Thorns of Chaos: Chapter 9 ~ Ego Bruisin'

“…After I came to, Metal Sonic stalked me through the jungle, just for fun. I had to fight the pain I was in and hide from him as best I could. He found me a few times and slashed me up, but eventually, I escaped through Sand Hill Zone.”

Sonic nodded. He was familiar with that place.

“From there,” Tails tiredly concluded, with a bitter tone, “I summoned the Cyclone to pick me up and take me here, using the new cloaking tech I’d just put the finishing touches on.” When Shadow asked, “Why didn’t you summon your plane from the beginning?” Tails answered, “Because I didn’t think of doing so. Besides, Metal Sonic would have destroyed it on sight, and it’s the only plane I have with homing commands. Everyone listened to Tails’ story intently, and with varying settings of mood. Sonic was trying his best to keep his cool, and failing. Amy and Cream were shocked and horrified that Eggman could order such cruelty. Knuckles and, to everyone’s surprise, Rouge, looked like they were ready to hit something or someone. Shadow, Vanilla, Dr. Westgrove and Gemerl were the most composed people in the room.

The surgeon, who was examining the boy during his story, cleared his throat and said, “Well, Miles, you’re lucky you even got here, and that you have Shadow as an acquaintance. If it weren’t for GUN’s Heal Unit, well…" He didn’t need to finish that sentence. Nor could he, as the room’s window suddenly shattered open, and a metal orb found its way onto Tails’ bed. “What the-” exclaimed Sonic, before the orb sprang to life, scanning the room immediately.

Once that was done, the 2-foot chortling hologram of Dr. Ivo Robotnik materialized into view. “Greetings, everyone! I do hope I’m not interrupting anything important, but I was curious about young Prower’s recovery.” Looking behind him at Tails, the hologram smirked at his angry expression and said, “You’re awake. Good. I trust you’ve informed your friends that you’ve been put in your place?” The fox gritted his teeth and replied, “When I get out of here, Eggman, I’m gonna-”

“You’ll do nothing of the sort, child. Not without your workshop.” With a snap of its fingers, a video display was shown of Eggman’s Egg Pawns demolishing Tails’ Mystic Ruins workshop. Tails was shocked and outraged, but knew in the back of his mind it wasn’t the only one he had, so he kept calm, somewhat. “T-That’s not gonna be enough to get me down, Eggman.” The hologram nodded and said, “Yes, yes, I know,” before displaying another video feed of Tails’ laboratory in Emerald Town getting the same treatment. This crushed him, as Eggman intended. “Take it from your superior, my boy. Always have multiple bases of operations. You would know that if had any sense of ambition, and not that annoying modesty of yours holding you back.”

Sonic interrupted, “If you’re just here to brag, doc, save it and just tell me where you are so I can smear your mustache across the pavement.” Eggman feigned a shocked expression at his long time enemy. “Such violence, Sonic! I’m surprised at you!” He then chuckled and added, “I’m only here to inform you all that I have just acquired the seventh Chaos Emerald. I don’t know what you were planning with the ones you have, but it’s useless now. I’ll be by at some point for the rest, so I’d appreciate it if you’d hold them for me.”

“Tch, you’re acting as though you’ve won already,” Amy said with scorn. Turning to her, Eggman’s hologram said, “That’s because I have, my dear, and no amount of training you have undergone will change that. Or do you need another reminder?” At that moment, a giant hologram of Metal Sonic flashed right in front of Amy with a shrill beeping sound which, with that particular frequency, sounded like a demonic scream. Amy shrieked in terror as random images of her horrible nightmare resurfaced, and she quickly clung to Shadow for dear life. The loud beeping brought Rouge to her knees in agony, as the bat's hearing was quite sensitive. Cream simply passed out.

Shadow growled, “You will suffer for that, Doctor. Mark my words…” Eggman waved him off. “Yes, yes, I’m quite used to your threats, Shadow. However, you will never find me. I will find you, and you’ll never see me coming!!” Eggman began his standard evil laugh, but it trailed off when he glanced at Vanilla’s expression, which was so cold, so unforgiving, and so dark that it defies further description. Eggman tore his gaze away and tried his hardest to ignore the fear coursing through him. “*ahem* Yes, well, you get the point. I’ll be by for my Chaos Emeralds. I suggest you hand them over when I do and not delay my global rule and all that. Bye!” With that, the transmission ended.

“Hmph. As always, the Doctor has made an oversight,” said Shadow, “I’m sure we can use his hologram device to track him to his base of operations.” Almost on cue, the orb started beeping and a mocking voice said, “You’d think so, wouldn’t you?” Quickly, Gemerl grabbed the orb and threw it out of the window, where it loudly, but harmlessly, exploded. “Aargh! That’s just great!” Knuckles shouted, “Now what are we supposed to do?! Eggman’s just asking to get whooped and now we’ve got no way to find him!!”

“Brilliant deduction, Knucklehead,” Sonic spat, “Anything useful you’d like to contribute or is your dumb ass just gonna bitch and moan all day?” The echidna quickly turned to his rival and growled with a left hook, “At least I’m trying, spine-brain! All you’ve done since you got here is stand there and glare into space! If you know Tails’ condition is your fault, then why ain’t you doing something about it?!” Blocking the punch, Sonic exclaimed, "What?!?”

“Yeah, YOUR FAULT!” Knuckles continued, “I haven’t said anything over the years because the kid could hold his own for the most part, but he’s in over his head this time! Whatever Eggman’s planning is no place for a kid, but you’re too busy showing off for your damn sidekick to care about that, aren’t you?!” Sonic gritted his teeth and tried to throw a punch of his own, and Knuckles followed suit, but they were held back by Gemerl and Rouge, respectively. Things escalated after that, with the two Mobians struggling to move past their friends and beat each other down while using every insult they could think of. Cream, who had been awakened by the earlier explosion, cowered in Vanilla’s lap, trying to isolate herself from all the anger and negativity. Tails, despite being the subject of this altercation, was too depressed to stop it. Dr. Westgrove and Cheese noticed this and were about to step in when-

“STOP IT, STOP IT, STOP IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT!!!!” Everyone in the room whipped their heads at the source of that scream…it was Amy, who was still shaking from being frightened. “NONE OF THIS IS GOING TO HELP TAILS OR STOP EGGMAN! IF YOU TWO WOULD STOP TRYING TO KILL EACH OTHER FOR TWO SECONDS YOU’D REALIZE THAT THIS IS JUST WHAT HE WANTS; HE’S TRYING TO TEAR US APART!!  TAILS’ CONDITION IS NO ONE’S FAULT BUT EGGMAN’S AND ALL OF YOU KNOW THIS!” As Amy’s emotional tirade went on, she started glowing violently and the hospital started shaking. “I CAN’T BELIEVE THE TWO OF YOU ARE SO SELF-CENTERED THAT YOU’RE FORGETTING THAT YOUR FRIEND NEEDS YOU! YOU’RE SO DAMN QUICK TO PLACE BLAME! HOW COULD YOU?! ARE YOUR EGOS THAT BIG?! HUH?!?! THE BOTH OF YOU NEED TO GET IT TOGETHER OR SO HELP ME I’LL CRUSH YOU BOTH WITH THIS ENTIRE HOSPITAAAAAAaaaaaahhhnn!”

Once that had been accomplished, Shadow stopped and whispered, “Are you calm now, Amy?” She nodded, her legs quivering. “Good. Are you going to resume your disruptive tirade?” With a fierce glare, she shook her head. “Ok, then.” He then bit again, prompting a loud, but short moan from the girl, who collapsed into his arms, twitching and breathing heavily. Satisfied that danger had been averted, Shadow began, “As my lover loudly deduced, the Doctor’s aim here is to break our morale and keep us from fighting back. So far, it seems to have worked. Tails is depressed, Sonic and Knuckles feel guilty, the Rabbit family is lost, and Rouge has been on edge. This will not do and you all know it.” Everyone acknowledged the truth of what Shadow said to various degrees, still embarrassed by what they just witnessed.

Shadow continued, “We need to take a step back and, as Amy would probably suggest, look at the positive.” Dr. Westgrove nodded and said, “I agree, Shadow. First of all, Miles is alive, and he is recovering. Second, while Dr. Eggman has a Chaos Emerald, you have the rest. Thirdly, you’ve all clearly tangled with him before, so you should have some inkling of what to expect. All you really need to do is come up with a strategy to either defeat him now or take him down a few pegs. So, what are you gonna do?” Sonic stated, “I know what I’m gonna do. I’m gonna find Eggman and shove my Power Sneaker so far up his butt he’ll be crippled in two!” He then zoomed out of the room, shouting behind him, “Count on it, Tails!”

Tails muttered, “Yeah…sure.”