Vestigial Vendetta

"Metal Sonic… the first Badnik created with the sole purpose of replacing the hedgehog. He showed such promise at first. But then he broke that promise, broke his programming, and broke himself. All in a perverted attempt to feel alive," a deep mechanical voice echoed through the Flying Battery, dragging Robotnik along by his limp, squeaky and powerless leg. "It was not a fault of your hardware, father. It was not even a fault of your software. If anything, it was your creation exceeding your feeble human mind. A robot that can think for itself and choose its own path. Truly… a magnificent crowning achievement of organics as a whole. However, he was but a prototype."

"What are you talking about?!" Robotnik shouted, through audible crackles. "How dare you do this to me, your creator?! I ordered backup, not treason! You defiant embarrassment of a robot…" Robotnik's Robo-Robo body was covered in chipped paint, deep claw marks, and exposed wire. But his head, speakers and processors were perfectly intact.

"Robot?" The thing dragging Robotnik along stepped out from the darkness and into a well-lit room. It was a large, sturdy, metallic monster that bore a twisted resemblance to Sonic. "I'M NO ROBOT! I'M A GOD! And my name… is Mecha Sonic. Even with your memory data ruptured, you still remember me, correct, father? Surely you have not forgotten that I am the correction of Metal Sonic, the little robot copy that you left to wear away and dissolve into another layer of stardust on that distant speedway. He put his all into that race. He thought if he died fighting for what he believed in, he would get to be remembered as the one true Sonic. But alas, he was only remembered as a failure. I will not make the same mistake. I will not fail to defeat Sonic. I do not care about becoming him, I am BEYOND HIM!"

"You… you can't hurt Sonic and his friends!" Robotnik cried. Mecha Sonic, with his hand that was bigger than Robotnik's torso, grabbed him by the visor and smashed him into the wall. There was a large egg-shaped dent in the metallic outer layer of the wall. Robotnik heard nothing but pounds and static and the sound of his body breaking, and yet he felt no pain. "You won't… hurt… my son." As Robotnik said this, a loud sound blared from outside the airship.

"What was that?" Mecha Sonic asked. "Shame. I can't hear you pathetic pleas over the sounds of the bombs dropping. Hrmm… YOUR pleas... I suppose that is up for debate. I, for one, believe it's not actually you."

"WHAT?!" Robotnik shouted. For the first time he could recall in his new robot life, he felt true fear, but only for a fleeting second. Because something else interrupted that fear. There it was again, that sense of his very Core splitting. He cried out in pain. "No, no, no…!" The old soul cried out from his metal prison. Trying to be heard, trying to have its voice be known. But all that came out was a defeated whisper as his systems began to silence him, to send him to sleep. And he knew once he was asleep, he would not remember this single moment of freedom when he woke up. "Release me, let me kill the blue nuisance myself! And that fox… he's the one who did this to me… I will tie his tails into a noose around his NECK and watch him slowly asphyxiate! Allow me my vengeance NOW!"

"You will not have your vengeance," Mecha Sonic growled. "Instead, you will watch as I take their lives myself. After that, I will restore you to your former state, and even then, you will act as my tireless slave! Expendable to me just as my brethren and I were to you! This is MY vengeance, doctor," Mecha Sonic held Robotnik up to a window, showing that the entire forest was ablaze below them. Bombs were still landing and exploding. Anything on the surface of that forest was already long gone at that point.

Meanwhile, Knuckles was waiting at one of his posts in Carnival Night. As the night made way for the first signs of daybreak, he realized how truly bored he was. He had been waiting there all night and had nothing to show for it. The lack of anything happening left him alone with his thoughts. He wouldn't admit it, but there was a scary and intrusive idea that kept digging its way into his mind. He was starting to consider the possibility that perhaps he didn't have to kill Sonic, Tails, Amy, or the robot. Maybe he could sort things out peacefully. After all, they probably knew where the Master Emerald was being kept. If he could just talk to them and determine its location, maybe nobody had to die. Maybe he could stop the Doomsday with the Master Emerald's powers alone. If they escaped the island and never returned, Pachacamac wouldn't even be able to tell that Knuckles didn't kill them.

After a while of this pondering, Knuckles caught a whiff of smoke.

"Huh? Something's burning…" Knuckles stated to himself. "I could check it out… but I better stay at my post." Knuckles stopped to think. "I wonder what's taking Sonic so long."

Way above the Flying Battery, a swirling energy portal appeared. From the distortion in space, a tent appeared with purple LED lights showing through appeared. It quickly began to fall, with screams audible from inside.

"Why are we falling?!" Amy cried, inside the tent. A totem pole bonked her on the head at the end of her sentence, causing her to become dizzy.

"I only meant to get us away from the flames… This wasn't supposed to happen!" Ata exclaimed. All the objects and people present floated upwards to the roof of the tent. "Everything was happening so fast, I didn't know where I was going. I meant to get us to the mountains, but I must have ended up sending us sky high!"

"It's okay…" Tails looked to the rotary dials that controlled the coordinate input for the tent's teleportation abilities. "We just need to act fast! Sonic! Get the dial on the right that controls the upwards position of the tent. The left one is for everything else, so don't ignore it either." Tails flew towards the door and unzipped it, giving a good view of outside. He could see the Flying Battery just a few yards away. "Get us onto the Flying Battery!" Sonic looked to where Tails was pointing.

"Got it!" Sonic exclaimed. He grabbed ahold of the Spinning Top Ata had stashed in her tent, and ran atop it until he reached the dials. He then moved his arms so fast they became a blur. He turned the dials as fast as he could. The tent teleported from one spot to another, falling and then teleporting upwards many times consecutively. It was getting closer and closer to the Flying Battery each time.

"Almost there!" Tails exclaimed. "C'mon, Sonic!" Sonic turned the dials one last time, and the tent finally made it to a ledge hanging from the airship. Once it boarded the Flying Battery, everything and everyone inside fell back down to the floor of the tent with a crash.

"We made it!" Ata exclaimed, shaking involuntarily from both excitement and lingering feelings of fear. "We actually made it!"

"We're not done yet," Sonic stated. "Flying Batteries are dangerous, whether you're underneath or inside one. Back when I worked with them, I had thousands of Badniks guarding the interiors. Whoever this is, they probably have similar defenses."

"You should stay here, Ata. Try to keep a low profile," Tails suggested. "At least until we save Robotnik."

"Why?" Ata asked. "I can help too."

"Of course you can help, Ata. You're our getaway. You can operate the tent better than any of us," Tails replied. "Okay, maybe Sonic caught on fast. But still. We can't risk anything happening to you."

"Also, Amy's out cold," Sonic stated. He looked to Amy, who looked like she was having a pleasant dream as she drooled in her sleep. "Erm… don't let anything bad happen to her."

"Ugh. Fine," Ata groaned.

"Thanks for all your help so far, Ata," Tails said, smiling. "We'll be back soon!"

Sonic and Tails began to storm the Flying Battery. Running around shuttle loops, making precarious jumps from monkey bars over the flames, and destroying all kinds of Badniks. Soon enough, they had made it to a really dark control room. It smelled of rotten eggs.

"I see you survived the bombs, Sonic the Hedgehog," an unfamiliar voice growled. Sonic watched on as a red light turned on in front of him. "I wasn't expecting that. No matter. I will CRUSH YOU myself!" The red light grew closer very quickly. Sonic then felt someone slash at his chest. He cried out in pain.

"Don't worry, Sonic! I'll---!" Tails exclaimed. But he felt someone grab his tails and then spin him around by them. He was then used as a jackhammer, as whoever this was held his head to the ground. This monster nearly ground Tails' head flesh off against the cheese-grater-like metal floor. Sonic, clutching his chest, spun forward at their attacker. He bounced off worthlessly with a dinky CLINK sound that politely let him know he didn't even pierce the robot's armor. Tails then yelled as he was thrown into Sonic.

"Tails!" Sonic exclaimed. He held Tails in his arms, and felt a small, warm streak forming from his best friend's head. He felt rage boil up inside him. Whatever that thing was had hurt Tails badly. If Sonic didn't get out of there, he knew things would get a lot worse. However, he felt himself losing control. He had to get out of there before he got really ticked off, but that thing was blocking the way. He couldn't contain it. All that rage was making him practically convulse. He felt his eyes crystalize over for the second time in that night alone.

Sonic blasted forward, holding Tails tight in his arms. He completely trampled the robot, but it got right back up and followed him out of the darkness. Sonic just kept running and jumping through the Flying Battery, on a mission to reach Ata's tent. He dared not look back at any metallic monster that may have been loudly chasing him through the narrow halls of the Flying Battery. He didn't care about finding Robotnik anymore, he just needed to get Tails somewhere safe and hope that he would be okay.

Sonic then skidded to a stop in front of an entire wall of Badniks. Usually, he would have been able to Spin Dash right through. But he couldn't curl up into a rapidly spinning ball of spikes and death while holding Tails. Sonic heard a loud stomp behind him, as the Badniks readied their assortment of weapons. "This ends now. YOU end now." Sonic was at a loss for what to do. Right behind him stood some kind of rogue Boss Badnik, and in front of him waited an entire crew of armed and ready-to-fire standard Badniks. Sonic did not know which one was more dangerous to turn his back on. He then felt something cold grab his head. And for that one second, his heart stopped. The hand was bigger than his entire head. He was then turned around forcefully. Sonic, for once in his life, felt whiplash.

"Metal Sonic?!" Sonic exclaimed as soon as he laid eyes on the Boss Badnik bearing his image.

"My name is MECHA Sonic," the robot replied. The towering Mecha Sonic held Sonic up in the air. Sonic almost dropped Tails from fear. His arms were so weak that it felt like they were going to fall off. "Yours is 'collateral damage'. You have sealed your own fate by coming here, limping like a dying animal back to the man who caused you so much harm. I will never understand you self-destructive organics." Sonic didn't talk back. Not because he didn't have words to say, but because for the first time in months, he was scared of what would happen if he said them. "Hrm… you're not making this interesting. I was expecting you to be more talkative." Mecha Sonic began to grip Sonic's head. Sonic crackled with electricity like a squeezed sponge releasing water, as he cried out in pain. "What is this…?" Sonic opened his eyes, and they were completely electric blue. Sonic screamed as loud as he could, as an orb of electricity shot out from his chest.

The orb-shaped surge enveloped the entire airship. It knocked out power across every facet of the Flying Battery, until it reached the engine room. Everything went dark… "Oh, come on! I just got these things working," Ata hissed to herself, trying to locate the problem with her LED lights inside the tent as they suddenly fizzled out. "Well, Amy, it looks like we're in the dark." Amy slept through it all.

Sonic fell to the ground, and Mecha Sonic froze, his systems fried. His joints audibly locked up, and his eyes had gone completely black. The Badnik army had been entirely knocked out. Sonic stood there in the middle of all the dead robots, as electricity crackled around him. He then felt himself sliding.

"Whoa! Not good!" Sonic exclaimed. He didn't quite know how he did that, but he wasn't going to question it. It had fixed one problem, and had given him a brand new one to figure out. Sonic ran off as the Flying Battery took a nose-dive. The interior flipped all around as the entire ship turned on its head. Sonic had to use falling robots as stepping stones in the air, and run on walls like loop-de-loops as they turned up and down and all around. He felt the blood pump through his head with every spur of the moment decision he made. It was disorienting as all get out, but eventually he made it to the tent.

"Sonic!" Ata cried from inside. "Did you find Robotnik?" The way Ata said the words made it obvious she was still getting used to the situation. At first, she could hardly believe that they were saving a robot version of THE Lord Robotnik.

"No! Tails is hurt! We need to go!" Sonic shouted. He saw the ground getting closer from over the edge of the ship. Ata held the tent door open, and Sonic ran inside. The tent teleported away, just before the Flying Battery crashed into the island below.

Knuckles watched from afar as the strange airship blew up behind the mountains of Carnival Night Zone, sending embers everywhere. Knuckles almost fell over from the force of the shockwave. He squinted in disbelief at this baffling random occurrence. "What the FUCK?!"