The highway finally came to a end, with a massively tall structure that nearly touched the sky past the smog clouds marking the ending. It had a dark and scary appearance, black in color, with its many windows glowing with an orange-red light. The few buildings that surrounded it seemed to sink in its shadow, and the darkness provided by the smog cloud.

Firon finished running along the highway as he saw the structure believing it to be the capital building. He stopped halfway towards it, looking up, using powerful vision to see past the smog's thick blockage. He could barely see the top, striking into the sky like a blade, with its many red lights nearly invisible from the sun's light on the outside of the city. Firon activated his communicator with his good arm, his broken arm wobbling to his side with not much else to do but sway.

"Violet, tell Rod and Striker to fly the Fire Wing towards the top of the capital building and to follow any unusual movement by the dictator," Firon said into his black communicator, waiting for a response as he thought up his next course of action progressively in his mind. Violet spoke clearly and loudly as she replied.

"Alright, we better hurry though, I'm getting the feeling that Dr. Eggman is trying to escape. Violet out," her voice disappeared as she shut off the communication between her and the gray hedgehog, directing Firon back onto his mission. He kept his eyes towards the top, and with his accurate sight-seeing, he spotted where he needed to go. He pushed a high amount of energy into his legs, pressing against the solid metal of the highway and making him literally leap forward. Even though his feet were too far behind to make contact with the wall, he had immediately flipped over, stepping on the wall of the capital building. He then zoomed upward with amazing, sound-breaking speed as he literally clinged to the wall.

He broke through the smog, creating an air barrier that seemed to keep the poisonous pollution from his face. He ran faster and faster, his feet literally disappearing into streaks of color, and his fur ripping its way downward. His eyes could barely move anywhere except upward, towards his target. He began to see lighter smog and some sunlight, informing him that he was getting closer to where he needed to be. He picked up his pace, running to his limits and skyrocketing through the wall of the capital building, sunlight building up at a surprising rate and soon blocking his eyes instantly.

He flew into the air as if he were being launched, only to release his speed and fall down to the roof top of the capital building. He sky dived towards the metal surface, falling just as quickly as the speed of his run up the wall. At the last second, before landing onto the hard surface, he flipped over and landed on his feet, feeling the extreme pressure of gravity do its work. He tried to relax a bit as he stood up to full height, the feelings of dizziness and pressure lifting from him. He looked around him, seeing less smog then before and huge amounts of sun light pouring onto him.

As he switched his view right across from him, something caught his eye and informed him he wasn't alone. He saw a giant rocket-shaped ship, standing on its supports with great ease and becoming stationary, standing firmly in place with a cold metal grip to the rooftop. Small smoke clouds rushed out of its engines, telling the gray hedgehog it was being prepared for launch. He glanced at its side, seeing many windows that covered it. He kept his attention on the very top one, using his improved visibility to see through the small, diamond-glass window. He could see the face of a certain evil dictator, pressing many buttons on a control panel that Firon could not see. It was then that Firon knew he had to act fast.

Without hesitation, he ran with lighting and shealthy speed and launched himself onto the rocket ship, right before the small clouds of smoke produced by the ship turned to flame and exhaust. Firon held onto a handle near the rocket ship's locked door with all his might, struggling to keep a powerful hold on the handle to avoid falling off. He felt weightlessness as the rocket lifted off the roof of the capital building, pushing with inhuman force that seemed only possible through the use of machinery. Soon, the flames that blew from the rocket ship's engines grew to amazing height and width, pressing with force that seemed nearly as strong as gravity itself. The rocket ship went into the sky with the speed of the gray hedgehog himself, making air seem like a blade as it cut through the surface of the rocket. Firon began to feel pressured, his insides hurting and aching like never before. He tightened his grip, looking to his side as noticed something rising into the clouds with him. He saw the outline of the Fire Wing not too far away, with it disappearing quickly past the clouds before being spotted by the dictator who looked out the small window on the rocket ship's side, alerted but quickly calmed as he saw nothing.

It wasn't long until Firon began to feel cold and frozen in place on the rocket, feeling the presence of the empty vacuum of space taking over the outer layer of the rocket ship. He seemingly felt the cold touch of ice as it froze his feet in place, then his legs, then his midsection, and then getting higher. Without any air to keep him warm, he was beginning to freeze into solid ice. Before the ice could reach his arms and wrists, he slowly focused power into his broken arm, trying to get it through the cracked bone fragments and splattered blood veins, to his hand. By now the ice had reached his chest, spreading to his arms, causing the power to jolt into his hand and activite.

"Chaos Shield!" Firon yelled out, summoning his chaos defense within seconds, the sound of his voice being lost in the void of space. The ice that had formed on Firon's body quickly shattered, a barely visible green shield protecting the gray hedgehog against the coldness of space and any other dangers that might be nearby. He waited patiently on the rocket ship's wall, making himself stick to the metal surface as the rocket ship made its way towards something much more bigger then itself. The rocket ship turned on its side, which forced Firon to hang onto the handle of the door with all his strength to avoid falling off to the planet that he now saw below him. He looked sideways, seeing the outline of a huge, dark metallic sphere. He could see that a huge chunk of the sphere was missing, revealing a giant rod-shaped cannon and several docking bays on the sides. The rocket ship was dangerously close to the space station, its size looking almost twice as big as the moon. Firon used his one hand and chaos energy to shoot himself up and grab another part of the metal wall like a grapple hook, avoiding a dangerous fall into space and to avoid collusion with any sharp metal pieces that the space station possessed.

Soon, after waiting safely on top of the rocket ship for a while, all activity stopped and a loud thud shook Firon. He slowly crawled to one of the windows on that rocket ship's surface, seeing that the rocket ship had finally stopped and was being docked. Still looking insde, Firon saw the dictator sat with pleased confidence and command on his chair, with two of his robots operating the controls to the rocket ship. It wasn't too long before Firon felt the ship slide uneasily through a small hatch, with doors opening on the inside. The gray hedgehog acted fast and pushed against a small edge on the rocket ship's outer wall, floating with a quick and unnoticeable pace towards a circular metal doorway that had opened all the way. He literally flew inside the door before the rocket ship interlocked with the door, thus keeping it in place.

Gravity had been restored as the emptiness of space was shot out of the inside, forcing Firon to fall and hit the steel floor below him. He moaned as he felt his broken arm crack once again from the weight of his body as it laid under his chest. He stayed there, motionless and seemingly faint, until he heard the doors behind him open once more, giving him a cue to run and hide before being spotted. He jumped to his feet and literally teleported with his fast and quiet speed towards a nearby wall, pushing himself against its cold surface in order to hide in the shadows. He leaned one of his eyes over the corner, trying to see what had come out the door that had alerted him. He saw none other then the evil Dr. Eggman, who perhaps was feeling safe since he showed no suspicion of an intruder. Firon watched him carefully as he made his way into a double door right across from him, noticing the two robots from the rocket ship not too far behind their master. Firon kept hidden in the shadows, his gray fur turning darker with every second passing. As soon as the doors were shut, and not a soul, even an artificial one, was in the area, Firon turned on his communicator and spoke silently into its small speaker.

"I'm inside a space station of some sort...probably a back-up base in space. Where are you guys?" Firon asked impatiently, making sure nothing heard him. He waited for a response and heard nothing. Before he was about to flick off the communicator, he heard Violet's voice.

"We're outside the space station, we can see it...Firon, this thing looks like a big threat to our planet...there's a huge gun sticking out of it, and who knows what power that weapon might hold..." Firon considered her words, thinking quickly and clearly. His reply had been thought out, but not his plan.

"He might need the chaos emeralds to activate the cannon, but it's not like we're going to give it to him," Firon replied, still making sure nothing heard him.

"You need to find Dr. Eggman and stop him...if he finds a way to fire that at our planet, who knows what will happen; Violet out," the purple hedgehog switched off her communicator, giving Firon a bit of relief to avoid detection. He switched off his own communicator and walked away from his cover into the hallway, near the double doorway he saw Eggman go through. He stepped next to it, with it reacting violently by opening at speed just as fast as his. He entered through it, noticing a series of hallways before him.

"This could be a problem..." Without second thought, Firon used his fastest speed to rocket through every hallway, trying to find a possible way that Dr. Eggman might have gone through. As he speeded, he came up to many locked doors, or just barely getting noticed by robot sentries posted on guard duty. It wasn't long until he thought he'd crash into a door, which opened up upon his arrival with lighting speed, forcing Firon to trip as he entered through the surprisingly unlocked doorway.

He got to his feet in a hurry as he tried to find cover to avoid being spotted, only to find out there wasn't anything in the room he was in. The entire room was shockingly huge, its ceiling hidden by darkness and its floor not being metal but replaced with a strong steel grate that spread to every corner of the room. Firon's steps echoed as he tried to find a way out, only to find out all the doors in room seemed to have disappeared. He then stopped his marching and stood, thinking of a way to escape the room he had now been trapped in. He tried turning on his communicator, only to find out that it was blocked from outside transmission, unable to communicate the others. Firon grew concerned as he found his options running lower by the second, until he heard a very familiar voice speak and echo throughout the emptiness of the room.

"Ah, Firon the Hedgehog, a pleasure for you to join me," Firon turned his view to where he thought the voice came from, discovering a huge, nearly-unbreakable window high above the grate floor, with Dr. Eggman standing behind it in safety.

"Dr. Eggman!" the gray hedgehog yelled out in alert, a deep hatred coming back to him. The bald dictator grinned with pure evil in his own twisted image, his black goggles on both his head and his eyes shimmering in the faint light that hung of the walls in the huge inescapable room.

"Yes, and I am so glad for you to have arrived here, Firon," the evil dictator snapped his fingers, which made a loud banging noise shake the room as a reaction. It wasn't long until Firon looked down and saw where the noise came from, glancing at a white dot that quickly turned into a huge white scar as it blew part of the grate open, revealing itself to be a robot of some sort. The robot slowly landed on the grate in front of it, splashing its white color into nothingness, and showing itself for possibly the third time, to be Metal Firon.

"I thought I got rid of you!" Firon yelled out in anger and shock. Dr. Eggman's laughter boomed and echoed throughout the room, with Metal Firon standing lifelessly in the room, not looking nor showing any interest in the gray hedgehog.

"I knew you would like to see my most powerful creation again...you may have thought you destroyed him, but did I forget to mention he has a regenerating ability?" the words made Firon gasp in shock, seeing both a grin on Dr. Eggman's evil-soaked face and Metal Firon's steel muzzle. Firon stared it down with eyes full of hatred and determination of destruction. He noticed a slight difference in Metal Firon's look, seeing the gray needle-like fur changed to light black blade-like fur, along with a pair of fully red eyes that represented death and a wildier hair style. It still kept most of its regular gray-colored metal parts, such as the muzzle, unchanged. Firon could see not only just a metallic monstrosity, but a serious threat that had to be destroyed; but how to destroy it?

"While you were busy fighting your little war, I had created my metallic friend here," Dr. Eggman pointed at what was his greatest creation ever, making Firon looked stupid as if he never knew who the metal hedgehog was in the first place "But unlike the other robots I had pitted against you and the others before, I combined Metal Firon's metallic parts with nano technology and liquid metal, as well as the ability to copy data and use it to gain better knowledge and power. Because of the nano technology, he can rebuild himself after being destroyed, and because of his liquid metal, he is literally able to take any form he pleases and fool the savage minds of you mobians,"

"You talk too much, doctor, and nobody cares what you think...plus, ever considered shutting up?" Firon bluffed, even though he knew clearly that the evil dictator could see the fear in his face. The dictator's grin disappeared, replaced by a frown of disgust. He smashed a fist to a control panel not seen in the window, breathing slowly in hatred.

"Metal Firon...destroy him!" he screamed out in hatred, smashing another fist to the control panel. The metal hedgehog obeyed without question or hesitation, floating off the ground with a rebuilt jet pack and its improved speed from the highway, charging at its realistic copy. Firon jumped and kicked the head of Metal Firon with ease, bouncing high into the air, disappearing in the darkness that concealed the ceiling. Metal Firon was not effected by its earlier blow, letting it turn with ease and give chase to the gray hedgehog. Firon jumped from an unknown section of the wall from the darkness, his unbroken fist pointing forward, glowing with a green energy that made streaks through the air. He collided with Metal Firon's forehead, making a violent shock wave take place and pushing them into the walls, vibrating the whole room with a loud thudding echo.

Both hedgehogs recovered quickly, spinning at quick velocity into spike balls of gray and black, or in Metal Firon's case: just black. They seem to vibrate and shake violently, spinning a mini circle as they spun in their regular spin dash attacks. Soon, they spun towards each other, impacting several times and not losing any amount of energy in the progress. Shock waves generated from each powerful impact, shaking the entire room as if it were about to fall apart. Dr. Eggman watched in amusement as he saw every impact, every violent slash, and every bloody spike cutting the other like a saw. His goggles made it easy to see every good piece of the battle and he could sense, even without his technology, that Firon was beginning to grow weak.

It wasn't long before both hedgehogs grew bored with hitting each other endlessly with their spin dashes, withdrawing to the ground. They both landed with a echoing thud and bump, with Firon panting loudly and holding his hand to his chest, trying to calm his breathing. As he did so, he did not see the lighting fast movement of his metal counterpart charging at him. Before he had time to move, the metallic hedgehog struck and grabbed his chest, pushing him and itself into the hole created earlier in the grate floor. Both of them fell into the darkness below, with Firon believing he had just fallen into the abyss, an endless black pit. Metal Firon boosted the power in its jet pack, pushing Firon further in the chest, and into the seemingly endless black pit. The gray hedgehog stared downward as he turned his head slightly to his left, seeing a small blue-whitish light appear before his eyes. It wasn't long until he and Metal Firon entered into this light, revealing itself to be the planet of Mobius below them, with the void of space and the large space station in the surroundings.

Metal Firon stopped his pursuit, kicking Firon's already hurt chest until the gray hedgehog was flying far away from the metallic hedgehog, becoming helpless. The gray hedgehog floated, motionless and injured, in space. He couldn't move, he couldn't attack, he wasn't able to do anything. His metal replica literally flew in space with its jet pack keeping it in place, with its devilish, unlively grin striking fear into Firon's already weakened heart. Firon could hear a faint, but very similar voice of his own coming from the metal hedgehog, shocked by its mirror image of his own voice.

"I may have lost to you twice...but now, you're weaker then ever!" maniacal laughter was heard from the metal menace, making Firon even more hopeless "You used up all your good moves on me, now you'll never defeat me...prepare to die!"

Metal Firon turned on his jet pack at full power, blasting off in the speed of light through space towards its target. Firon was a hopeless, motionless, and scared hedgehog who could not avoid this last attack as he laid out as an easy target. Metal Firon's grin had long been replaced with a demented smile filled with the essence of death and the determination of a life time. He charged at full speed, faster then light itself, not caring if anything got in his way. His mind was clouded with images of destroying his real life counterpart; nothing else mattered. It was that last bit of knowledge and head full of savagery that made him unnotice something.

Just seconds before Firon got hit, the Fire Wing raced in between him and Metal Firon, with the gray hedgehog using his last bit of energy to grab hold of one of its giant wings as it rocketed through space. Metal Firon, disturbed and brutally angry, turned to see the interruption. Its red eyes glowed very hatefully, a red that was too deep in tone with blood and a hate that was so powerful, it made the metal hedgehog seem even more savage then ever. It's entire body radiated with chaos energy, its hatred combining with it and forming the unknown energy that nobody else possessed. It floated there, waiting for all its energy to charge up and take form, not taking its eyes off of the Fire Wing and Firon as it descended away from him, going nowhere near the planet...

Firon laid limply on the right wing of the Fire Wing, hanging on tightly to it as if it meant his life. He saw the familiar faces of Rod and Striker in the pilot room through a glass dome, both staring in worry at the gray hedgehog. Firon simply grinned weakly, nearly fainting before he heard Violet's voice nearby.

"Firon!" Violet yelled out, making Firon wake himself. She wore a strapped on jet pack and floated over to Firon's nearly fainted body, a huge stroke of fear entering her eyes and into her heart. She held in her arms the seven chaos emeralds, all glowing very brightly as they touched one another in her embrace. She landed on the wing that Firon laid out on, the gray hedgehog looking up at her.

"Violet...are those the..." he lost track of his voice as Violet shushed him, her fear making her very reactive towards anything that might fainten, or even worse, kill the gray hedgehog. She ducked on her knees, the chaos emeralds glowing brighter then before as they got closer to Firon.

"Firon, please listen to me, the seven chaos emeralds should be able to give you the power to defeat that monster and save youself...please, help save us and the future of our planet. I know you can do it. I believe in you!" she said to the gray hedgehog with as much meaningfulness as possible in her entire body. Firon smiled and his eyes struck open as far as they could.

"Don't worry, Violet...I will," Firon replied loudly with determination and justice in his voice, struggling for a while but finally standing up to full height on the wing, closing his eyes and focusing with all the power he had left in his body. He concentrated throughout his entire body to feel the presence of the chaos emeralds near him, which began to float into space along with the gray hedgehog.

Firon spread out his arms to his sides, his eyes still closed, his body still letting the chaos emeralds gain access to his power. He focused even harder, concentrated even more thoughtfully and tried his best, the chaos emeralds finally giving up their power to him as a sign of worship to the bravery and courage he was about to show.

The chaos emeralds circled Firon, a white flash spreading outward from him as his fur began to turn bright white, his spikes jutting upward, his blue eyes turning very pale. His entire appearance was being changed. He no longer had a broken arm, no longer have several wounds all over his body, and all of his energy came back to him, only unlimited and much more powerful then ever before.

His eyes opened immedently, the white flash spreading even further until it disappeared into space, making the disabled chaos emeralds fall back in Violet's arm as she watched from below on the Fire Wing. A bright white and golden aura surrounded the completely different hedgehog, his white fur making him a sore thumb in the blackness of space. His face was not angered, even though it looked like he was frowning, but was rather showing off his new power to his opponent who he knew was floating far away, watching him.

He turned and looked down at Violet, seeing her refreshing and smiling face as she knew that the white hedgehog would not fail her. As if receiving an unknown and unseen message from her, he nodded and spoke clearly.

"I will save our planet from this menace, I will never give up. My love for you, Violet, is another power that is greater then that of the chaos emeralds. I shall not fail you," with his words said, he dashed off with a speed greater then light towards his presumed battle field where he would have the last battle with his metallic copy. Violet stared in surprising relief as she somehow knew he spoke the truth, and was, at first, resistant to entering back into the Fire Wing before finally giving up her resistance. Before entering through the open doorway into the jet plane, she turned her view to where Firon had flown to, a look of love flashing through her eyes.

"I believe in you, Firon. I always will,"