As Tails sprinted after Sonic, his concerns grew more and more. Realistically he was unlikely to be able to assist Sonic here; given the amount of energy he, Shadow and Knuckles had detected from the lower levels of the cavern it was likely that whatever Eggman has down there was stronger than any mechs they had previously faced. The lack of any Chaos or Sol Emeralds could only add to Tails' concern, they had the Master Emerald sure but due to Tails' inexperience with the emerald it was akin to a caveman having nuclear weapons. At best Tails would blast the cavern to rubble, at worst he would alter the fundamental laws of time and space.

This was going to be all Sonic's fight, all Tails could do is fly him out if Sonic is in immediate danger, though the grey hedgehog's aggression made Tails even more nervous to assist. He had to accept the possibility that Sonic could actually hurt Tails for interfering, an issue Tails had never previously had.

Tails found himself in a huge open space, due to the reinforced metallic walls, ceilings and floors it looked more akin to an abandoned laboratory than the inside of a cave. Along the walls there were a series of odd metallic tubes Tails couldn't immediately see the function of. As he followed the tubes he noticed a number of pulsating blue wires along the floor and walls, creating a vein like appearance, which became thicker as he travelled closer to the centre of the room, gradually becoming reminiscent of arteries.

Eventually Tails spotted Sonic, staring with a rage in his eyes he had never seen before, Tails was afraid to even speak to Sonic in this state, deciding it would be wiser to keep his distance, that way he wouldn't be spotted, but he could still hear what was going on. Though for the longest time there was only the sound of Sonic's raspy, anger-betraying breath to pierce the silence before he finally spoke up.

"You are not Eggman."

Shadow concentrated as hard as he could, trying to gather all the chaos energy he could muster before yelling

"Chaos Control!"

A few sparks of energy flew from him and he could've sworn he'd moved a good few inches but he just couldn't gather enough chaos energy to warp through those rocks.

"Damn it, why won't this work?" Shadow said in frustration.

"I dunno, maybe something else is attracting all the chaos, just help me move these dumb rocks out the way, we have to get through there, they could be trapped!"

"They aren't trapped, they moved on without us," Shadow stated as he began shifting the rocks.

"How do you know?"

"You think Sonic could be beaten by fallen rocks?" Shadow asked mockingly.

"Well maybe… okay I guess not but what about Tails?"

"I saw him fly out of the way just before the rocks fell." Rouge said, in a strained whisper.

"Maybe you shouldn't talk so much" Knuckles said, Rouge glared at him, "I, I just meant to, y'know, conserve your energy."

"Dr Doom over here is already insisting I don't move, I can at least talk." Rouge replied, still sounding as if it was taking all her strength to do so.

"You probably shouldn't, you were bleeding from your ears; you are probably concussed." Shadow reproached, "But I know I can't stop you, you've always been a stubborn one."

"Coming from someone who is basically so stubborn he became unkillable I'm going to take that as a compliment." Rouge whispered, her snarky attitude unchanged by the extent of her injuries.

"Amy, come on!" Knuckles shouted, "Sonic could be in trouble."

Amy had been sat quietly in the corner, alone since the rocks fell, the others had let her be, after all she often needed time to calm down after a rage session and that one seemed especially vengeful.

"You'll forgive my lack of enthusiasm for saving him," Rouge whispered, "you realise this is all his doing." She pointed to her head.

"Sonic did that?" Knuckles asked, "Did he go all White Space on you?"

"You could say that yes, you'd be better off asking her," Rouge said, pointing to Amy, "I don't get what there was to be so mad about."

"Well, what happened Amy?" Knuckles asked, now distracted from his tunnelling.

Only then did they realise she was sobbing.

Just as Knuckles walked over to comfort her, a large earthquake knocked everyone to the ground.

Sonic had let out a primal scream, a huge blast of air emanated from him, launching Tails all the way into the back wall. He could hear a terrifying rumbling from above, he feared Sonic would cause the whole cave to collapse at this rate.

"DAMN IT!" Sonic yelled whilst pacing and pulling his spines in anger. "WHERE'S THE REAL EGGMAN!?"

"I AM THE REAL EGGMAN YOU PATHETIC WHITE RAT!" Eggman Nega yelled back. "YOUR EGGMAN IS THE FAKE ONE AROUND HERE! THIS IS MY DIMENSION AND YOU HAVE THE AUDACITY TO CALL ME A FAKE? I'LL WIPE THE FLOOR WITH YOU AND THEN I'LL DESTROY YOUR FAKER TOO, NOTHING WILL STAND IN MY WAY! OOHOOHOOHAHAHAHA!" Eggman Nega fell into the classic evil laugh shared by both versions of Eggman.

'So the two Eggmans have been fighting a war with one another; that explains the eggbots we saw flying above us on the way here.' Tails thought. 'Perhaps we should...'

Tails' train of thought was interrupted by the sound of a cracking whip and an ear-splitting yell. Sonic had used one of his wind slashes directly on Nega's face; he held a hand to the injury, looking shocked at the blood on his gloves.

"SHUT THE HELL UP AND GET IN YOUR DAMN MECH!" Sonic exploded at him.

"You'll regret that!" Nega growled before pressing a button on his control panel.

Tails leapt into the air, flying as high as possible as an ominous screech blasted out from all directions. The long tubes which had confused Tails earlier moved in unison, coiling around the centre as Nega's platform rose, before suddenly, with a terrifying clang of metal, the top of the robots jaw clamped down, appearing to eat Nega whole. The entire monstrosity began leering over Sonic, writhing in a snake like manner, before a colossal hood flared beneath it. Tails could just about make out several dozen firearms of various sizes being fed by the chaotic blue arteries similar to those along the floors. The weapons including some very intimidating looking cannons emanated from the hood of this terrifying, coiled colossus. Its eyes suddenly glowed a chaotic blue, glancing around before narrowing into a more reptilian form.

Though Tails could only stare in awe and wonder about the mechanical complexities of such engineering, Sonic simply stood with folded arms, looking distinctly unimpressed in a very Shadow-esque manner. As Tails landed several feet behind Sonic he watched him mime yawning.

"Another Egg Viper? Seriously?" He derided, his anger still plainly written all over his face, "You're no more creative than the real Eggman."

"I AM THE REAL EGGMAN AND THIS IS A COBRA YOU STUPID LITTLE PINCUSHION!" Nega yelled back as the Egg Cobra slammed its tail down right where Sonic had been stood only milliseconds earlier.

The proceeding earthquake knocked Tails off his feet; as he stood up he quickly had to fly several feet back, the weapons in the cobra's hood had begun firing rapidly, whilst they were targeted directly at Sonic he was moving at such a speed he was practically invisible, the only indication that Sonic was even present was the sound of his shoes tapping against the floor, which Tails suspected was how the Egg Cobra's targeting mechanisms were tracking him. Sonic didn't even seem to acknowledge Tails' existence, meaning Tails was having to hover above the battlefield to prevent Sonic from leading the gunfire in Tails' direction. Tails attempted to use his laser arm to fire at the Egg Cobra, but the beam simply ricocheted from the Cobra, almost knocking Tails out of the air.

'Well, I'm all out of ideas, I'm staying up here where it's safe' Tails thought, watching the fight from the rafters, 'Maybe Shadow could help, but the others don't seem to be in any rush to get here.' As he ducked under a misaimed laser beam, he realised he couldn't blame them for staying out of this one.

Shadow could barely hear what Knuckles and Amy were saying he was too busy clawing his way through the rubble.

"I could use your assistance Guardian" Shadow said, "remember, Tails still has the Master Emerald."

His attempt at persuasion didn't seem to have worked.

"Helping Sonic might not be a good idea Shadow." Knuckles said, "Rouge was right, Sonic did hurt her. According to Amy he almost killed her."

Shadow just looked at Amy, he noticed her eyes were still red from the crying, she nodded silently.

He just stood there for a moment trying to figure this out.

"What did you do to anger him so much?" he asked Rouge.

She looked scandalised.

"Whoa, hey victim-blaming much?" She rasped, looking angrily at Shadow. "You honestly think me saying something is worth killing me over? Besides I didn't say it, he did, it's his fault he can't keep his mouth shut."

"Come on Rouge we've worked together for years, I know you. You used some of your trickery didn't you?"

"Well, maybe a little, but why are you taking his side?" Rouge rasped, sounding more than just physically hurt.

"I'm not taking sides I'm trying to understand." Shadow said, trying to be diplomatic. "Believe me I want to give him a thrashing for hurting you, but I want to know. What were you talking about that got him so worked up?"

"I just asked him a few questions about his love life, it was totally innocent I swear." Rouge said, holding up her hands in a placating gesture.

"What did he say?" Shadow asked.

Rouge just looked at Amy, once she got eye contact with her she just stared until Amy gave a submissive sigh and answered.

"He said that he doesn't love me." Amy said, speaking to the ground.

Shadow felt a little burst of anxiety at that moment, this was something Sonic had always told Shadow to keep secret.

"What else did he say?" Shadow asked.

"It's hard to know darling, I was a little out of it on account of my head being smashed into wall and almost being strangled to death." Rouge remarked mockingly.

"Amy?" Shadow asked.

"He just said that everyone thought we were together so news people stopped asking him about his private life." Amy answered sadly. "I asked him if there was some other girl he liked but he said no, he just doesn't think I'm good enough for him."

Shadow let out a breath he didn't realise he had been holding.

"Well if he thinks that he's wrong." Knuckles said, scratching the back of his head in an absent minded way. "It'll be something else. Maybe he's just scared of commitment."

Amy just smiled at him.

"What?" Knuckles asked as she beamed at him.

"Nothing, just, thank you." Amy said.

"Err right. Anyway do we think it's a good idea to save Sonic or not?" Knuckles asked, trying to focus on the mission. "If he can almost kill a member of his own team then…"

"Then he needs our help more than ever." Shadow decided, getting back to digging.

"Actually I was gonna suggest we stay away from him until he gets back to normal." Knuckles said.

"Do you think it's wise to just leave Tails with him?" Rouge pitched in. "Weren't you bleating about us being 'The Tails Team' before."

Knuckles gave a heavy sigh.

"Yeah okay we have to save Tails, but we are going to have a serious talk with Sonic about what he did." Knuckles said as he commenced digging.

"Yeah I'd like to see what Shadow will do to him," Rouge smiled.

Tails couldn't help but notice that in spite of the sheer amount of skill Sonic was showing, he did seem to be moving a little slower than before. He was still moving at an astonishing speed but Tails' eyes were able to follow him now, rather than just assuming his position based on the trajectory of the laser fire.

The Egg Cobra had begun to release some sort of fluid from his fangs, Tails had remained airborne since then, after all anything that mech releases can only be bad news. He had assumed it was some sort of acid, however the non-corroded floor disproved that particular hypothesis.

Sonic was winning this fight, he had quickly found that although his sawblade attack was effective against the creature, the speed of the laser fire meant he was unable to use it for long enough to simply slice the robot to bits. He had instead spindashed directly into one of the Cobra's sharp fangs, causing it to fall from the Cobra's mouth and clang harshly against the ground. The Egg Cobra's sickly yellow venom gushed forth, no longer held in place by the fang, which Sonic had begun using as a sword, an apparently effective strategy given that the Egg Cobra was now on the defensive, using its tail to swat at Sonic as he chased it around the room.

'That venom isn't affecting Sonic at all' Tails mused, "perhaps it wasn't a weapon, simply a way for the mech to expel any consumed fuel.' As he was mulling this over a laser beam struck one of his tails, knocking him out of the air.

"Ugh" Tails groaned in pain, he found that he had landed in a small puddle of the Cobra's venom. As fast as he could he leaped from the ground, cautious of any effect the mysterious ooze could produce. Fortunately he appeared to be fine, though as he tried to wipe himself clean he noticed something unusual. His burnt tail wasn't hurting.

'Is this some kind of anaesthetic?' he wondered, 'what's the point of that?'

As he tried to get back in the air he quickly found that his tails struggled to pick of the necessary speed, the roots of his tails simply felt less obedient than usual, he couldn't tense his muscles enough to get any decent rpm.

'Maybe that's why Sonic is moving slower than before' he mused, 'this stuff must have some kind of muscle relaxant, or perhaps it causes mild and contained paralysis.'

'That explains why Nega is on the defensive, this is a battle of attrition,' he realised, 'he just has to wait for Sonic to weaken.'

"Hey Sonic!" Tails yelled, "You have to finish this quick!"

Sonic didn't acknowledge Tails' yell, but given the panicked look in his eyes he was well aware of the danger he now faced. He was having to rely on his chaos powers to launch him out of the way of the Cobra's tail swipes, his speed on foot was dropping and using his chaos powers to throw himself around was dangerously imprecise.

A series of faster and more precise tail swats began as soon as Sonic began relying on chaos techniques, making Tails horribly aware of the fact that Nega had being toying with him for some time, he had the upper hand now and Sonic clearly knew it.

Tails was feeling pretty useless right now.

As Knuckles and Shadow continued carefully removing the debris, they didn't want another cave in after all, Rouge slowly attempted to drag herself to her feet. She very nearly fell over, only saved by a panicked flap of her wings pushing her back to leaning against the wall.

"How bad is it?" Amy asked, looking concerned and standing up.

"I'm just a little dizzy, I'll be fine once the fox kid uses his medibot."

"Oh okay then" she said, sitting back down.

Amy wasn't assisting Knuckles and Shadow, Rouge suspected Amy was watching over her to make sure she's okay, probably out of some childish sense of obligation. She was always doing stuff like that. Back at the factory she was constantly going around handing food and blankets to people, why does she have to be such a goody-goody all the time? Is it just to make up for her lack of talent or something?

'Maybe she's after something, is she just trying to guilt trip me with those puppy dog eyes?' Rouge thought.

"I know I'm sexy, but you shouldn't stare, I'm really not into girls" Rouge joked, "I don't need you coddling me, help Shads or something."

"I'm not coddling you, I just don't want you cracking your head on a rock when I'm not looking." Amy answered sounding reasonable.

Too reasonable, there has to be an ulterior motive, there's always an ulterior motive.

"What do you want from me?" Rouge asked, "This fake concern is boring, just spit it out."

"It isn't fake, do you honestly think it's weird to look after someone who's hurt?" Amy asked innocently.

'Who does she think she is, acting all innocent? I know what she wants and she isn't getting it.' Rouge decided.

"Look, I don't need looking after, so stop acting like my nurse and go help dig, your fake boyfriend might need you to make him a sandwich or something."

She looked slightly upset at that little jibe, but she continued watching.

"No, if I look away you might end up hurting yourself," she said.

"Look I know what you're after and you aren't getting it, so stop playing miss goody-two-shoes and leave me alone!" Rouge spat at her angrily.

Unfortunately in her rage she had tried to step forward, her dizziness caused her to misstep and fall to the side, Amy caught her just in time and helped her lean back against the wall.

"I'm not after anything except stopping you from hurting yourself." Amy said, "honestly why do you have to assume the worst in people, and what do you think I could want from you anyway?"

She looked right at Rouge with those innocent, puppydog eyes again.

Rouge just gave a heavy sigh before conceding.

"Fine, thank you for saving me from Sonic, okay?"

"You thought I wanted thanks?" Amy asked, looking genuinely confused.

Rouge gave another heavy sigh before speaking again.

"Sorry I made Sonic admit he doesn't love you," Rouge said, "is that it, will you leave me alone now?"

"Yep," Amy grinned deviously and turned to walk away.

Rouge looked shocked for a moment before she started laughing.

"Oh you bitch! I knew no one could be that nice." Rouge said with a grin of her own.

"You aren't the only smart girl here Rouge."

"Whatever, you'll be thanking me for the Sonic stuff before too long." Rouge said.

Amy could only look confused at her before Knuckles joined them.

"Hey guys, we made it through," he panted slightly, "come on let's go."

"Do you need me to carry you there?" Amy asked mockingly.

Rouge pointed a finger at her.

"Firstly shut up," she said with a small laugh, "secondly, yes please."

Amy smiled, draped Rouge's arm over her shoulder and together they walked deeper into the cave.

Sonic only caught the sight in the corner of his vision, one of the Cobra's tail swipes had launched Tails into a wall at a terrifying velocity. Sonic knew he had to finish this quick, his legs had gone almost completely numb, with every step he was terrified that he was going to fall over. He was going to have to use a very risky tactic. Sonic was sure he could still use his saw attack, but for how much longer he had no idea. If he didn't use it soon enough, there was no way he could win, but it left him very exposed to attacks from the Cobra's firearms. He had already destroyed the small arms and the machine guns, but those lasers would very quickly weaken so much that he would be unable to continue.

As the Cobra slammed his tail into the ground to attempt to swat Sonic, he quickly dodged and sprinted up the underside of the tail. Whilst upside down he had hoped he wouldn't be seen, but within seconds the whirr of the weapons turning towards him forced Sonic to use small gusts of chaos energy to blow him from side to side, before he rotated around to run atop the tail. The armour was so strong that the Cobra had no qualms about shooting itself, forcing Sonic to dodge as best he could, though his numb legs were ruining his reflexes. His instincts were all wrong and he did take a couple of shots to his shoulder and hip. Forcing himself to push through the pain he continued running towards the Cobra's jaw. Sonic knew Nega was within the mouth of the beast, if he could just separate Nega from the controls it would all be over, at least that was the theory.

As Sonic spindashed into his sawblade attack, he noted the still leaking gap from the removed fang. Upon impact he began to spin as quickly as he could, the excruciating screech made by the attack was hurting Sonic's head, and he knew the lasers would be on him any second.

"NO!" Sonic heard Nega yell through the armour.

'This is it, I can do this I can, wait…no… NO!'

Sonic felt himself slowing down, the stream of venom was rapidly weakening him, once the lasers hit he knew he was finished.

He fell to the ground, unable to move.

Defeated.

I'm sorry it took quite so long to write this chapter. I'm already a good thousand words into the next chapter so that one should be published much faster than this one. This was going to be longer, but I felt you guys had waited enough so I split the chapter in half, besides this is my longest chapter to date already. I hope you all enjoy it and continue to keep reading :)