Disclaimer: I do not own the Sonic characters.
Chapter 4: Give a Man a Lighter…
How they had done it, Eggman didn't know, but somehow an entire army of bots had been able to sneak up on him. Now both sides are waiting for the other to move, for a single slight motion to begin the conflict. Eggman eyes the forces around him, trying to decide where best to begin his attack. While turning his head to see more of the group, his foot skids to the right ever so lightly. It might as well have been a gunshot. The robots surge forward in an ungainly mob ready to decimate their target.
Unlike the guard robots outside the wall, there is a wealth of variety in this army inside the city. Unfortunately for Eggman, this variety includes a wide array of methods for destruction. As the attack begins, Eggman finds himself avoiding laser fire, axes, screwdrivers, nets, bludgeons, razors, stones, and a pitch fork. He jumps to evade everything except the laser fire which comes close enough to convince him that staying on firm ground is a safer bet. As he lands, Eggman takes out the bot that fired the shot which was shaped like a fish for some reason.
Now back on the ground, Eggman tucks into his ball form to do a spin dash. One apparently dim witted bot that looks like a winged mouse decides to attack the intruder in this state. It explodes immediately. Eggman rockets through the smoke of the dumb bot's remains and cuts through the legs of a horse with a slingshot. As it crumples, the intruder bounces up and above the gyrating torso of a humanoid robot. He smashes its head and deftly avoids the spinning mace hands. The height of this attack lets him take out one of the flying bots, something of a corkscrew helicopter with a swinging chainsaw connected to the bottom. Eggman goes threw the joint connecting bot and weapon, and causes the corkscrew to fall. A few of its brethren go with it when the chainsaw flails wildly and eventually gets imbedded in an unlucky snail bot. This chain of robot extermination would have continued but the next bot forces Eggman to halt. It is completely covered in spikes and not even a well powered spin dash could stop it from skewering him. Another hail of laser fire forces Eggman to think fast. He rests a booted foot underneath a spike and kicks up with all his strength. The bot upturns and Eggman spins into its unprotected underside. The bot explodes and Eggman continues his assault, but at a grudgingly slower pace.
That is the trouble with these types of forces. Unlike the monotonous design of the guards, these robots have unique defenses and attack styles. Using the same strategy for too long could be fatal if it isn't changed in time to cope with a bot that can counter it. Such a tactic doesn't stop an intruder like Eggman but it does throw off his momentum which is a battle won in itself.
In any case Eggman isn't letting something as trivial as overpowering numbers or a hostile force with unpredictable abilities deter him. He breaks the arms off a humanoid robot running at him with a lance, then grinds through the hull of a huge bot with a snake head, then… Eggman takes the luxury of a pause to peruse his next assailant. It is a small bot with a spherical shape set on a tricycle wheel. Two big eyes fill up most of its body and two short three pronged arms come out from its sides. To top it off is a flattened sombrero hat with a hook in the middle. Eggman's confusion lies in the sheer lack of intimidation in the little bot which for no apparent reason is waving at him enthusiastically.
Eggman's puzzlement is shared by Tails in the control room.
"Which model is that again," he asks.
"Um, well, actually," Sonic stutters, remembering what the bot is for, "I made that one to carry stuff around and, uh, I kind of sent it out there by mistake."
Tails gives Sonic a withering look.
"Hey. It's hard to keep track of them all and- ooh!"
On screen, Eggman recovers from his momentary pause and destroys the poor lackey bot. An accordion shaped robot tries to tie up his legs afterwards, but he kicks it off irritably and ducks as a horizontal pendulum arcs over his head. He then rushes to the body of the pendulum (nothing more than a pole with eyes) and grabs hold of it. In a blur of movement he catches the pendulum and causes it to rotate in a way similar to how children speed up merry-go-rounds. Once the movement is out of control, Eggman uses the pole to vault out of range. The resulting chaos causes a large swath of the army to be cut to pieces and the pendulum itself to break down. The whole process would have been very impressive except that when Eggman lands he does so in a puddle of oil. He falls in an ungainly heap and Sonic and Tails laugh hysterically for the second time that day.
Looking up with his nose covered in oil, Eggman sees a small bot with a hose and a container full of the irritating liquid. It is the same one that blinded him earlier. Now that it had caused him to slip as well, the robot looked understandably smug. Planning a very messy end for this particular robot, Eggman starts to get to his feet when a nine tailed lash strikes an inch from his face. He scrambles back and jumps to his feet but slips and falls again. This, strangely, is what saves as he feels the breeze off a hammer that just whizzed by his head. He tucks into a ball and dashes away destroying what bots he can but mostly just trying to get room to think. This delusion is quickly shattered as four blocky bots try to trap him between them. Eggman is forced to jump and is almost blasted by a laser again before he lands.
"He can't keep this up forever. The numbers are too great," Sonic says quietly and with less enthusiasm than might be attributed to such words. He knew from experience that right about now something usually went wrong. It is just as this thought crosses his mind that he sees it.
"Oh no."
There is a robot with a flame thrower approaching where the intruder landed. Add one bot that shoots fire and one bot that shoots oil and-
"Tails! We need to-"
But it is too late. Eggman has already spotted the bot and a wide evil grin blooms on his face. Throwing caution to the wind (not that he had much to begin with) he races up behind the flame throwing bot and earns a cut from an ax head in the bargain. It will be worth it if he can find the oil bot, however, and he quickly scans the robots closest to him. None of them are his target so he gets into a spin dash while still holding the flame bot. The result is an orb of flaming velocity that the intruder uses to good effect in clearing out an area around him. Somewhat singed and hoping any long range attackers were just incinerated, Eggman jumps as high as he can. At first, he sees nothing in the mesh of robots and wonders if the oil bot may have fled. Then he spots it between the legs of a bigger bot looking as if it wants to hide.
Too bad, Eggman thinks with glee as he tosses the flame bot up and hits it in an overhead kick reminiscent of a pro soccer shot.
The aim is pinpoint accurate and the oil bot's eyes widen as it sees hot fiery death coming towards it. That's all it can do before the two unlucky forces collide.