploded, talking with a hatred and disgust towards his enemy that he never showed “Now. I'M REALLY TIRED OF YOU, EGGMAN!” He growled emitting a blood red aura that eroded the exoscheleton in various parts “For years, I suffered your pathetic plans to conquer the world, hoping that one day you'd give up, that one day you'd use that intellect that you claim to have to see that it was pointless. But your stubborn persistance has really went too far!! I'm tired, tired, TIRED!! Tired of the robots, of the plans, of the traps and your “allies" that, eventually, turn over to you! But mostly… I'M TIRED OF YOU!!” said Sonic angered “It's time you see a side of me you never saw… MY HATRED!!” he growled jumping on him.

Meanwhile Shadow had escorted the Mobians to a safe place when the General came to him with a troop of the remaining G.U.N. men “General" said Shadow saluting him “Nice to see you again” “Same for me, soldier” said the general visibly cheered “New gear?” he asked looking at Shadow's limbs “I did that to survive, sir" Shadow justified himself “I only care that you're alive, Shadow. Not about the how or the why. And here's someone else who wishes to say it” said the general moving away and showing Maria. Both hedgehogs looked at each other, trying to find the right words to describe how they felt at the moment. Maria took the initiative, going slowly but steadily towards Shadow “M-Maria… I-I… I'm sorry… I should've warned you but…” he said visibly shocked. Knuckles and the others were incredulous: they never saw Shadow like that! Maria ran to him and hugged him, making him hold his breath for a second. She looked up and her light blue irises met the Ultimate Lifeform’s red irises as he blushed slightly “I-I…” he stuttered but she silenced him by putting a finger on his lips “You talk too much…” she whispered before kissing him passionately. Shadow widened his eyes for a second before closing them again and hugging Maria as she kissed him. They pulled away only for air and they kept looking at each other until they heard a far away boom. With badly hidden reclutancy, Shadow got away from her hug and placed his forehead on hers “I have to go…”he whispered “Then go…” she said. Crystal clear. He smiled and zoomed back to the prison while Maria watched as he vanished into the horizon. Only then she saw the other Mobians's smiling faces and she saw that they saw everything. She blushed and said a shy “What?” as the General smiled and brought the Mobians to a safe place.

The boom came from the battle site, though it would've been better to call it a massacre: Sonic had resisted Eggman's assault without breaking a sweat and now he was repaying him with his own medicine. His attacks had never been so powerful, fast and precise and they quickly dismantled the exoscheleton as Eggman could do nothing but watch, scared. Sonic wasn't the same anymore. Something broke inside of him, Eggman was aware of that. Sonic said on his face that he was sick of him. Was he going to…? No, impossible, he thought. He was the hero, and heroes don't kill… Right? His thoughts were washed away by the complete destruction of his exoscheleton. Eggman flopped on the ground surrounded by the steaming scraps of his machine, Sonic looked imperious as he floated above him, his orange quills moving in the lukewarm wind “W-what are you going to do to me, now? You defeated me…” he stuttered backing away slightly “Not enough… Not anymore… You threatened the worls for the last…” Sonic hissed as he grabbed Eggman's arms “…time…” “N-NO! You can't do this to me!! Y-you're the hero!! You don't do this!!” Eggman whined, moments away from crying “I do now…” he said coldly as he started pulling Eggman's arms in opposite direction, ignoring the pained yells of his enemy

RRRRRRIPPPPPPPPP!!!!

Eggman's arms were tored away from his body in a buzzing of sparks and a waterfall of oil. Eggman layed down, shivering, in an oil puddle whike Sonic looked at his new, metallic trophy “Tsk… You deprived yourself of your own humanity… For what reason? To prove that machines are better? You're pathetic! I pity you!” growled the hedgehog, throwing his arms away and flying up “Scum like you… Doesn't deserve to live!” he added gritting his teeth and vanishing in the sky. For a few, long seconds, everything was calm. A total silence had fallen on the land, broken only by Eggman's huffs as he slowly got back on his feet. Suddenly the zone was darkened by… something. Shadow, not too far away from the doctor's position, looked around confused “Huh, weird… Why is it so dark? Is it a cloud?” he asked to himself, scratching his head “No…” Eggman whispered, looking at the sky while shivering, almoat as if he knew what was happening. Up there, above the clouds, above everything, Reverse Sonic looked, imperious, at the planet, like a god ready to bestow his judgement to the world. But it was different, and by different I mean HUGE!! He was humongous now and looked at Mobius like it was a tiny rock. Then, he descended. He started slowly and, the more he descended, them more his size shrinked and his speed increased. Finally he flew down to his target at insane speed, like an orange meteor. The clouds thinned as a loud whistle filled the air. Shadow closed his ears to no avail, as the sound became unbearable. A desperate Eggman started crying as his fate got closer, closer… “YOU CAN'T DO THIS!! YOU CAN'T!! YOU'RE THE HERO!! THE…”

KABOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!

The extremely violent impact created a shockwave that tore down all the dead trees around from miles and the boom destroyed the prison's windows. It was so violent that even the Mobians, far away from there, could hear it “What the? What happened?” asked Knuckles getting back up after the boom made him trip “I don't know… It came from the penitentiary…” said Amy worried.
Shadow went closer to the huge hole discretely, looking in it. As the huge dust cloud thinned, he flew to the bottom. Only Sonic, back to normal, was there. He was panting and shivering, his fists were close and sweat dripped down to the ground “S-Sonic?” Shadow stuttered, slowly getting closer. Sonic turned his head: his eyes were widened and he was pale as a ghost. He was holding Eggman's glasses in his hand “He's dead…” he whispered “Sonic…” “He's dead… He's dead…”he chanted almost hysterically as his eyes filled with tears “I killed him… Oh God… I killed him…” he stuttered before starting to cry “WHAT HAVE I DONE?! I KILLED HIM!!” he whined falling on his knees and sobbing in his hands. Shadow looked at him, shocked: Sonic killed Eggman! He, who never killed anyone, just killed his archnemesis and now he was crying because of it. Maybe he had no control of himself before? Maybe that weird form had brought into the light thoughts that Sonic never knew he had? The blue hedgehog flopped on Shadow hugging him as he letted all out. Surprised at the start, Shadow hugged back “Shh shh shh… It's alright… It's alright… There… Let it out…” he said, almost fatherly, trying to comfort him “It's not your fault… He forced you to…” “No, it's not… I… I-I wanted to… I wanted to kill him… I couldn’t think about anything else… It was horrible…” he sobbed completely desperate “You have no idea how much I understand it… Sonic, killing someone… It always feel horrible… But it's normal. I felt bad too the first time I killed…” said the ebony hedgehog “R-really?” Sonic asked sniffling “I'd never lie about this… Yeah, I didn't cried, but I felt awful. I didn't use a gun for weeks. I could feel everyone's gaze on me and I thought they were judging me, considering me a monster. I won't let that happen to you! I'll take responsability for it. We'll say that I killed him, that you tried to stop me but failed” Shadow proposed “L-lie? To my friends? No… I can't… Besides, I can't let you take all the blame…” “Don't worry about me, they will believe it. This was my mission after all.” said Shadow. Sonic looked at Shadow, not convinced at all “But now get up. You have someone to save” said the black hedgehog helping Sonic up “Huh? Oh right! Tails! I completely forgot him! Okay, I'm going! You go to the others!” said Sonic zooming in the penitentiary and thinking about what the Ultimate Lifeform said to him.

Meanwhile in the bombproof lab Tails was working at the sonic weapon and, protected by the super thick walls, he had been working in peace. He felt someone going downstairs but kept working “Is that you, Doc? Boy, what a long exercitation! I could hear the tremors from down here! Anyway, you'll be happy to know that the weapon is almost ready” he said without turning back. The touch of a hand on his shoulder made him turn and what he saw made him drop the wrench. Instead of Eggman's round face, he saw Sonic’s wide and familiar smile “Ya never called me doc before, but I don't mind at all” he joked.  Tails shook his head as his gloom expression returned “There, I knew it… I went insane. How are you “Sonic"?” he mumbled getting his wrench back “You… Don't think I'm real?” Sonic asked slightly shocked hearing his lil bro's depressed tone “Why should you be real? Last time I saw Sonic, he was almost dead…” he huffed putting the wrench back “Eggman said that he blocked his healing factor so you can’t be him…” he added melancholic “No, Tails! I swear to you I am real!” said Sonic, causing the young genius to chuckle “Prove it…” he said coldly. Sonic looked at him for a few seconds then he inhaled and started talking “Your real name is Miles Prower. I called you Tails because you told me you hated your name. When I found you, you were so shocked from the death of your parents that you convinced yourself of being a bird only because you could fly. You're scared of lightnings and haunted houses. You love chocolate with nuts and flying with the Tornado and, unlike me, you're an excellent swimmer. Is that enough?” “Unlikely. Those are all things I know of me and my subconcious made sure you knew them as well…” he said coldly which left Sonic umbittered: he was there, in front of Tails, and he thought he wasn't real? “Tails… I swear I'm real… Don't you remember the many nights you woke me during storms because you were scared and I made you sleep with “The chilidog nanny"? When you got sick or wounded and I took care of you? When I saved you from Eggman or whoever? Do these memories don't count?” he asked as his voice trembled. Tails turned back again but his hands shivered slightly “Y-you're making the act of ignoring you very difficult… Please… Go away…” he said through his teeth. “No! Not without my lil bro!” Sonic grunted taking him by the shoulders and turning him “I'll never ever leave you!” he added hugging him. Only then the fox's cold expression melted “S-Sonic? You… You're real?” he asked shivering “Of course I am, lil bro!” “B-but… Eggman…” “Eggman says only lies! Don't you know? I'll always beat that baldy! Always!” he said, then Tails rubbed his eyes, smiling a bit “Yes… It is you… I’d recognize your cockiness everywhere…” Tails chuckled, trying to not burst into tears “I-I'm sorry… I-I never came to visit you… I-it's just… Seeing you that way… It's been… Traumathic… I couldn't…” he added stuttering “You apologize to me? I should ask for forgiveness! I didn't protected you from him this time. Well, it won't happen anymore…” said Sonic getting gloomier “What do you mean?” “Eggman… Is gone…” “You're… Joking, right?!” asked the fox “Does it look like I'm joking?” Sonic replied, oddly serious “B-but… How?! I mean, you couldn't have possibly killed him… Right?” Tails asked worried “I-I…” Sonic started to say but then freezed: could he really lie to his best friend? And… If he said the truth… Would he understand like Shadow? Or would he turn his back on him? Even if it couldn't be seen, Sonic was scared from what his choices would cause. “Uh… Earth to Sonic?” asked Tails snapping his fingers to bring him back to reality “I… N-no… Shadow… Shadow did… I tried to stop him but I failed…” he muttered “...So you really killed him…” “W-WHAT?” Sonic stuttered “Just as you know me, I know you. I gotta say: I almost fell for it. Unfortunately for you, I can perfectly tell when you’re lying” Tails explained “T-Tails… I-I…” Sonic tried to say but Tails lifted his metal arm to interrupt him “It's like you said. You saved me, saved us, countless times. We trust you and that trust won't die with Eggman. If you calmly explain it to the others, they will understand” said Tails wisely. Sonic sighed loudly in relief, almost as he got rid of an enormous weight from his shoulders, as he took Tails with him and got out of the former penitentiary.

As the Mobians saw Sonic, Tails and Shadow coming back they started clapping and cheering the three heroes. Knuckles soundly slapped Tails's shoulder then he left with Shadow to talk about Rouge. Amy jumped on Sonic, squeezing him in one of her signature bearhugs, only this time not only the hedgehog let her do so, but even hugged her back and kissed her lips, sending her into full tilt. The other Mobians wanted to shake hands or fist bump the reborn hero. After the cheering Sonic told everyone what happened and, as Tails predicted, they just listened and when he finished no one saw him as a monster but rather as a heroic war victim. “What about that?” Asked Shadow looking at the half destructed Robotnikatraz “How ‘bout we tear it down?” Knuckles proposed “No, I say we leave it. Let it become a symbol for us. A sign that, no matter how bad things can get, hope will never die!” Sonic said raising his fist to the sky. His decision was cheered by everyone as they lifted Sonic in triumph. Once again everything ended well…
Right?

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