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solalunar-eclipse · 10 months

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Sonic Boom - S3E11

Episode title: Having A Mecha Good Time

Summary: Sonic's testing out his mech, but is struggling to keep it charged up. Shadow has something that might help, but unfortunately, Eggman interferes (as always) and messes things up.

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[Episode opens on Shadow in his cave. The camera follows him as he walks farther back, to the same shelves where he stored the grey sheep in episode five. The sheep is visible in the background as he searches the shelves and the stacks of boxes below them for something else.]

“Ugh, where is it…” he muttered, digging through the old cardboard boxes one by one. Many of them were filled with strange and mostly broken machinery, some more organized than others.

[Camera shows a few pieces of metal and crystal with odd carvings clattering to the floor as he looks.]

Suddenly, his fingers closed on a gleaming diamond-shaped crystal, etched with a variety of complex patterns. He studied it carefully for a moment, making sure that it emanated a clear blue light and nothing else.

Once he was satisfied, he stowed the crystal in his quills. “Alright,” he sighed, “let’s just hope this is compatible…”

…

[The same intro sequence plays as last time, but Shadow is slightly less irritated. He still refuses to play along with the others, but is no longer outright angry.]

[Eggman’s villain reveal follows the usual green screen sequence…except it doesn’t malfunction, and the outline of his mech from Og Man Out appears behind him in red as well.]

[The intro then continues on, before ending with the title of this week’s episode.]

…

Shadow appeared at the entrance to Tails’s workshop, sliding open the door right as a laser beam shot above his head. He immediately dropped into a battle stance, prepared to fight—only to see that it was just Sonic messing around in his mech, like he’d been doing all day long.

“Hey Shadow!” the fox called, sitting at his computer station (which was currently protected by a reinforced blast shield). “You here to see how long it takes for the mech’s battery to wear down again?”

Sonic groaned. “It just died. It’s barely gonna last me one battle like this!”

Shadow glanced over at him. “That’s probably because you’re trying to power it with the energy from this workshop.”

“Yeah, and?” the hero asked. “We gave it some juice before and it worked just fine when Eggman made his mech—it’s only now that it won’t take right!”

Shadow began to walk over to Tails, rolling his eyes. “You forget, I had this thing for quite some time before you and your friends ‘discovered’ it, so I know more about how it works.” he said, complete with air quotes around the word ‘discovered’. “The only reason the mech functioned for as long as it did then is because it had leftover power from the symbiote chip in addition to your attempts to recharge it. Now that you’re trying to run its systems on solely ordinary electricity, it won’t last nearly as long. The amount of power required to keep it active is immense.”

Tails shrugged. “So I’ll jack up the power then. I have enough electricity stored to boost it.”

“You absolutely should not do that.” Shadow replied, shaking his head. “You’ll fry the circuitry in that thing. It’s designed to respond to energy from Chaos Shards and neural networks, not crude electricity.”

“And, uh, also don’t do that with me inside the mech, please?” Sonic added.

“So what do you think we should do then, oh all-knowing Ancient expert?” Tails shot back, smirking.

“Ooh, burn!” Sonic laughed.

Shadow resisted the urge to facepalm. “If you would listen to me, then you would know that I think you should use one of these.” With that, he reached into his quills and handed over the symbiote chip he’d found in his cave earlier.

Tails promptly shrieked and dropped it as though it had burned him.

The striped hedgehog snatched it out of the air, his eyes wide. “What was that for? These things aren’t weak, but they can still break, you know!”

Sonic winced. “Uh…the last one of those we found kinda turned me into an evil jerk.”

“Was it red?” Shadow asked. “Do you still have it?”

Tails smiled awkwardly. “It was red, but we don’t have it anymore. Amy…kinda smashed it with her hammer.”

“To be fair, from what I was told, I was being a full-on villain by the time the others got me outta there.” Sonic explained, leaping out of the mech.

Shadow frowned, confused. “There should have been a display that told you the status of the chip, though.”

“There wasn’t…but hang on, how do you know that much about it?” Sonic asked.

Shadow froze. “I found schematics for the mech in its control seat, but an animal stole them one night.” he said quickly, looking away.

Sonic snickered. “Forest: one, Shadow: zero.”

The other hedgehog let out a long sigh. “Ugh. Here, let me show you how this thing is supposed to work.” He stalked over to the mech and shoved the symbiote chip into its proper place, making the entire thing light up with cyan lines.

“There.” Shadow said, folding his arms triumphantly. “One perfectly safe mech, all ready to go.”

Sonic inched towards it cautiously. “And if I start being weird again, you’ll pull me out, right?”

“Of course.” Shadow replied, softening his voice slightly. “I promise.”

That seemed to be more than enough for the hero, as he jumped right in, powering the mech on. “Whoa!” he gasped, seeing the full display for the first time ever. It showed the time, date, current weather, and his exact longitude and latitude, as well as a tiny map.

(While he didn’t notice this, the map was significantly incorrect, as it showed Seaside Island mostly covered by a giant city instead of sparsely populated…)

The machine scanned both of his friends, labeling Tails as “Age: appx. 11 yrs - Species: unknown - Threat: Minimal—High” and Shadow as “Age: appx. 17.5 years - Species: unknown - Threat: Moderate—High”.

Sonic glanced around a bit nervously. “Uh, guys, I think it just targeted both of you or something?”

Shadow stepped forward. “There should be some sort of switch you can press. It’s currently in attack mode, but I think you can switch it to a more defensive mode or even a pacifist setting.”

The hero fiddled around with the controls for a minute, making the mech cycle through colors rapidly by accident…which then gave him two problems to fix. (Even if he didn’t really think that second one qualified as a “problem” but instead “really cool”.) Thankfully, he eventually managed to solve both of them with some guidance from his friends, leaving the mech in a more relaxed position.

“Hey, this says ‘full motion test’.” Sonic said, getting more and more excited now that he was assured the mech was safe and under his control. “I wonder what happens if I—”

“Wait, maybe you shouldn’t—” Shadow began, but it was already too late. The mech had begun to run its full range of motion, including windmilling its arms, balancing on one foot, both at once, and (for whatever reason) doing the Macarena, complete with music.

By the end, Sonic and Tails were both crying with laughter, while Shadow was sitting down with his face buried in his hands.

“C’mon, Shads, wasn’t it funny?” Sonic asked teasingly.

“The…only other thing that I managed to make out on those schematics was that this was intended for serious fighting.” Shadow explained, still looking like he was fighting the urge to cringe. “You just made a deadly machine do the Macarena.”

“Well, technically, whoever programmed it made it do the Macarena…” Tails said, fighting off giggles.

Shadow shook his head, taking a deep breath. “Fine.” he said, but there was a hint of a smile on his face. “Just try not to blow anything up.”

…

Soon enough, the rest of the team appeared to check out this second attempt at using the mech, though some were more skeptical than others. Knuckles jumped right in, challenging Sonic to a no-holds-barred wrestling match (that the former was somehow currently winning).

Amy, on the other hand, had multiple questions for Shadow. “How do you know it’s safe?” she asked him.

“I read the schematics I found with it, but they eventually went missing.” he explained.

“He said an animal stole them!” Tails called from his position as both referee and commentator, making Amy laugh and Shadow huff.

“It was probably working for the government.” Sticks whispered.

“No, but really, how do you know it’s safe?” Amy insisted.

“You see how the chip is glowing blue?” Shadow pointed out. “If you see any red—or even a hint of purple—that means it’s broken or corrupted. If that happens, you should absolutely rip it out and break it as soon as possible.”

Amy nodded. “That’s good enough for now. The other question I have is: why did you think it would be a good idea to give Sonic more weapons?”

Shadow blinked. “Oh. Good point.”

“So what you’re saying is, you didn’t think.” Amy said, smirking.

“Shut. Up.” he grumbled unhappily.

“I still think it’s part of a plan by the robots to trick us into thinking they’re our friends.” Sticks explained. “And just when our society begins to rely on them…boom! They’ll turn us all into robots too!”

Shadow’s expression flattened abruptly at that.

“Sticks, I’m feeling fine.” Sonic called, having just lost the match. “This new chip is actually really great!”

“Sure, you’re feeling fine now…but you might not forever.” Sticks said ominously.

Sonic shrugged, making the mech’s shoulders move up and down as well. “I trust Shadow.”

The hedgehog in question looked away quickly, his arms tightly folded against his chest. “Well.” he said, his voice strained and small. “You trust plenty of people. Too many, in my opinion.”

“Yeah, but you’re my friend. That’s different.” Sonic insisted.

Unseen, Shadow smiled quietly as the hero turned back to round three of his fighting match.

…

As Sonic continued to stomp around the workshop area excitably, two robots watched from the bushes outside. They were supposed to be sneaking around, but considering that they were, well, Orbot and Cubot, that wasn’t going so well.

“Hey, what’s he doing now?” Cubot asked loudly.

“Shh! Keep your voice down!” Orbot hissed, dragging him back down. “We are supposed to be spying on Sonic!”

“Can we go home yet?” the yellow robot whined. “These bushes are making me itchy.”

“How does that even—oh, never mind.” Orbot sighed. “I think we’ve learned enough now, let’s go home.”

…

“Oh ho ho, so that’s what Sonic’s been up to!” Eggman chuckled. “Well, two can play at that game.”

“I heard them talking about something…they called it a ‘symbiote chip’?” Orbot added nervously.

“No, I heard them say ‘antidote dip’.” Cubot interjected.

“I see…a symbiote chip, hm?” The doctor stroked his mustache thoughtfully, completely ignoring Cubot in the process. “Well, there’s no technology I can’t surpass with enough time—so I suppose I should start working!”

[A montage ensues, alternating between images of Eggman working hard in his lab and the team (now including Shadow) messing around with the mech. Eggman does a variety of tasks involving complex equipment…including downloading some pieces of software designed to emulate Ancient technology into a custom-built disk.]

[Meanwhile, Sonic is delighted to discover that he can now pick up all of his friends with ease, and they use this new ability to take a variety of funny pictures. Shadow is a little hesitant at first, but as time goes on he seems to accept this silliness and even begins to enjoy it.]

[The montage ends with Eggman inserting a disk with pieces of glowing red machinery into his mech, complete with ominous music in the background.]

…

Sonic and his friends were careful not to take the machine anywhere near the village, considering how much damage it had caused last time. He did, however, give each of them a chance to ride in it as well, though Sticks and Shadow both ended up turning it down.

Knuckles was currently doing his best to lift the mech and carry it around, while Sonic and Sticks cheered him on and the three others all flinched every time his hands slipped.

“Why are we messing around with this again?” Amy asked, sick of wincing so often.

“Hey, you were ready to hop in the driver’s seat when I offered!” Sonic said.

She sighed. “That’s different. It’s meant to be driven, not to be used for weightlifting!”

Knuckles peered out from behind the machine. “Anything can be used for weightlifting if you try hard enough!”

Shadow, Amy and Tails all gave him flat looks at that.

Suddenly, however, a loud explosion pulled them out of their argument. The ground shook beneath the team (and Knuckles just barely managed to set the mech down before crashing into it) as they tried to get their bearings.

“What’s going on?!” Tails cried.

“It’s the robots! They’re invading!” Sticks shrieked.

A loud, booming laugh echoed throughout the forest. It sounded a lot like Eggman, but also…different. Eggman’s usual laugh straddled a careful line between menace and delight, and gave the impression that he most certainly had not practiced it for hours in the mirror during his early days of villainy.

This laugh, on the other hand, sounded downright deadly.

Seconds later, a giant mech burst through the trees, glowing a bright, terrifying red. Sonic paled considerably. “Oh, no…” he whispered.

Shadow froze. “Another corrupted crystal? How many of these are there?”

Tails held up his Miles Electric, blanching at the readings it showed. “This says it’s not a crystal…it’s a piece of his own tech that he’s downloaded Ancient code on!”

“Is that worse or better?” Knuckles asked.

“Worse.” Shadow and Tails said simultaneously.

And that was when the mech’s fist came crashing down.

The entire team scattered. Sonic scrambled for his own machine, while everyone else began to throw everything they had at Eggman. The doctor growled, a red glow emanating from behind his glasses.

Furious, he swatted Knuckles and Tails aside, the echidna just barely managing to shield his friend with his own body before they hit the ground. Sticks and Shadow at least managed to land a couple of hits with boomerangs and Chaos Spears before suffering the same fate.

Screaming, Amy charged the mech, leaping from branch to branch until she gained enough height to whack its cockpit, sending Eggman stumbling backwards. Fortunately for her (as she fell back to solid ground), it was practically a rule in this universe that nobody ever takes fall damage.

By now, Sonic had gotten his machine up and running, immediately firing twin lasers at his opponent. They fought back and forth for a few tense moments, nearly blasting Sonic’s friends once or twice, even after they’d scrambled for cover.

“Come on, Eggman!” Sonic cried. “You’re smarter than this thing, you can fight it!”

Sadly, Eggman did not, as a matter of fact, fight it. Instead, he quite predictably continued fighting Sonic, using enough weaponry to destroy the village at least twice over in his single-minded pursuit of his greatest nemesis.

Thankfully, the hero’s machine soon began to predict the doctor’s moves well enough that it could provide Sonic with actual advice on how to fight him in this state. With that, he managed to get in a calculated blast that sent the doctor toppling, completely off balance.

Knuckles and Sticks had gotten into position by this point with Amy’s direction, perfectly poised to tear the disk out and hurl it to the ground. The moment the metal hit the grass, Amy and Shadow proceeded to hit it with a combined amount of firepower that could have destroyed the entire island, let alone one small disk.

When they were done, even the pieces were shattered into pieces.

Meanwhile, Tails pulled a heavily disoriented Eggman out of his mech, saving him from any further injury (he’d gotten a little banged up in the fight) and carrying him to the ground. “Ugh…” he groaned, sitting up slowly. “What happened? I feel like I got run over by a Motobug…”

Shadow stormed over, folding his arms irritably. “You made a truly absurd mistake, that’s what. Your fake symbiote chip corrupted your morality until you became even more of a madman than usual. You’re lucky we managed to get you out of there, otherwise this whole island would have been in great danger.”

Eggman sighed, getting to his feet. “I guess I’ll just have to make some improvements to it so that this doesn’t happen again.”

“No you won’t!” Amy cried, brandishing her hammer. “We’ve had enough of disks that turn our friends evil for one lifetime! Or Fuzzy Puppy Buddies, in your case.”

The doctor scoffed. “I’d like to think that I was evil without the help of some disk, thank you very much!”

Sonic cringed. “Yeah, but didn’t you hear? You were, like, really evil this time. Like full-on terrifying supervillain stuff.”

“…how terrifying, exactly?” Eggman asked cautiously.

Sticks shrugged. “Eh, you probably would’ve blasted us all to bits without a shred of remorse if we hadn’t stopped you.”

Everyone stared at her. “What?!” she cried. “I’m just telling it like it is!”

The doctor thought for a moment, frowning. “Well, maybe I’ll get to work on some of my other evil schemes instead. Clear out the old files, see if anything’s in there that I can update.”

The entire team relaxed marginally at that. “Sounds like a good idea to me.” Sonic said, clearly relieved.

“But what about your mech, Sonic?” Eggman asked. “It won’t be a fair fight if I give up my machine and you don’t!” The doctor nearly whined that last part, attempting to give Sonic puppy-dog eyes despite the fact that his glasses were very much in the way.

“Fiiiine, I promise not to use it in our fights.” the hero muttered.

“Pinky promise?” Eggman said suspiciously.

“Pinky promise.” Sonic sighed, linking his little finger with Eggman’s. (The doctor had to reach down quite a lot to make it work.)

“Now then! Robots!” he cried, making all of the others jump into defensive positions. Then, however, he smirked, and simply said “Clean up this mess! I’m certainly not dragging it all home.”

Much rolling of eyes and facepalming ensued.

While Eggman’s various robots skittered around the fallen machine and began to carry it back to his evil lair, Sonic leapt back into his own mech. “So what do you wanna do now, guys?” he asked excitedly.

When he turned around to face them, though, he saw that they were all beat up from the battle with Eggman, and hesitated. “Anyone want a ride home?” he said, a little more gently.

“Oh, yes please.” Amy sighed, leaping onto one of the mech’s shoulders. Tails perched on the other, while Knuckles sat down on one of its hands. Even Sticks overcame their aversion to technology long enough to hitch a ride.

“Shadow? Don’t you wanna hop on too?” Sonic asked.

“I’ll be fine.” Shadow muttered. “I heal quickly.”

But nobody could miss the way he held his arm close to his body, or the way he winced with every step. “Knux, can you help me out here?” Sonic sighed.

The echidna promptly picked Shadow up, making him yelp and writhe in surprise. Before he could muster up the ability to teleport, he was placed at the very top of the mech and then immediately held in place by Tails and Amy.

“I don’t need help.” he said weakly, feeling his touch-starved body jolt at the sudden contact.

Nobody seemed to notice except for Amy, who leaned against him and glanced up to make sure he was alright with that. Shadow rolled his eyes, but allowed her to remain for the whole ride back. By the end, he was alternating rapidly between tension and relaxation, striving not to let his contentment be shown and failing miserably at it.

Thankfully, he was also mostly healed by then, and so was able to leap off the mech with no problems. The others weren’t so fortunate, and only climbed off with a bit of help and lots of complaining about stiff muscles.

“Maybe we should put this thing away for a while.” Tails said. “It’s caused us a bunch of problems and hasn’t helped all that much.”

Sonic sighed. “Yeah, probably. I guess I can’t go as fast in it as I can by myself either.”

“I’m sure we can still bring it out if we ever have a serious problem.” Tails added reassuringly.

“How are we gonna move this thing into storage, though?” the hero asked.

Tails stared at him for a moment. “Sonic. You can literally just walk it into storage and then get out.”

“Oh. Right.” Sonic said sheepishly.

[Iris out ending in which he smiles awkwardly at the camera, before the entire screen goes black.]

[roll credits]

#sonic boom #sonic the hedgehog #shadow the hedgehog #miles tails prower #knuckles the echidna #amy rose #sticks the badger #dr eggman #sonic boom: ancient secrets #sol's fanfiction #another chapter?! already??#(i know it's not actually that soon after the last one but i've been cranking out a surprising amount of fanfic in general)#(shhhhh let me have this)#seriously though while i don't want to jinx anything by putting out an official release schedule #i'm hoping to keep this streak going for a while yet #especially since the next chapter is a really big one :]#i hope to see you then!!#until then have a lovely day and thank you as always for reading :D

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