Wrath of Solaris

by Radman

Maybe Solaris wasn't as weak as they thought. Maybe this wasn't going so well. Maybe this story has no happy ending. Maybe I should care. ONESHOT.

A/N: Thanks to we are as one for the original suggestion that sparked this oneshot. It would truly be nothing without her. And thanks to all my loyal readers. I'll miss you over the Summer as I move (and therefore, have extremely limited internet.)Also thanks to M2 and The Nevermore Raven for always being there for me. You guys rock. And now, it's time for me to go out into the summer with a bang. Yet another grim story with no happy ending by yours truly. Enjoy.

Vermillion eyes flicked to the ebony sky, and narrowed in anger. Dark clouds rumbled in the distance, and the sun was nowhere to be seen. A warm energy flowed through him, he could feel the power granted to him by the Chaos Emeralds. It was clear now what must be done. All that remained was to do it. In the last couple weeks, Sonic and his friends had been faced countless times by two sleepless evils, the raging inferno that was Iblis, and the calculated malice of Mephiles.

Each was haunting, chilling in their own unique way, but to combine their collective malignancy into one being? That such a contemptible creature could exist hardly seemed believable. But surely enough, there in the sky was the demon, the god, Solaris, floating imperiously above the ruined city, like an emperor on his throne. He snarled and growled, while tossing gigantic meteors of scarlet flames down upon the city of water. The image was like a symphony of colors, the fire of Solaris' massive projectiles clashing against the deep blues of the waterways and canals of Soleana. He had to end this.

Glancing at his trusted friend to his left, he received a confirmatory glance from his normally obsidian counterpart, who was now glowing like the sun. It was obvious that Shadow was more than ready, the only thing that worried Sonic was the possibility that he would lose control of his anger, and doom them all. More then once, Shadow's unquenchable rage had transformed him into a monster, causing him to even attempt to destroy the planet once... and at later instances, unleash dangerously high quantities of destructive force.

From the looks on their faces, it was obvious that Silver was the more unsure of the two, after all, he had never done this sort of thing before. By now, the whole 'save the world' runaround was a bit typical to Sonic and Shadow, they weren't unsure in the least. Or if they were, they were not nearly so obvious about it as their younger friend.

"Silver, relax. We'll take him together. You ready?" Sonic said with a cocky smirk. The psychic hedgehog quelled his fears, and concentrated on the task at hand. The three all glanced at each other once last time before they took to the sky. Soaring up, the air raced past their ears, and their surroundings suddenly grew cold. It was time to save the world, again.

When they had reached the same altitude as their opponent, they all formed a circle around him, while racing through the air at speeds imperceptible to the naked eye. Their bodies left trails of energy and warmth in their wake, and crackles of golden light leapt from their arms and legs. Their eyes shone with a crimson brilliance, and each set of eyes contained a different underlying emotion. Sonic was determined, angry, and confident, rebellious and spirited even when the end of the world was staring him in the face. Shadow's eyes were nearly empty, but a silent fury lurked within them, waiting to break free and wreak havoc. Silver was fearful, and apprehensive, but a good degree of infuriation coursed through his veins as well... after all, this bastard had caused his ruined future, every suffering he'd gone through.

Solaris towered over them, and glared down at their streaking forms, a kingly arrogance floating about him. Without speaking a word to any of them, he raised his arms into the air and hissed, summoning a dozen flaming boulders. These giant rocks swirled about him like an unholy halo, ensheathing him in a cloak of fire. Then, quicker than the eye could react, all hell broke loose...

The crimson missiles surged outward from Solaris, rocketing towards the three hedgehogs like giant bullets of death. Trails of flames followed behind them, illuminating the night sky in a seething ruby. Sonic increased his speed dramatically, becoming nothing more than a shimmering blur as he dodged the succession of attacks. Shadow remained stone faced as he lunged forward, plunging through one of the fiery boulders without a scratch. Dodging another, he raced for Solaris while a violet energy gathered in his palms. Sonic could see that Shadow was already getting reckless, and bit his lip in worry. Turning abruptly, he concentrated on attacking the silvery god, and backing Shadow up.

Silver grabbed on to several of the gargantuan hunks of rock with his psychic power, causing a soft green light to enclose them. Swirling them around himself for a moment, his eyes widened with the mental exertion of keeping the tremendous weight afloat, as he prepared his attack. Concentrating with all his might, he smashed the fireballs into each other, combining them into one burning sphere. Once he had created this enormous meteor, he gathered his power around it, and hurled it at Solaris with as much strength as he could muster. The colossal rock shuddered with the force of the air rubbing against it. Solaris whipped around from facing Sonic and Shadow only to see the enormous rock looming in front of it.

The boulder smashed into the god's shimmering form, knocking him backwards with the force of the blow. At the same time, Sonic and Shadow took advantage of his state of confusion and attacked. The world renowned hero surged forward, employing his light speed attack to impact Solaris in the back, crashing into him and delivering swift kicks, while imparting bursts of golden energy. Shadow on the other hand was battering Solaris with a stream of pure energy, which flowed freely from his palms like water from a faucet. The scarlet bolts that escaped his fingers crashed into the titanic god, causing him to scream in pain.

Solaris' rage overflowed, and he spun around at lightning speed, raising his arm to clobber Sonic and Shadow. The two hedgehogs prepared to dodge the blow, but it was too late. It was already coming down on them. An impossibly large and strong fist barreled down on Sonic, knocking the wind out of him and causing him to spit up a few drops of blood. The gigantic flame enshrouded arm then swept to the right and bowled over Shadow, sending his super-form flickering from the sheer power of the blow. That was when the grimness of the battle truly hit Sonic. Solaris could recover from all their attacks without pause, and deal ten times as much damage in return... how they could hope to defeat him was still unknown. When he realized this, he despaired, and called out to Silver.

"Silver, you're the only one who's still at full power! You have to occupy him!" Sonic deftly dodged a barrage of energy beams. Silver bit his lip, and with a rather unconvincing battle cry, charged at the self claimed deity. Gathering an emerald energy in his hands, he ripped the projectiles out of Solaris' control and began to batter the tyrant with them. Meanwhile, it seemed Shadow was in internal turmoil, and the golden sheath of energy surrounding him was fading. Sonic picked up speed, and focussed on recovering his energy and dodging any remaining attempts made by Solaris.

Then, before he could stop it, Shadow surged past him, golden fire encasing his body. His eyes were narrowed, and his teeth were clenched in a snarl. The light of his super form was still fading, but now he was being overtaken by a dull scarlet, a manifestation of his anger and hatred. Solaris repelled Silver like he was nothing more than a fly, and turned to face Shadow.

A haunting, booming laugh filled the sky, but Shadow took no notice. He began gathering orbs of obsidian energy in his palms, as the crimson light completely replaced the golden one. Sonic raced after him, but it was already too late. Shadow impacted the god with furious yell, unleashing his charged attack on Solaris' chest. The deity screamed in pain and fury as it swiped at Shadow, but the glowing ruby hedgehog dodged, and attacked again.

By this time, Sonic had managed to get close, and screamed at Shadow to stop, but it seemed as if his friend could not hear him. A searing crimson light gathered in Shadow, and Solaris flinched at exposure to it. The light burned like the sun, so bright it illuminated the whole sky. Then, Shadow unleashed his attack.

"Chaos Oblivion!!" he shouted, as the shining red energy left his body and surged outward, burning Solaris and violently sending Sonic and Silver reeling. Solaris flailed and writhed, steadied itself, and angrily launched a beam of energy at Shadow. The beam struck him, and exhausted his final supply of energy. Flickering like a dying candle, the mighty hedgehog fell from the sky.

Silver grabbed him with his power, a soft green light enclosing his body. At that moment, Solaris sent a massive boulder flying at him, and his concentration was disrupted. Like a falling star, the ultimate lifeform crashed to earth.

"We can't take him without Shadow!" Silver shouted grimly, as he dodged another burning projectile.

"Yes we can! Stay with me, we'll fight him together!" Sonic insisted, as he summoned and unleashed an energy attack. The golden hedgehogs charged again, to make one last ditch effort to destroy Solaris. The deity was not nearly recovered from Shadow's vicious attack, and now was their chance. Both struck the god simultaneously, attacking him with everything they had. Beams of light and blasts of rampant energy erupted from Solaris as it desperately fought off the super powered hedgehogs.

Solaris' giant fist crashed downward towards Sonic, and he barely darted to the left and avoided being flattened. Silver whipped one of the flaming boulders out of the god's control, and smashed it into him, but Solaris didn't even seem to notice. Sonic charged at his enemy's head, golden flames encasing his body.

Solaris reacted quickly, and launched a pair of energy beams at Sonic, at the same time, it hurled boulder after boulder at him, obviously realizing that he was the stronger of the two remaining hedgehogs. Sonic made a valiant attempt to dodge all of Solaris' projectiles, but finally, he was caught in the gut by one of the huge rocks, winding him and causing a stream of blood to spray out of his mouth.

Silver screamed as one of the god's energy beams slammed into his chest, burning through the golden light of his super form in nearly an instant. Sonic was powerless to save him and could only watch as his friend was incinerated. The torrent of raging energy flared violently as Silver's screams grew louder, until finally, they faded away entirely, and nothing was left of the former hero but some floating dust and ashes.

Sonic stared at the spot where his ally used to be in horror, his mouth hanging agape. A deep, maniacal laugh rumbled out of Solaris, nearly knocking Sonic over with its strength. And then for the first time in their battle, the terrible god spoke.

"Ignorant fool! Pitiful mortal! You thought you could stand against a god and triumph? The time of my ascension is here! I will rule the universe!" Although Solaris had no mouth, the voice emanated from it as clearly and as unmistakably as the tolling of a grim, iron bell.

The disheartened Sonic, who had witnessed the defeat of both of his friends and allies, had no response for the arrogant god.

"Hmph! Silent. No matter, since you shall sleep forevermore. Now. Join your friends in Hell!" An onslaught of incomparable magnitude drove down upon Sonic, dozens of flaming rocks, each larger than a bus, and beams of energy flaring outwards like search lights.

The great hero of earth became trapped in a time distortion, and could not move. Each second seemed as if it had been slowed to an hour as the lethal barrage approached him, but his mind never cleared, remaining completely numb and emotionless.

The booming laugh of the victorious destroyer enveloped him just before he was reduced to ashes.

The rocks pounded into him and all the beams struck him at once, melting away his flesh like the heat of the sun.

And then he was gone, dead, as if he'd never been there at all.

Solaris chuckled insidiously to proclaim his victory. He now ruled as unopposed god of the universe. And he would start by destroying everything, and remaking it all anew, creating a better creation in his image.

"Hear me, mortals of earth, and despair. Your fruitless lives are over. It is time to pay for your sins. Tremble in terror, and witness the might of the wrath of Solaris, supreme being!"

The great god boasted, and began his rampage. But somewhere on earth, a certain black hedgehog struck the surface of the planet, his heart-rate critical. But it was beating nonetheless.