Fan Fiction / Sonic Series Fan Fiction ❯ The Marines Journey - The SHODAN crisis ❯ Chapter 79: Julian and Metal Sonic on Wing Fortress, and Xerxes’s decision! ( Chapter 80 )

The Marine's Journey

Chap 79: Julian and Metal Sonic on Wing Fortress, and Xerxes's decision!

By: Piccard

I must apologise for the lack of any updates for a while, but Christmas was calling, and I've been caught up with getting ready for a visit from my cousins.

Dark: But we we're pondering this for a while…

That's right! By the end of this one, we'll be back at the mansion, hopefully!

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Disclaimer: That would have been a nifty crimbo prezzie!

Chaos: What would?

Rouge!

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Back on the shuttle, the fifth light lit, and just as Xerxes was about to start talking, the other two lights started beeping madly. "What the?" Xerxes muttered as he started pressing buttons, and as he got the results, he went white. "Guys, good news and bad." The android said as he turned to the two in the back. "Good news is that both emeralds are here on the wing fortress, but the bad news is that someone's trying to use them!" Julian and Metal Sonic looked at each other before Xerxes continued. "It gets worse, even though one emeralds at the front of the ship and one's at the rear, one of them is being guarded by Bio Carter himself, and I have no idea whose watching over the other one!" "Well we'll decide what to do when we get there!" Julian said as both he and Metal started to vanish, and as they did, Xerxes shouted after them, "I'm gonna go and grab the others, then I'm gonna blast wing fortress out of the sky!"

As the two beamed aboard, they saw the Lebanon turn and shoot into the distance as Julian pulled out a laser pistol. "Metal," He started as he turned, "I'll take the front of the ship, you take the back!" He told him as he walked off, stopping as he heard his name when Metal shouted, "What should we do if either of us runs into Bio Carter?" Julian turned his head slightly as his moustache twitched. "Then whichever of us meets him should panic!" He merely muttered as he started off, and Metal jetted in the opposite direction.

As Julian ambled towards the front of the ship, he merely glanced around at how the interior of the ship had been changed by the bio matter and mechanical components. "Whatever happened to the day when this was just a ship?" He muttered to himself as he entered a lift and started towards the upper decks. "The internal security was destroyed, so no turrets will be online," He started as the shaft opened, and he stepped out and saw several turrets pointing straight at him. "Of course, I'm always wrong aren't I?" He muttered as he rolled to the side and started firing.

"Secondary emerald detected in engine core." Metal's internal sensor beeped as Metal jetted down a corridor, dodging all turrets as he smashed through some double doors. "Why can't I identify the forms?" He asked himself as he walked to a set of iron doors and started tapping in codes. "Whoever's here with Bio Carter has to have a great knowledge of computers." He tried several more, and after going through the whole system, he sighed. "I haven't got time for this!" He shouted as dark energy coursed into his right hand, and in an instant, the lock was destroyed, and the door flew open to reveal the core, and a familiar man in green stood by the purple emerald, and as he saw Metal, he smirked as his arm transformed. "I've been waiting for you Metal Sonic. . ."

"Access Denied!" "Well I made it!" Julian muttered as he started pressing keys, and eventually got to a point where he snapped. He took several steps backwards, and then ran and started rolling, bowling the door over and opening the passage to the bridge. "Well I may not have speed," He started as he destroyed a nearby turret that just flipped down, "But I have bulk!" He moved over to the turret and picked up a piece of metal. "UNN Rickenbacker v.1901 what the?" He wondered as he dropped the metal and started on the bridge door. "There's gotta be some way into here." He said as he reached for the bridge controls, but just before he did, he heard a familiar voice. "Allow me sir!" And Julian looked on in shock as the door opened and he recognised the short figure before him. "We need to talk, uncle. . ."

Several minutes later, The Lebanon arrived back at the position as they noticed the Wing fortress starting to move, and Xerxes was baffled. "What the, shouldn't they have the emeralds?" "You have to give them a chance!" Tails said as he looked over the controls and noticed the flashing lights. "What do they mean?" Xerxes sighed. "That someone or something is trying to manipulate the power of the emeralds. But these will be harder to get than any of yours." Now they heard a cough and noticed Sonic standing up. "How do you mean harder? We had some serious battles you know!" Xerxes pressed a button and an image appeared of the engine core. "Bio Carter is on that ship, and he has engaged Metal Sonic," He started as the image changed to the front, and they saw two others, and Sonic couldn't help but laugh. "How'd needle-nose get there?" "No idea." Xerxes said as he activated the com, and his voice boomed over the speakers in the fortress. "This is Xerxes of the USS Lebanon, hand us the emeralds or I will blast you out of the sky!"

"Hear that!" Carter said as he sliced at Metal, "If I keep this up, they'll destroy you!" "Us you mean!" Metal shouted as he flew up a pillar and backflipped into Carter, who just took it. "I can teleport at any time, you cant!" He shouted as he sliced hard, sending Metal back into a pillar. Bio Carter laughed as he pointed his blade, "That was too easy!" He yelled as he flew forward, but Metal suddenly started glowing, and Carter smashed into a diamond cage. "What the?" "Black shield!" Metal gloated as he blasted forward. "I may not have special attacks, but I do have a good defence!" He bought his fist down hard, and sent Carter down into the case containing the emerald, cracking it slightly. "Material pattern analysed." Metal's internal computer started, "Immune to transport, but if a point is penetrated, transport of contents will be possible." "Gotta demolish that case!" Metal thought as he span and shot at the genetic commander.

"Snivley what got into you?" Julian yelled as his nephew walked to a nearby drawer and laughed. "SHODAN offered me a chance, Julian," He sneered as he reached in and pulled out a small object. "I was given one of these when SHODAN sent Bio Carter here to defend the purple emerald." Upon closer examination, Julian noticed a similar device just under Snivley's shirt. "It's a brain control device, and it'll finally get me what I wanted," He moved forward and leaned over the eggy one, "Power!" Mustering what strength he could, Julian kicked up, sending the device back to the drawer as he tackled his nephew. "I did worry how dysfunctional out family was, Julian!" Snivley muttered as he started punching, and Julian noticed the grey emerald sitting inside a tank under the console.

Bio Carter laughed in triumph as Metal Sonic flew hard into the floor, short circuiting him. "You know," Carter started as he swung the blade and started forward, "I would have expected more from a machine!" Metal's eyes started whirring, and as he looked up, he noticed he was right next to the emerald container. "My fate is unimportant," Metal started as he pulled himself up, and clenched his fist, "As long as Xerxes gets this!" He shouted as he bought his fist round hard and shattered the container before he fell to the floor, and was offlined as Carter's blade entered his front.

"What the?" Xerxes shouted as one light stopped flashing. "I don't know what Metal did, but the sixth emerald is off-lined!" "Grab it quick!" Rouge yelled as Xerxes and Tails hammered buttons, and the purple emerald materialised with a little something extra attached. "Oh my god," Knuckles said as he picked it up and examined it, the extra thing was the right hand of Metal Sonic. Upon seeing it, Xerxes's face seemed to anger. "Carter, that bastard!" He shouted as he hammered the com. "Xerxes to the fortress, prepare to die in three minutes!"

On the bridge, Julian was winning the fight as Snivley couldn't counter the blubber, but then he had a brainwave as he bought his foot up hard, and as Julian reeled, he bought his nose into the docs stomach, making him fly back and into the container, denting it as he looked at it when he noticed Snivley reaching into a drawer. "Time to join me, Julian!" He screeched as he lunged forward, but Julian rolled to the side, and Snivley smashed into the emerald container, making a huge hole where his nose punctured it, and Julian smiled as he saw it vanish, but as he turned to run to assist Metal, he felt something leap onto his back, and felt a small device latch onto his neck.

"We have all seven!" Xerxes muttered as the others held all seven emeralds up. "Now we can get back to the mansion, I can see it below us." "Don't count on it!" They all heard a voice say, and they all looked to see a figure surrounded by static. "You aren't going anywhere with those!" As the image cleared, Sonic chuckled. "So you're with SHODAN to needle-nose?" Snivley went as red as his eyes were as he glared at the hedgehog. "Say what you will pin cushion, but we have the upper hand, Metal has been disabled, and Julian is back!" "Hold up," Xerxes shouted, "He's on our side!" After that, they heard a deep chuckle "That's what you think," They looked behind Snivley to see Julian smirking, with eyes bright red. "Snivley managed to convince me that me true calling was, how to say, not with you rodent!" "Julian," Xerxes started, but was interrupted, "It's now Robotnik, and you'd do well to remember that scrap metal!" They started laughing as the Sonic team looked at each other. "What do we do now?" Sonic asked, but as they pondered it over, they heard the computers voice. "Weapons online, torpedoes loaded and phasers charged." "Xerxes, what are you doing?" Tails shouted as he ran forward, but hit a force field face first. "That's it SHODAN," Xerxes screamed as the Lebanon shot forward, "Now you've gone too far!"

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"What the hell is that Android doing?" Order shouted as he noticed the Lebanon break it's standard orbit round the ship and start firing phasers and torpedoes as his com badge beeped. "Xerxes to the alliance." "Order here, you better have a damn good reason for this!" He shouted as his face went red, but he calmed as a hand rested on his shoulder and he turned to Dark, "I'm sure Xerxes has his reasons, he wouldn't go berserk for the sake of it!" "I know," Order said with Bio's voice, "But we worry." "Damn right." Light's voice said, and they turned as a door opened and Amy walked in. "They alright?" "Good news and bad," Chaos said, landing from the roof, "They have all seven emeralds, but Xerxes is pulling an assassin mode and trying to down the fortress!"

"Torpedo barrage!" Xerxes yelled as a volley of torpedoes flew from the front and blasted a hole clean in the side of the ship. "How'd ya like that!" He yelled as the Sonic team sat down and just looked on in shock. "What happened to him?" "Even though he didn't admit it," Rouge started, "The only two that he really got on with round the mansion were R-396 and Metal, for they shared his problem of being pure mechanical, but I guess the thought of his friend disabled over-rode his sanity." The others just muttered in agreement as they noticed an explosion, and a console to his right activated, and they heard a familiar female voice. "Xerxes, please stop this!" He stalled slightly before he turned to it. "Sorry R-396, but until Bio Carter is gone, that ships gonna get pummelled!" He de-activated the screen and carried on. However, after five minutes, he noticed three transporter signatures and banged the console hard. "Damn him!" Xerxes yelled, however, his fist hit the release button, and a quantum torpedo shot out and toward the fortress, and Xerxes started to panic. "Perhaps it'll miss!" Xerxes hoped, but he was wrong as it hit, and from that point, chain reactive explosions erupted all over the ship.

"Where's Metal?" Xerxes cried out as he flew down with the wreckage, and after a sec he spotted the former robot, and using what remained of the Lebanon's energy that wouldn't be required in landing to beam him aboard. "Now to land," He muttered as the Lebanon's thrusters kicked in, and as it slowly descended to the ground, the back doors opened and Xerxes blacked out from an electric overload as Order ran aboard.

"So these are the emeralds are they?" Dave asked as Order stood admiring one. "We have others like them," He said in Light's voice, and then Bio's took over, "But we use them to `power up' as the phrase may be." Dave merely shook his head as he walked out of the front room and up to the holodeck. Inside, Tails and Jon were working on Metal Sonic and Xerxes with a couple of others watching the procedure. "Jon, why are you here?" Dave asked, and he turned and smiled. "I may be a weapons tech, but I do have limited mechanical experience." He held up a finger, "Well some of the federation weapons I tended to were mounted on shuttles and federation ATV's, so I needed some experience." Dave chuckled as Tom looked over. "So how are they?" Tails looked down at the two. "Both out of action, but for different reasons. Metal suffered extensive external and internal damage, but nothing vital except his main processor was damaged, so he'll be easy to get back up and running." Then they heard a weak cough and looked to Anaetheron, "What about Xerxes?" Jon looked down and his face darkened. "No external damage, however, his internal systems have completely overloaded, his hard drive is damaged, but his memories and functions are intact. We should be able to repair him, but I'd need to find a way to purge these berserk impulses he generated when he discovered Metal."

Downstairs about five minutes later, the magics were ready as Order sat in the middle of a heptagon, with an emerald at each corner as Tom ran in with his uniform. "Sorry, just had to deal with Xerxes's specs." "It's alright." Order said as he closed his eyes and the others readied their powers. "This is the second time I've had to do this," D'sparil said as he readied his staff, and Chaos smiled. "I hope I don't bugger this up!" "Relax," Dark said as his hands started glowing with everyone elses, "You won't, I'll make sure of that!" As their hands glowed.

Order took a last minute to talk with himself as a combined Light and Bio. "I really enjoyed this Bio, seeing things through your eyes too." "And I you Light, I had a chance to know how it felt to have been born, not created." "Plus I know what you see in Rouge now!" Order chucked in Bio's voice at these thoughts as the others shot beams into each other before they filled the central area, and Order was engulfed in light as the others ran in. "Did we miss it?" Shadow asked, and as the waves stopped, Tom turned and smiled as he fell to his knees, panting heavily. "Just, but I know my powers are improving!" He said with self satisfaction as they looked into the middle of the heptagon to see them both, but there were noticeable differences to their forms. Bio's armour had changed to a rainbow shade to match the emeralds as his hair had gone a darker green. Light however, had changed drastically, his hair was now a bight gold, and his robe had gone such an extreme shade of white that the light reflected off as Amy moved forward and noticed them both starting to stir. "Light, Bio, you both ok?"

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The emerald hunt is over, we're back to insanity and I feel like I've been hit by the boredom laser. (But that's just the day I had!) Still, I had to change Julian back to Robotnik, some people complained! (Sponge) Anyway, how was it? Good, Bad, utterly pointless? Please review!

Piccard, flying away! /\/**