Mega Loop 1.0 part 4: Across the Skull Egg Zone! Destination: Wily Egg!
"Okay..." Hermes' mind raced for possibilities as to how they could try and fix the situation. "Could we use a local aspect of ourselves as a backdoor and slip down there personally?"
"Two big problems with that," Hephaestus replied. "First is that our local aspects have been turned into minions of Eggman and Wily, and I'm not wild about plugging my mind directly into something like that no matter how easy it would be to usurp control. Second, if either of us has our consciousness down there while the Loop isn't yet stable and the activation attempt fails..."
"...there's a chance we could possibly end up with brain damage, turning us into divine vegetables," Hermes finished (1). "Right. Bad idea. Damnit, there has to be something we can do! It's like everything we're doing here is just making it worse!"
"And the moment we stop, they'll face something where our intervention is actually critical to the success of this attempt," Hephaestus returned flatly. "I know how these things tend to work, same as you do."
"Doesn't mean I have to like it," Hermes grumped.
Hephaestus smirked. "Welcome to my existence."
With the restoration of Sonic's friends and allies to normal, the groups reconvened and introductions were had all around.
As it turned out, Sonic's home Loop was part of a Linked Loop, with Blaze the Cat being the only other Anchor that held down every part of their 'branch' of Yggdrasil that Sonic couldn't. The only other looper from her section was Marine the Raccoon, a hyperactive young sea captain with what sounded like an Australian accent on International Talk Like a Pirate Day. Even Blaze admitted her friend took some getting used to.
On Sonic's side, there was of course Miles 'Tails' Prower, the oldest looper aside from Sonic himself. After the fox, Knuckles the Echidna had been the earliest looper and Sonic's first 'rival' to start looping. Amy Rose had come next, and she'd reportedly flirted with a mental condition called Sakura Syndrome. It seemed Sakura Syndrome was a special type of insanity that could affect loopers when they failed to handle the stressful nature of the Loops and stopped considering the consequences of actions that sane people would normally see as abhorrent. She'd apparently skirted the edge of this state for long enough that Sonic was still a bit nervous around her.
The Chaotix were a team that were sometimes detectives and other times fellow guardians of Knuckles's homeland. Vector the Crocodile was the oldest looper among them followed by the ninja Espio the Chameleon, the hyperactive Charmy Bee, the super-strong and super-tough Mighty the Armadillo, and finally the somewhat nervous yet capable Ray the Flying Squirrel who had started looping as a result of the Crash.
Shadow the Hedgehog had started looping about mid-way between when Sonic had been made an Anchor and now, and only one of his two normal teammates, neither of whom were present, was looping. After him there was the physically young Cream the Rabbit and her chao Cheese, the latter of whom might or might not be looping. Cream seemed to know, but found the fact that no one else did amusing enough to keep the secret.
Silver the Hedgehog was some sort of time-traveler, but the Loops resolved that fact in such a way that he always Awoke after traveling to the past and returning to 'his' time outside a stable time loop event caused his participation in that Loop to end. Silver had related that this was likely due to his native time period being generally ill-defined or corrupted in Yggdrasil's system when individuals from Sonic's era weren't involved. Then there was Shade the Echidna, the youngest looper pre-Crash, who apparently had the tendency to Awaken with the name Julie-Su every so often. Sonic and his allies agreed that this state of affairs was a testament to how screwy the Loops could be at times.
After them were the four Freedom Fighters; Princess Sally Acorn as the leader with her non-looping pocket computer NICOLE that she had kept in her subspace pocket, battle mechanic Rotor 'Boomer' Walrus, coyote swordsman Antoine D'Coolette, and his cybernetic wife Bunnie Rabbot-D'Coolette. All of them were loopers who had been 'shaken loose' as a result of the Crash like Ray, and it seemed the newest loopers actually had the clearest baseline memories out of anyone in the crowd. Bunnie's three cybernetic limbs were explained as a result of a life-saving medical procedure, at least this life anyway, and thus something she was supposed to have. Sonic had explained that nearly every version of Bunnie he'd come across before she'd started looping had ended up with mechanical limbs for one reason or another.
And finally there was some possibility of another looper having been activated by the Crash. Tails was still hoping for the not-really-evil version of Eggman he was used to, who was clearly not Awake this time regardless if he'd begun looping or not, but a number of the others had money on a new looper in Blaze's section or someone named Big the Cat. However, Sonic had related that Big's outlook on life was so thoroughly simple; fish, sleep, help his friends when needed, and basically pal around with his pet Froggy; that he could have been looping since before Knuckles and none of them would be able to tell.
Talking amongst each other, the large group decided that splitting up to make their way to the Wily Egg was best. Sonic and Tails would stay with Rock and Roll as the main group. Knuckles would take the Chaotix and try to catch up with Blues and inform him of the situation as well as offer aid in case he needed help. Blaze would take Marine, Amy, Cream (with Cheese), and Silver on ahead and try to take out threats to the main group. Sally and the rest of the Freedom Fighters would circle around and see if they could find any less hazardous routes to take towards their objective. And no one was quite certain where Shade had snuck off to while they were discussing how to divide up the groups, which left Shadow who had decided to go off on his own to try and find his missing colleagues.
In all honesty, if he'd been thinking straight he would have realized that he might find them faster by staying with the main group.
Omega Man stood before a hulking robotic behemoth whose head was wreathed in flames.
"Egg Denizen: Forge," the roboticized master ordered. "You are required by the masters of this Zone, Drs. Eggman and Wily, to accompany this unit to eliminate the opposition of priority ones: Sonic the Hedgehog and Mega Man as well as their allies."
Elsewhere, Rouge Woman was making an identical request of a sleek machine identified as Egg Denizen: Racer. They would join up with Omega Man and Egg Denizen: Forge for a full assault on the enemies of the doctors. (2)
Blues had been making his way along the mountain trail he'd found when he was blindsided by two robots the size of trucks. One appeared to be a male-form humanoid robot floating in a Buddhist-style meditative position and a laser in its forehead while the second was a lithe female-form model with arm-mounted weapons that appeared similar to crossbows. The first had self-identified as Egg Denizen: Prophet and the second as Egg Denizen: Hunter.
Blues could have handily taken out either on their own, but both at once was proving troublesome. He was contemplating doing something reckless from where he was pinned down behind his shield when the cavalry arrived.
The red form his restoring memories recognized as Knuckles slammed hard into Egg Denizen: Prophet and knocked it off-balance. An armadillo he didn't recall from the original timeline at all landed atop Egg Denizen: Hunter and punched it hard enough to dislodge the machine from its perch on the cliff.
"Hey Pogo Man!" came the shout of Vector, leading Espio, Charmy, and Ray in a charge to reinforce Blues personally. "Looks like we found you just in time!"
Blues shook his head, wondering how a complete goof like Vector somehow managed to be a good enough detective to actually find him when Dr. Wily often couldn't. He chalked it up to one of the eternal mysteries of the multiverse and rejoined the battle. (3)
Princess Sally Acorn directed her fellow Freedom Fighters expertly after they'd been ambushed by a surprisingly female Eggman creation that identified itself as Egg Denizen: General. The problem wasn't so much the machine itself, but the small army of smaller robots it brought with it.
Currently Bunnie and Rotor were unleashing as much widespread destruction among the smaller robots as they could with Bunnie's built-in cybernetic armaments and a few of Rotor's inventions. This left her and Antoine to engage the 'General' with their respective blades.
It might have gone a bit better if Eggman's robot hadn't been skilled with a blade as well.
Shadow was cursing his luck. Not only had he not found either Rouge or Omega, but he'd been accosted by something calling itself Egg Denizen: Harvest. That could control the local plant life.
Damnit, he didn't have time for this!
Blaze and company had spotted four robots moving towards Rock and Sonic's group, but before they could intervene they were attacked by a pair of large robots themselves.
The first was clearly female, and exquisitely designed. Aside from that, it didn't seem to do anything other than radiate an energy field that caused disorientation. It called itself Egg Denizen: Princess.
The other was the standard kind of mecha that Eggman liked to use. Egg Denizen: Knight carried a shield and a brutal-looking sword. Such an opponent would normally be easy for a group like theirs, but with the disorientation field up, it was looking like a tough battle was ahead.
The attack had come out of nowhere. One moment Sonic had been moving right along with his group, and the next he'd been blindsided by something the size of a car and moving as fast as himself.
"What the heck are you supposed to be?!" he called out as he peeled himself away from the robot and began running alongside it.
"Egg Denizen: Racer," the bot replied.
Sonic blinked, and then grinned. 'I do believe that was a challenge.' (4)
Tails looked up at his opponent. Neck-craning up. Sonic had been removed from the field and the other two opponents that had arrived needed to be dealt with by Rock and Roll since they were clearly roboticized masters and only those two were able to restore them to normal.
They'd left Rush and Tango to help him, but Tails was thinking that he might need some heavier artillery as his opponent was the size of a small house. And what he hadn't forked over to Shadow needed to be saved for the robot master army he knew was coming later. The one that could keep getting back up every time they were destroyed thanks to the fuzzy time/space of the Zone. And Tails knew their luck wasn't good enough for that to have changed as a result of the Skaia merge.
"Hey, big guy," he chuckled nervously. "What's your name?"
"Egg," the machine shook the earth as it punctuated the statement by stomping one foot.
"Denizen," the earth shook again as the other foot was used, and then the flames surrounding the robot's head flared intensely as it prepared for battle.
"Forge."
Rock was quickly finding out that Rouge Woman was not the pushover she'd been the first time around. Then, she'd been one more robot master-level opponent among many in the middle of an incredibly chaotic melee where keeping track of all combatants was impossible. Then, it had been relatively easy to catch her off-guard and blast her back to normal.
Now? Now it was proving somewhat more difficult. Now Rock had her undivided attention while her companion squared off with his sister, and she was proving very competent.
"Gah!" he cried out as he took a glancing hit from the Black Wave weapon and fell under the stunning effect. Completely immobile, he couldn't defend himself as Rouge Woman flew forward and kicked him square in the torso.
Rock tumbled across the battlefield and assessed his options. Her targeting systems were extremely good, her weapon fired blasts as big as his charged shots, and even a glancing blow from one left him stunned and defenseless to a follow-up strike.
Okay, threat assessed. What were his options?
Roll dodged another barrage of bullets from Omega Man and took cover behind a convenient boulder. She'd taken a couple of hits already and she really couldn't afford to take any more.
The Omega Gatling relentlessly chewed up nearly any cover she could spot. In addition, the near-constant barrage meant she was having trouble assessing her options for negating or overcoming the weapon. She didn't have much that could outright block it, and of that even fewer could be used offensively. (5)
And if she didn't strike a decisive blow, she'd likely not get a second shot.
'Think, Roll,' she ordered her processor. 'Think, think, think!'
Egg Denizen: Racer was not only fast, he was brutal and relentless in his attacks. It was taking practically all of Sonic's concentration just to keep pace and dodge at the moment, leaving precious little to counter-attack with.
Then he heard the familiar sound of Shadow cursing up a storm and decided that a change of tactics was in order.
"Hey Shadow!" he called as he led his own opponent towards the other melee between the ultimate lifeform and a robot that could command plants. "Trade ya!"
"I don't need your help!" Shadow yelled, but still turned towards his rival, hands glowing yellow. "CHAOS SPEAR!"
Sonic grinned as the burst of energy slammed into his opponent and vaulted over Shadow, wreathing himself in flames. It had been a while since he broke out his fire-based abilities, but a plant-based opponent was the perfect opportunity to dust them off.
"Okay," Knuckles growled. "These two are good."
The fight against the Egg Denizens was not going as quickly as they'd hoped. Hunter and Prophet were simply too coordinated with each other. They'd struck some decent blows, but nothing decisive yet.
"We need to at least disable one of their weapons," Espio agreed.
"I know just the one," Blues stated as his Sit-Rep system finished target analysis. With that statement hanging in the air, he whistled a piercing note.
Beat hurtled down out of the sky like a bullet and raked his talons across the laser weapon in Prophet's forehead, leaving it a sparking scar in the Egg Denizen's face.
"Nice!" Vector exulted. "Okay! Dog-pile on the one that's still armed!"
Silver grunted as he used his psychic powers to suppress the disorientation field that Egg Denizen: Princess was putting out. "Take Knight out quickly! I'm not sure how long I can hold this!"
"Ye heard the bloke, mates!" Marine ordered. "Let's show this land-lubbin' bilge rat what-for!"
Egg Denizen: General had easily proved to be a match for two skilled blade-wielders, but Sally and Antoine had succeeded in occupying its full attention while Rotor and Bunnie took out her minions. With more leeway on that front, Bunnie had thrown Rotor at the Egg Denizen's back where he put his favorite offensive invention to use and unleashed a few hundred decibels of sound energy straight through her armor and into her delicate inner workings.
Tails had a hard time dealing with Egg Denizen: Forge given his necessary, but self-imposed, handicap. Nevertheless; through use of the Rush Jet, a bag of grain dust from his subspace pocket to temporarily and explosively douse the flames around the robots head, and a volleyball spike of Tango's 'spin dash' mode through said vulnerable robot head; he'd prevailed.
Now to get back to his own robot allies before something happened to them.
Rock had hit on an idea, and was now putting it into action. Switching to the Chroma Camo, he goaded Rouge Woman into firing on him as he faded from view. And then promptly shouted like he'd been hit anyway.
As the roboticized master dove in for a melee strike, he side-stepped the blow unseen and allowed herself to become embedded in the relatively soft ground. Wasting no time, he switched back to his Mega Buster, charged up, and fired.
CHANCE OF LOOP ACTIVATION SUCCESS: 26%
As Roll analyzed the weapons at her disposal, she recalled an old television show regarding substances that could stop bullets and got an idea. She switched to the Hydrokinesis weapon and waited for an opening.
When she heard the hail of bullets cease momentarily, she leaped from cover and fired at the roboticized master even as he finished reloading and fired upon her. The hail of bullets met the oncoming rush of water and failed to either penetrate or even slow it down.
Roll immediately switched to her buster and charged the weapon even as she herself charged towards her opponent. As Omega Man started to stir, she fired...
... and blinked in surprise at what appeared to be a small bird next to Omega Man's weapon orb.
CHANCE OF LOOP ACTIVATION SUCCESS: 24%
Getting Shadow to listen had been difficult, but Sonic had managed through mentioning that Rouge and Omega had been roboticized and were even now squaring off against Rock and Roll. Shadow had been pretty insistent on following him back after that.
'How the heck have I not yet made a music pun regarding those two?' (6) Sonic wondered idly to himself as he and Shadow raced into the spot where he'd last seen the two robots...
...and found them and Tails already talking with a restored Rouge and flicky-Omega. Wow. Sonic had forgotten that Omega could sometimes do that. It was something of a toss-up most Loops if the non-looping E-series bot was a full robot or a flicky-in-a-robot like many of the other E-series bots. But most Loops it really didn't matter. Until Rouge had programmed a little something that would allow flicky-Omega to actually exit his robot form and later re-integrate with it. Sonic knew she kept several flash drives with the program in her subspace pocket, but he'd really only personally seen Omega make use of it once or twice in the Loops. Even when a flicky, Omega preferred his robot form.
"–and that's why I've taken to carrying Omega's robot body in my subspace pocket when he's out like this," Rouge finished, producing Omega's usual robot body as she did. The bird chirped happily and promptly flew into the open cranium, turning to an energy form as he did so.
"E-123 Omega back online," the robot monotoned as his head panel shut itself. That at least never changed. No matter the variant, Omega's voice box was incapable of conveying emotional undertones. "Ready to lay waste to the worthless consumer models of Drs. Eggman and Wily."
"I think you're going to get your chance," Roll informed them as she shifted to a red and black coloration with yellow highlights.
'Must be Omega Man's weapon,' Sonic reasoned.
"Yeah," Rock formed his arm into a cannon as he shifted to a white and black coloration with pink highlights of Rouge Woman's weapon. "We've got company."
Two more Egg Denizens tromped out of the woods nearby. One seemed to be a young female-style model, except for the flames her hands were generating, while the other looked like a fat guy made from a mass of metal vines. Sonic could swear he smelled wine in the air all of a sudden as well.
"Surrender in the name of the Eggman-Wily Empire!" the female ordered. "So say Egg Denizen: Vine and Egg Denizen: Hearth."
Sally and the rest of the Freedom Fighters had been having a rough day trying to make it to the Wily Egg. After Egg Denizen: General had fallen, they'd faced the pair known as Egg Denizen: Cup and Egg Denizen: Barbarian.
The first appeared to be some kind of young female holding up a gigantic bowl, looking for all the world like a giant wine glass with a novelty stem. She also didn't really seem to do much in the way of combat.
The latter on the other hand was incredibly strong, relentless, and seemed utterly invincible. It had taken the four mobians a bit before they realized that Egg Denizen: Cup's whole shtick was healing her ally, and that she actually didn't have any personal offensive or defensive powers of her own.
Fortunately, Egg Denizen: Barbarian wasn't exactly a tactical genius. He'd allowed the Freedom Fighters to get between him and his healing support and before he'd realized what was happening, Antoine had dealt with the healer. Without constant regeneration, the barbarian model was merely 'very tough' and had eventually fallen to their coordinated efforts.
Then there was their current opponent. Egg Denizen: Meme. An utterly passive female robot who had trapped the group and herself in some sort of demented quiz show. According to her, they had to answer all of her questions correctly. A single wrong answer, lie, or 'I don't know' and the speaker's life was forfeit. A single refusal, and all the lives of the questioned were forfeit.
It had started out with some rather easy personal questions, followed by a series of trivia questions that made Sally very thankful Rock and Roll had volunteered data on their home reality to NICOLE. Then the questions had started to get tricky.
"Who would win in a battle between Sonic and Mega Man?" volleyed Meme.
"Dr. Eggman and Dr. Wily," Sally shot back without hesitation.
Meme scowled. "Who shall you face in battle after myself?"
"Someone who eez not you, I think," Antoine sniffed disdainfully.
"Where are your friends right now?" Meme grinned evilly.
Rotor's eyes narrowed. "The four of us are here with you. The rest are somewhere else."
"Honestly, sugah-bot," Bunnie put her hand on her hip in exasperation before Meme could ask another question. "Exactly how many more questions we gotta answer before ya' let us on our way?"
Meme got an ugly look on her face. "As many as it takes."
"That answer is not exact," NICOLE interjected.
Meme's ugly look turned to one of horror as her own trap executed her for a wrong answer. (7)
Blues, Knuckles, and the Chaotix weren't exactly having an easy time of things since getting rid of Hunter and Prophet. First they'd been ambushed by some snake-woman robot named Egg Denizen: Gorgon who had eye-beams that turned their target to stone. Simply not getting hit had been one heck of a chore, especially given their mountainous route, but a rockslide caused by Mighty had buried the terrible foe at the base of the cliff.
Their current foes didn't have such a terrifying ability, but they were a force to be reckoned with regardless.
Egg Denizen: Cyclone hurtled gale force winds everywhere from the two tubes on his back, keeping the entire group grounded while Egg Denizen: Joker was throwing bombs filled with Chaos Energy without any sort of care for where they landed, disrupting the whole landscape. It was a toss-up right now what would topple first, their group or the mountain around them.
Blaze and her allies weren't having a fun time. The strange figure of Egg Denizen: Crossroad, that of three females apparently joined at the back, was disturbing, but the figure itself seemed to have no movement or offensive ability. Its defensive ability was proving to be somewhat more problematic however.
The fact that each of the three faces had summoned another Egg Denizen to combat the group was a fair bit worse for their situation.
Amy and Cream, along with Cheese, had their hands full with the feminine Egg Denizen: Flower, whose large petals spawned masses of smaller ones that could not only damage and inhibit the combatants, but teleported around the battlefield at random.
Silver was in a solo battle against what looked like a mechanical satyr called Egg Denizen: Wild, who generated all manner of energy-beasts to fight alongside him.
Blaze herself was partnered with Marine again against the massively unpredictable Egg Denizen: Box. The designs on the box-shaped foe depicted the story of a woman who opened a magical jar and unleashed unspeakable horrors on the world. Like the jar in the story, Egg Denizen: Box would play a jaunty 'Jack-in-the-box' tune before opening up and unleashing some manner of disastrous result. Blaze and Marine had yet to land a blow on their primary foe because they were so tied up in fending off the latest thing it had unleashed.
And throughout it all, Blaze could sense the immobile Crossroad feeding power to the other three and enhancing their abilities while they in turn fed the defenses keeping Crossroad protected from direct assaults.
Egg Denizen: Hearth and Egg Denizen: Vine had proven to be little issue against the combined might of both Shadow's team as well and Sonic and Mega Man's. The problem was that the alcoholic fumes Vine had saturated the battlefield with had left the organic members of Shadow's team (Sonic and Tails had gone after Hearth instead) rather tipsy even after the two groups separated.
As a result, the female assassin-robot known as Egg Denizen: Vengeance was giving the trio of Rouge, Shadow, and Omega a much harder time than it should have. Shadow and Rouge's reflexes were off until the alcohol worked through their systems, and Omega had always had trouble with assassin-style opponents. He was built for raw force engagements, not fighting opponents who relied on stealth and precision.
"Show yourself, worthless servant of Eggman and Wily!" Omega blared at the surrounding forest as he did his best to cover his teammates.
Sonic wiped his brow of sweat after the latest encounter with yet another Denizen/Egg-something-or-other mish-mash, the ruins of the twin monstrosities 'Dawn' and 'Dusk' lying nearby. This was officially getting ridiculous. He was certain none of his other friends were having this hard of a time making their way to the Wily Egg.
"You know, with all of the enemies showing up now that didn't the first time, I wonder what else the doctors have in store for us that they didn't before," Rock mused.
"Not sure if he'd risk the Stardroids or not," Roll stated. "The Dimensions for certain. Probably the CRORQ Numbers as well. Huh... Getting a few conflicting memories on three of the latter."
Rock paused for a moment. "I see what you mean. CRORQ's Wave Man might be called Water Man, his Blade Man might be Razor Man, and his Oil Man might be Grease Man (8). Huh. Also, it seems Wily's little altered history includes some robots called the Constellation Droids, and an ally of ours named... Good circuits, does this Fan guy not have a personality?"
"I met him in one of my failed lives, and it doesn't seem like it," Roll admitted. "Creepy, right?"
"No kidding," Rock shuddered. "There are toasters out on the market with more depth of character."
"Not that this isn't fascinating," Sonic cut in, "but are any of those guys you mentioned a problem?"
"The Stardroids certainly would be," Rock allowed, "but I'm not sure if Wily could control them, even with how screwy this place is. The Constellation Droids are fairly tough, but not a whole lot more than usual. Could be twelve or fourteen of them depending if Wily thinks he can control Apollo and Luna. Dimensions aren't much tougher than the normal robot masters, same with the CRORQ numbers. Though one of the first three is called Sonic Man."
"WHAT?!" Sonic growled. "Why that... I'll sue!"
"Chill," Rock suppressed a chuckle. "His design is actually aquatic. The name is because he uses sound waves."
Sonic didn't seem to hear as he continued gnashing his teeth.
"Hey, guys!" Tails called from the crest of a nearby hill. "Come quick!"
The rest of the group quickly convened on him and he pointed towards a lake, or at least as close to one as this place was likely to get, at the bottom of the other side. Or rather, at the lone figure seated at the shore, clearly fishing.
"Hey, it's Big!" Sonic brightened. "Let's go say h–"
Rock cut him off with a firm hand on the hedgehog's shoulder. "Wait."
"What gives?" Sonic returned quizzically. "It's just Big. He's a cool guy."
"More like Big Man," Roll revealed gravely. "He's a roboticized master. (9)"
Sonic's eyes went wide. "Aw, yertz."
Egg Denizen: Vengeance was getting bolder. Her attacks were getting harder for Omega to effectively counter while he protected his alcohol-affected allies. Any moment now and she would decide to move in for the kill.
"Damnit," Shadow groaned. He'd been just a hair too slow in dodging one of their opponent's strikes and had a ringing in his head to go with the alcohol-induced disorientation. Rouge was out cold after taking a hit herself. He needed to give Omega an edge. Willing the pain down, he put his hand to the robot's frame and channeled as much Chaos Force as he could muster. "Chaos... Control..."
Time in the area around them slowed to a crawl as Shadow used the warping technique. Omega quickly spotted their stealthy opponent making a dash from her cover towards them in what could have been a decisive strike had Shadow not acted.
"Exterminate," Omega intoned as he unleashed a barrage of weapons fire that proved Egg Denizen: Vengeance wasn't a particularly heavily armored model.
With all the trouble they were having, Blaze decided it might be best to switch opponents. She'd turned her fire powers on Egg Denizen: Flower to great effect and directed the rest to act similarly.
Silver had used his psychic powers to forcibly hold Egg Denizen: Box's lid shut, which caused it to explode from forces it couldn't contain. This left Amy, Cream, Cheese, and Marine to handle Egg Denizen: Wild and his energy beasts while Blaze and Silver caught their breaths from exertion. Once the satyr-form robot fell, Egg Denizen: Crossroad would be a sitting duck.
The Chaotix, plus Knuckles and Blues, had gotten lucky. That's all there was to it. Vector had gotten fed up with the suppressing wind and continuous bombardment, no matter how poorly the latter was aimed, and pulled out a baseball bat from his subspace pocket. As one of the chaos-energy bombs came in, on target for once, he'd swung with all his might and somehow hit the thing through the gale winds towards Egg Denizen: Cyclone where it detonated beautifully, blowing the wind-based robot to pieces. (10)
With freedom of movement restored Charmy, Ray, Knuckles, and Beat took to the skies while the rest scattered outwards from where they'd been pinned down. It was time to press a counter-offensive against Egg Denizen: Joker.
"What are those things, Sally girl?" Bunnie asked from where the Freedom Fighters were holed up at the base of a mountain. Above that mountain floated their objective, the Wily Egg. In their way stood what looked like two more Egg Denizens.
One was female and had spear-length spines sticking out of her back. The other was probably male and looked like it belonged in a monster movie stomping through downtown and basically trashing everything in its path. Both were, in a word, huge.
"I don't know," Sally responded. "NICOLE, what's the assessment on our potential hostiles?"
"They are Egg Denizen: Mother and Egg Denizen: Father."
The Freedom Fighters blinked as one. That hadn't been NICOLE's voice...
Sonic and the rest had carefully made their way down to where Big Man was fishing – there was no sign of Big's pet Froggy, robot or otherwise – but they needn't have bothered. The sumo-sized robot master didn't even look up as they approached. He just kept fishing.
"So... Now what?" Sonic scratched his head. They had Big Man dead to rights, but taking him out like this just... didn't seem proper.
"Let's try talking with him," Rock suggested, keeping his arm cannon ready just in case as he approached the roboticized master and addressed him. "Big Man, I presume? I'm Rock Light, also known as Mega Man. I'd prefer not to fight you if possible, so if you'll cooperate we can restore you to your biological state without any sort of unpleasantness. I promise that you'll be treated peacefully and respectfully."
"Okay," Big Man replied without looking up.
'That worked?!' Sonic stared incredulously. He wasn't the only one either.
"After fishing," Big Man finished.
As Sonic proceeded to facefault into the ground (11), any doubts that this was really Big were reduced to smithereens.
"Okay..." Rock agreed, looking a bit confused. He'd offered the peaceful option to numerous robot masters, but having one take it was throwing him off. "Why are you fishing?"
"Dr. Eggman and Dr. Wily told unit Big Man to do what he does best," the roboticized master responded. "So unit Big Man fishes. Unit Big Man must catch a big one."
"So..." Tails offered, looking as confused as everyone else.
"...I guess we wait for him to catch a fish?" Roll suggested.
"I am Egg Denizen: Consort," the female robot informed the gathered Freedom Fighters. She was expertly crafted with the appearance of a noble woman in her best finery. A robotic 'trophy wife'. "I am not here to fight you, merely to inform you that I am the one who maintains the barrier around the mountain you see ahead. The barrier that keeps the abode of the masters Eggman and Wily inviolate."
Rotor unleashed a shockwave of sound that washed over Consort and dissipated without so much as an indication that it had even connected.
"As my barrier is inviolate, so am I," Consort continued, uncaring of the power just levied against her. "I can neither be attacked nor myself attack others. Only a symbol of eternal love can pierce my protections (12), so you had best abandon your folly here and now. Even were you to slay me, Mother and Father are too strong for you and yours. Go home and prepare yourselves to welcome your new masters."
"Hey, Sonic?" Roll asked as something occurred to her. "How big a fish could Big Man catch anyway?"
Crossroad had barely gone down when a wave of water swept over the battlefield. Marine managed to shield herself, Cream, Cheese, and Amy with her hydrokinesis abilities; but Blaze and Silver had been swept up and knocked unconscious against the treeline.
"Avast ye lubbers!" called the voice of their opponent, a robotic humanoid crustacean in pirate garb, holding a long trident in his single hand, the other arm ending in a bladed crab claw. "Surrender yeselves to the glorious admirals Eggman and Wily!"
"Or what ye Davy Jones wannabe?!" Marine yelled back. "You surrender ta me and maybe I won't keelhaul ya fer what ye did ta me mates!"
"Watch yer tongue, wench!" the pirate-bot snapped back, brandishing the trident at the still-conscious trio. "I be Egg Denizen: Tide, and I'll run ye all through before I'll allow such talk!"
Sonic thought to all the battles Big had put his fishing rod through. All the stress he put on a seemingly flimsy object that never even creaked in protest, much less broke. He thought to how Big was able to lift things that he'd only ever seen his old friend Mighty pick up before. He thought about how Big could stop the spinning sawblade over twice his size that was Silver Sonic using his bare (well, gloved) hands and without even being pushed back by the impact. And then tossing the giant robot several dozen feet in the air with minimal effort.
In the end, Espio had taken down Joker. The Chaotix ninja had camouflaged himself, swiped one of the chaos-energy bomb's right out of the Egg Denizen's hand, and pinned it to Joker's back. Events had proceeded rather predictably from there.
Blues, Knuckles, and the Chaotix had trudged out of the mountain area at long last and on towards the Wily Egg, only to be confronted by yet another of the Egg Denizens about halfway there. This one looked like a buff, bearded man wielding a sort of zig-zagged javelin. His lower body was either hidden by the lightning-spitting could he rode, or the cloud itself was the robot's lower body. It was hard to tell.
"Tremble ye mortals at the power of the chief servant of Eggman and Wily!" the figure boomed with a voice like thunder. "For I am Egg Denizen: Storm and none shall not pass!"
"Very," Sonic replied, getting a sinking feeling in his gut as Big Man's fishing rod began to jerk and bend as the roboticized master got a bite.
Shadow and Rouge had finally recovered enough from their mild involuntary intoxication to proceed without issue. Leaving the scattered remains of Vengeance behind, the three sometimes known as Team Dark made their way out of the twisted forest and towards the Wily Egg.
Only to meet a terrifying robot standing in their path.
The fact that the three were terrified immediately told them something was up. They'd seen too much, fought too many deadly foes, to feel this kind of fear permeating their bones. There was no explanation except that it was being induced artificially.
"Malevolent empathic aura detected," Omega droned, only the shaking of his armor indicating that he felt the effects as well.
"You are every bit as good as your files say," the voice of the robot replied as it turned towards them. Shadows clung to the robot like a cloak, obscuring its precise form from view save for a single arm that held a two-pronged pitchfork with a wickedly curved scythe blade at one end. Red eyes glowed sinisterly from beneath a pitch black helm that looked as if it belonged only on the most evil of undead warlords.
"We are better than anything you've heard," Shadow shot back with confidence he barely held onto. "We will be victorious."
"No," the figure rebutted as its second arm came out to grasp its weapon, a glowing orb at the center of the robot's torso that pulsed like a living heart was revealed by the movement. "You will be dead. So says Egg Denizen: Reaper."
Rock, Roll, and their allies watched as Big Man reeled in his catch... and the water of the 'lake' crest upwards as something huge was pulled out of it.
The robotic fish/squid-thing that broke the surface towered over the figures below it, and both Sonic and Tails reacted without thought and attacked it. Rock and Roll followed their lead and fired on the leviathan, causing it to roar as if in pain and fall back into the lake. Damaged, but nowhere near enough to defeat it.
"Reevaluating orders," Big Man intoned as he stared at the downed robot that could only be an Egg Denizen. "Unit Big Man was ordered to do what unit Big Man does best. What unit Big Man does best is fish."
Roll wasn't sure she liked where this was going and began charging up her Mega Buster.
"What unit Big Man also does best is protect 'friends'. Unit Big Man serves Dr. Eggman and Dr. Wily."
"Aww... no," Rock heard Sonic whisper off to the side where he and Tails had landed.
"Egg Denizen: Kraken also serves Dr. Eggman and Dr. Wily," Big man began to turn around to face the group of heroes. "Conclusion. Egg Denizen: Kraken is unit Big Man's 'friend'."
Roll fired her charged Spin Dash Blast to restore Big Man before things progressed any farther. But even with a direct hit, he didn't revert to normal. He just sparked a bit from the stunning properties, and didn't even slow down as he faced the opposing group, the form of Egg Denizen: Kraken rising up behind him. (13)
"You shall not hurt unit Big Man's friend!"
CHANCE OF LOOP ACTIVATION SUCCESS: 22%
"It's confirmed," Hephaestus grumbled. "I just finished running the analysis. All of the higher success paths that keep getting bypassed involved losses on the part of Sonic and his friends or outright capture of Rock and his siblings as well as Sonic. These paths would have led to overconfident doctors ripe for a last-minute reversal of fortune. But the continued victories and successes are pitting them against much more dangerous foes and driving the doctors towards as-yet undetermined desperation tactics which have a much higher chance of resulting in the failure of this attempt."
"And it would be wrong to tweak things towards such a scenario now," Hermes sighed. "They'd never forgive us. Even if they knew it was hurting their overall chances, they wouldn't have it any other way. For all Sonic and his pals are willing to do the 'heroic sacrifice' bit, letting others, especially friends, die to increase their chances of success kind of goes against their grain."
"Goes against their grain?" Hephaestus raised an eyebrow. "The Light family and 'acceptable losses' haven't been on speaking terms for generations."
Rock and Roll high-fived each other to pass on the weapons they'd collected and agreed to double team Big Man while Sonic and Tails took Rush and Tango to deal with Kraken. At least, that's how it was supposed to work. Big Man, it seemed, had other ideas.
Shrugging off a double barrage of the Omega Gatling, Big Man cast his fishing rod at Tails, entangled the flying fox, and swung him straight into the ground.
The Freedom Fighters were getting nowhere against Consort. Everything they threw at her simply... slid off. The only thing that was saving them right now was that she didn't attack back. She just stood there and let them waste their energy against her.
But NICOLE had confirmed the existence of a barrier around the mountain that was their goal. A barrier maintained by Consort. So they had to figure out some way of rendering her inoperable.
If they didn't, then there was no hope for any of them.
Rock and Roll attempted the Black Wave next, but the stunning weapon didn't even make Big Man pause as he repeated his fishing attack on Sonic. Both of the siblings motioned for their animal companions to back off from the battle and support from outside the range of Kraken's thrashing tentacles and Big Man's Fishing Rod.
The two siblings nodded to each other. They needed to run through their weapon options a little faster to find something that worked against the sumo-sized Big Man.
Shadow sneered at Reaper and tried to suppress the shivering the robot's unnatural aura produced in him. Ha and Rouge had barely dodged a swipe by the Egg Denizen's scythe as Omega fell back and opened fire.
"Your pitiful metal balls cannot harm me," Reaper taunted as his shadowy cloak absorbed Omega's bullets. "They are of the dark earth and fall within my domain. As shall your bodies when your fleeting lives have left them. Submit and spare yourselves unnecessary pain."
"You don't know us too well, do you?" Rouge taunted back with confidence Shadow could clearly see she didn't feel. It didn't matter, the minor distraction gave him a moment to access his subspace pocket and pull out a few weapons of a... different sort.
Shadow only rarely encountered the alien race known as the Black Arms who claimed he was secretly an agent of theirs in the Loops. They hadn't shown up this Loop to gather weapons from, but they had in the last one after Hermes dropped by to ask if they'd help this place start looping. By Shadow's count, it had been the 326th time he'd encountered them. Every time different, and to date no clear resolution to the questions they raised about his pre-Loop origins.
But trying to discover what the secret behind the Black Arms was last Loop had taken a back seat to Shadow plundering every member of the hostile alien race he ran across for their unique energy weapons and shoving them in his subspace pocket (14). And now he brought them out.
Time to see how Egg Denizen: Reaper handled lasers instead of bullets.
Roll's use of the Rapid Stinger and Rock's attempt with the Omochao weapon simply bounced off of Big Man's armor. He ignored the hits as he sent Sonic in full Spin Dash mode rocketing back with a palm strike.
(This section by masterofgames)
Water and other attacks flew fast and furious across the battlefield between Egg Denizen: Tide and his three female (and one chao) opponents. The piratical insults between the robot and Marine flew even faster. Tide had fired off a few good ones, but Marine finally decided to stop holding back. "That be it! No more miss nice gal! Remember me name in the scrap heap ya' fact'ry reject! I be Marine, and I be a Mighty Pirate™!"
Tide simply laughed. "Har! Try say'n that again when ye be taller than a trout, ya shrimp!"
Marine simply grinned, thinking back to a loop long ago. "Size is nay important! A fight is more than just wavin' about yer weapon. It actually be a lot like a romant'c date. It be not so much what ye do, as what ye say!"
Tide simply scowled. "Tha' be making no sense! Shut ye yap and fight! I swear, ye fight like a dairy farmer!"
Marine's eyes twinkled. She was in the zone. "How appropriate, ye fight like a cow!" she quipped.
Tide paused, blinking as he thought over the insult thrown back in his face. Which gave Marine an easy shot to kick him in the face.
"Ha! Ye see? Sharp tongue beats sharp steel!" she whooped as Tide recoiled.
"Ye'll pay for that dearly! Me attacks have left entire islands depopulated!"
"With yer breath, I bet they all suffocated!" Marine smirked, her cutting barb leaving him open for a cheap shot once more.
"Aargh! Stop that! I be able to out-wrestle octopi!"
"Aye, and I be sure spineless creatures everywhere be tremblin' at yer might!"
"Yarr! Soon ye be wearing me trident like a shish-kabob!"
"Not if ye keep wavin' it 'round like a feather duster!"
"Bah! Ye be outmatched! Just earlier t'day, twelve men I've beaten!"
"By the size of yer gut, I be guessing they be eaten!"
"Ye got a real attitude problem, ye know that?"
"Well ye have a real hair problem!"
"Ye just don't know when to stop, do ye?"
"Nay, An neither did yer barber I think!"
"Grr... Look over there!"
"Aye, aye, I know, it be a three headed monkey..."
"Oh... ye heard that one before, eh?"
"EVERYONE be hearing that one before! Step up yer game!"
Roll fired the Acoustic Blaster at full charge while Rock unleashed the Shockwave Boomer. Big Man didn't even seem to notice he'd been hit as he snagged Tails in his fishing line and swung him around into an already dazed Sonic.
Actually hitting Egg Denizen: Storm was going to be a problem. He was deadly accurate with the lightning bolts he flung out and even Beat hadn't been small or fast enough to evade them in time to inflict damage on their floating opponent. And it seemed he could deflect Blues's buster shots as well as return fire at the same time.
The group had scattered, taking advantage of the fact that they now had a wide open space to keep from being corralled as with their previous opponents. But even splitting themselves as targets and dividing Storm's attention was only giving them momentary reprieves.
They needed to come up with something fast.
Roll swore as the Psycho Burst failed to have any appreciable effect on Big Man, and signaled for her brother to use Hydrokinesis to cover for Sonic and Tails while they tried to keep Egg Denizen: Kraken busy. The torrent of water seemed to hamper Big Man's movements a bit, but it just wasn't dealing more than superficial damage.
The siblings cursed and switched weapons again.
Bunnie was starting to crack. None of them could figure out how to get past Consort's defenses enough to even scratch her, much less take her out of commission. They were going to fail. Even if everyone else succeeded, they would all fail unless the Freedom Fighters could defeat this foe.
She put her head in her hands to hide the tears she felt coming, and spotted a particular something on her finger. Her wedding ring.
Only a symbol of eternal love can pierce my protections. (15)
Rock swore internally as the Trick Sword barely nicked Big Man's armor. He'd picked an ineffective close range weapon against a powerful opponent. This was going to hurt.
"CHAOS CANNON!" came Roll's cry as Big Man wound up for a retaliatory strike. The shot was dead on for the roboticized master's arm, which made it incredibly surprising when that arm didn't even slow down as it passed through the temporal distortion projectile and clotheslined Rock, sending him flying across the battlefield.
Rock rubbed his neck as he switched to the Stealth Mine while his sister chose the Tail Wind. As Big Man again tore Sonic and Tails away from assaulting his giant aquatic partner, they hoped that maybe these weapons would fare better.
Shade knew she was in deep trouble. She'd left on her own to scout the way to the Wily Egg given that she could move faster solo than with a group, but getting to the destination quickly had been the only thing to go right for her.
She'd been in the middle of cracking the password for the doctors' teleporter when the barrier around the surrounding mountain had gone up (16). Trying to contact anyone outside had only gotten her the gloating laughter of the two mad doctors joyfully informing her that their two most powerful Egg Denizens, Mother and Father, were inside the barrier with her. And actively looking for her.
So far, she'd managed to stay ahead of the two robotic behemoths and not engage them. Her comparatively little Loop experience hadn't allowed her to gain anywhere near the power or tools to take out even one of those monstrosities on her own, much less both at once.
The problem was that she was running out of places to hide on the mountain while they stomped around in search of her. She needed to call the cavalry in, and soon.
Rock and Roll switched out their weapons again. Tail Wind hadn't even made Big Man budge, and getting him to step on a Stealth Mine hadn't fared any better.
Rock opened fire with the Rabbot Laser as Roll unleashed the Fire Tornado. When the flames died down, Big Man was only a little singed around the edges.
Big Man ignored the two in order to try and again interfere with Sonic and Tails' attack on his robotic leviathan companion. Rush and Tango had long since given up supportive fire after nearly hitting one of their other-dimensional allies amidst the chaotic melee.
Bunnie hadn't been a looper long enough to get the kind of goodies the more experienced of her friends and allies had access to, but Tails and Sonic were perfectly willing to share some of what they'd come across. Earlier this Loop, Tails had installed a setting for something called a rail gun on her cybernetic arm, but with some of his own personal improvements so it didn't do things like produce heat in quantities that would fry both her flesh and metal bits alike. Bunnie didn't understand all the terms he'd used, though she thought she'd heard 'technomagical' in there somewhere, but the thing worked.
Hoo boy, did it ever work.
And the best part? Whatever Tails had done with his improvements meant it could fire anything metallic and conductive. Like her wedding ring.
Even knowing what she needed to do, regardless of any lack of guarantee it would work, the act of removing the ring for this purpose was still painful. Bunnie fought back tears as she loaded it into the weapon and began charging the magnetic accelerators.
"Ah'm sorry sugah 'Twan," she whispered as she took aim. "Ah hope ya can forgive me luv."
The recoil from firing nearly knocked Bunnie off her mechanical feet, but she remained standing long enough to see the shot rip through Consort's barrier and her torso both.
And to see that the Egg Denizen still stood in spite of it. Her barrier once again inviolate.
'No...' Bunnie thought in despair as a tear escaped her eye.
Roll came in from one side with the Sharp Knuckle while Rock came from the other with the Mighty Blow. Big Man simply held out his hands and caught both of the robots' fists, and turned the action into a grab before either could disengage.
Heaving his arms upwards, Big Man flung both of the robots into the air where Kraken then slammed both back into the ground many yards away with its tentacles.
"We can't take much more of this," Rock groaned as the pair got to their feet.
"Then I guess it's a good thing I snagged a few of these before we left your place," the voice of Sonic came from right next to them. Turning, the robotic siblings saw their hedgehog ally holding out a pair of E-Tanks.
"It's a very good thing," Roll agreed as she grabbed the one for her and eagerly guzzled its contents.
Reaper had been good, very good, at deflecting the energy weapons with his scythe and retaliating in kind. The robot could probably have given General Grievous a run for his money despite having fewer limbs.
But once Omega had gotten a hold on the polearm and grappled the Egg Denizen for it, it was all over. Unable to dodge and unwilling to release his weapon to fix that, Reaper had been shot full of so many holes that even his apparently rapid self-repair systems couldn't keep up. In short order, all that was left was the pulsing core which Shadow collected.
"Starting a trophy collection are we?" Rouge teased the dark hedgehog.
"Thought it would go with my curtains," Shadow smirked. (17)
Rock went at Big Man's back with the Electric Blades, and barely managed a scratch. Roll's attempt at hitting the roboticized master over the head with the Piko Hammer met with similarly disappointing results.
The only saving grace was that Sonic and Tails both managed to cover their retreat despite interference from Kraken so they didn't suffer another of Big Man's retaliation strikes.
Tide had indeed stepped up his game, and had dropped all pretense of trash talk to focus solely on battle. He was proving not only able to match Marine's water abilities blow-for-blow, he was also able to fend off Amy's Piko Hammer with his trident and keep Cream at bay with his bladed claw. Which left Cheese free to take free shots at the robot's face. They weren't doing any real damage, but it was clear that the Egg Denizen was getting very annoyed with the chao.
"Enough!" the robot bellowed, and spun around in a way that forced his two melee opponents to back off, and allowed him to backclaw the plucky chao into a nearby rock.
"CHEESE!" Cream gasped, and turned an angry face towards the pirate-bot. "You..."
"What of it, wench?" Tide spat. "Yer little beastie got what was comin' to 'im and no less."
Cream's body twitched, her fur puffing out messily and her whole posture changing to a much more wild one. She then turned her now feral gaze on the Egg Denizen and screamed her displeasure. "YOU MEANIE!"
Egg Denizen: Tide reflexively backed away from the sudden alteration in his opponent as the feral Cream leaped at him with wild red eyes, bared claws, and big sharp pointy teeth. (18)
"Strewth!" Marine stared in shock.
"S-s-s-s-shiver me timbers-s-s-s-s!" Proclaimed the severed head of Egg Denizen: Tide before it went offline.
Rock landed from using Ray Glide to dodge an immense assault by Kraken, and Roll similarly decloaked from the Chroma Camo beside him. The two weapons were great at helping them avoid attacks, but they simply didn't have the kind of offensive ability they needed right now.
Big Man was taking damage, sure, but nowhere near enough to where he'd be vulnerable to a use of the Spin Dash Blast. Or at least not a single use...
"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" the two siblings asked each other at the same time.
As the Chaotix attempted to discuss options for retaliating against the airborne elemental artillery platform that was Egg Denizen: Storm, Charmy was trying to recall that Loop where he'd been a secret agent. He'd handled this kind of situation all the time then.
"Better put the suit on so I can get the right mindset," Charmy said to himself as he pulled on a tuxedo from his subspace pocket. "Riiigghht. That's how I did things that Loop."
Turning sharply, Charmy zipped up towards his hovering opponent in a wild zig-zag that proved impossible for the robot to lock onto. As he got close, Charmy began to zip around Storm in search of a weak spot.
"Who art thou to challenge me like this?!" Storm demanded.
"Bee," Charmy told him suavely as he continued zipping around his opponent. Just a little longer... "Charmy Bee. Agent 007 of Angel Island Secret Service." (19)
"And you would dare defy the will of the Destined Masters of All Creation?!" Storm boomed, causing the Chaotix member to stop in front of him and turn a puzzled look his way.
"What did you expect us to do?" the formally attired bee questioned. "Surrender?"
"Yes."
Charmy shook his head. "No, no, no. You're supposed to say 'No, Mr. Bee. I expect you to di–'AGH!"
Charmy was cut off as a lighting bolt finally struck him and he began falling to the ground below, trailing smoke.
"Fool!" boomed the robot. "I am Egg Denizen: Storm! I AM INVINCIBLE!"
"Heh," Charmy chuffed as he fell and pointed a finger gun at the weather-bot. "Bang."
Multiple explosions lit up the airborne robot an instant later from the devices Charmy had pulled from his subspace pocket and planted as he'd flown around the robot.
"Okay," Tails said from where the four had momentarily fallen back to hash out their strategy. Fortunately Kraken didn't seem too inclined to leave the water and Big Man seemed even less inclined to leave Kraken's side. "What's the plan?"
"Big Man's resistant to the Sonic Shot," Rock informed the mobian duo, only for Sonic to interrupt him.
"Admitting that 'Spin Dash Blast' doesn't exactly roll off the tongue, just like last time, eh?" Sonic teased.
"Something like that," the blue bomber rolled his eyes.
"Anyway," his sister picked up for him, "we came up with the idea to hit him with both of ours at once, but we'd like to hedge our bets."
"You want us to team up for a quadruple-whammy, right?" Sonic grinned. "Me with blue boy and Tails with miss golden gladiator?"
"Yep," Rock nodded.
"Well let's do it to it!" Tails cheered and led the charge back into battle.
"Hey!" Sonic playfully called after his friend as the Light siblings followed behind, charging their Mega Busters. "Stop stealing my lines!"
Dodging around the strikes of Egg Denizen: Kraken, Rock and Roll reached full charge as both Sonic and Tails revved up their respective Spin Dashes. As one, all four attacked and struck Big Man from both sides simultaneously, causing a cloud of smoke to envelope the roboticized master.
'Ah failed...'
No other thought would penetrate the haze of despair that was Bunnie's mind right now. Her friends shaking her and calling to her elicited no response. It wasn't until Antoine got the idea to kiss her, the kind of kiss they usually reserved for when they were alone no less, that she snapped out of it.
"SUGAH 'TWAN!" She sputtered indignantly as she shoved her husband off of her. "THIS AIN'T THA TIME!"
"Ma chérie," Antoine told her tenderly. "You were not respondink to anythink else, so I figured I would try somethink a little more... persuasive."
"But... Ah failed," Bunnie began to cry as what had happened came crashing back onto her. "Ah'm sorry 'Twan... Ah shot her with mah wedding ring ta give us a chance and it weren't enough..."
"Ma femme," Antoine cupped her cheek.
"Don't ya get it luv?!" Bunnie wept. "Ah took tha ring ya gave me when we got married and Ah wasted it. FER NOTHIN'!"
"Not for nothink," he told her gently. "Ze Egg Denizen, she eez immobile. She cannot flee. She eez, how you say, ze sittink duck. Ze shot waz not wasted."
"But," the cyber-rabbit sniffed. "Ah don't got another ring ta shoot her with."
"Mon ange," Antoine kissed her tears tenderly. "Ma petite. Mon lapin vaillant. How silly you can be at times."
"Huh?" she stared at her husband blankly.
Antoine smirked and held up a golden band of his own. "Did you forget zat weddink rings generahlly come in pairs?"
Bunnie stared at her lover as what he'd said sunk in. "But..."
"Mon cher cœur," he halted her protest. "Zese rings are a symbol of ze vows we said for each other, assurément. But zat eez all zey are. We are Freedom Fightairs. The peace and well-beink of others haz always come before such baubles and always will. We have known zis all our lives, each of zem. Zeir absence does not and cannot diminish ze love between us. And besides, we are loopers now, corriger? We shall have many more lifetimes to be married again, in as many ways, with as many vows, and as many rings as we wish. All zat truly matters eez our love, and zat eez somethink zis scélérat cannot make us surrender."
Bunnie couldn't help throwing herself at her husband and kissing him. Antoine could be such the romantic when he wanted to be. A discreet cough from Sally reminded them what the current situation was, and they parted with a wordless promise to pick back up where they'd left off later.
"And mon amour?" he whispered to her as he loaded his symbol of their vows into her weapon. "Zis time... aim for ze head. For clearly zis Consort, she haz no heart."
A robotic tentacle lashed out at the heroes who had stopped to catch their breath, only for a furry arm to grab it.
"Those are my friends," a voice familiar to both Sonic and Tails admonished the creature. (20)
The smoke cleared to show a hale and hearty Big the Cat firmly grasping the tentacle of Egg Denizen: Kraken. When the robot tried to continue attacking the quartet, Big's eyes narrowed.
"You're trying to hurt my friends," the sumo-sized cat turned and grasped the tentacle he held in both hands. "It's not nice–"
He flexed his muscles. "–to hurt–"
He pulled, and the massive robot was lifted out of the water and over his head. "–my–"
And slammed straight into the shore on Big's other side with a mighty crash. "–friends!"
Bunnie calmly eyed Consort as she lined up her shot. Consort wasn't completely immobile, but Bunnie's first shot had clearly severed something that allowed for control of her limbs. There was no possible way she could dodge this.
"You cannot win," the robot stated defiantly.
"That's what they all say, sugah," Bunnie retorted as she finished aiming, and fired.
Consort's head practically exploded as the golden band ripped through it at ridiculous speeds and continued off into the Zone, never to be seen again.
"A superb shot, ma belle guerrière," Antoine observed.
"Urgent transmission detected," NICOLE suddenly cut in. In an instant, each of the Freedom Fighters were all business.
"Play it, NICOLE," Sally requested.
NICOLE switched to the transmission, and the voice of Shade the Echidna came forth. "–assistance needed! Repeat: This is Shade. I'm trapped on the mountain beneath the Wily Egg by two immense robots named Egg Denizen: Mother and Egg Denizen: Father. Cannot engage on own. All avenues of retreat cut off. Immediate assistance needed! Repeat: This is Shade–"
"NICOLE, relay that message and our position to the others. Tell them we're engaging the hostiles," Sally ordered even as the team of four began moving. Knowledge of Shade's position wasn't really needed right now. All anyone had to do to find her was head for the two fifty-something foot robots.
CHANCE OF LOOP ACTIVATION SUCCESS: 20%
Sonic and the rest of his companions were heading for the mountain under the Wily Egg as fast as possible. Right after they'd gotten Big Man's weapon, Rock and Roll had gotten a transmission that the Freedom Fighters were moving to rescue Shade from a pair of robots even bigger than Kraken had been, and were requesting immediate reinforcements. Rush and Tango had transformed into their jet modes in order to keep up with Sonic and Tails as they zipped across the landscape.
"Whoooaaaaa...!"
And Big... Rock had made an Item-2 ride for him to use. Apparently the kid kept the thing in his database just in case despite the fact that with Rush he didn't ever need it. Big wasn't exactly handling the thing like a pro on Extreme Gear, but the Item-2 jet was a fair bit more stable, making it perfect for the generally ground-bound fisher. And Rock could guide the thing remotely on top of that to keep Big from veering off into the wilds of the bizarre Skaia-fused Skull Egg Zone.
Sonic estimated that they'd be at the base of the mountain in a few minutes, and prayed they weren't already too late.
Team Dark was making much worse time than Sonic and friends. For whatever reason, they kept getting accosted by robots, many of which looked like they shouldn't even be functional.
"I did not sign up to fight zombie robots!" Rouge complained as she kicked another... something to pieces.
Silver and Blaze still had some ringing in their heads, but they were conscious. And able to fly their custom Extreme Gear; along with Amy, Marine, and Cream; towards the coordinates Sally had sent them.
Aside from that, everything seemed smooth sailing until then.
Being the next-closest team to the mountain, Blues, Knuckles, and the Chaotix were already there, mixing it up with the towering robots. But even though they could easily reach these opponents, it's rather hard to fight something that can flatten you simply by taking a step in the right place.
"I've got Shade!"
"Excellent! Fall back and regroup!"
"Where?! With the weapons these things have, the safest place is right beneath them!"
"We gotta do something! We're just not doing enough damage right now!"
"I'm open to suggestions!"
"As of right now, all of the Egg Denizens have fallen except for Mother and Father," Orbot informed the two doctors. "And if you don't mind me saying so, it looks like only a matter of time before they fall as well."
"Hmph!" Bass scoffed. "That's what you get for sending those weak roboticized masters instead of me. I'd have finished off both Mega Man and Mega Wo–"
I think I'm...
–man as well as Sonic and his allies by now." (21)
"Blast it all!" Eggman fumed, ignoring Wily's 'son', before turning to his friend. "They're almost at our doorstep, Albert! What exactly were you working on while I was converting those 'Denizens' to our cause? Because I don't see it stopping them! "
"Calm yourself, Ivo," Wily sipped some coffee from his skull mug as he typed. "We've got our best traps and minions to waylay them saturating the Wily Egg should they get inside, not to mention our various lines of defense. And even if they get past all that, I've spent my time getting this ready."
Eggman stared at the schematics of what Wily had brought up on screen.
"Oh-ho!" he exclaimed in glee. "Albert, that is brilliant! Positively genius! I'm sorry I doubted you!"
"Just a little contingency plan I cooked up," Wily smirked at his friend. 'Along with a few other little surprises,' he added to himself. Assuming all went well, Ivo would never need to know about those. "I couldn't have done it without your original notes about that positively inspiring invention of yours though!"
Even the addition of Blaze's group to the melee didn't seem to be turning the tide. The armor of Mother and Father was too thick for anyone's standard offense and their combined weapons fire was handily preventing anything stronger from being deployed.
"What's the biggest explosive you have that won't necessarily blow us to smithereens along with them?" Blues asked Shade. He'd determined that prepping a bomb would likely be their best bet at dealing significant damage to one of the two, and Shade seemed to be the explosives expert among her allies.
"It could probably level a small building," Shade responded as the two dodged beneath their massive opponents, "but I'm not sure it's enough to get through their main armor."
"Not from outside at least," Blues agreed. "Which brings me to the next question: How good are you at holding on to a moving vehicle?"
"Pretty good," Shade puzzled. "Why?"
In response, Blues whistled sharply, causing his robot avian companion to dive down towards them both. "Beat! Plane!" (22)
At the order, the bird glowed and seemed to... expand. To an ovular one-seat aviation device that looked a lot like the bird's normal form. Blues jumped in and Shade, for lack of any better ideas, jumped atop the back behind his head and held on tight.
"Keep them distracted!" Blues called to the rest of the fighters as he climbed hard and fast, Shade hanging on for dear life as she prepped her explosive.
Banking around, he dove for Egg Denizen: Father and took careful aim before firing the Beat Plane's main weapon. The plasma fire rained down on the Godzilla-wannabe robot's head and a few hit the behemoth's eye. The kaiju knock-off roared in pain as the Beat Plane flew in front of its face.
"Now!" Blues ordered, and Shade threw her bomb for all it was worth down the gullet of the beast, just as a glow of charging energy began in the back of the throat.
The explosion went off, Father staggering as smoke poured out of its mouth. Then another explosion sounded as the energy weapon it had been priming misfired as a result and began a chain reaction that left little more than a smoking ruin to topple mightily to the ground.
"Thank you for your assistance," Dr. Lalinde told Dr. Cossack as the latter helped her prepare.
"Think nothing of it," the Russian scientist waved off the thanks. They both knew that Dr. Light and his family were quite capable, but the current situation was unlike anything else in their experience. Thus they were determined to send some form of backup to aid their friend and colleague.
As if summoned by that very thought, a blue glow appeared none too subtly in the lab, resolving itself into the alien robot known as Duo. Given the robot's last known location and the speed he traveled at (at least in-system), Dr. Light must have sent a message to the robot before he'd been captured.
"I have been alerted that there is trouble on Earth!" Duo declared with all the drama he seemed predisposed towards. "And I sense Evil at work. Where shall Justice be served?"
Rock had wondered if Big Man's weapon, the Fishing Rod, would prove useful, but he and Roll had collected it anyway. They'd been in too many situations where a seemingly useless weapon turned out to be invaluable to disregard any master weapon, no matter how ridiculous. Though, as they approached the mountainside melee with Mother, he admitted that if the Fishing Rod had a use, it wasn't going to be here.
Without Father to cover her, Mother was slowly being overwhelmed by the combatants already present. But some more firepower would surely make the fight go even faster.
He and Roll came in Mega Busters blazing, Sonic and Tails Spin Dashing straight into Mother's unguarded torso, followed by Big in a similar move. Everyone already there seemed to be avoiding the razor spines on her back, and the newcomers hardly blamed them. Each one of things looked like they could bisect any of the other Egg Denizens save Father in a single swipe. Avoiding them was just common sense. And with all of the combatants ganging up on her and frustrating her attempts at counter-attack, it was only a matter of time before she went down.
"Are you all ready?" Bass glared at the gathered defenders of the Wily Egg alongside his 'partner' Metal Sonic. He was a little unsure about some of them, but orders were orders. "Good, because the enemies of the doctors have arrived. Your orders are to keep them from getting to our masters by any means necessary."
'Why do the two of us have to be the last line of defense?' he grumbled to himself.
"Look who finally got here," Shadow taunted his collected allies as they reached the top of the mountain. He idly spun the still-pulsing core of Reaper on his finger while waiting on them. He and his team had been held up by the zombie robots for a while, but they'd eventually decided to stop trying to stem the tide and just get to the destination as fast as possible. The things hadn't been able to follow them.
"Eh," Sonic shrugged, "you know how it is. You're cruising right along and then the doctors drop something nasty in your path. How'd you all get here?"
"We came up the mountain by a different route," Rouge admitted. "Let us scout the area while we waited on you all to finish up."
"Well, thanks for waiting on us," Roll offered politely.
"Multiple incoming hostiles detected," Omega interrupted, looking straight at the Wily Egg.
"Oh, look," Sonic smirked as he saw a stream of figures emerge from the Wily Egg. "Here comes the welcoming committee."
"Even knowing this was coming..." Rock readied his buster nervously, his siblings doing the same.
"Too late for cold feet now," Sonic stood there casually. "Besides, it's like I told you last time we did this dance, we've spent our whole lives, several of them, trashing evil robots, overcoming impossible odds, and fighting the good fight."
Descending upon the gathered heroes was the robot master army being fielded by Dr. Eggman and Dr. Wily. Some flew under their own power, while others rode levitating platforms down. Almost everyone Rock and Roll had ever fought was there: Dr Wily's first set of original robot masters, Metal Man, Air Man, Bubble Man, Quick Man, Crash Man, Flash Man, Heat Man, and Wood Man; the second set whose designs he'd co-developed with Dr. Light, Needle Man, Magnet Man, Gemini Man, Hard Man, Top Man, Snake Man, Spark Man, and Shadow Man (riding a Kerog); Dr. Cossack's set of stolen robot masters, Bright Man, Toad Man, Drill Man, Pharaoh Man, Ring Man, Dust Man, Dive Man, and Skull Man; Dark Man's followers, Gravity Man, Wave Man, Stone Man, Gyro Man, Star Man, Charge Man, Napalm Man, and Crystal Man; the robots from the World Tournament, Blizzard Man, Centaur Man, Flame Man, Knight Man, Plant Man, Tomahawk Man, Wind Man, and Yamato Man; the robot masters that had sprung Dr. Wily from jail after his capture and from when Bass had first appeared, Freeze Man, Junk Man, Burst Man, Cloud Man, Spring Man, Slash Man, Shade Man, and Turbo Man; the robot masters who had once been powered by Evil Energy, Tengu Man, Astro Man, Sword Man, Clown Man, Search Man, Frost Man, Grenade Man, and Aqua Man; Dr. Light's creations who had been co-opted after an enforced decommissioning, Concrete Man, Tornado Man, Splash Woman, Plug Man, Jewel Man, Hornet Man, Magma Man, and Galaxy Man; those that had been infected with roboenza and gone renegade, Blade Man, Pump Man, Commando Man, Chill Man, Sheep Man, Strike Man, Nitro Man, and Solar Man; the freshly revived Genesis Unit, Buster Rod G, Mega Water S, and Hyper Storm H; King's revolutionaries, Dynamo Man, Cold Man, Ground Man, Pirate Man, Burner Man, and Magic Man; the Dimensions, Dangan Man, Konro Man, Aircon Man, Komuso Man, the twin Clock Men, and Compass Man; CRORQ's minions, Sonic Man, Volt Man, Dyna Man, Bit Man, Shark Man, Wave Man/Water Man, Oil Man/Grease Man, Blade Man/Razor Man, and Torch Man; and the Constellation Droids, Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, and Pisces rounding out the army. None of the Stardroids thankfully.
And leading the charge instead of a roboticized master was the unmistakable form of Doc Robot.
Everyone braced themselves for the oncoming clash, and Sonic continued where he'd left off.
"This is what we live for."
1) Hermes is exaggerating. They'd eventually recover, but it still wouldn't be pleasant to experience.
2) Oh, so the Egg Denizens weren't a throwaway reference?
3) Honestly, Vector seems like a typical bumbling detective, and then he goes and pulls of stuff like this.
4) Looper? Possible end of a universe looming? Sonic's still Sonic.
5) Omega has to be an incarnation of the Moar Dakka trope.
6) You have to admit, it's not like him to pass something like that up.
7) Whoops.
8) The CRORQ Numbers occasionally get hit by the One Steve Limit in-universe. Just because.
9) Big Man was a gag character in Mega Man issue 27's Short Circuits section. How hard could he be?
10) And it's a long fly ball to left field... HOME RUN!
11) I suspect he wasn't the only one either.
12) Aw, nuts. A puzzle boss... And I don't think they picked up anything that fits that criteria in their inventory... Crap, an unsolvable puzzle boss.
13) Oh. That's how hard.
14) Shadow's subspace pocket is host to one of the fastest growing gun collections in the multiverse.
15) Maybe not so unsolvable after all...
16) Oh, that's what happened to her. I was wondering about that.
17) Interior decorating for the blooded warrior.
18) Guess who Cream replaced one Loop.
19) Wait... Charmy Bee was James Bond once?
20) Ladies and gentlemen, Big the Cat. Debuting in Sonic Adventure, he's a simple guy who enjoys fishing and hanging out with friends. His life outlook is so simple in fact that no one can tell if he's looping because his behavior wouldn't be any different. Big's also a freaking tank of a warrior, and he's never happy when people try to hurt his friends.
In case anyone's wondering, his pal Froggy was left back home for this adventure when Big was captured.
21) Bass definitely has the Wily family ego…
22) I had to do this. Blues already has the scarf for it after all.
And, for the curious, here's the Egg Denizen List:
Mother - Echidna
Father - Typheus/Typhon
Kraken - Cetus
Dawn - Hemera
Dusk - Nyx
Flower - Persephone
Wild - Pan
Box - Pandora
Crossroad - Hecate
Gorgon - Medusa
Cyclone - Aeolus
Joker - Eris
Barbarian - Heracles
Cup - Hebe
Meme - Mnemosyne
Vengeance - Nemesis
Storm - Zeus
Consort - Hera
Tide - Poseidon
Harvest - Demeter
Knight - Ares
Princess - Aphrodite
Prophet - Apollo
Hunter - Artemis
Forge - Hephaestus
General - Athena
Racer - Hermes
Vine - Dionysus
Hearth - Hestia
Reaper - Hades
