Sprawling Light

On Angel Island, Sonic and Shadow revert from their fused state, and Shadic ceases to be. Sonic is heavily fatigued, so Knuckles helps him up. Shadow is passed out altogether, so Tails helps Shadow up. Knuckles looks at the blue hedgehog he’s carrying, "Tails, let's take them somewhere to get some medical treatment; they may need a doctor," He pauses with a concerned look on his face and stares at Tails, “I could probably heal them in a few days with an emerald, but I’m pretty beat unless something else horrible happens soon."

After saying that, he quickly knocks on a fallen log to un-jinx himself. Tails holds up Sonic by his shoulder; as Knuckles picks up Shadow, Tails pushes a button on his watch to call the Tornado to the island. They then load the two hedgehogs onto the Tornado and take off.

--Meanwhile--

Location: Ruined Robotropolis

"The monster from the Master Emerald, it has been eliminated, sir." Snively’s nasally voice echoed.

Doctor Robotnik looks visibly and uncharacteristically shaken, then nods, deciding he should act now. Robotnik booms an order: "Snively, bring out item ‘1564-Luciferian: TDS’."

Snively shuffles around to view his uncle, "The fox doll, sir? If I recall, you gave up on that project."

Eggman stares forward stoically, "I need to see something..."

Snively brings out the Tails Doll, wincing as he looks at it, even remarking, “…How dreadful…” A machine Robotnik was going to use as a spy drone, but he lost interest because he had more in-depth ways to spy on the Freedom Fighters. He then replaces the gem with a fragment of the Master Emerald he had collected, and its systems activate.

Suddenly, a violent cascade of negative chaos energy erupts from the doll’s gem causing a metamorphosis. Robotnik gazes at what he had done in bewilderment; the doll starts to pull and rip metal from around the lab and connects it to its body with strange black tendrils; it also grabs the nearby broken husk of Metal Tails and joins it into its being. The shape of this creature takes form as the body of the Tails Doll vanishes into Metal Tails, and it begins to move like it’s alive and breathing.

The hinges in its joints disappear, being filled in with a black fluid. Its Master Emerald shard dangles from the cord on its head, shifting from a familiar green to a glowing black. Its two tails contort and segment into long sharp points no longer suitable for flight; in between these points flows this same black fluid, allowing full mobility. The blank metal face rips open into a smile as its robotic eyes blink to life.

"IIIIvooo." The chilling, shrill voice that sounds like Tails echoes about the room. Robotnik scrambles around for a device with a self-destruct switch for the entire facility. He can’t use an unknown entity he cannot control.

“I’ve done too much, so much progress, it will not end here…” Suddenly, one of the doll’s tails punctures Robotnik's shoulder, revealing his metal muscle fibers that bleed. The force of the strike knocks his glasses off of his face, showing his red irises.

"I want to thank you for creating me, Ivo. I want you to live so I can tear all life asunder, and you can watch as I bring about the end," It smiles, “Have I mentioned how wonderful it is to have real emotions, not some algorithm or advanced AI? I will be able to feel every death with extraordinary satisfaction!” It giggles as Robotnik coughs up blood.

The Doctor grits his teeth and yells out, “Do it now, Snively!” Hiding behind a desk, Snively pushes a button, and it makes a loud beeping noise. This victory is short-lived, however. As the doll slices Snively, and the desk he’s hiding behind, in two with a lightning-fast tail whip.

Metal Tails frowns, “That’s not good.”

With a bright flash of light and a deafening explosion, the entire facility goes up in a nuclear fireball, but the doll uses Chaos Control just in time. “You’re a poor sport, Ivo. Truly a shame.” Then, it looks toward New Mobotropolis. “Now to find my true targets.” It cackles, and its unnatural voice echoes across the destroyed landscape.

A day after Nazo was defeated, Sonic and Shadow received medical care and got equally stir-crazy. They are both at a small doctor’s office in Furville, an armadillo doctor diagnosing their injuries. Looking at their medical chart, “Well, Sonic, Shadow, both of you have the same injuries: fractured femur, a few of your toes are shattered, and, somehow, all of the injuries are in the same place and the same pattern.“ she stops then looks up with a scolding look, “Whatever you two did I wouldn’t recommend doing it again.”

Sonic snickers, “Yeah, me and Shadow won’t be getting that mixed up for a while.” Shadow stares forward blankly and groans in shame.

Then Tails gets a message on his wrist transceiver. His face becomes grim. Before Sonic could ask what was going on, Knuckles barges into the room, holding a chaos emerald, and uses that chaos emerald to heal all of Sonic and Shadow's injuries. This reckless magical healing angers the medical professional, “Excuse me, sir! You can’t just do that! You have no idea- “

Knuckles snaps at her, “New Mobotropolis is on fire, and we need the two guys who can stop the end of the world, and they’ve done it multiple times. So, back off!” The doctor clears her throat and leaves the room.

Shadow looks at Knuckles, “Is this the Doctor’s doing?” Knuckles grimaces and nods. Shadow continues, “Then I suppose I can get us to New Mobotropolis.”

Sonic crosses his arms, “That Eggman is gonna get a piece of my mind for doing this!”

They warp there in a green flash of light. They arrive at the entrance to the city, just before the houses get dense closer to the main castle. Tails looks around and asks, "What- What happened here?"

They all feel empty as the place of hope and prosperity they had worked so hard to protect burns to the ground in front of them. Fire is rampant, and bodies lay in the streets.

Knuckles looks at the bodies of people around, "Robotnik committing an atrocity the day after Nazo nearly killed us all? It’s just like the bastard."

Suddenly, they hear a scream, a loud snap, and then drag. Something walks ahead and casts a shadow, so Sonic gives a hand gesture, signaling them to go into an alleyway.

Sonic peeks out from the wall to see the macabre model of Metal Tails. It hums a tune as it drags a freshly killed citizen behind it; the corpse is a raccoon girl; she is missing her lower jaw, and her eyes rolled back into her head. Sonic’s mouth opens, agape in horror, he gulps as he turns back from peeking around the corner.

Before he could disclose the information to everyone else, the gang hear a "Psst." From an area behind a house across the street. The source of the noise is Sally Acorn, as well as an emotionally broken Amy Rose. They stay low as they move behind the house before 'Metal Tails' see them.

"Sal, we need to know what the hell happened here?" Sonic, with urgency in his voice.

She looks down, "It happened this morning… that thing came from nowhere. I've watched it for a while, entirely helpless. Sonic, that monster is not just a bucket of bolts. It seems like it has a motive beyond conquering, grandstanding or serving Eggman, it-it it’s unlike anything Robotnik has ever made." Sonic grimaces.

Shadow’s eyes flick to the direction of all the scattered bodies, "How many people have we lost?"

Amy holds her head and shudders at the words. Sally stares forward, with tired eyes, "Too many."

Sonic stands up straight, clearly angry, but not raising his voice above a whisper, "We have to stop this thing!"

Sally gently grips his arm, almost choking up, "Sonic, it tore Rotor in half! I almost lost you yesterday, I will not lose you today!"

Then Amy stands up, her eyes red with tears. "Please- pl- Please Sonic. I don't want you to die."

Suddenly, the ground shakes with an unnatural screech. Everyone covers their ears, as Knuckles manages to peak around the corner and look at Metal Tails, it had leaned backward, opened its mouth, and screeched like a predator securing its kill. The more Knuckles stares the more he realizes that this monster is barely a machine. He recognizes that shard in its head.

It stops screeching and stands up straight, its head snaps toward the entrance and Knuckles instantly gets back behind the wall. Knuckles’ eyes widen and his voice lowers as quietly as possible, "Guys, we need a plan fast because it’s on its way here, and it has a piece of the Master Emerald hanging from its head."

The monster drops its victim, breathing loudly as it marches toward the entrance of town. It starts to maniacally speak to itself, to everyone’s horror, "They all died so easy, cut, bled, gutted. Like my very own slaughterhouse. A city of souls leaving this mortal coil, it makes me feel so very alive."

Sonic grits his teeth and looks to his friends, his voices drips with anger, "When I find that Eggman…" Sonic sighs “That thing said it killed everyone in the city, how could it kill that many people?"

Sally looked away, almost ashamed, "Well, it broke through our defenses, shut down Nicole and her nanites… I don't doubt what it said. Thankfully though, there are a few survivors, but... most of the Freedom Fighters are missing or dead, I haven’t found Bunnie or Antione."

Tails covers his mouth in grief and Knuckles moves farther away from the corner but, Shadow is deep in thought about a strategy. Suddenly, the doll looks up at something and is blasted to the ground with a mighty push of psychic energy. Then it gets lifted into the air and the cyan aura flings it into a building.

Silver the Hedgehog slowly descends from the sky, “You will not harm any more people here.” With a fierce look he touches the ground. Metal Tails limps its way out of the building, and its leg is heavily damaged.

Its eyes begin twisting and whirring, scanning Silver, “You’re new to me, now I’m interested. That and you are the first to damage me.” Its leg then completely repairs itself. A black fluid seeps out then it stretches and expands to graft metal scraps into itself. Black static runs up the leg as it finishes its crude regeneration. Silver readies his psychic power.

Sonic and Shadow see Silver, then they both speed toward Metal Tails bash into it, these sends it further into the house that it was slammed into. It pushes a wall off of itself as the three hedgehogs stare down Metal Tails.

Sonic looks at Silver for a moment, “When did you get here Silver?”

“I came back because I sensed something so strong that its energy was palpable in the future,” Silver then holds out his hand toward Metal Tails, “I overshot my Chronos Control, sorry I couldn’t help with whatever it was. This thing though? It shouldn’t be too hard.” Metal Tails stands back up, as the black fluid fixes every broken part of it.

“Sonic and Shadow, my main targets, I’m glad you showed yourselves,” it chuckles “I want to feel my life threatened, I want the thrill of nearly dying. They’re all so weak here! So, I had fun in a different way! I peeled them apart!” it opens its arms, “Now it’s different, so very, very different! Three thrills! My short life will be ended today!” It smiles ear to ear and the black fluid comes out of the gaps in its shoulders, knees, and out of the various segments of its tails, the metal contorts to his new dimensions, making him taller and hunched over, his tails longer, the static on his black gem turns red, and red static runs down his body. “KILL ME!” it screams.

It gets on all fours and leaps at Silver. Silver holds it in mid-air, as it gnashes and claws at him. He launches it skyward as Sonic runs up the side of a building to bash the metal abomination with his built-up momentum. He slams into the bot while in a ball and ends his attack with a sharp downward kick. All the while Shadow charges and throws a Chaos Spear into its chest. Impaling it into a building before it could hit the ground.

It groans and coughs up black ichor as if it was blood. The Chaos Spear dissipates as it slides down the cobblestone wall and leaves a black trail. Its head shoots up at Sonic, then uses its nine tails to push itself up onto its feet.

Its manic eyes flit between the three heroes, “What is this? You three aren’t going all out!? Am I not worth a simple Super Form?!” In a fit of rage, his tails expand and then stretch rapidly, splitting into nine blade-tipped tails. Sonic and Shadow dodge the tails, as Silver manifests a force field around him, but as they dodge these whipping tails, the Doll slowly walks toward them, “You still hold back? Why? Why can’t I make you all see that I am worth killing.” Then Metal Tails shifts gears again and manages to find a blind spot on both Silver and Shadow. It swats them both away in the blink of an eye. It mutters to itself, “Maybe I’ve been doing this the wrong way. I should focus on a singular target.”

He singles out Sonic and begins slashing him with all nine tails at blinding speeds. Sonic is able to keep up since this speed is elementary to him. Even so, he doesn’t notice as a tail grips his ankle, then tightens which makes him trip and then all the tails bash into him with violent fervor. The exhaustion from fighting Nazo hits Sonic in full force as he feels heavy and sluggish, unable to escape.

The tails start beating Sonic further into the pavement. Hearing and feeling the ground shaking, Sally yells out, “Sonic!” from the sidelines. Sonic sees her and tries to tell her to run but can’t with the agony he’s suffering.

The pummeling stops, the tails suspended in the air, as Metal Tails’ head snaps toward Sally, “The Acorn Princess... Delightful!”

Suddenly Metal Tails disappears with a Chaos Control. Then it reappears behind Sally, its tendrils twist back together, turning into two scythes. Its over-stretched body hunches over Sally, and its blades start sharpening themselves against each other as he looms over her. Her eyes and body tremble with fear as she hears it breathing behind her. Metal Tails, almost giggles, “You will be his catalyst.” As it smiles ear to ear.

The deranged machine drives its scythes through Sally.

With a rip and a twist, her body is shorn by the waist. The blood splashes on Metal Tails coating his teeth in a glimmering crimson. Metal Tails looks down at his newest victim. Then his eyes travel to Sonic.

Metal Tails hears Sonics heartbeat. It hears Sonic’s breathing go ragged. Metals Tails smiles wider, as its eyes become pinpricks, vibrating in anticipation. “Child of pure chaos. Grant me a death through Darkness.”

Tears start to stream down Sonic’s face, as he sees Sally reach out to him, light fading from her eyes slowly as the damage done to her body is irreparable. His thoughts race.

She was right there. I could have saved her. I could have saved her!

He clenches his fists and punches the ground.

He punches the ground again, and the punch fractures the cobble road. He yells hoarsely, his grief intermixing with his anger. Then his entire body explodes with dark energy, causing gusts of wind that extinguishes every fire in the city.

When the dust clears Sonic’s body is pitch-black, Sonic is unnaturally still, the air around him is shimmering. Silver stares in awe and Shadow looks dumbstruck, seeing that there aren’t emeralds anywhere nearby.

Sonic, without saying a word, booms toward Metal Tails at the speed of light, and with a hard kick to its side, he knocks the creature miles away. Sonic looks back at everyone who saw, his irises reappearing for a moment, his voice strains against his anger, “Get… these people… to safety.” Then he vanishes with a streak of blackness in his wake.

When he reappears, he is twenty or so miles away from the center of New Mobotropolis, in the middle of the forest and Metal Tails is embedded into a crater. “So, this is your true- “.

Before it could speak, Sonic grabs its mouth and starts to slowly crush the abomination’s head. Metal Tails lets out a low-pitched yell. Dark energy quickly flares out of Sonic’s body as he lifts Metal Tails up, then rams it into the ground, Sonic gets on top of the Doll and punches it hard, he straightens out its face and punches it again splattering black fluid on the ground with each blow. Sonic then grips the wire on its head.

“Kill me, pull it out, pull out the wire and do it. Do it,” it pleads and begs for death. Sonic squeezes the wire harder, making the Doll convulse.

“Why did you do this?” Sonic growls

Metal Tails coughs and then chuckles, “It’s why I was born, and thus, why I must die. Duality. Dichotomy. My very essence commands me to commit horrific acts, I feel them conspiring in my head, two people in the Void. They want you strong. You can already achieve a Super Form without the emeralds now the possibilities are endless, accessing the Chaos Force like Shadow can.” Sonic processes what the Doll has sad, then the Doll smirks, dried blood encrusted on its teeth, “Do you think Sally would have liked the ‘all-black’ look?”

With that Sonic, lifts it into the air and bashes his knee into Metal Tails’ face, while it falls onto the ground, Sonic warps further into the air, and black energy forms in his palm. “Black. Wind!” He slashes his hands in the air multiple times and the dark Chaos energy blasts screech through the sky, and the explosions can be seen for miles, spanning higher than the tree line.

As he fires the blasts, he realizes that he killed the Doll with the first blast, he slows down as his emotions push through the Dark Super Form, and he stops. Then as he powers down, he lands softly onto the ground, he looks toward the massive crater he has created, and he puts his head in his hands and sighs deeply, stands up and stares into the sky, “I hope you’re seeing this Sal, because I’ll do everything to avenge you.” Then he picks up the Master Emerald Shard and limps away from the crater.