Death Egg Mk. III

The group was all in the one pod. Knuckles was sitting, kicking back and Tails was just playing his Nintendo 3DS. Aku-Aku was floating, doing nothing of interest, and Crash was just sitting, making weird faces for some reason. "Oh Sonic, we're finally on a date together!" said Amy in front of the other four as they were in a cramped pod hurdling through space towards the new Death Egg. "Uh… Amy, I don't think this counts as a date considering four other people are here." replied Sonic.

Aku-Aku then said to Sonic, "Er… does she do this often?"

"You have no idea." replied the blue hedgehog as he was clasp-hugged by the pink hedgehog. Knuckles began snickering at this conversation, and Sonic then said to him, "Hey, what's so funny, Knuckles?"

"You being stalked by Amy, duh!" replied Knuckles, Amy censoring his words out.

Sonic smirked and replied, "Heh, and you being stalked by Rouge isn't funny? Wait, you kinda stalk her, too. Remember that peeping incident two weeks ago?"

Knuckles was enraged, pink in the face, and tightened his fists. He and Sonic began squabbling back and forth about what to and not to talk about in front of others. Aku-Aku floated beside Tails, and the fox said, "You get used to it."

"Yes, it reminds me of my brother." replied the mask.

"Is he a mask, too?" asked Tails.

"Yes and an evil one at that. However, I only compare those two to him and me due to our constant bickering. However, I have curiously not seen him in a while. He must be up to something." explained Aku-Aku. Before Tails could respond, a robotic voice could be heard from around the pod's interior. It said, "Approximate D.E.M.3 arrival time: One minute!" Tails quickly went up to the window and saw it. There, in an empty gap in space was the space station. Aku-Aku floated to the window and said, "I think this is a knock-off of that Death Star in that one movie, don't you think so, Crash?" Crash continued his faces, and Aku-Aku gained a worried expression. He then spoke to everyone in a calm voice, "Uh, you all might want to cover your noses."

Knuckles and Sonic stopped bickering and said, "Why?"

Aku-Aku then explained, "Crash is about to-"

Before he could fully explain, the pod began filling with noxious fumes of sulfur and methane. Everyone but Crash began screaming the rest of the way towards the station. Tails in particular basically said frantically, "Air, I need air!"

The pod landed at the station, and everyone barged out of the pod, breathing in better air, as Crash just nonchalantly walked out, stretching. "Uh, gawd, how do you put up with that?" asked Sonic, waving his hand around his nose.

"Years of practice, stamina, and the fact that my nose can't smell anything." replied Aku-Aku with a trollish smile.

After a couple minutes of air-gasping, Amy said, "Well… we're here." The space station was more advanced than Sonic had remembered. The halls were white and not green or blue and there were monitors flashing the names Eggman and Cortex every few seconds. "Man, this place got amped!" said the blue hedgehog.

"I take it you have been here before." said Aku-Aku.

"Twice, actually!" replied Sonic.

"Do you know your way around?" asked the mask.

"Probably, follow me, guys." said Sonic with leadership, and the six wondered for hours.

Meanwhile, in the very center of the Death Egg where the reactor is stowed. "Well done, Cortex, you've done a fine job at your half of the work invested into this project." said Eggman in a rare sense of appreciation.

"Much obliged!" responded Cortex.

"What on this Earth did you use to power the core of the Death Egg?" asked Eggman.

"Hm hm hm, not on this Earth, but my own!" revealed Cortex. He then opened the viewing hatch of the reactor, and inside was another wooden mask like Aku-Aku, but it had a bone on its left, right, and top side, no feathers, hairy leaves on the very top and bottom of it, and crooked teeth. "Meet Uka-Uka! I stashed him, whilst he was asleep, and brought him to this dimension after our planning; I decided to use him as an even more powerful source of energy than my crystals. Ha ha ha ha ha ha!"

"Cortex, you traitorous buffoon!" shouted Uka-Uka, "Let me out, or you shall face a fate worse than death!"

"Aw Ukey, look on the bright side, you're involved in taking over the world, aren't you? Good! Glad you like it! Okay Eggman, let's leave!" Cortex said. He then left with Eggman as Uka-Uka shouted, "Cortex! You let me out of here this instance! I am a magic mask, not a fossil fuel! CORTEX!" The reactor room doors then slid shut, and the reactor's viewing hatch closed forthwith.