Hi, everyone! I'm back again with the next chapter. I'll try to keep a regular update schedule, but I might not stick to it. Anyway, away with the negatives- on with the story! - CN

Disclaimer: I do not own any Sonic the Hedgehog copyrighted material.


Chapter 2

The mad scientist stepped out of the main body of the black airship, with his insignia printed all over it. The sides, the windows, even the propellers had small stamps of his overly-grinning face. The metal on that, unlike the slightly rusted material on the Mobian duo's plane, was sleek and shiny, the morning sunlight reflecting off of it and onto the surrounding land. It also pierced the eyes of the Mobians, who had to squint and hold their hands above their eyes to see what was going on. Eggman had walked onto a kind of balcony protruding from the front so that he could see the two Mobians down below.

As he was sure they wouldn't be able to hear him from there, he brought out a large megaphone and said, "Ah, Sonic. The blue rat who was too cowardly to put up a fight in the air... I really did think you'd be stronger than that. Disappointing, really..."

Sonic immediately tried to counteract this, "You're one to talk! What about all the times you've had to flee from us, Eggbreath?"

'Eggbreath' looked down at the floor before recovering and saying angrily with a reddened face, "N-never mind that! You can't run from me here again, hedgehog- this Island's too small for that and you know it!"

Tails had to put his remaining free hand up to his mouth to prevent a loud belly laugh from bursting out. However, a definite giggle still reached the hairy ears of the scientist, who then turned on the fox. Jerking his head towards the source of the sound, he taunted, "Oh, and look at this! The pathetic yellow furball who follows you around like a dog to its master."

The fox growled, before Eggman continued, smirking, "Calm, boy!"

"We're just gonna beat you again, Egghead. Why do you still bother?" Sonic retorted, defending Tails. "You're not doing anything except giving us a holiday every few weeks, getting to travel to tons of different Zones to take you down without even breaking a sweat."

"Oh but Sonic, I don't think so. Think of all the hours, days and weeks in your lifetime you've wasted trying to find me when you could just give in and let me take over. The Roboticizer isn't as painful as the media advertises it. You won't feel a thing!" He laughed loudly at his own joke.

"Yeah, but think of all the hours, days and weeks in your lifetime you've wasted sitting on your butt all day building huge hunks of junk when you could be down at the gym!"

Frustrated by Sonic's comment, Eggman turned up the volume on the megaphone all the way and shouted, "ENOUGH!"

His booming amplified voice quickly scared away all of the remaining birds in the trees around them, creating an eerie silence after he had spoken. However, it was quickly broken by the sound of the scientist walking over the metallic floor of the balcony, creating clangs with each step. He kept walking until he had reached a raised platform, and spoke again in a proud tone, "Over the years of fighting you, hedgehog, I have begun to realise something. Whereas my robots prove to easily capture and convert the majority of Mobians they find into one of their own, you and your friends seem to be special cases.

"As you know you pose the biggest threat to my plans, and so I must attempt to dispose of you first. However, as it has been more and more difficult to try and do that due to you getting older and finding even more abilities to use against me in the process, I found myself asking whether I should... change my tactics. And today, I think it is time to finally put them into practice. I give you... the Egg Cannon!"

Sonic whispered to Tails, "That has to be the stupidest name for one of his mechs yet!"

"I heard that, hedgehog! This is not a mech!" Eggman spat, "This is not a robot! This is a high-pressure barrel containing a collection of highly fragile explosives that will blow you to bits upon contact!"

To demonstrate this, the madman fired one of them over their heads where it landed deep into the forest. A monotone voice droned from inside the mechanism, "Three explosives remaining." The two Mobians turned and looked towards the path of its descent, worried about what was going to happen. Nothing seemed to happen at first, and so Sonic said, "Some powerful explosives, huh? Man, I could do with some of those to kill the feral mice in my hou-"

Then, it exploded.

A burst of fire ballooned out in all directions, and the resulting gush of wind caused all the trees within a thirty-metre radius to become charred, losing all of their leaves, before falling to the floor uprooted. Debris from the ground was thrown up into the air, creating a dust cloud in its wake. The two Mobians had to shield their eyes at it before it had finished, and when it finally did, a large crater was visible in the ground, still smoking. They were both left with their mouths wide open, and a shroud of worry and fear fell over them.

As they were left speechless, the doctor thought it was the right time to resume his speech. "So now, I ask of you, as I have done many a time before, please hand over the Chaos Emeralds immediately, for I know that they are on this Island. You know what the consequences will be." He said darkly.

Tails was close to panicking and looked over at Sonic pleadingly, hoping for him to make a decision. The hedgehog, although realising the amount of pressure he was under, tried to shake it off as usual. He gave a short, firm, one-word answer.

"No." He stood rooted to the spot, glaring up at the scientist. Tails looked half-shocked but he knew that that was the only answer the two of them were ever going to give him.

Eggman stared down back at him coldly. "I figured that you would say that... Say, how much do you care for your echidna friend?" While he had been talking, his hands had been configuring the cannon's trajectory to aim directly where the echidna had been standing next to the shrine in a battle stance. Knuckles was unaware of all of this as he was too far away to hear the explosion, and the trees surrounding the area blocked the arrival of the airship from his view.

The sound of the cannon charging up again was enough to set the hedgehog off. "You wouldn't dare..." Sonic said, equally as shocked as Tails now.

He just shook his head in response. "You never learned to think before you speak, rat."

There was another moment's silence before the duo rushed off towards the shrine- and Eggman slammed his fist down onto the button, firing the bomb.