Chapter 8

"The Waking Nightmare"

As the Nightmare began to soar into the sky, Sonic and Metal managed to convince Fang to drop them off on the ship. However, this happened rather literally, leaving the two stranded and forced into quite a spot as Koumori attacked with living cubes of bioelectric gelatin. Metal and Sonic cut their way into the ship, but the cubes followed behind, stranding Metal on one side and Sonic - facing off against Geoffrey - on the other. When Metal attempted to work his way around to aid Sonic, a pair of elite Phi blocked his way, forcing him back into another room.

Meanwhile, Tails prepared himself to die while Elias remained behind, hunting for an antidote through James' books of alchemy. Lobo Silverblood, however, strode into the compound, bearing gifts: A syringe of Mega Mack antidote in one paw, a shard of Elias' Sword of Light in the other. Lobo talked his way into Tails' room, sealing Elias off and preparing to make a devil's bargain with Tails for the antidote even as he talked the fox out of letting the poison kill him. In a twisted surge of fury, however, Tails responded to receiving the antidote with a screwdriver through Lobo's chest, leaving him for dead and allowing Elias to take the sword shard.

Back on the Nightmare, Asura stepped into battle with Geoffrey most unexpectedly, using her skill with the whip to stun and stall the skunk while Sonic regrouped with Metal. With Sonic providing a distraction against the Phi pair, Metal disabled the robots while Geoffrey tried to chase Asura down; however, he chose to take a separate path, directly to his Master. Asura used the extra time to bind hers and Sonic's wounds before they split up, with Metal luring the purple cubes into an engine while Sonic and Asura distracted Geoffrey and Koumori. As the engine began to fail, Sonic released James from his chains and carried him out, leaping into the Marvelous Queen; Asura was not so lucky, as Geoffrey and she launched into a small skirmish, ending with Asura nearly losing her arm due to a botched disarm attempt. She, too, escaped, but her arm was badly injured.

The Nightmare landed in the mountains, and the heroes headed for home - where surprises would await them...