The ring deposits you all safely outside the base and seals up afterwards. Neo Metal Sonic doesn't chase after you, which is something of a mercy.
What's significantly less of a mercy is the sky - it's gone dark and ominously stormy, though the clouds spark not with lightning, but with that same green Chaos Energy you've been facing this entire fight. Worse still, there are now far, far too many robotic planes filling the sky - the Egg Fleet seems to go on endlessly, as far as you can see. Though perhaps it would be more accurate to call it the Neo Metal Sonic Fleet.
Sonic and friends arrive shortly, looking pretty banged up but otherwise still healthy enough to make it here, though they stare up at the sky with obvious concern.
"O...kay, this is definitely not what any of us were expecting."
"We will have to take the fight to them, it seems."
"Easier said than done, I'm afraid... I'm not sure how to pinpoint their leader's exact location to send you all with a ring..."
A jolt of green lightning flashes across the sky and Neo Metal Sonic's voice rings out.
"I expect to see you onboard my fleet in one week's time. That includes you, my loathsome copy."
It seems you don't really have much of a choice. For now, tend to your wounds and try to regroup; you've earned a break after today.
It certainly could have, but you do always have a habit of taking quite a bit of punishment during these...
[It isn't annoyed when Dorothy says that much, though. She's gotten somewhat used to it, and she nods her head in agreement as she fills her own glass.]
Indeed. It seems this 'Neo' individual wanted us all to suffer--and he did so quite effectively, unfortunately. Everyone looks so utterly ashen, and yet I cannot blame a single one of them. This was...quite the harsh battle, though we're all alive, thankfully.
...I'm simply hoping we'll be prepared for what comes next week.
[That, at least, earns an amused laugh as Oscar takes a sip.]
Wouldn't be much of a soldier if I was lettin' someone else take all the hits for me. Might as well do what I'm good at, right?
[His expression grows a bit more somber as he looks down into his glass, however.]
... to put it bluntly, the worst damage he did wasn't the kind that ends with you bleedin' everywhere. That worries me a lot more than him beatin' people up, 'cause you can't just slap a heal spell on that kinda thing and call it fixed.
As long as you make sure it's not your ultimate end, I suppose it's fine. But Wolfwood is almost done with the others, you know.
[hint hint. you gotta get checked out someday, mister!!!
Even so...Dorothy's look also grows somber at that, and she looks out to the blighted sky before them uneasily.]
Oh, you'll receive no disagreement from me. The fact that he was able to find a way to control our minds, when we've been immune for so long...
...I fear what that could do to us, if he's able to overwhelm us. Hitting our friends seemed to be a good cure for it, but...it does make me uneasy, the amount of power that he has. I truly wonder if we'll be able to stand up to it.
...Indeed, it likely would not be an easy battle if it came down to it. I fear what would have happened if the same had happened to me, too...
[She saw how some people's personalities had shifted. Would she go back to being that cruel, self serving Nikke she started as? If she'd hurt these people like she left so many others to die...
...]
...I'm certain we would have found a way. We always tend to. So...do try not to worry so much; we are strong, and even if he tries to break our unity apart...we will always persist and find a way, I think.
But...this is something we'll have to find a way to prepare for. He knows how effective this is, after all.
In other words, we'll have to expect it to happen again.
[He's no fool; he knows that there's no way Neo won't try to pull the same trick again after seeing how well it had worked this time, just as Dorothy says. There were still so many others he hadn't managed to get his claws into yet, after all...]
I'm not planning to let my guard down, and I hope the others aren't either. But we should be prepared just in case... knowin' him, he'll try to find a way to get into our heads even when we aren't in battle. "Playin' fair" doesn't seem to be a term he's familiar with.
[Dorothy listens to Oscar while she takes a sip of her own glass of wine, looking out into the sky.]
That's exactly what I'm thinking. I expect that we should be prepared for any sort of ambush before this week is over; nobody should go out alone on any sort of supply run, and we'll need to ensure that he doesn't find a way back to our base.
...If we can keep ourselves safe and get prepared, we may have a shot at this. I truly do believe in our ability to face him down, but it will not be easy.
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no subject
[Here, she'll get him nice and filled up and just kind of lean on the wall beside him. Company's better for these kind of things, after all.
She'll talk while she fills up her own glass, though.]
How are you holding up, after everything that happened?
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[It's a deflection, but a reasonable enough one that he hopes it will come across as genuine.]
That was pretty hard on all of us, even the ones who weren't takin' all of the big hits.
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[It isn't annoyed when Dorothy says that much, though. She's gotten somewhat used to it, and she nods her head in agreement as she fills her own glass.]
Indeed. It seems this 'Neo' individual wanted us all to suffer--and he did so quite effectively, unfortunately. Everyone looks so utterly ashen, and yet I cannot blame a single one of them. This was...quite the harsh battle, though we're all alive, thankfully.
...I'm simply hoping we'll be prepared for what comes next week.
no subject
Wouldn't be much of a soldier if I was lettin' someone else take all the hits for me. Might as well do what I'm good at, right?
[His expression grows a bit more somber as he looks down into his glass, however.]
... to put it bluntly, the worst damage he did wasn't the kind that ends with you bleedin' everywhere. That worries me a lot more than him beatin' people up, 'cause you can't just slap a heal spell on that kinda thing and call it fixed.
no subject
[hint hint. you gotta get checked out someday, mister!!!
Even so...Dorothy's look also grows somber at that, and she looks out to the blighted sky before them uneasily.]
Oh, you'll receive no disagreement from me. The fact that he was able to find a way to control our minds, when we've been immune for so long...
...I fear what that could do to us, if he's able to overwhelm us. Hitting our friends seemed to be a good cure for it, but...it does make me uneasy, the amount of power that he has. I truly wonder if we'll be able to stand up to it.
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[... he knows well just how ugly that could have gotten due to their sheer physical strength.]
I don't think just hittin' us would've been that easy. We coulda done a real number on everyone else.
[And he's so, SO glad that didn't actually happen.]
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[She saw how some people's personalities had shifted. Would she go back to being that cruel, self serving Nikke she started as? If she'd hurt these people like she left so many others to die...
...]
...I'm certain we would have found a way. We always tend to. So...do try not to worry so much; we are strong, and even if he tries to break our unity apart...we will always persist and find a way, I think.
But...this is something we'll have to find a way to prepare for. He knows how effective this is, after all.
no subject
[He's no fool; he knows that there's no way Neo won't try to pull the same trick again after seeing how well it had worked this time, just as Dorothy says. There were still so many others he hadn't managed to get his claws into yet, after all...]
I'm not planning to let my guard down, and I hope the others aren't either. But we should be prepared just in case... knowin' him, he'll try to find a way to get into our heads even when we aren't in battle. "Playin' fair" doesn't seem to be a term he's familiar with.
no subject
[Dorothy listens to Oscar while she takes a sip of her own glass of wine, looking out into the sky.]
That's exactly what I'm thinking. I expect that we should be prepared for any sort of ambush before this week is over; nobody should go out alone on any sort of supply run, and we'll need to ensure that he doesn't find a way back to our base.
...If we can keep ourselves safe and get prepared, we may have a shot at this. I truly do believe in our ability to face him down, but it will not be easy.