After many hours, this battle was very nearly over. Sonic had pursued Eggman through countless zones, beating him at every turn, destroying many of his forces, and now, the final battle was set here in Eggman's last stronghold. A desperate Sonic was beginning to feel tired, and was ready to give his all to stop his nemesis' plans for world domination. But Eggman had one last machine left, a giant three story war mech; purpose built for this very situation, an evil machine armed to the teeth with deadly weaponry that could tear a hedgehog apart.

This was what the last few hours had lead up to. Robotnik was knackered now, having been chased through numerous zones by that relentless hedgehog. But now he was at his last defence, a twenty foot tale robot which he intended to use now. The robot was not combat tested, but desperate times called for desperate measures, and Robotnik was desperate.

The battle took place in some sort of factory, as far as Sonic could make out, though he had no idea what was being built here. Sonic didn't have time to look, he found himself dodging bullets. The fight was bitter, each combatant trading blows, Sonic aiming attacks at the bodies centre, and trying to dodge the bullets and missiles Eggman threw at him.

Robotnik fired off volleys of ballistic missiles at the hedgehog, as the blue blur ran around his robot assembling facility. The fight was frantic, with both of them trading attacks, Robotnik aiming what he could at the hedgehog, and doing his best to block damage from Sonic's strikes.

As the battle raged, the facility became weakened, due to a combination of erratic missile fire, and Sonic's erratic movements. With the pair of them intensely distracted with each other, neither registered just what was going on.

The battle had gone for over an hour, when the ceiling started to collapse. Small chunks at first, then supports and girder fell, making the whole fight much more complicated for the pair of them.

With a creek, then a snap, another one fell.

The girder came crashing down, slicing through Eggman's weakened suit, cutting all power to it. The robot fell to the floor, quickly buried underneath more rubble. Sonic stood there shocked for a moment, he had seen Eggman's bases get destroyed countless times, but he had never seen Eggman be unable to fly off. For a moment, he stopped, before realising he needed to escape himself. The hedgehog began running. He sprinted as fast as he could out of the place as the base imploded inwards.

Robotnik could only watch as the girder fell from the ceiling, taking Sonic by surprise. The hedgehog had been so focused on dodging missile attacks; he seemingly hadn't noticed the beam until it landed atop him. Even though Robotnik couldn't get out to get a close look, he could tell that the blow was a killer, as Sonic's body was completely crushed by it. But Robotnik didn't have any time to react, he needed to escape. Deciding to ditch the robot, he flew out, navigating carefully as he watched his base explode.

Sonic had to check the next day, just to be sure. He returned to the ruins of Eggman's lab, with Tails.

"You really think he's still in there?" the fox asked.

"Yeah, and not in a good way."

The pair began searching through the ruins. Sonic never usually returned to any of the ruins of their battles. He was usually attending victory parties, and celebrating, and left the clean-up to others. But this time Sonic wanted to know.

The pair began digging through the rubble. After much scavenging amidst piles of broken equipment and robots, they eventually found the remains of Eggman's mech. They began clearing off some of the rubble, exposing it fully. They didn't need to do anything further, as in front of them, as clear as day, was the deceased body of Doctor Eggman, limped over in the chair of the machines cockpit.

Robotnik had to return the next day. He simply couldn't believe what he had seen. Returning to the remains of his factory, he surveyed the wreckage, slightly depressed at the sum of his work routinely destroyed. Yet still, this time maybe he would get some news that would make it all worthwhile. As his robots scurried around, carefully sifting through the rubble, Robotnik began taking stock of the last battle again, just to be sure.

"Eggman sir," one of the robots said, "We found it."

Eggman flew over in his Eggpod. He looked closely, still in disbelief. There it was; the body of Sonic the Hedgehog, face down under the rubble, dead under the force of the falling ceiling.

Sonic broke the news to the masses later that day, and to many it was a reason to celebrate. Across the planet, all manner of animals broke out into street parties, celebrating the fact that they were finally free of the fear of the evil scientist who kept terrorising them in order to take over the world. But for Sonic, it was a bit more sombre. Yes, Sonic had fought the human for a long time, but it was over now, and Sonic wasn't quite sure how to react.

Robotnik told the world immediately. He had his machines hijack a news feed, and gave a live announcement that the hedgehog had been killed, and that he would now be doubling his efforts to takeover, now that he had nobody to stop him. The whole world mourned the loss of Sonic; his was a figurehead, an icon, and a brilliant soldier in the unending battle against Robotnik's tyranny and oppression.

After a few days, the parties died down, and people began to move on with their lives. But for Sonic, this was a tough question. His life had been all about stopping Eggman, but now that was over, he was stuck for what to do. Tails initially suggested getting in contact with GUN, and helping them, but Sonic declined, they were too serious for his liking. Instead, he committed himself to finding all of Eggman's hidden bases, and permanently destroying all of Eggman's weapons once and for all.

Robotnik immediately began rebuilding. He had another weapon in mind already, inspired to work by the victory he had had. In spite of the massive lose of forces that battle had produced, Robotnik finally had a plus to motivate him, and he put all that energy into building up an army to invade with. But Robotnik was still not out of enemies, Tails had already stepped forwards and countered Robotnik's TV appearance to announce he wouldn't stop fighting, and many of Sonic's hanger-on's had agreed. But without Sonic, Robotnik was sure they would all crumble and fall to him.