Duel in the Death Egg's Eye - Novelization

This is a novelization of the penultimate boss battle in Sonic the Fighters. I do not own Sonic, Metal, or any of the characters mentioned below, all rights belong to SEGA, etc etc...


(Well, I asked, and you answered! Bet you didn't expect this, now did you? I'm not really happy with how this came out, but I'm never doing that friggin' chain-link crap again, so HOO-RAH!)

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Music: [link]

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As Sonic pounded through the claustrophobic tunnels within the eye of the Death Egg 2, he began to feel concerned. He hadn’t seen any of the robots or traps that he knew so well… in fact, the Death Egg 2 looked almost abandoned, completely defenseless. How could Robotnik make something like this, and leave it so open to attack? The first Death Egg had been more heavily defended than this…

…seeing a wider space ahead, he began to speed up. If there was an ambush up there, he’d have to bolt through it at top speed, faster than his foes could strike… but as he tore into the area, he skidded to a halt. There were no foes here, only a wide, cubical room filled with a hundred pipes, wires, and bulging lenses that looked like the snouts of a multitude of cameras. A big, open-roofed cage, formed of a crisscrossing steel mesh, dominated the center of the room. Aside from the hallway he’d just left, there were no doors or portals out of the room.

Still glancing about nervously, Sonic ambled into the open gate of the massive cage. Perhaps there was something inside… if it was a trap, he could clamber out the top in a twinkling…

With a sudden, sharp report, the gate suddenly snapped shut behind him. Sonic whirled around, but it was already too late.

The hedgehog glanced about in concern… this was too simple, he could get out too easily, there had to be more to this trap…

…and there it was now.

A high whine filled the room as Metal Sonic blasted out of the hall Sonic had just left, swooped up towards the ceiling, and finally crashed down into the center of the cage before Sonic. The robotic doppelganger gazed icily at Sonic the Hedgehog, crimson vision processors locking onto Sonic’s form.

“All right!” snapped Sonic. “Let’s do thi - …”

Before Sonic could blink, Metal Sonic’s right foot lashed out, and slammed into the hedgehog’s torso with inhuman force.

Sonic stumbled back, gasping for breath… and now he felt two powerful steel hands clenched around his arms, and as he flailed desperately, the mighty machine dragged him up towards the ceiling…

With a tremendous crash, the robot slammed his organic foe into the floor with bone-snapping force. Sonic gasped in shock as Metal Sonic loomed over him. It had been so swift and brutal… he’d had no idea the thing had it in him…

Metal’s foot slammed down onto Sonic’s chest, and a horrible crunch echoed around the room. Sonic screamed in agony… this couldn’t go on… he couldn’t win…

Through the haze of pain, Sonic heard a loud clank, and the pressure on his chest lessened. Gasping heavily, Sonic wondered how he could win… how was it possible?....

His technique was nothing here, he could never defeat his doppelganger, this one foe that knew his every move, his every tactic, and could use it against him in a heartbeat…

…there was a low clank next to his head, and he knew Metal Sonic was standing next to him. The thing’s crimson eyes gazed down upon its foe with that terrible frozen glare… but it didn’t move to attack…

Sonic shook his head, very gently. The pains in his chest and face had lessened, but they’d be stiff and sore later. No doubt Metal had been told to eliminate him as a threat, but Robotnik would want to take care of him personally…

…he couldn’t die now… he’d made it past everyone else… he remembered how they had tried their best to be in his place… and they’d given him such a hard time of it…

…yes, he did remember.

He remembered that first fight against Knuckles the Echidna, how he had stood up against countless blows… unwilling to fall, unwilling to back down…

…Sonic struggled to his feet. He sucked in breath, winced as the pain in his chest flared, and then glared at Metal Sonic. The soulless machine glowered at him, and then adjusted its hand so that the thing’s spiked fingers were pointed directly at his chest…

…and now Sonic’s mind fell on Rosy the Rascal, and he remembered how she had fought… he placed his hands together, and as Metal’s hand shot in towards his face, he held his own arms out, and blocked those fingers from striking anything but the backs of his hands… moving as swiftly as only he could, he sent the thing’s hand flying away with a quick chop to the side…

…in the next instant, Sonic thought of Honey the Cat, of her grin as she’d bounded over his attack and countered from above with a blow of her own… and as Metal Sonic swiped at him once more, he leaped high, his body coiling into a ball, and his spines tore into the machine’s head, sending the robot stumbling backwards as Sonic uncoiled and landed on his feet…

…and then the hedgehog remembered Bark the Polar Bear, how he’d struck out with one wild haymaker after another, and Sonic lashed out with a right hook, sending Metal Sonic flying backwards across the floor, steel limbs askew …

…and as he flew, Sonic thought of Espio the Chameleon, and pressed his advantage, tucking his head in and beginning to spin in place with tremendous speed… and as Metal crashed to the floor, Sonic shot at Metal and slammed into him, his spines screaming as they tore into the robot’s steel frame…

…but as Metal flew away once more, the robot finally righted itself and landed on its feet with a loud clang. The terrible machine shot towards Sonic now, the engine in its chest roaring like a tornado… and Sonic’s thoughts were on Tails now, and as Metal tried to ram him, he slid aside, and the robot crashed through nothing but air…

…and as Metal Sonic whipped around, a tiny glow came from deep within the jet engine within its torso, a glow that grew and grew in brightness and size over the next second, until it seemed to fill the machine’s entire torso… and as an emerald laser lanced from Metal Sonic’s body, Sonic’s mind fell upon Fang the Sniper, and he remembered dodging the weasel’s bullets as he closed in to deliver the final blow, even as he jigged off to the side and dodged the laser, stepping right in front of Metal Sonic…

…as a dozen blows fell upon the robot’s body in impossibly swift succession, one after the other, Sonic remembered Bean the Dynamite, and the duck’s impossible, rapid-fire attacks that followed no discernible pattern or order… and Metal Sonic was forced back as more kicks, punches, and headbutts slammed into its body from a hundred directions at once, a crazy hodgepodge of attacks that the machine’s programming could not predict, could not dodge, could not defend against…

…but it was not any of those fighters that stood before Metal Sonic now. Sonic the Hedgehog stood tall, grinning cheekily at his doppelganger as the robot desperately tried to reorient itself, the hundred massive dents it had received in the last second scraping against circuit boards and cutting into delicate wiring. The mighty machine readied itself to stand once more, an unbreakable will that still endured beyond its body…

“Sorry, Metal! You’re too slow!” chuckled Sonic as he leapt into the air.

The last thing Metal Sonic’s visual processors decoded were Sonic’s spines, tearing into his face like a living can opener.

The ruined robot staggered forward, gave vent to a soft, high whine… and then collapsed on the floor of the Death Egg 2,
and moved no more.
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