Theme Song: "This Means War" by Nickelback
________________________________

The three alliances began their silent staredown. Eyes flicked back and forth amongst each other, expecting anyone's next move.

Metal Sonic turned to the other Metals behind him and gave them a nod. The Metal Shadows' arm-guns clicked and they advanced forward. Metal Knuckles bumped his block-like fists together as the real Knuckles would do before a fight and went to follow, but Metal Sonic put a hand out and halted him. Whatever happened inside of their processors that allowed them to understand one another, told Metal Knuckles to stay put, and so he did.

The Metal Shadows accelerated forward with their rocket-skates, guns pointed for Amy and Rouge. The women saw this and started charging forward as well. Amy with her Piko-Piko Hammer ready, Rouge readying one of her signature kicks, concealing it. When close enough, Amy swung and Rouge struck, but missed; the Metal Shadows flipped right over them. The pink one front-flipped to be able to shoot down at the two while the blue one backflipped, gun aiming ahead at Mephiles and Ansem. Ansem shielded himself with a force-field and Mephiles remained still and took the bullets as they bounced off him without so much as a flinch.

The Metals landed and now were in between Ansem and Mephiles and Sally and Blaze, back-to-back. Mephiles reacted quickly and shot a lance of energy from his hand at the robots. This was the infamous Chaos Lance, the same move used to kill Sonic years prior. The lance cut through the heads of each robot, and towards Sally and Blaze. Sally reshaped her holographic arm-blades together into one big shield to deflect the attack, but the force was so strong, it knocked both of them to tumble back. The Metal Shadows' bodies slumped to the ground, now nothing but shells of vacancy and vengeance. However, Metal Sonic wasn't phased by this; it was all part of the plan: to use the Metal Shadows as decoys to test each of their strengths- although, Ansem has yet to react.

Yet.

Ansem's feet lifted off the ground, levitating himself, and he simply crossed his arms and grimaced. From his back, a shadow-like figure sprung into existence. It had a symbiotic appearance, with beaming yellow eyes, a blue vein-like design on its head, where four tendrils hung low acting as its hair, bandages over its head and mouth- which seemed to be always have snared its teeth in a fixed position, and bandages on its chest. To add, it had a hollow abdomen that was shaped like a heart- another identifier of the Heartless.

"Guardian, attack!" Ansem commanded his Heartless.

The Guardian's hands glowed with violet energy spheres, then he blasted them at Blaze and Sally. Blaze was first to recover and with a small wall of fire, Blaze dispelled the blasts. She too returned with fireballs to Ansem, but the Guardian detached itself from Ansem and quickly hovered in front of him to take the hits bare-chested. The Guardian didn't even flinch, then returned behind Ansem.

"We have to hit that man while the Guardian is planning its next attack." Blaze whispered to Sally.

"You mean, when that guy is planning. I think he's controlling it." Sally suggested.

"Take on Mephiles, I'll deal with this one!"

The two separated and went for their respective opponents.

"You're just as stubborn as the real Knucklehead!" Rouge growled.

Metal Knuckles threw a left punch, Rouge evaded. Now a right punch, Rouge dodged again. Metal Knuckles then smashed his fists onto the floor, quaking the small area around him to make Rouge lose balance, but Rouge was already off the ground with her wings' help. She did a backflip-kick and the mechanical doppelganger flew upwards and bounced off the ceiling, back down to Rouge. Before he hit the ground, Rouge timed it to where he was in front of her, then roundhouse kicked him down the hall. Metal Knuckles' back hit the wall and landed to kneel on one knee. He recovered quickly and Rouge took this challenge to go after him again.

Amy swung her mallet at Metal Sonic and smacked him into the wall next to them. Amy went to smash him to pieces, but Metal sidestepped her quickly. Amy threw her hammer at Metal, but she missed again with his evasion. However, while distracted, Metal Sonic returned his focus to Amy to see her in a Spin Dash. He was too late, and Amy knocked Metal Sonic down. She un-balled herself and pulled out her Piko-Piko Hammer, as Metal did a double-take and could've sworn she threw it elsewhere.

It will remain a mystery as to how Amy is able to summon her hammer at will.

Amy leapt forward with her hammer ready to obliterate Metal Sonic. She landed, and her hammer followed, but not as expected. Metal Sonic managed to catch the weapon by the top of its handle. Amy tried pulling away, but Metal resisted. He stood up again and started pulling as well with one hand, versus Amy using both. What was next happened too fast for Amy to process, for all she saw was a glimmer of Metal's free hand, then she felt a sharp and burning sensation on her arms, making her release her weapon. She checked to see four gashes on each arm from Metal Sonic's claws, and before she looked up, her own hammer was heading for her head. Upon impact, her vision blurred as she felt herself flying across the room, then everything went black as she collided with a steel wall. Amy Rose was down.

Rouge turned around to see a fallen Amy.

"AMY!" she yelled. She turned back to Metal Knuckles, but a fast spinning back-fist was already flying her way.

She spun around and her world had gone black too. Rouge The Bat was down.

"ENOUGH!" Ansem shouted, as his Guardian disappeared from his back.

The room went dark, so dark, only bodies were visible- it was like they were in an empty abyss. From under Blaze, a ring of dark energy formed. Through this portal-like ring on the floor, the Guardian phased through and shot up with an energy-like aura surrounding him to hit Blaze. The force of this attack sweeped Blaze off her feet, then the ring vanished.

"Blaze!" Sally called.

Another ring formed under her, and she rolled out of the way right before the Guardian struck. The ring faded away again and reappeared down the hall. Before Metal Knuckles even noticed, the Guardian thrashed straight through him and Metal Knuckles exploded into chunks of scrap.

Again, with Metal Sonic now, but Metal Sonic flew away from it and towards Ansem, as he already analyzed Ansem's fighting patterns. Blaze saw this and threw a fireball at Metal Sonic's jet thruster. An explosion occurred and fire and smog began spewing from his back. The hue of the room returned and Metal noticed he was hurdling straight for Ansem like he wanted, but with a lack of control with his flight. The Guardian did not reappear on time to stop Metal Sonic, as the large metallic projectile crashed into Ansem and drove him onto the wall. Ansem tried prying Metal Sonic off him, but Metal's jet kept Ansem pressed against the wall.

Blaze took advantage of these two being together. She put her hands out in front of her and like a flamethrower, she blasted fire at them. The Guardian had just arrived to block this attack, but could only hold for so long.

"AAAARGH!" Blaze bellowed, strengthening her attack as the flames flowed out of her hands faster and vigorously, becoming more voluminous.

The Guardian couldn't take the power and faded away, leaving Ansem and Metal Sonic to face the inferno. Ansem's howl of pain was muffled by the roaring of Blaze's flames, flickers and crackles. It then stopped when Mephiles blasted Blaze with dark energy. Blaze was blown off to the side, rolling to a stop, trying to recover.

Sally snuck up behind Mephiles and tried to slice him, but he vanished in a fog. She turned around to him being there, and sliced again. Once again, he disappeared like the illusionist he was. Mephiles proceeded with toying with Sally until exhaustion. Sally tried to gain her breath, but then Mephiles multiplied himself there were at least twenty of him surrounding her. One-by-one, they all flew into her as projectiles to harm her. Though tired, Sally weakly swung her blades, but only managed to hit one. The last copy had a ball of energy in his hand, and he raised it right in front of her, exploding with a burst of energy, knocking her off her feet. Her blades diminished and she was out cold. Sally Acorn was down. But Mephiles knew how much Sally meant to Sonic, so he wanted to kill her. The copies of him vanished and the one that delivered the final blow was left, as the this was the real one. Blaze from afar watched Mephiles near Sally.

"No! Sally!" she coughed.

She tried to stand, but Ansem stopped her as the Guardian picked her up and slammed her body back on the floor. Ansem himself added to this by pressing his foot onto her back to keep her down.

"Now I see why Mephiles was hesitant on allowing a battle with you." he said dusting off the ashes from Blaze's flames.

His seven-foot figure towered over a three-foot Blaze, symbolic of who was truly the more powerful. Blaze took a look around her. Amy, Sally, Rouge...they were all put through this.

"It's my fault...I shouldn't have let them come..." she told herself.

Ansem reached down and pulled Blaze's hair up to make her watch Sally's demise.

"Sally..."

Mephiles was only a few steps away. He was going to finish Sally as he did Silver...

Suddenly, a loud whistle-like sound was heard. Mephiles turned to its direction and saw a rocket hurdling his way. It blew up upon impact with his face and he stumbled back a bit.

"What is the meaning of this?!"

Another one was coming for Ansem, but the Guardian already blocked it before it him. Blaze covered her eyes from the brightness of the explosion, and when it died down, she looked to see who caused this. At the entrance of the room with multiple guns and missiles ablaze was E-123 Omega. He shot another missile at a wall to create an escape route for the women to leave the base through.

"Evacuate the base, immediately!"

"Omega!" Rouge croaked from behind him.

Omega kept his focus on the enemies, "Do not argue. I repeat, evacuate Eggman's base, now!"

He began unloading every form of firepower he had on Mephiles and Ansem. Rouge recovered herself and grabbed Amy, still unconscious.

Sally was slowly trying to get up, when she saw thousands of bullets scattering the laboratory. Without even checking, she knew it was Omega, the Walking Arsenal. She scurried over to Blaze to help her get up too.

"Come on! We gotta leave! They're too powerful!" Rouge called out over the gunfire and explosives.

"But...they killed Silver! I-I...I can't leave! Justice hasn't been served!" Blaze protested.

"Blaze, we can't be here! We'll die!"

"Silver died for us!"

"He didn't choose that!"

"No! I am not leaving!"

While still bombarding his enemies, Omega made his way over to Blaze, covering her. "Blaze. I have always admired your will for justice. However, your reasoning is futile. If you choose to stay-"

To his misfortune, Omega was cut off...and cut through. Mephiles shot a Chaos Lance at Omega, also hoping to hit Blaze. Luckily she ducked, but Omega took the strike critically. Rouge grabbed a shocked Blaze and flew out of the base with her, Sally following and hoisting Amy out with her. The last thing the quartet saw when they looked back was Omega's jolting body drop to the lab floor, and the sound of his guns coiling ceased.

Sally and Blaze ran as far away from the base as possible with Rouge flying above, taking Amy off Sally's hold. They stopped at the outskirts of the city.

"Omega..." Rouge said, tears starting to fill her eyes.

The other two took to her side for comfort.

"He sacrificed himself for us!" Rogue cried.

"His sacrifice will not be in vain, but we have to fight another time...We can't do this on our own..." said Sally.

Blaze hesitated, but agreed, "They are more powerful than I could ever anticipate...especially that man with the white hair. And I can't help but feel like...like he was holding back..."

Back At Eggman's Base...

"I...w-w-will...destroy you!" Omega said, incapable of moving.

"Hmph. We'll see about that." said Ansem.

His Guardian silenced Omega by thrusting a hand through his armored body and ripping out Omega's power source. The device was tossed away, Omega permanently shut down.

"I actually like you better than the real Sonic."

Ansem turned around to see Mephiles speaking to a sparking, twitching, and smoking Metal Sonic.

"As do I. Your natural hate for life is admirable, robot. What is your purpose?" Ansem tuned in.

"To...kill...Sonic...the Hedgehog!..." Metal Sonic tried.

Mephiles laughed, "Well then, you're fighting on the wrong side!"

Ansem made his way to the struggling robot. "What if I told you I can give you the power to eliminate of that wretched rodent? You don't have a heart, which is perfect."

Metal Sonic desperately gripped Ansem by his leg and looked up at him.

"I WANT TO KILL SONIC THE HEDGEHOG!"

"On one condition however: Assist me in finding those Chaos Emeralds! Don't worry, you won't be doing all of the dirty work." Mephiles added.

Metal impatiently mashed a fist on the floor, "PROVIDE ME-...THE POWER!"

"Very well." Ansem replied.

He lifted Metal up by his neck and observed him. Ansem placed his hand on Metal Sonic's chest, then waves of darkness swarmed the mech. His digital irises shut off and Ansem placed him back down, standing on his own. The aura then blew away to reveal a repaired Metal Sonic. His eyes flashed on again, but this time they were just two yellow dots, and a Heartless symbol was on his forehead.

The colors on his armor looked a tad bit darker as well. He observed himself and was adapting to his new power. "I am Metal Sonic....Program Version: Heartless."

*Vote, comment, and/or share if you liked! Thank you.

*CHARACTERS INTRODUCED:

Guardian

Metal Sonic (Heartless)