text:
And thus there was a chapter. NOTE: I shall only respond to reviews that have concerns to the chapters or something somebody wants to nitpick for some reason.
From RedLink030: Hello. I just finished reading every chapter of this. I have a few questions.
1. What happened to the Miracle Gels that Raven gave the Smashers?
2. How does Jaydes isn't able to bring back the Smashers?
3. When is a Level 2 CFS going to appear?
Thank you for your time
From me: 1. Crazy Hand stole them. In a more realistic answer, I simply forgot.
2. Honestly, why would you think she has to revive them? She's pretty busy to conflict herself with such issues.
3. Soon.
Thankies. :)
From Kain Everguard: Dont know if you answered before, but what is the point of the saved file at the end? if there is a saved file, why not go back and load the file that had every smashers alive?
From me: To give a sense that the reader is "playing" the story by having a small pointer about what's going on with the current party. There's no real use to the save file otherwise. If they ever used it, there would be no Fourth Wall! Thanks for reviewing. :)
From jj: That was fast but it is better with a slightly long chapter over a short period of time than a extremely long chapter after a long period of time
Anyway look like all the sonic reps joined together thiers a shock (Sarcasm)
So how much chapter until the saga is over?
Ah well keep up the good work
From me: I'm sure that it's about two or three chapters. I'll find out. Thanks for reviewing. :)
From Insert Name Here: Few stories have reached your level of writing. Most of which, I have not read.
When I first discovered this story, I was amazed. You've got over three million words. It took me two whole months to get to this point.
I love the way you put references in, some more obvious than others. I'm pretty sure that I spied 'apologized profusely' in either this chapter or the last one.
I'm also pretty sure that I counted eight 'E's somewhere in here. (If you get this, you will be upgraded from my favourite author to my super favourite author. ::::D)
Also, I wonder what Red's (the Pokemon trainer) reaction will be if he met Manga!Red. Personally, I think it'll be hilarious, but I'm not good at judging these kinds of things. I'm about 95% sure that this isn't going to happen but I might as well bring it up just for the heck of it.
That's...all I have to say right now. I would ask you to update soon but I read earlier that it puts pressure on you or something. So...thank you for reading an anonymous reviewer's...um...review. Keep writing and I'll keep waiting for the next update, even if it takes, like, six months.
From me: Sorry, but I don't know about the eight 'E's thing… Oh no, I lost the chance. D:
Red will never meet Manga!Red only because this story shall never use comic worlds like anime worlds, as I think they're both pretty unfaithful ways to give to the games and pretty lazy ways to get crazy people in here.
But thanks for your overall thoughts! :D
From RedLink030…again…: I bet Vector will be all by himself. Either that, or he ends up with Sonic, Chris, or the serious characters. Great chapter overall. Will you do a big 200 chapter special as well? By the way, thanks for remembering the miracle gels, like I suggested in my review for the filler chapter 192.
I was also thinking of new abilities, like Kirby picking his ability if it's normally randomly chosen, or his ultra abilities as his over limit. Link's over limit could be turning into Wolf Link. Olimar could use a spicy potion on his pikmin. Falco could use his Arwing. DK could summon Rambi as his over limit, or use his clap grab to stun enemies. Lucas could use PK Love Omega or even Lifeup Omega to heal. Please take this into consideration.
...I know what you have planned for the coffins... You find something that can bring them back to life, but don't have the bodies. You find the coffins in other worlds, bring them back to the mansion, and revive them. Sorry if I spoiled it.
From me: 1) No.
2) Pfft, fat chance.
3) Who's writing the story now? Me, so yeah, you're way off track. They're gone forever.
Thanks for assuming wrongly! :D
From Genndy Oda C.O.G: AuraChannellerChris,
Wow. That was a very impressive chapter. I am eagerly awaiting the next one. Keep up the great work!
Genndy Oda C.O.G.
P.S.: If it's possible, could you use more music in the upcoming chapter?
From me: Depends on how things go in this chapter for the music part. Thanks for liking the chapter. :)
From KoopalingFan: This is a great story! Now allow me to say this...
To those of you who keep complaining how long this story is, look at the other reviews and see how POPULAR it is! You guys are just to lazy to read the whole thing! Just read one scene at a time and read the rest of it later on your free time! If you don't like it, go away!
From me: Wow, I feel very touched, really! Other people defending this overly long story… Thanks! :D
From Andonexus KotD: I didn't expect the chapter to end the it did, & that Shadow impression was so funny. Overall, it was a great chapter. However, you should try doing a cliffhanger at least every 3-4 chapters. I reccomend Minecraft as a sort of filler/real Arc, cause it's fun if you like building things.
From me: There's a forum where you can recommend arcs, but just to save you the trip…no. Thanks for reviewing. :)
From TheSoraKid: Oh no! Someone has suggested an arc here!
From me: Waste a review chance with this kind of message and you'll be in my black list.
From awseomeguydude1o1: awsome chap DONT SAY THAT WORD THE WORD IS...dood...lol its still in my head. oh and when is the kingdom hearts arc i heard a guy say up the great work! :)
From me: It'll come eventually. Thanks.
From Crescent Blue: Wow, just wow. I seriously can't believe how LOOOONG of a story this is! It's taken me months to get to where I am now!
Perhaps you should've split up this story into parts. Like when Disc 1 was finished, Disc 2 should've been posted separately as part 2, etc. I mean, I swear this has to be the longest fan fiction on this site! Not just the number of chapters, the length of the chapters alone! _
I enjoyed the story, minus you killing off Fox and Pichu. :-( Honestly, I was considering not reading anymore. I guess it was needed for the sheer length of this. :/
In any case, this story is certainly unique and written like an anime saga. If there were an anime of SSB, I can imagine it being exactly like your story. Just the right amount of humor, action, romance, etc.
However, like some anime series, they can be long and drawn out. Take Pokemon, Detective Conan (aka Case Closed), etc. Those have ridiculously long plots and little progression to a conclusion.
But hey, it's your story.
From me: Nah, splitting the story would make a lot a trouble for what it's worth.
It if was an anime…I'd so make it an American-Anime series, like Avatar! But no, this is just a crazy dream.
Thanks for liking the story so far. :)
To dash456: I simply don't want to answer your suggestions because they're either already on use or pretty uninteresting…oh wait, I answered them already. Never mind.
Whew, I swear to god, my mind came to a complete stop. A writer's block is your worst enemy while you're dealing with life and college. However, I do persevere!
Now it's time to see what happened to all the unlucky ones who were separated from each other.
I encourage all light fanatics to read on, enjoy, and review. :)
Disclaimer: Suck it, people! Bayonetta 2 is so Nintendo domain now. (Not like I even play the series but still, HA!)
Chapter 193: The Unnerving Darkness
Ventilation Shaft
Time had passed ever since he could remember. Soren had never fallen into a deep pit before in his life, and he wished that the event had never occurred in the first place. Almost his entire body hurt. He wondered how he even managed to survive such a long fall and the falling debris of metal. It was pure luck, he thought as he struggled to open his eyes to look at his surroundings.
"…" He gained a bit of energy to tell where he was. The place was dark, but there cut wires with loose electricity that illuminated the place a bit. He wanted to sigh in relief after seeing that he was not alone. Lucas, Wolf, Pit, and Samus had fallen along with him. He noticed that Samus was already awake, barely standing up. The Branded stood back up, resisting the pain of the fall. "You're…alive… That's good."
"And you too," Samus said. "Granted, my armor shielded me from getting some serious injuries with all that metal pushing us down, but the shaking was too much," she pointed out. "I wasn't expecting you to resist."
Soren closed his eyes. "Luck seems to be on my side on my last legs. I'm grateful," he said. "Literal heavy duty is not my forte."
The hunter looked at the three unconscious Smashers. "We shouldn't move on if they're like this," she said. "We've been separated from the others, it seems…" She scanned their bodies, hoping they were breathing. "Good, they're still breathing just fine."
Soren briefly shrugged his shoulders noticing their dark surroundings. "I can feel how an evil feeling rakes the place…" he muttered. "It's not familiar to me, but it's not good."
"I'm not adept on the magical aspects so I'll take your word on that," Samus said, hearing some grumbles coming from the lupine. "One of them is rising up."
Wolf grunted, curling his hands into fists as he opened his eye. "That damn fall… All that…stupid metal pushing me down…" he muttered through gritted teeth, slowly getting up by himself. He dusted his clothes off and saw both Soren and Samus. "Huh, you two survived…"
"Thank you for the vote of confidence," the bounty hunter said.
The lupine grimaced briefly and then turned to the other two lying on the ground. Seeing Pit, he kicked his side. "O-oww!" Pit shrieked and rolled away, waking up in shock. "C-Chris! Stop kicking me on th-oh no," he quickly shivered in terror, looking up at the smug Wolf.
"Hi, angel face," Wolf said. Pit backed away more and nearly touched some loose wires with his wings. He had taken them out as the chaos high above rained down, his back getting struck down by a falling iron beam.
"Quit the needless terror on him," Samus said. She saw Lucas coming to his senses. The blond boy adjusted his messy hair. "And please don't scare him either."
"Uh-uh…" Lucas groaned a bit before looking around, worried at the darkness around them. "Wh-where are we?" he asked the golden question.
"Somewhere deep down within the wrecked amusement park," Wolf said, looking up to the blocked hole they came down from. "That fall must've been pretty long and messy. The hole we fell in is completely blocked."
Pit stood up and yelped after getting a wing zapped slightly by a wire. "G-great, I don't see how we'll get back out from this one," he commented. "Can't everyone back at the mansion do something to help us?"
"From the looks of things, they didn't send help," Samus said. "It's justified since we could've opened a portal down here instead of in front of the entrance. That, and the temple is surely making interference with all transmissions."
"Once the temple is running normally, we can possibly establish contact," Wolf said. "That's happened a few times before. This one shouldn't be any different."
With that out of the way, Lucas continued trying to look through the darkness. "Does anybody have a light? Omega's not with us, so…" he trailed off.
"…Can't you use your powers?" Samus asked.
The blond raised a finger and then remained like that for five seconds. He blushed and tried to spark energy out of his hand. Lucas had done it a few times before, but he thought that it was possible for him to do that himself. He opened his hand, and white sparks of energy did give them a lot of light. "Before asking, make sure you can do whatever question you have in that big head of yours," Wolf said.
Lucas gulped. "Y-yes, sir," he muttered.
The light made their surroundings clearer. They were standing in a wrecked dead end of a way that looked like a square, except that said squared form had been bent to the left and to the right. There were rather big fans trying to spin. "This should be some kind of ventilation shaft…a big one," Samus said.
"So there's a floor below us," Wolf said.
"Or not…" Pit said unsure. "It's probably buried under rubble. What if there's no exit ahead?"
Soren grimaced. "Let's first find a way we can take to that temple you keep talking about," he said. "If worse comes to worse, we'll have to make our own way by piercing through the wreckage."
"But that could kill us!" Pit protested.
"True, but let's ascertain that first," the Branded said. "Hmm, that imp is resting over there."
The group looked forward where Chip was lying down on the floor. Lucas ran up to check up on him. "…The chocolate bunnies… They can't be trusted…" Chip murmured. "…We must eat them before they melt."
Wolf pressed the bridge between his two eyes. "Can't he stop dreaming about his creepy obsession with chocolate at a time like this?" he wondered rhetorically.
Abandoned Robot Factory
Persona 4 – Secret Base
Kirby was giving in to his hunger. Blinking, he opened his eyes and rolled forward to sit. He saw Rouge, Omega, Diddy, Roy, and Mewtwo lying down on the floor. A flicker of light on Omega's eyes startled the puffball a bit.
"System rebooting…" Omega somehow muttered. He pushed himself back to his feet. "Fall has not caused considerable damage. All devices within are working correctly," he said and stared down at Kirby. "Good, you are alive."
The puffball merrily hopped to his feet and cheered a bit. His cheering made Diddy wake up, grumbling a bit in pain. "Ooh, that hurts…" he complained, sitting back up and staring up at Omega. "…Not the prettiest thing I've ever seen after waking up…"
"I was not designed to be pretty," Omega bluntly said. He ignored the two of them chuckling to themselves after hearing the last word. Next, Rouge and Roy woke up.
"My head… Some chunk of wall struck me on my head…" Rouge muttered. "…Oh, I'm alive. That's good," she said, standing back up.
Roy used his sword to support himself by burrowing it down the wrecked floor. "Well, you got it easy. Two iron beams fell on me!" he said. "But since I'm not buried on them, they got stuck up there…" He looked up at the blocked hole. "Good news is that we're alive. Bad news is…"
"We are trapped down in here," Mewtwo said, surprising the others who didn't see him floating back up to his feet. "I do not know how long we fell down, unfortunately. I wonder how everyone else is doing."
"They are separated," Rouge said. "I saw how many of them fell into other holes before I got knocked down myself."
Roy asked unsure. "Do you think they're all okay?"
"Who knows…" Mewtwo trailed off. "It is hard to tell if they even survived." The others looked quite perplexed at him. "…But they should not be dead. If we survived, they possibly survived as well."
"I hope," Diddy said.
It was around two seconds later that they looked around their area to inspect it closely. They spotted a wrecked conveyor belt with remains of Dr. Eggman robots scattered over it. Their remains were also scattered over the dusty floor, with piles of rubble burning faintly in the darkness. The fire gave them light to see where they were.
"This looks like a robot factory," Rouge said.
"Overall architecture matches that of Dr. Eggman's robot factories," Omega said. "No life signals found. Area is completely isolated."
"Typical of him to build a robot factory underneath his beloved theme park…" The bat spotted a tunnel to the left side of the conveyor belt. "Huh, a path's right over there. It might lead us to somewhere else."
The team hoped that it would take them to the temple.
Frigid Den
Meanwhile, in a cold area underneath the amusement park, Sonic, Knuckles, Vector, Meta Knight, Toon Link, and Shadow were lying down on the floor. Everyone felt shivers running down their bodies that they regained consciousness almost at the same time.
Toon Link was the first one to jump and embrace himself. "B-brr!" he shivered. "W-we're alive!"
"Yes, we are…" Meta Knight muttered. He was the only one of the group who wasn't so fazed by the coldness. "But we have been separated from the rest, judging from what I can see."
"Ugh, now that's not good news," Knuckles said before sneezing. "Worse yet, we fell into this cold place!" He looked up at the corners of the room they fell into to spot ventilation ducts shooting particles of ice. "The air conditioner inside the amusement park turned this area cold!"
Sonic shivered. "Damn, that fall was really bad… I saw how everyone fell into other holes than the one we fell into." He looked up at the patched hole. "No going back through there... Hey! Maybe I can pierce through i-"
"Don't," Meta Knight quickly interrupted. "Try to pierce through and you'll make the entire weight fall on us. It's a possibility I wish to avoid trying altogether."
"Y-yeah! Don't do that!" Vector said angrily. "Think hard! We're gonna die if you don't think! Thinking is good now!"
Shadow rolled his eyes. "The crocodile's obviously too scared about it. That should give you a hint about your suicidal idea," he stated. "But let's drop that and see where we are."
Knuckles looked around a little more. "Well, for one, we're alone… Also, the place is kind of dark to see," he pointed out. The wires in there were almost dying of energy seeing how the sparks were slowly dying out. "Not a lot of good points…"
Shadow crossed his arms. "This is ought to get interesting, if not a lot more dangerous," he said. "I wonder if Rouge, Omega, and the others made it safely?"
Toon Link looked serious. "We resisted that fall! They're surely okay, too!" he said. For good measure, he unsheathed his sword to stay alert. "But for now we need to get out of here and try to reunite with the others."
Sonic took out the drained Chaos Emerald. "Good, I still have it with me. Maybe we can try to find the Temple of Gaia while we're at it," he said, keeping the emerald away.
"Dibs on the recharged emerald," Shadow said grinning.
"Permission granted," Meta Knight said. Sonic stared dismayed at him. "I'm just doing the right thing here. I won't feel okay with myself if I let you use it."
Shadow stared confidently at Sonic. "Nice to see how much faith they have on you," he said.
"Shut it," Sonic grudgingly said.
Toon Link looked down on the floor, sighing a bit to himself. "Wonder how the others are doing…" he muttered.
Chris was having the worst entrance ever. Having fallen from god-knows-how-deep, he found himself groaning mentally, opening his eyes in the darkness. Hoping that there was floor to use his staff as a support to stand back up, the World Traveler slowly stood back up.
Not good. He was alone.
The teen shivered, forgetting the fact his body hurt after the fall. Desperate, he brandished his DS to talk to the only person besides Lucario who would stick with him forever. "Howdy there," Kawashima said. "Why the long face? Oh, sorry. I shouldn't ask that now."
Chris used the DS's light to illuminate his surroundings. The only thing he saw was scrap metal everywhere.
"Nobody is with you?" Kawashima wondered. "That poses a problem. Sorry, but I can't properly locate anybody while we're close to those temples…" He sweat-dropped. "Those monuments give me a run for my money when I try to be useful!"
The teen was not a fan of the dark. Seeing that Kawashima was the only companion that he could talk to, Chris left the DS wide open, using it as a flashlight of sorts. He hoped to find his way to somebody else, he thought after looking up at the debris of steel that had blocked the hole he fell into.
Besides just making wrong turns, Chris was not looking forward to stumbling upon the kind of enemy they faced on the entrance. It would be a complete disaster if he were to fight one by himself. Although light spells were on his repertoire, his muteness crippled his ability. Furthermore, he would be the only target.
Chris focused on his current situation. He found a ruined path that lead somewhere else. Feeling quite scared, the teen moved on with Kawashima on his palm. "Press on to adventure!" Kawashima said. "If we get attacked, I just know you'll protect me!"
Sadly, that was brutally true.
Ventilation Shaft
"It is a good thing that my 'universe' does not have any of this," Soren commented bluntly. "I would not dare to imagine fighting a war inside steel fabrics."
"Ike did get use to this," Lucas said.
"That's because I know he's been put into this kind of environment against his will…or he willingly accepted the circumstances. Like I said before, he just rushes ahead sometimes without thinking."
"Let me guess. You looked after him," Samus said.
"More like I was babysitting him than doing that," the Branded said.
The first group continued its way through the long ventilation shaft. Either it was a good or bad sign that the general path was turning into a rather tame steep going down instead of going up. "This path better take us to the temple," Pit said.
"But even if we get there, we don't have the emerald," Samus pointed out. "While we can clear the path of beasts, we can't do much once we reach there."
"We'll have to go looking for the hedgehog and the rest," Wolf said. "Of course, I'm assuming no other accidents happen. You can never trust a wrecked place like this to hold itself together."
Chip was meanwhile pondering to himself. "The closer we get underground, the more I feel something…bad," he said. "We're getting closer to where my brother is."
Lucas gulped. "I wish he was further away…" he muttered.
"But…yet again, there's something else that doesn't feel right with this," the imp said. "I can tell his dark self is familiar, but there is another part of him that wasn't there before…"
Pit stared at Chip. "Are you sure you're not sensing other weird things because you're not fully recovered with your powers?" he asked.
Chip embraced his body. "I don't really know… I'm a complete wreck like Eggman's theme park," he said. Wolf silently nodded to the fact, getting a small slap on the head by Samus. "Normally, I'd feel my brother's presence just fine when I'm right next to him. I never got this far away from him…without all my powers."
"Those powers of yours better come back if they're that good," Wolf said.
"Oh, they're pretty good!" Chip said, brightening up. "Honestly speaking, I can do much more besides just making a huge stone creature out of all the temples! Like, for example, I can give my divine blessing to those worthy of dispelling any kind of darkness, be it good or bad, to inflict massive damage."
The group stopped walking and stared at the imp.
"…Did I say something weird?"
"Yes," Samus said. "Specifically, the part about giving people your divine blessing to ward off the darkness of any kind."
"Oh… Yeah, I forgot to bring that up," Chip said with a sly, nervous smile. "I bet that the moment I recover my powers, I can try to do that."
Wolf glared. "Try to do that?" he asked. "Are you messing with us, or you don't know how to even do that?"
Chip sweated bullets. "I…I…I think I'm overreacting! Doing something like that would be cool, but it's good to imagine!" he said in his defense. "To be honest again…I have never tried doing something else other than making the Colossus…"
Lucas sighed. "I thought we got some kind of big advantage right there…" he trailed off.
"How can you people even rely on him?" Soren asked incredulously. "So far, you've been saying that he is some kind of deity."
"Do you want the short explanation or the long one about how he really is a deity?" Pit asked.
Soren looked away. "I'll just bite and see where this goes. You do show genuine trust to him… I'll be watching, though," he said. Lucas saw the mage taking out his Wind tome. "We aren't alone by ourselves."
Persona 2: Innocent Sin – Quest Battle
Down the tame slope, two dark mists materialized, along with three small dinosaur heads that squealed rather angrily at them. "Two more of them!" Lucas whimpered.
"And they've got more of those weird-ass monsters tagging along," Wolf said, eyeing the small dinosaur heads. The heads only had a rather docile dinosaur figure, but they also had small bodies with two small foots that supported them. They were actually called Little Rexes.
"I don't mind those things, but the dark mists? Those can be deadly!" Pit said, unsheathing his double daggers.
"Who cares? Fight!" Samus said as she rushed forward with Wolf. Pit silently tagged along with Soren to keep him safe, while Lucas held his ground to protect Chip.
The dark mists were informed about how their assailants were a bad sight, and they quickly vanished from sight, actually having run somewhere inside the darkness. Samus barely missing hitting one with a Light Beam shot. "Nice bad shot," Wolf muttered, noticing the Little Rexes barking. The three of them lunged at them, opening their jaws big. It didn't take much effort for Wolf to step to the side and smack one of them into the other two, crashing against the steel wall.
A torrent of wind formed around the three Little Rexes before it violently sliced them into bits of darkness. "Those were pushovers," Soren noted. "But it felt like they were a distraction."
They looked forward where the two dark mists had fled to. The sparks from the hanging cables didn't reach far enough to let them see beyond. "I'm chasing them down!" Samus called over. She had a night visor built into her suit.
"Not letting you take the credit for this…" Wolf said as he followed. His eyepatch luckily had night vision functionality as well.
Lucas shrugged his shoulders and went ahead, making his right hand glow with his energy. "I-I can do this too!" he called over, only to be joined by Soren and Pit with Chip quietly and carefully flying behind them. The blond kind of regretted doing the move, thinking that he was only going alone.
Abandoned Robot Factory
It wasn't far too late before Rouge's party was ambushed by two dark mists that were accompanied by eight green dark bats. Said bats flickered with sparks, indicating that they were Thunder Bats. "Those are a new enemy type…" Diddy said before the group engaged in combat. He felt undermined since Kirby showed a serious side that he barely saw.
Unlike Samus' location, there was more illumination in the wrecked corridor they were walking. Some of them suspected that something was going to happen judging the big open area of red metal surroundings, and they were right.
The dark mists purposely played the defensive by dodging the blows that were directed at them, letting the electric bats take on their intruders. "Sorry, but we're so not related, boys," Rouge said, leaping straight at two bats to kick them down.
The bats remained there, hovering in the air. Rouge briefly thought that it was so easy until both bats struck her down with two lightning rays coming out from their bodies. The bat fell down, only for Kirby to leap next and swing his hammer on the two bats. The hit was too much for the electric bats to take that they dispersed into spores of darkness, dying out. Kirby then walked over to Rouge, the latter lying down in a bit of pain.
"I admit… I got too cocky there…" Rouge said, managing a small chuckle.
Roy and Mewtwo were chasing down the dark mists as the others were occupied with the bats behind them. The two mysterious aggressors ran to the top of the steel ceiling and shot down at the two Smashers. Both were struck down and pushed back even further, flying kicks colliding on their faces. Roy bumped along the ground, but Mewtwo gained his stance and shot a quick Shadow Ball at one of the dark mists. "These monsters… It feels like we are fighting Sonic," Mewtwo muttered, his eyes wary of the dark mists.
"Y-yes, it feels that way for sure," Roy said, getting back to the psychic's side. "It makes the fight even harder, though!" Two electric bats zoomed by, crashing into the cold steel due to Omega firing missiles at them from close range. The killer robot, Kirby, and Rouge were taking on the bats.
Roy then noticed a serious Diddy on their side. "I cannot fathom what you can do out here," Mewtwo bluntly said. Diddy didn't say anything, other than sticking out his tongue to the side as he held a banana peel on his right hand. As if he was calculating where to place it, the Kong tossed it at an empty spot where a dark mist stepped on it and clumsily crashed hard and fast against a pile of rubble. It got impaled on the head due to an iron beam's tip torn off into a makeshift spiky tip, and so it vanished.
Diddy grinned at Mewtwo, who kept staring at their enemy's unlucky spot. "What was that again?" he asked.
"I float, standing corrected," Mewtwo muttered. He felt quite embarrassed that a monkey could handle them better than he did.
That didn't mean that the battle was over. The other dark mist was lurking around. It had seen the fate of its comrade, and it shot off behind Diddy to slam his back at the steel wall. "Too slow!" Roy said, slashing the dark mist across its unseen back. As the dark mist seemed to stretch out in pain, Mewtwo approached it and used Psychic to give it the same treatment it gave to Diddy.
The spider monkey had slid down to the floor at that point that he latched onto the dark mist's face, madly beating on it for its attack. Diddy noticed something when he felt the creature's face, but then a Spin Dash shook him off. Suddenly, a fully charged explosion of fire collided down on it due to Roy having jumped twice to land a extreme hit that made the enemy vanish. "Using that hurt me a bit…but it had to be done," Roy said.
"Good, but it seems more of those bats are attacking the rest behind us," Mewtwo said. "Those creatures can become a pain to deal with it they keep stunning us. Let us go."
"R-right," Diddy said, rubbing his head. Only he didn't tell that the enemy he beat on had a familiar shape. If it was true that they copied Sonic's fighting style, then what Diddy felt was a curvy head that had quills on the back…
Chris was not having the best day ever. There he was, surrounded by three dark mists that were all sitting high atop three piles of rubble. Maybe his shock was making him go crazy, but he could've sworn that the three of them had flashed maniacal smirks under the flickering lights and sparks from the hanging cables.
"There is no way you can fight them as a mage!" Kawashima shouted. "You need time to cast spells, and they are not going to give it to you that easily!" The dark mists looked like they were standing up, making Chris back away. "You need to fight at close range if you want to defend yourself!"
He had no other choice. Chris gulped and turned into a Moogle Knight, thinking that flight would be a good choice to avoid attacks at any range. The teen Moogle unsheathed his sword…
…and the dark mists stopped being surrounded by the darkish auras.
It was a frightful experience for Chris. He saw through his eyes three dark hedgehogs that greatly resembled Sonic, down to the maniacal smirks and glowing green eyes. They all were silent and couldn't utter a word, but their actions would leave horror upon the Moogle. Why do they even look like Sonic? He thought. There was no reason for them to mimic Sonic!
His train of thoughts was stopped as the three Sonic look-alikes disappeared from sight. The Moogle yelped a silent gasp and looked around, hovering above the spot he was standing on with his sword clutched close. "I know it's futile to even fight enemies THAT fast, but…uh…IBelieveInYou!" Kawashima quickly said. Chris's mildly forgot about his horror by rolling his eyes.
Seeing that being so close to the floor would be a bad idea, the Moogle took flight, his eyes darting around the perimeter of sparking cables. Gulping, he proceeded forward in hopes that he would get closer to some place where he hoped to find the others…or they would find him first.
Hearing something falling from behind, the Moogle's breathing quickened as he turned around. There was nothing. A fabric of steel just fell down from the ceiling. Then, he quickly turned back to the frontal direction where a series of cables scrambled down the floor. There was nothing to fear…yet, he thought to himself.
A small blink was all that it took for him to stumble upon the Sonic-look alikes upside-down the ceiling. Quickly backing off, the Moogle saw the smirking hedgehog supporting itself with its feet acting as hangers from a thin iron beam.
Yelling a mute shout, Chris closed his eyes and wildly slashed the hedgehog across. The monster didn't even react that fast. It was too busy trying to frighten the Moogle that it received the full blow. With a downward slash, the hedgehog of darkness crashed down below. "GET A MOVE ON!" Kawashima shouted in encouragement. Chris didn't care what was going to happen next. He just flew away.
As the hedgehog of darkness was left behind to grumble, the Moogle sighed in relief until he looked down to see the other two hedgehogs running backwards, staring at him with maniacal looks and crossed arms. Those two were mocking him as if they knew they were going to toy around with him to no end.
The fact that both of them fell into holes, coupled with their rather distraught looks as they fell in, made it look like to Chris that they weren't exactly thinking straight. They were trying to scare him without even thinking about where they were running into. "I'm starting to wonder if those monsters came out right as they were supposed to," Kawashima commented.
Chris briefly forgot about his fear until a shadow blur ran below him and stopped several feet away. With a rather serious look that didn't have a smirk this time, the shadow hedgehog curled into a Spin Dash and shot itself upwards to the Moogle. Stopping midflight with a look that needed a scream, Chris dove under to avoid the blow, the curled menace striking the ceiling.
The chase was on.
The Moogle had to avoid the three hedgehogs at any cost as he tried to make contact with another Smasher down the way he went. Luckily, there wasn't another path to take, but he begged for his life that the path didn't lead to a dead end. Destiny wouldn't be that harsh to me, he thought.
Destiny is that harsh to me, he corrected himself as the three hedgehogs had joined up right behind his pom-pom's trail.
The serious looks on their faces somehow were far scarier than the actual smirks. Chris made his red bat wings feel the burn of his desperate wish to survive the chase, flying as fast as he could. When the hedgehogs all curled into balls, it was now the Homing Attack Dodging 4 Ur Life Minigame. Homing Attacks, as the name implied, tried to home on the scared Moogle, one by one trying to strike him down. The dark hedgehogs didn't uncurl and just rolled over the steel floor, trying to take the Moogle down as fast as possible. If they could get him down, their next plan was to give him wedgies.
Unaware of what kind of bullying they had in mind, Chris now had another issue to deal with: the path ahead was a dead end. He was trapped with three homicidal maniacs trying to torture him till he died. As he reached the dead end, he turned around and gasped silently as a Homing Attack missed his head by a few inches, crashing on the steel wall.
On The Other Side Of That Wall
Meta Knight's intrepid team of misfits was slowly passing by before they heard something crashing against the steel. The rumbling made them stop and look around. "That's weird. I didn't hear that before," Knuckles said.
The rumbling started to become far more common, with crashing sounds becoming gradually louder. A small piece of the wall to their right fell off, but they ignored it. Chris, however, did not. When he took a small chance to rest his frequent dodging, his eyes wandered into the hole when he spotted a familiar hue of blue on the other side. He quickly had to move away from a Homing Attack. "Could it be that monsters are becoming rampant?" Meta Knight asked.
Briefly, Chris wanted to yell for their help as he took one more glance. "Eh, let's ignore it and continue down this way," Sonic said. The Moogle considered stabbing the hedgehog but he forgot when he had to move away. "Let's not get involved."
"You're not good thinking, huh?" Shadow asked. "It doesn't matter if we have to avoid the enemy. They will still catch up with us. We need to remove the trash."
"And besides! What if those sounds are coming from the others fighting those things?" Toon Link asked. Chris was thankful.
"Probably the wind pushing steel down, making us think otherwise," Sonic said. Oh, how Chris wanted to stab him where it hurt the most.
"Y-yeah! I second him on that!" Vector said, nodding rather freaked out. He wanted to come out of there without laying a single fist on something that would latch into his body, though the chances of that happening were incredibly slim.
When he thought it was enough, Chris took his time to avoid the Homing Attacks to stab the very hole with his sword as many times as possible to gain their attention. The sword made the others on the other side notice the gap in the wall where the steel was coming out of. "T-that's a sword!" Toon Link said, but then the sword froze into place before slowly being taken out. "That sword wasn't surrounded by darkness, so…!"
The Moogle had been taken down. He never thought a single Homing Attack would hurt like hell, but then it dawned upon him that his body was considerably smaller, and the previous chase had tired him out. His wings having been partially stunned with a single blow, the Moogle slid down as the maniacal hedgehogs uncurled and began their slow advance on him.
When Chris looked back over his shoulder, the hedgehogs were about to grab…something from his rear. He realized where they were going with that and mentally screamed, feeling morbidly violated and abused in an unspeakable manner. Chris would know very well how Pit and Roy felt.
Thankfully, his humiliating experience was short lived.
A drilling tornado, courtesy of Meta Knight, came out from the steel wall and the hedgehogs looked up. The middle hedgehog got the attack in full and was pushed back. The hedgehogs followed him with their gazes as two Homing Attacks collided on their backs and pushed them back clumsily.
Chris then felt somebody picking him up, and he opened his eyes and saw a grinning Sonic. "Hey, buddy. How are you doin'?" he asked in a cocky manner.
"You know this…creature?" Shadow asked.
"Uh, yeah. It's just Chris who changed into a job that makes him look like this," Toon Link explained.
Chris smiled sarcastically, barely narrowed his eyes, and slowly tried to stab the hedgehog, but then Sonic let the Moogle fall back to the floor on his face, his rescue party looking at their assailants. In one flash, Sonic and Shadow got into a fight as Meta Knight and Toon Link charged forward into the fray.
Chris then felt forgotten quite quickly. Knowing that Knuckles and Vector were staring down at his frail self, Chris, his face still on the floor, used his DS to pass down a message. "Vector, you're the expendable one. Shield me," it read.
"I-I ain't no one's no meat shield!" Vector said. Both Kawashima and Knuckles wanted to act like grammar Nazis, but they didn't, thinking it wasn't worth it.
The other four were taking care of three shadow hedgehogs. "Would you look at that? The monsters do look like Sonic," Shadow said. "Faker, you do have a line of your own set of fakers. How do you feel?"
"Emo?" Sonic asked grinning.
"I'll let that comment slip for now…" and the hedgehogs became locked in heated battle with Meta Knight and Toon Link trying to keep up with their speed.
As Knuckles offered a helping hand to the Moogle, Vector heard something from behind. Turning around, he froze and turned pale. "T-there's another one right behind us!" he screamed. Knuckles gasped as Chris pushed himself up in shock, seeing a fourth maniac blocking their way.
"I know I dislike seeing Sonic's grinning face often, but this is ridiculous," Knuckles said. "So then, I'll let all that fury out on him!" He leaped to the shadow, who just kept grinning and sped underneath. The echidna landed on his feet and turned back where the shadow was trying to use Vector as a shield.
"GetOffMeGetOffMeGetOffMe GetOffMeGetOffMeGetOffMe!" Vector frantically yelled as he tried to uncover the Sonic shadow, but it kept teasing him by quickly standing behind him to every direction. Its reflexes were getting on Knuckles' nerves as he tried to find a blind spot. "Don't punch meeeeee!"
However, the shadow was fixing its attention on the echidna. Chris just noticed how the shadow was ignoring him. Seeing he was standing on the side, the Moogle put up a tough face and charged silently with his sword.
It was not a good option.
The shadow's eye moved to look at the Moogle. As Chris gasped for breath, the shadow stepped back and, once the Moogle flew between him and Vector's back, used an upward knee blow into Chris's relatively small stomach. Gasping even more for breath, the Moogle fell into the steel floor, getting kicked away harshly by the shadow. As the shadow smirked in pleasure, Knuckles scored a direct fist into the side of its cheek.
Vector was told by hand signals to go check up on Chris. Knuckles faced forward and got a Homing Attack to the face. The crocodile scurried to the Moogle's side. "U-um, does it hurt?" he asked desperately, poking Chris's stomach. The Moogle forced his will to ignore the pain and push Vector's finger away. He stood back up, feeling a bit exhausted.
On the other side with the three troublemaking shadows, Meta Knight just pierced through one using Drill Rush. As the shadow vanished with painful face, the warrior turned back and saw Knuckles getting knocked back by a Spin Dash. Leaving Vector to do something useful was not even an option, seeing he was biting his gloved-fingers. Meta Knight then sped to them, leaving the other three to fight the other two remaining shadows.
The knight arrived in time, slashing a Homing Attack away from smacking into Knuckles' face. The slash was ridiculously close to slicing the echidna's face. Knuckles let out a huge sigh as Meta Knight engaged the shadow. "D-don't know whether to say thanks or stay still in horror…" Knuckles muttered.
"Your meddlesome kind shall be eradicated," Meta Knight said as the shadow dodged all the several slices of air he threw at him. "I can only have one of you around. Two is already too much to tolerate with a sane mind."
"I'm pretty sure he was talking about not having more than one Sonic," Knuckles said. Sonic said "Hey!" from afar as he continued fighting his own battle, being assisted by Toon Link.
The shadow merely smirked at him, but then he looked to its left and grabbed Chris by its wrist, avoiding a side stab. In a very slow sequence, Chris cursed his luck, but Meta Knight took the opening and stabbed the shadow under Chris's very sword. The shadow's smirk suddenly turned into a painful expression as the knight pulled Chris to his side. The speed then resumed, and the shadow was slashed away to the cold wall behind, clutching its darkish wound with a hand.
"That was rather reckless," Meta Knight told Chris without facing him. The Moogle Knight sighed to himself. "But I'm sure you can hold your own against it if you can truly find a blind spot." He moved Galaxia to the side. "Let us both face him off."
Then time stopped around them.
"(So this is it…)" Meta Knight communicated. "(The strange feeling that stops everything around us to signify a strong connection…)"
The Moogle thanked the gods for having set a firm bond with Meta Knight. But…why? He hadn't exactly spent too much time with the knight.
"(Sadly, you're just about the few ones I can trust who are not that insane. I've been watching your actions, and they seem…likeable enough, shall I say.)"
In other words, you consider me and the few ones the only ones that aren't exactly annoying or crazy in some way, Chris thought. Poor Donkey Kong was never going to be Meta Knight's best pal.
"(Enough talk. Let's use this new technique.)"
Time then resumed, and the shadow they faced together was staring at them with a pure intent of murder. "Sorry, but your mood to kill needs to be put to rest," Meta Knight said. The shadow gritted its few fangs and charged at them with a Spin Dash.
Needless to say, the retaliation came out quite fast Chris's body reacted on pure instinct.
"Quickly…" Meta Knight began as he took Chris's wrist and, together by Meta Knight standing on top, spun into the orange Mach Tornado. The Moogle turned into the base while the knight turned into the top of the whirlwind, but there was a difference. Chris had merged his Moogle Lance into the Mach Tornado, turning it to a pale green color that shot cutting winds that damaged and pulled anything close into itself. The shadow was pulled around the tornado, uncurling itself as it started to get sliced from the outwards winds.
Having more control, Meta Knight moved the tornado into the other battle. Sonic, Shadow, and Toon Link felt a slight breeze as the other two shadows were brusquely pulled away with shocked expressions. The trio stared at the tornado and the visible cutting winds inflicting damage on all three shadows before all of them were pulled right inside the tornado. A flash of white slowed time, and the tornado had stopped abruptly. On the white background, a fierce black X-crossed slash, each side having one of the two who had created it, crossed everybody's vision as two foreign bodies were seen launching into different directions. The one of the middle had its body torn apart into four.
"…this ends," Meta Knight finished, the white background disappearing as the two shadows bounced off the walls and floor. The middle shadow had been eradicated brutally, leaving no trace as expected.
New ability learned! Lance Tornado!
Upgrades Meta Knight's Mach Tornado, giving it longer duration and more attack power. Deals moderate damage to all enemies trapped in the winds.
Though Meta Knight was unfazed, Chris's tumbled to the sides due to the extreme spin as he couldn't handle the vertigo very well.
Shadow saw that Sonic stared wide-eyed. "Y'know, I know it wasn't me, but seeing your image split into four makes your stomach hurt…" the blue hedgehog said.
"Wish it was really you," Shadow responded.
"Grow up."
"A-hem!" Toon Link called out. "We're not done yet!"
The other two shadows that had bounced around were lying down in utter pain, clutching their bodies tightly. Toon Link saw Meta Knight stabbing one through the back, killing it definitely. Not wanting to keep fighting more, Toon Link leaped to the other one and used a downward stab. The last shadow stretched out in pain before it vanished from existence. "And…it's over, for now," Shadow said.
Persona 4 – Secret Base
After spending some time resting to regain their energies, the group + Chris continued their way down the path. "You're lucky we got through you in time," Toon Link commented. "Sonic was just this close in convincing me to leave."
The Moogle shot the hedgehog with a glare. Sonic whistled blissfully before he felt all weird. "Oh, no!" he cursed loudly as he turned into a werehog. "Dammit, it's nighttime already? Damn this to hell!" he complained till he remembered that a certain black hedgehog hadn't been explained about his transformation at all. He froze, thinking Shadow wasn't going to let him live it down.
Shadow stared flatly at Sonic, arching an eyebrow.
Sonic stared back, some fangs peeking out from his snout.
"…Hedgehog, what did you get yourself into now?" Shadow finally asked, as if he was annoyed to see the wolf-hedgehog-thing.
"Got some negative vibes into me ever since that Extreme Gear tourney I went to… And now, I turn into a werewolf, I mean, werehog every night," Sonic said. To get it over with, he stretched out his rubber-like arms to the ceiling. "Cartoon powers included with the package, as you can see."
Shadow stared intently at the retracting arms before he rolled his eyes. "Tsk, werewolves… They're really overused these days. Looks like you got the short end of the stick."
Sonic groaned. "Aww, please let him be the last person I hear saying that! I'm getting sick of the overused werewolf idea everybody in the DAMN universe seems to know!" he complained.
"But it is overused!" Toon Link said.
The werehog snarled. "Okay, you're the last person, so you guys better not continue!"
"Stop fooling around and focus on the path," Meta Knight advised, feeling the only one mature enough to take the brief leadership. He was really the only one for everybody, sadly. "…None of you have sensed how dense it feels?"
When the knight pointed it out, there was a heavy feeling lingering in the air; a negative energy that radiated like waves of water washing ashore before coming back with stronger force. "M-my tail wants to go between my legs," Vector said gulping. "(Oh no, the final boss! I-it's almost here! I don't wanna die young and sexy!)"
"Are you sure it's not the faker's furry body making the air feel denser?" Shadow asked. Sonic hand-chopped the back of his head lightly. They both shot glares at each other before Chris helplessly put himself in the middle. Shadow swatted him away with a hand.
"To prove your point, we've been around Sonic for so long it never happened," Meta Knight said. "He never did radiate negative energy…"
"…So we're getting even closer to…Dark Gaia or the temple?" Knuckles asked. "It better be the temple. Judging our luck, it's Dark Gaia standing in front of the temple."
"Don't say that!" Toon Link scolded, gulping. "Maybe we should just run!"
The others took the suggestion without thinking much about it and ran down the path. The only one against it was Vector, who remained behind with crossed arms and an annoyed look. After a few seconds of glaring at his surroundings, he started sweating bullets. His eyes suddenly looked perplexed until he jumped and ran to them after hearing a steel beam falling somewhere in the darkness behind his back.
Chris, though, briefly thought about Meta Knight. It felt just wrong that Meta Knight chose him as one of the few who could deposit his trust into. He made a mental note about doing it right with him after the mission was over with.
Abandoned Robot Factory
Blasting a shadow into nothingness using a Shadow Ball, Mewtwo sighed to himself and turned his team. "It looks like we got rid of them all…for now," he said.
"Extreme caution is still advised," Omega said. "Let us expect the worst down this way and prepare ourselves for anything."
"No need to tell me twice about that, Omega," Rouge said. The robot's been repeating similar-sounding instructions before. "It's steel hell down here."
While Diddy chuckled to himself about the pun-niness of the word "steel", Roy rubbed his sore arm after getting a Homing Attack on it. "Those shadows we saw suddenly revealed themselves," he said. "They are Sonic copies…"
"That explains the fighting style Omega had analyzed," Rouge said. "To add a little more to the data, there was some serious cockyness in them it reminded me of Sonic trading blows with Shadow. I don't want to have to put myself into that area." She rubbed her head, feeling it a bit too sore for her tastes.
"If they ever get more serious than they got, it could be a huge hindrance to fight them in groups," Mewtwo theorized. "I know Sonic can become a very reliable teammate, but his…attitude leaves a lot to be desired."
"Well, these guys leave desire, but in a different way," Roy noted. "Anyway, is everyone still good to go?"
The party then continued their way down the ruined path beyond the robot factory. Ten minutes of walking later, Kirby stumbled upon a bloated body. He poked it and heard some mumblings. "I found somebody!" he cheered, but then he got depressed, thinking he found a dead person.
"…Oh dear," Rouge muttered, examining the body. "It's…Dr. Eggman?"
Said doctor pushed himself off from the rubble and coughed loudly, his back facing the wary group. Omega silently raised his metal claws, ready to shoot away. The egg-bodied doctor then turned around and froze. "…Oh…crud…" he trailed off.
Mewtwo acted quickly and held the doctor tight into a psychic force, keeping him off the ground. "I might be weak here, but as long as I stay close to anybody, I can lift them with no problem," he said.
Dr. Eggman felt that he could at least move his head. "Just great… I just got up and I turned into a hostage," he said. "Wait, is that Omega? OH NO!"
Rouge tried to move Omega's bullet-filled claws down, but the robot didn't budge. "Eh, he won't shoot. I know he's expecting you to say something like, for example, what the hell happened to your base and theme park," she said with a grin, knowing full well they had the villain right where they wanted.
Unfortunately for the doctor, they deserved to hear. "Things got awfully down fast," he said. "I don't know how many days it's been ever since…my precious base…was torn down into pieces… It's a big waste of resources! It took me a long time to built this place without police interfe-" Mewtwo applied more force around the doctor's throat, "-a-and so, I was just minding my own business, coming up with a strategy to, well, stop you from stopping us, when all of a sudden, the whole theme park was destroyed in front of my own eyes!" Kirby sat on his feet, finding it a relaxing spot.
"And I assume Dark Gaia is the culprit behind this story," Roy said.
"Y-yes! That evil fiend… It…it just…it just went rampant all of a sudden!" the doctor explained. "I was keeping watch with an underground camera, and then, it looked at it…and the vision went blurry. Right after, my beautiful base was slowly destroyed into smithereens! Knowing that the temple was in danger, I went down there in a hurry, hearing the voiceover shouting me the conditions of the entire base…"
"…And then?" Diddy asked. "I thought you and the army were close allies working together…closely?"
"W-well, I was alone that time, sadly," the doctor said. "So then, I reached the temple and tried calling the Ancient Minister for an emergency portal…before I was knocked out by something…" He sighed. "There was this…wall of darkness right in front of the temple…and it had pierced the floor to the ceiling… I suspect it was Dark Gaia that knocked me out…"
"And then you found yourself here," Rouge said.
Roy grabbed his head. "Oh no, he said Dark Gaia was in front of the temple," he said, turning slightly pale.
"No, you dolt!" Dr. Eggman said. "That monster is unstable, even when it tries to rest! Knowing it, it's lurking the core of the planet, waiting for any unsuspecting prey to come close to the temple below my base… At this point, I don't even care about it anymore! My plans of controlling it have gone down to hell…"
Mewtwo narrowed his eyes. "You just came up with the foolish idea of using us as bait and see if you can control that damned monster while it's busy trying to kill us," he pointed out. Dr. Eggman gasped before the psychic force was given more pressure. "I wonder, will you truly reconsider as your entire being is slowly crushed…?"
"I am quite enjoying this scene," Omega said. Rouge gave him a weird look. "…But I would greatly prefer if I was burying bullets into his lard-filled stomach."
"G-GAH! ALRIGHT, ALRIGHT!" Dr. Eggman cried out in pain. "I-I won't do such thing anymore! I-I promise!"
Mewtwo's face turned dark. "I dislike being tricked by just hearing you out," he said and applied even more pressure.
Mewtwo's hand closed a little bit.
Feeling that the scene was quite gruesome to watch, Roy had to speak up. "Mewtwo, stop! Don't let him turn you into some kind of killer!" he shouted.
The Psychic type kept the pressure on, but he eased it off to a point where the doctor wasn't in danger of getting killed. "He got a point. You better be thankful," Mewtwo said, though it sounded like a very unnerving threat. "But you won't escape that easily anymore…"
"R-right now, I only care about living…" the doctor said, but then he saw Mewtwo closing his hand, "m-my mind is so hard to convince when I have a good plan for my personal benefit! D-don't blame me!"
"This is getting old fast," Diddy said. "Let's just keep him prisoner and feed him to Dark Gaia when we get the chance."
"I support the thought," Omega said.
As Dr. Eggman shivered in horror, Mewtwo just kept him hovering before they all started to move down again. Kirby had the leisure of riding on his feet as a seating place. "Question: You know how far away the temple is?" Rouge asked.
"Er, well…" the doctor looked around, "everything looks so wrecked it's hard to tell…"
"We fell into a long hole that brought us to a robot factory," Roy said. "We've been going down this way for half an hour, not counting the time we spent fighting dark creatures."
"The robot factory is the closest area to the temple," the doctor said. "I built it close just in case to keep the temple under strict security. That way, the robots made here would reach it without trouble. There are some tight passageways made to transport the robots faster, but I assume all of them got destroyed…"
"So that means we're very close to it," Diddy said smiling before looking depressed. "But we need the Chaos Emerald Sonic's carrying with him…"
"He shouldn't lose the emerald right now," Rouge said. "I know those two hedgehogs can keep those world nukers with them no matter what happens."
"I think you forgot the time when Sonic made the villain super powerful," Roy pointed out.
Rouge still had that wound from that battle on the back of her right ear. "Make that one responsible hedgehog," she corrected herself.
Mewtwo gazed at the doctor, who sweated bullets. "I-I didn't come up with another plan!" he shot back.
"No, I was thinking about asking you if restoring the power into the temples will seal Dark Gaia," Mewtwo said.
"Stop," Mewtwo said with a dull look. "I am still quite…pissed, but besides the other suicidal plan you were trying to formulate, everything else became clear."
"You know something?" Roy asked.
"…No," the Psychic type said. "This imbecile doesn't even know if the temples will be enough to seal that monster. He thinks that the monster is capable of resisting the power of the restored temples now that it briefly tried to come on out on its own… Remember, he thinks it won't be enough. We can at least try the main idea."
Kirby just sighed and took his time to sleep, much to the doctor's chagrin as they continued down the ominous way to the temple.
The Deepest Reach
Unlike the broken-looking paths, the deepest part of the theme park was wide enough to hold several giant robots, as if it was big enough for security purposes. Due to the fallen debris and mess of steel beams piled up on top of each other, managing security was completely discouraged. The floor, although shattered, flickered thin lines of light blue light that were vaguely trying to point straight north. Beyond a tall opening, the structure slowly turned into ancient ruins that didn't blend well to the overall chaotic setting. The ruins were obviously not meant to be part of the doctor's theme park of madness.
Approximately three-hundred feet away from the entrance of the temple, Meta Knight's intrepid team of misfits emerged from a rather small hole. After each one of them jumped out (though Vector was the last one who got stuck and tried to worm himself out), they looked around their new surroundings.
"Take a note, everybody," Toon Link said. "A big wide space like this begs to be called the main room where the most precious treasure lies ahead."
"Or the twenty-foot tall robot bent on killing ya," Sonic said.
"Who likes my genre savvy idea better?" Most of them raised their hands. "All against one, I win."
"Lucky bastard," Sonic muttered.
"Sure, if we can even tell if this is the main way," Shadow said. Their vision of the entryway to the temple was blocked off by the biggest portions of fallen debris they had never seen before. He noticed the rare sighting of soil under their feet. "Earth…"
"We're probably at the very bottom of the theme park," Knuckles said. Vector popped himself out from the hole in the background. "And hey, the cold floor is kind of trying to merge with the soil! Maybe we ARE standing extremely close to the temple by now!"
Meta Knight looked to the left side, which was mostly occupied by steel floor. The right side had soil being the dominant element. He looked to the sides of the debris where makeshift paths could be taken to proceed around the structure. "Let's move through those paths," he told them.
"Uh… Don't you hear something?" Sonic asked, cleaning his left ear with a finger.
It was then that they heard some kind of commotion going on close to where they were. It wasn't coming from the other side of the debris but from the wall of debris to the left side of the wide room. They turned to said direction. "Whatever's going on over there, it sounds serious," Toon Link said. They could hear shouting and explosions going off.
"Whatever's going on, we're surely needed. Why else would there be explosions?" Knuckles asked.
"Well, this place might as well be blowing up at a REALLY unfortunate time," Toon Link said. "…But there's not even a lot of rumbling. Let's see here!" He took several bombs and placed them around the wall. By a small second, Toon Link managed to outrun the big cartoony explosion he set off. The wall gave away and fell down, almost reaching everybody's feet.
Lucas and Soren were seen emerging from the hole in the wall, looking quite tired. The Branded noticed the others. "Good, we have made contact with each other at last," he said. "There is no time to talk. We're being ambushed by a horde of those obnoxious speedsters!"
Shadow grinned. "It feels really good to hear somebody call your kin like that," he told Sonic, who rolled his eyes and frowned.
"How many are there?" Meta Knight asked with his Galaxia resting at his side.
"As many as us six," Soren said. "We are not holding out too well, so we need your help."
"They're pouring in!" Vector shrieked out.
Firstly, Samus, Wolf, Pit, and Chip all ran out from the hole, feeling quite relieved to see reinforcements ready for battle. Secondly and lastly, six smirking Sonics ran out and looked joyful to see more prey. "Oh, great. The room's overall annoyance quotient skyrocketed," Wolf muttered.
"Hey!" Sonic shouted, and the brawl was on.
Persona 3 – Unavoidable Battle
As a fight erupted, the last group was slowly approaching their location not from the ground level, but from the ceiling. High above them, Roy's group walked through what felt like a loose floor of iron beams and debris. They started to hear a clash of swords and other sounds that most likely implied that a battle was taking place. "H-hey, I heard something," Roy said.
"It's coming from below," Rouge said. "Omega, be a dear and tell us."
"The sound is coming from below."
"Thank you."
Mewtwo looked down the floor. He did spot a few holes that ran through the unstable floor. He narrowed his eyes, seeing movement through some of the holes. "There might be others nearby, but we must head down immediately to ascertain it," he said.
"Oh, joy. Like I look like I want to see the pesky hedgehog," Dr. Eggman muttered.
"Well, the fastest way would be making this floor fall down. It does feel kind of like the entrance's path…" Diddy said. Kirby looked serious, hopped into the air, and used Stone. "Wait, Kirby, we haven't decided if we shou-!"
Kirby didn't stop. He intentionally fell down at full force. For being a small character, the puffball gave the floor its last stable form. The debris and iron beams all crumbled down from the ceiling underneath until a hole gradually grew, making them fall down. Only Mewtwo, Rouge, and Omega hovered and descended down, seeing Roy and Diddy having not much luck. Kirby was still stuck as a stone, waiting to hit safe floor.
Vector carefully backed away from battle until a pink stone with only two angry eyebrows instantly fell down in front of his feet. He yelped and ran back as debris and iron beams rained down on the battlefield. The Smashers and the six hedgehogs looked up in unison and scattered around to avoid getting crushed. Soon, Roy and Diddy clumsily fell down, followed by the other three calmly landing with the imprisoned scientist in tow. "Hey there," Rouge said, winking at Knuckles. "Hope you didn't miss us, especially me."
Knuckles briefly blushed. "Q-quiet, you bat girl!" he barked.
Seeing the six evil Sonics, Roy drew out his sword. "I was expecting a battle reunion," he said. "Let's get the battle over to have only the reunion part!"
The six evil hedgehogs smirked and disappeared from sight. Soren felt the wind pushing his cape to the sides. "They're running around at high speeds. They must be scheming something," he said.
Mewtwo grunted and put Dr. Eggman inside a cage of iron beams that the first had made quickly. The doctor then grunted next. "I know, I know. I'm the load," he said. "On the good side, I'm indirectly being protected from more hedgehogs!"
With that worry out, the Psychic Pokémon had his full attention in the fight.
He wasn't expecting that he was their prey.
Mewtwo was hit brutally from all directions as Homing Attacks took him off-guard. What happened next was a mess of people trying to score a hit to interrupt the evil Sonics. Sonic and Shadow managed to pin down two, but the other four were too fast for everybody to stop. Mewtwo was being slammed around in midair, and even his darkness resistance wasn't enough to let him recover his composure.
Soren proved to be a worthy ally. Having a high mastery on the wind, he drew out a Tornado tome and set said ravaging force loose. The four evil Sonics were stopped in midair and pulled in viciously into the whirlwind. They were then sent rocketing towards different directions after the tornado vanished. Three of them crashed down the floor, but one landed on its feet and disappeared, running at a high speed to stay out of sight.
Roy stared in awe and asked, "Why don't we have that many magic users in the roster?"
"Master Hand likes sword users the most for some reason," Samus noted.
Back in the Smash Mansion, Master Hand felt insulted.
Back in the fight, the three evil Sonics that were thrown away were being ambushed by the rest of the team. However, the one that had escaped was now crashing into the Smashers trying to defeat them all. Sonic and Shadow had also been pushed away, setting the other two doppelgangers free. Now all six were running around out of sight.
"Great, they're at it again," Diddy said. "Guess I have to use the cheap trick again…" He tossed two Banana Peels in two random spots. He wanted to throw out more, but the laws of the tourney were holding him back from doing so. Some of them saw how he lazily pulled back his right hand without any peels. "This makes no sense, really!" he complained.
One evil Sonic stepped on one peel, making him slid on the ground at an absurd speed. He ended up taking another with him into a wall of loose rubble. Both of them crashed into it, making rocks bury them alive inside. A few seconds later, though, both used Spin Dash to come out of it, looking particularly pissed for falling down for such a trick. They then widened their eyes once another evil Sonic slipped on another peel and crashed into them.
"Really, that cheap trick is cheap for a reason," Rouge commented before she was tackled away into the floor. She grunted as she got up. "Harming a woman… That is one big death wish…"
Arming himself with courage, Chris swung his sword hard to send three slicing waves of air after the evil Sonic that had tackled Rouge. The slicing winds gained considerably speed in a second, slicing the shadow up. The Moogle Knight saw a serious Kirby high-jumping into the shadow, swinging his hammer into its face. The evil Sonic made a hurtful expression as it soared across in the air, only to be blasted into spores by one shot from Samus' Light Beam.
"Four more to go!" Samus told everybody just before two evil Sonics rammed into her from behind, pushing her away. The two smirking monsters jumped back to avoid Shadow's Homing Attack and Sonic's stretchable fist, ramming themselves into empty floor. They merely stepped back without suffering injuries, though Sonic shook his claw a bit.
Shadow noticed how the background itself looked unusually darker. He then looked at Toon Link glowing with an aura that changed colors. His eyes were bright yellow. "Something ridiculous is about to happen, isn't it?" he asked, arching an eyebrow. He never knew what a Final Smash was.
Toon Link could've used his signature Final Smash, but he resorted to use a different skill altogether as time came to a halt around the battlefield. He was looking at the two smirking Sonics that ignored his presences. The fact both were standing close to each other gave him a chance to attack to deal huge damage. With his sword placed right in front of his face, he chanted, "I call upon the servant of Mother Earth! Come, Gnome!"
With a poof smoke, the giant…gerbil wearing an iron red ribbon flipped once in thin air and let his heavy girth be known to the battle, right above the two smirking Sonics. Time itself had resumed, and the two evil hedgehogs noticed they couldn't even move due to a magic glyph below their feet. Looking up in horror, they tried to scream as Gnome's weight squashed them flat. "PARTAY THEIME!" Gnome noisily shouted, his weight causing four waves of stalagmites to protrude from the ground. He saluted to Toon Link before disappearing, leaving no trace of the two evil Sonics behind from where he landed.
One of the waves of stalagmites pushed an unsuspecting evil Sonic aside to the wall. Seeing it weakened briefly, Wolf decided to go all out on it in a special way. He grabbed Chris's tiny self from his back and pulled him in front of his face. Chris whimpered mentally at the lupine's sharp face. "Kid, change into that thief thing of yours to rip its soul out. Hurry up before that nightmare gets up!"
His will completely obeying the lupine, Chris changed back into human form once he wore the thief's clothes. He grabbed Wolf's wrist and began an incantation.
"…Oh yeah, you're mute," Wolf muttered.
Then his right claw glowed in an ominous aura. At first, Wolf blinked, but then he smirked and pulled his soul-ripping claw, looking over to the evil Sonic as it stood up. Quickly, Wolf dashed to it, his claw fully open and ready to crush its soul.
The standing monster then noticed Wolf, but it was too late. Wolf thrust his claw into the hedgehog's small chest, passing right through it as the claw grabbed a malicious purple sphere that held on to its host for dear life. The evil Sonic had an extremely painful look on its face, but it tried so hard to keep its soul back into its body.
Wolf felt pressure as the purple tendrils tied into the sphere were pulling harder into the enemy. "Damned…thing…!" Wolf grunted through his greeted fangs, his arm pulling the soul hard.
"Let me help you out!"
Wolf and the evil Sonic looked to the left where Knuckles leaped into the fray and punched the hedgehog's face to the opposite direction. The force of the echidna's punch ended up cutting the tendrils attach to the body. As the evil Sonic looked over in complete and utter shock, Wolf chuckled and crushed the purple soul into his fist. The evil Sonic vanished, its eyes turning white without life.
"Ahh, that punch felt good," Knuckles felt satisfied. Chris rolled his eyes, but he admitted that was an excellent showcase of teamwork. The wolf and the echidna grinned to each other in understanding.
"Don't get cocky now, dear," Rouge said. "There's one more to go."
The last evil Sonic was seen looking down upon them from a hanging high beam into the ceiling. It smirked and hopped down to the battle, feeling quite sure in taking all of them on.
Though once it saw that it was greatly outnumbered by seventeen fighters (Chip and Vector were taking cover behind a pile of rubble), its courage sank down rather fast with a worried expression.
"Not feeling so sure now, huh?" Shadow asked, but then the shadow grinned and disappeared. In a second, it appeared, holding Chip hostage in his hand. "What an effective, dirty strategy…"
"HEEEEEEEEEELP!" Chip called out…to the Elite Beat Agents. Sadly, it was J's rarely seen day off. "Nuuuuuuuuuuuu, it doesn't work!"
Everyone was too busy worrying about his welfare. In a flash, the evil hedgehog ran to the opposite direction of the temple, dragging Chip with him. Out of a cue, Shadow gave chase, leaving everyone else behind. "Well, this is the part where we all take a supporting role and let the hedgehog save the world," Rouge said.
"The good old times aren't that good, I admit…" Knuckles muttered.
"God! It sucks feeling like this!" Sonic noted, sitting down.
"I would hate to imagine taking a role like that in a war," Soren noted, looking to the way the hedgehogs went.
"If only the darkness of this place didn't hamper my powers," Mewtwo said, "I could have decimated that monster."
"Oh, they're coming back our way," Roy said. He saw Meta Knight walking to the direction where the evil hedgehog was running to. Seeing him, the others prepared to attack.
The smirking evil Sonic ran further away from Shadow, who was mere feet away from reaching him out. All the while Chip was screaming his lungs out. The evil Sonic was looking over his shoulder to his pursuer, smirking and sticking his tongue out at them.
That fact was probably the reason why Meta Knight thought it would be a good idea to stand in his way, taking out any possibilities of the enemy jumping over. The evil Sonic then was abruptly interrupted once Meta Knight impaled the ground with Galaxia, making the hedgehog trip over him into the air with a shocked expression. Mewtwo used his psychic power to pull Chip away from his grasp as Knuckles knocked it aside with a fierce punch to his face. Omega followed by blasting three small missiles into his body. Pit shot an arrow that landed right on the monster's eye to stun him with pain and disorient him for Samus to pierce right through it with a Light Beam shot, eradicating the last evil Sonic.
Chip was placed next to Mewtwo as the former sighed in relief. "I'm…alive…. Phew! Here I thought he was taking me to his leader!" Chip said.
Music stops
After the battle, the team decided to rest for a bit and discuss all the facts they could gather from what each one of them found. Being the only healer, Chris was healing everybody with healing magic that more often than not wouldn't work right due to his muteness. Sonic's transformation was also discussed.
"That is so cliché," Rouge noted. Sonic responded with a very long grunt.
Meta Knight wasn't feeling so sure that the magic department of the team was in the hands of Soren and Chris. He decided to reveal what he had been doing with Marth and Pit. "The cards!" Pit realized.
"Yes," Meta Knight said, holding seven cards, having used one already. "This is what we got for doing side jobs." There was an unnerving feeling about the cards looking familiar to Chris. The knight then went on to explain what each card granted to the wearer.
"I'll take the healing one!" Roy said, putting the Mediarama card on his trophy stand as a sticker. "A healing swordsman, now that's useful."
"I pick fire 'cuz it's cool," Sonic said, choosing Agilao.
"Megidola for me," Meta Knight said.
"Ice!" Kirby cheered, picking Bufula.
"Thunder suits me," Samus said, picking Mazionga.
"I suppose healing one person is not too much of a burden…" Wolf said, picking Diarama.
Nobody had picked Stagnant Air, but Chris decided to pick it. "Well, we're all geared up to go," Roy said. They all turned to Dr. Eggman.
"You all had your happy time blasting those dark hedgehogs into nothing," Dr. Eggman said, still incarcerated within the bent iron beams. "As you all can see, I'm not stupid enough, or at all, to destroy my own base! Dark Gaia is on the loose!"
"Really? Last I checked, building a base over a homicidal monster is not really the smartest thing to do," Sonic said with a grin. "But enough of that! I just know my monster wolf side is about to leave forever, so… Tell us where the temple is!"
"Right behind this pile of rubble," Dr. Eggman said.
The party then noticed a few big enough holes that lead to the other side of the pile. Mewtwo set the doctor free, but only for him to go back into the psychic cage. As Kirby dragged a horrified Vector to them, they all crossed the wall.
On the other side, the grand finale of their current journey would be over. The soil under their feet was now easily being dominated by cold steel that surrounded the entrance to the last temple. Originally, a big metal door blocked the entrance, but it was all torn down. Beyond that point, the previously protected sanctum of the temple stood proud from the inside. Sonic's creepy eyes dilated with glee. "It's so…beautiful…" Sonic noted.
"Alright, his insanity is reaching the highest point yet," Toon Link said. "Let's get over there before Dark Gaia says something."
The imp sniffed. Nobody listened. Chip sniffed loudly. Everyone listened. "This is it, isn't it…?" he asked. "The end is right in front of us…"
"Oh, right…" Knuckles remembered. "You're supposed to return back to the core of the planet to keep your other half in check…"
"Yeah…" Chip said. "Once the temple is restored, it'll be parting time…" He moved forward and turned to them. Meta Knight somehow felt that the time they had left was running short. "Before we finish this… I just wanna say that I…I enjoyed our time together. You all taught me a lot during the entire journey… I met people…I experienced love and loss…I found out I liked sweets and candy… There was just so much I saw with my own eyes! It kind of makes me not want to go back to my old job…" He looked serious, albeit he was crying more tears. "But don't worry… I was destined to take on this job for myself. I'll be happy to know that I got to do a lot of stuff…so then…I'll protect all that I enjoyed by going back to my home."
Sonic approached Chip. "It was nice having you, Chip," he said. Chip's eyes filled with tears and he embraced Sonic tightly. Sonic sighed and embraced Chip as weakly as possible as to not crush him unconditionally. "Don't forget about us."
"A-and…a-and don't forget me! I keep things in check down there, after all!" The imp smiled at the others, a few of them returning the smile. Vector was particularly whimpering and using napkins. "You all are awesome… I'm so honored you all helped me out with this burdening task…" He pushed himself from the werehog. "It is my turn to do my definite job."
"Yes," Meta Knight said. "Unfortunately, we shouldn't stop here. We need to get in there, now."
"Y-yeah!" Chip said, feeling embarrassed. They all started going towards the temple. "Let's get a move on! I have more in my speech I have to say! Like, for examp-"
The rumbling on the floor was not a good sign.
"I curse our luck," Mewtwo muttered before everyone broke into a sprint. They were all about 250 feet away from the entrance of the temple.
It felt like the rumbling was slowly escalating into a full blown earthquake. Shadow could have reached the temple first before anybody else, but he was refrained by Rouge from leaving them. "Screw this," Shadow said as he grabbed Rouge's and Omega's hands, rushing into the temple.
The black hedgehog felt sure they wouldn't get into trouble, but it was all proven false once when, from the ground, a wall of purple and dark colors rose up into the ceiling.
Everybody stopped dead cold on their tracks when they saw the suspicious-yet-menacing wall blocking their way. Dr. Eggman shrieked loudly and said, "IT'S DARK GAIA!"
"Oh, hell no!" Sonic grunted loudly. They turned around, only to see another wall blocking the way. "D-dammit, we're surrounded!"
Omega acted quickly and shot the front wall with bullets. None of the bullets even made a dent, falling flat on the ground. "Weaponry ineffective. Chances of survival are slim," he said.
"That is such an encouraging fact," Rouge said sarcastically. The ground under their feet was now giving away to their weight as it cracked violently.
Once boulders started falling down from the ceiling, Diddy, his hands covering his hat, looked up and froze in horror. He saw that the two walls blocking their way weren't exactly walls…but they were long, tall, scaly skin with dark claws that closed in on them. Judging how long the huge claws were, there was no escape. Both claws were closing on them. "A-AAAAAAAHHH!" Chip screamed.
And thus they all lost all senses as darkness closed in…
Chip had to admit something. Their luck was cursed definitely. One minute, they were standing in front of the last temple just fine. The next minute, though, everything just went down in a blink of an eye. He just knew when to complain as he slowly woke up from whatever had happened in front of the last step of the journey.
His vision was blurry first, but he noticed that the air felt warmer. Then, his vision came back to him, realizing that he saw vivid red and yellow lights into the distance. When he found out his face was staring down at a humongous amount of fiery magma over rocky edge, Chip whimpered and quickly recovered his flight. "A-ahh!" he shrieked and immediately looked around where he was. He shook his head in pure shock.
Several miles away from below, the planet's core calmly radiated with energy. A lot more miles away above his head, a huge dome of earth blocked the sight of the night sky. He saw a big unprotected portion of the dome intact, probably because it was the continent that held Dr. Eggman's destroyed base.
"(Did…did I fall down from…up there?)" he thought in shock. Chip gasped and looked around for the others. Luckily, an unconscious Sonic and Chris were lying down on the warm rock. That was when Chip saw many rock platforms floating around almost the entire aerial area above the magma. On top of each platform, there was a member of his team unconscious. He counted all of them and sighed five seconds later, feeling okay that no one had fallen down into certain death.
Chip wondered how none of them was being burned alive by the heat. In fact, the air didn't feel quite as warm as he thought. "But why…" His body felt funny when a small flicker of light shone on the palm of his right hand. Noticing it, he shook it for a bit. "W-wait…maybe I'm giving everybody protection… Oh yeah, my deity powers are coming back to me!"
"Shut up…" Sonic lazily muttered. "I'm eating the world's biggest chili dog here…"
"Oh, joy!" Chip went to Sonic, slapping his furry face. "Wake up, you're alive! W-we're all alive!"
"ACK!" Sonic pushed Chip away, his eyes opening fast. "What the… Huh?" He sat up and looked around, bewildered at his surroundings. He saw Chris next to him. "Hey, bud! Wake up! We're in quite a fix now!"
Chris mumbled literally silently and raised his face from the ground. When he saw the werehog's face, Chris felt okay. When he saw where they were, Chris felt an extreme case of vertigo until Sonic slapped his head a bit.
"Get a hold of yourself!" Sonic growled. "We're alive, that's what matters the most now!"
The others around the floating rocks started to regain their senses. Once they also got to see where they were, many unbelievable comments were quickly shouted aloud. "Well, now this is…really, REALLY bad…"
"By far the worst place we've fallen into," Toon Link said. "I was waiting for an underwater kingdom with a giant bubble of oxygen again, but nooooooooo. I got the one without a kingdom but with boiling magma below instead!"
"I know for a fact that this isn't the time to complain, cat-eyed boy," Rouge said. "I'm surprised we're not being toasted alive!"
"Uh…yeah… That could be because of me…" Chip said, raising his hand. "You see…my powers are coming back to me, and I think they acted out of pure instinct to protect you all while I was out…"
"…You're a fluffy deity. Therefore, your assumption shouldn't sound so crazy by now," Diddy said.
The semi-powered deity raised his fists. "Alright! I'm almost back to full steam!"
"Quit the unnecessary cheering," Soren said. "I have no idea how we're supposed to deal with this new problem." He looked up. "Getting back to the surface will prove to be a difficult task in itself…"
"N-not much, really," Lucas muttered under his breath. He saw that the floating rocks all went up from where they were, but they also went down. "We could possibly hop from rock to rock all the way back to the top…"
"If all the rocks are reaching out that high, that is…" Knuckles trailed off in frustration.
Meta Knight shook his head. "Escaping from this place isn't going to be easy," he said. "Dark Gaia is lurking around these parts for sure."
"Where is Dr. Eggman?" Mewtwo wondered aloud. "I lost my focus on him when I passed out."
"Eh, I didn't count him," Chip said. "He wasn't worth being counted with the rest of us."
"Aww, you learn so fast," Sonic said proud of the imp.
Kirby turned around and found pure darkness a several floating rocks away. He blinked confused and saw that the darkness inside a very bright core of magma wasn't a common sight to see. The puffball peered down and saw an enormous tower of darkness coming out from the core itself. Kirby gulped and looked up, feeling that the huge wall of darkness was staring down on all of them.
Sniffing a sickening smell and hearing some extreme heavy breathing made the Star Warrior gasp so loud that he got everyone's attention to the dark wall. The less courageous all screamed loudly, while the more courageous backed away, putting strained looks on their faces and reaching out for whatever weapon they had with them.
The screaming and the intense stares to the wall of darkness all came to a stop when a distorted voice so casually said, "Hi."
"…Huh?" Sonic's ears perked up. Everyone now was staring confused at the voice, looking around for the source.
"It's been so long ever since we last saw each other so un-formally… I was missing you, guys! Thanks for coming to my new home! You were all kinda high up there, so I personally brought you down to meet me!"
There was no mistake. The voice was coming from the wall of darkness. And the casualness of its tone somehow sounded frightfully familiar to some…
"No…" Chip muttered silently.
Sonic barely muttered a "How?" as his fierce eyes shook slightly in horror...
Next Chapter:
"The Joy of Bloodshed Incarnate"
Do you want to save your data after the events of today?
Overwrite file?
-Earth/Mobius' Core-
Chris, Lucario, Mario, Luigi, Peach, Yoshi, Pikachu, Jigglypuff, Mewtwo, Red, Squirtle, Ivysaur, Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong, Samus, Kirby, Meta Knight, Link, Zelda, Toon Link, Falco, Wolf, Captain Falcon, Olimar, Marth, Roy, Soren, Lucas, Pit, Ice Climbers, Snake, Sonic, Chip, Knuckle, Vector, Shadow, Rouge, Omega
- None
And so, the final battle is at hand against Dark Gaia! …Wait, did it use to have a voice before? Ooh, something in the timeline has changed drastically. The next chapter shall be the beginning of the final battle…of THIS arc, of course. Will it contain the end as well? Probably, probably not! I'm getting sick of this whole werehog business so I'll make this go away with a bang.
In other news, I do want to say some good news. The story itself is so infamously big and popular; it has its own TVtrope page (though it is kind of empty…)! Please, do visit my forum and the page itself to contribute and add all kinds of tropes I have amassed throughout this long story!
Also, ever since I got Colors! 3D, my digital artistic skills are steadily growing. That means I'll have my own set of official artwork for the story itself sooner or later. Sweet practice is sweet.
I encourage all readers to review. Oh, and please don't wish me or the story bad luck for that disclaimer thing in the reviews. Things just happen that way in gaming, so accept them with dignity and enjoy the ride.
Or else, Sonic will continue to be a werehog for the next chapters to come…if he comes out alive, that is. *Audience gasps*
Sonic: I'd rather die!
Pichu's ghost: Really? You wanna become like me?
Sonic: Yuck, being a ghost is worse than a werehog.


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Infectious Outbreak Should Be Of Major Concern To The Chronic Kidney Disease Community/
End Stage Renal Disease is associated with significantly increased mortality resulting from infections due to their immune system dysfunction. This makes the E. Coli outbreak (announced by USA Today) in certain packaged salads and wraps sold at mainstream stores very alarming to many with late stage Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) as "problems are most likely to occur in adults with weak immune systems," according to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Recommended Reading: Chronic Kidney Disease Patients Can Now Predict And Prevent Deadly Infections Before Serious
The Symptoms of an E.coli infection include abdominal cramps, nausea, vomiting, fever and diarrhea that is sometimes bloody. They usually develop three to four days after exposure to the virus, but could appear in as short as 1 day or take as long as 10 days. Often, the symptoms begin mildly and worsen over several days. If you show signs of E. coli then you should consult your Nephrologist immediately and avoid taking over the counter anti-diarrheal medications or antibiotics until the E. coli infection is ruled out because some medications can actually make the issue worse, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Recommended Reading: Chronic Kidney Disease Patients Should Be Aware Of Bacteria And "Filth" In Commonly Used Spices
Trevor Suslow, a food safety expert at the University of California, suggests that outbreaks such as these seem to occur more often with packaged products than whole raw vegetables for several reasons including the fact that if ready-to-eat products such as wraps and salads are not kept adequately chilled as they are prepared, shipped and sold, bacteria can grow more easily. Also, cut greens and vegetables are more easily contaminated because bacteria can enter the cuts.
Recommended Reading: Dialysis Patients should Insist that Staff follow protocols to Reduce Acquired Infections
The FDA is working with the CDC and state health departments on an investigation of the outbreak. In addition, there are certain precautions those suffering with CKD can take to reduce the risk of being infected with E. coli such as cooking all meat thoroughly, never cross-contaminating raw meat with other food, washing all produce carefully, promptly freezing all raw meats, and keeping your kitchen clean.
*Note: Do not forget to order your No BP/No Stick Medical Alert Bracelet!
Like Us on our Facebook Page for more Daily News and Information about life with CKD and ESRD:
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Elizabeth Weise and John Bacon. "Salads, Wraps Recalled Due to E. Coli Threat." http://www.usatoday.com/. USA TODAY
"E. Coli Infections: MedlinePlus." http://www.nlm.nih.gov/. U.S National Library of Medicine, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health.
Edited by CDC Bot, Oscuro87, Thomas, Wingrider and 10 Others. "How to Prevent E.Coli Poisoning." Http://www.wikihow.com/. Mediawiki


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The Algorithms That Power the Hyper-Real Creatures of Walking With Dinosaurs
Find out how animation company Animal Logic used complex feather and muscle simulation systems to depict the prehistoric animals in the new film Walking With...
Angry Nerd: Will The Hobbit Get Smaug Right?
For years, it's been a fantasy cinema rule that real actors and CG dragons just don't mix—ever. With the new release of The Hobbit: The...
Design FX: How Ender's Game Filmed Zero-G Battles That Obey the Laws of Physics
The Battle Room in director Gavin Hood's Ender's Game is stunning -- here's how VFX house Digital Domain made it happen.
Mary H. K. Choi on the Trouble With Perfection
If CG characters are ever going to look real, Hollywood A-listers need to stop looking like cartoons.


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