A/N: So, do you remember me at all? I gave you a oneshot to warm up. So, here's Deep Shrine, where we really start getting interesting as Sonic, Cortex, Silver, and two yet-unnamed others return to Earth — just in time for the outcome of Eggman Nega's battle on Angel Island...

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Chapter 7: Deep Shrine Zone

"That was anticlimactic," Sonic observed drily.

The Nega Disarmory had simply shattered on being struck by the Gila monster's makeshift Dug Haut. The raw power of the Disarmory was apparently limited to offense; glass shards were scattered over the brilliantly glowing Roc Enfot side of the Polar Bridge. Brilliant rainbows were therefore arcing across the skies of the city of light and... stopping abruptly the instant the dull, apparently light-negating Thric Thriator side was struck.

"The land of darkness lies ahead," Cortex shrugged, stretching and stepping onto the bridge's other side. He promptly recoiled. "Ow, damnit!" he muttered, lifting his foot tenderly. "The thing's damn hot... oh, right. Darkness absorbs heat."

"I can get you over," Silver suggested, levitating nearby. Cortex acquiesced and allowed himself to be carried telekinetically to Sonic's side of the bridge, where the hedgehog in question was staring at the white one, completely dumbfounded.

Cortex nodded in gratitude. "Thanks for that. ...what's up, Sonic?"

"I just came out of nowhere," Silver explained delicately, landing in front of the blue hedgehog, "like some kind of deus ex machina, but too late. Not normal. 'Sides, we've met."

"...so?"

Sonic was eerily silent. Why was his presence so boggling to the other hedgehog? No matter for now... I'll just give him a little time. In the meantime, he spoke up again.

"He's from another dimension," he provided. Cortex smashed himself in the face.

"Duh," the lizard muttered as he recovered. "You'd think he'd recover a little quicker than that," he added, glancing at Sonic uneasily. The supersonic hedgehog, accustomed to taking surprises in stride at 789 miles per hour, was still virtually comatose.

There was a legitimate reason for this. Gems of the Sun... Silver is here? He never said he wasn't... And he used...

...the Sol Emeralds to cross to our worlds. Which means I'll be home the second I reach Blaze. Not a bad compromise.

In an instant, the trio were rocketing like cannonballs towards the center of the land of shadows.

•••••••••••••••••••••••

"In modern English but one quatrain fair," Cortex read aloud, "to our great Dark Lord Edius Korrome, read for his powers. That shall be your fare, whether to conceal or take you home."

"No problem," Sonic muttered.

•••••••••••••••••••••••

"To our great Dark Lord Edius Korrome:

My quest is not for me to undertake

Though with my heart's desire lies the home

Of seven jewels, with two worlds here at stake."

"I didn't tell him anything except that they existed!" Cortex protested as Sonic smirked devilishly at Edius Korrome's robed figure. "I swear, he shouldn't have any idea — "

"D'you reckon he met Karma, too?" Silver whispered conspiratorially while Edius Korrome chanted. "He knows what they are, he probably knows Blaze is off duty — "

"I wouldn't be surprised," Cortex murmured. "And that's why she was so ticked, 'cuz we'd all gone and she hadn't..."

Isn't it amazing how wonderfully they can misinterpret things?

•••••••••••••••••••••••

Thunderclouds loomed on the horizon even as Neorb's robots secured their base. Karma alone was powerless to resist the robots, true. But Nega's orders had been to kill the actual guardian as she returned, and Neorb was, if nothing else, obedient.

A glance at the base told one: "man, is it something else." Basically the entire cliff had been turned into a giant turret. Miniature batteries could fire individually or connect to a massive satellite in the very front; the latter weapon was designed to all but eradicate Blaze Persiva Igniend. Quite frankly, she stood no chance to survive.

As for the rainclouds... certainly, they were approaching quickly, but a massive complex of lightningrods ahead of it would intercept any thunder. Nega's robots were all thoroughly waterproof as well. There was no danger.

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"How are you, gentlemen? All your base are belong to us. You have no chance to survive. Make your time. Ha. Ha. Ha."

Even as the audio clip finished, the glowing green Neorb was struck by lightning.

Sonic the Hedgehog had arrived, and he came with unstoppable, bullet-speed fury.

•••••••••••••••••••••••

To the untrained eye, Eggman Nega's campaign against Angel Island was going disastrously.

GUN had arrived, along with Shadow the Hedgehog and his entourage, and — of all the outrages — Ivo Robotnik and his fleet. Once Chaos had started evaporating, the entire group had rallied to the water god's defense and begun a metaphorical massacre of the dark doctor's robot troops. The island was just being cleaned up of the last pieces of scrap metal. Hardly a victory to anyone sane.

At least, it didn't seem that way... until one considered the four Chaos Emeralds currently installed in the Nega Scalespider... which was on the Space Colony ARK.

AMATIK was about to begin.

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The world around Sonic was roughly the same color as his quills once he entered the Paganar Cliffs. Traps and robots alike were left to either smolder of marvel at how their targets could move at the same speed as their projectiles.

Sonic noted a large trapdoor ahead of him. To the untrained eye it seemed an ordinary part of the ground, but the hedgehog had years of experience. At his pace, he could sense the weakness of the ground even before he saw it. Leaping into the air, he tried using a homing attack on an aerial robot ahead of him before it noted what was happening. While the attack was ineffectual against the energy shield it deployed, he was able to leap off it before it attacked, seizing the barrel of a cannon as he did so and backflipping onto solid ground before hurtling onward.

He was then impeded by some very long laser beams stretching through both the ceiling and floor. Suddenly recalling with painful clarity his high-altitude deathtrap Nega had engineered during their first encounter, he guessed the lasers would have been his penalty had he suffered the trapdoor as well.

If that were true...

"Chaos Control!" he muttered, praying his gambit would work. The warp was miniscule — not a robot army or living being, just a pair of shoes — and he was, unless he was somehow mistaken, in very close proximity to the Sol Emeralds. The Light Shoes were on his feet in moments.

The cobalt wonder leaped into the air and turned the shoes sideways as they contacted the lasers. He was now grinding them down. Suddenly, a terrible explosion reached Sonic's ears: the sound of a bullet firing. He leaped into the air to dodge it, landing on the same laser on which he had ground.

Now a queer flying robot soared onto the laser ahead of him. The blue blur would have attacked had the robot not been made mostly of spikes. He slid onto the adjacent laser.

Even as he passed, the robot's spikes shot out of it! Sonic couldn't twist out of the way in time; his remaining Rings dropped into a fathomless abyss below. Now he was faced with a horrendous, life-or-death decision with no two clear choices. Could he try jump dashing to a nearby wall repeatedly?

No, that was out. The robot would fire its spikes again, impaling Sonic and killing him.

What of triangle-jumping?

That was out. Sonic glanced aside and learned that there was no wall anyway.

The hedgehog's mind raced. His own world was almost literally right around the corner —

But what options did he have? An ordinary homing attack?

...actually, there was something in that. The robot had just launched its spikes. Who was there to say it had regrown them already? If it hadn't, of course, he'd be speared. But what other options did he have anyway?

Nothing came.

Sonic curled in a ball, hit epsilon grade, and fired.

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Do I even need to tell you he survived?

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A laser suddenly fired across Sonic's pathway. This laser was massive; there was no time for the hedgehog to jump over it. Frowning, he postulated a thesis and leaped at it, continuing to grind along the new rail. As he'd predicted, the old laser dissipated as the new one sapped its energy.

Suddenly, the charge of energy going through the Light Shoes began to weaken. This rail was also failing — and, worse, there was no alternative rail. However, Sonic did note that one section of the abyss looked rather like a wall.

One jump-dash — and BANG. — later, and Sonic was kneeling in a terrifyingly familiar room, in front of a terrifyingly familiar guardian.

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Karma, furious and desperate, spat acid at one of the invaders. She held up an arm as the mechanical thief began to spark and melt. To avoid the molten metal from touching her, she leaped away from the enemy, landing on another robot a bit farther from its query.

It was small wonder the guardianship required a psychic with a life of training. Nega's robots were relentless and ubiquitous, closing in on all sides with an impassive, emotionless drive to claim the Emeralds.

Aaaand... now there was an intruder with much less cybernetic inclinations.

As well as a good deal more speed. Possibly 750 miles per hour more speed.

Great.

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There were no longer robots on the faces of the Paganar Cliffs. Most of the laser batteries were exploding as they melted, the plasma within them taking advantage of the destruction.

The cliff face was also on fire.

Blaze Persiva Igniend allowed her own flames to restore her strength, but only as she tore through the inferno towards the entrance to her shrine. She knew full well that, passionately enraged though she was, she would reveal only the faintest of lights were she to wipe away the copious amounts of makeup applied to her face. With her dignity and her life on the line, she was not about to enter the cliffs at anything less than full power.

Not that she was worried about anythong other than impressing Sonic. The cannon was titanic, unwieldly, and now at only about half power. The robots could receive no orders from Neorb, whom she'd found cleaved in two smoldering halves on her way up. Any automated robots wouldn't be much stronger than the Nega Pawn, which she was sure she'd destroyed several times in her sleep.

Still, her obsession with the hedgehog was... less than healthy at best. Hopefully, by stimulating this obsession, she could decipher its origins. Possibly deconstruct it. On the other hand, even if she couldn't, the hunger would be satiated, at least temporarily.

Losing her dignity and deflating her ego weren't terrifically high on her list of priorities at the moment she was about to ruin her own impression of her only friend in hopes of owning her own mind again.

Grand entrance time.

BANG.

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Silver and Cortex, psychokinetically clinging to Sonic and praying to keep up, were utterly dumbfounded by that sound.

"Wwwwwwhhhhhhaaaaaatttttt wwwwwwaaaaaassssss tttttthhhhhhaaaaaatttttt??????" the lizard demanded.

"Blaze, I think!" the leader roared, attempting to make himself heard over the din. "But would she be back already?!"

"Iiiiii gggggguuuuuueeeeeessssssssssss!!!!!!" Cortex replied matter-of-factly, if still unadjusted to racing jetliners.

"What on Parax for?!" Silver bellowed.

"Nnnnnnoooooo iiiiiiddddddeeeeeeaaaaaa!!!!!!"

"Then I guess we have to find out..." Now the psychokineser was murmuring to himself, though the clamor was beginning to die off.

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One flash of light later, and five impossibly powerful knights stood in the main control room of the Egg Fleet battleship O.C.E.A.N.

"Wha—" Eggman was... a bit startled. "Where'd you come from?!" he demanded of the familiar faces.

"Parax," Sonic replied dismissively. "What's Nega doing here?"

"Booting up something big," the good doctor said grimly.

"AMATIK!" Silver realized. "He has it here..."

"Wait, what?" The fastest was confused.

Not the slowest. "One of Nega's ultimate weapons," Cortex explained darkly. "A take-off of the Annihilator, but stronger. It's supposed to be immune to any impact, even a Chaos-powered one."

"Nega has acquired five of the Chaos Emeralds," Eggman briefed the group.

"It'll be seven soon," the dark doctor's voice rang out ominously.

The party scattered as the Nega Scalespider burst through the window of O.C.E.A.N, refusing to land. It was surrounded by a jade-and-gold aura that streaked after it as it flew, reminiscent of Shadow's telltale blur.

"Chaos Control," Eggman Nega snarled tauntingly, smirking as he jammed a button on the Scalespider's console. The team's attention was diverted to a flash of green light in the back of the Scalespider. The Ultimate Life Form was bound in glowing cyan wires against the exoskeleton's exhaust port, apparently unconscious.

"Holy..." Sonic murmured, stunned. "How'd he get Shadow?"

"How'd he get your Chaos Emerald?" the cobra pointed out. Indeed, Nega was juggling the green and white Chaos Emeralds, smirking demonically.

"He's making Shadow use Chaos Control for him!" Silver realized as Karma introduced herself. "But if he could still use Chaos Control..."

"He might get the power back any second," Nega agreed, catching the emeralds properly. "So I suppose we'd better dispose of him while we have the chance." The gold in the Scalespider's aura was replaced by white as Shadow the Hedgehog was ejected into space.

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Or so Nega would like to believe.

The main control room in O.C.E.A.N is situated in the very center of the craft. A long series of metal panes surrounded the control room. Nega knew this well; he'd had to burn his way through them with his Scalespider's lasers. The "windows" of the control room were viewscreens fed by sensors on the outside of O.C.E.A.N.

What Nega didn't know was that the infantry command room and starship command room were two different things. He'd fired Shadow in the direction of the infantry control room, towards the ship's exhaust ports. Ordinarily, this wouldn't have been a problem.

However, the warriors from Angel Island were currently conferencing in the infantry command center. Among them were four robots, two hedgehogs used to living with Sonic, and a spy with a lifetime of training.

Still, Shadow was moving at bullet speed. His only shields were wires, but these wires wouldn't be easily disarmed. None of them expected his arrival... but Rouge was able to act on it.

Leaping into the air, she grazed her toe along the Ultimate Lifeform's side, slicing every wire she came across. This was a very good move, as it turned out. Naturally, Shadow was ringless if he was captured. Thus, the pain from being grazed by Rouge's razor-sharp boots was enough to a waken him. With the wires weakened, he was able to spring back into a series of jump dashes. Rouge seized his leg; the others followed below mach.

Unfortunately, the only words Shadow heard of the dark doctor were:

"Chaos Control!"

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A/N: Next up is the final boss of the physical realm, AMATIK. Don't forget Sonic's attacking Neorb, though. The epilogue and I will thank you. Oh, and don't forget to review, or I'll just stop again.