-Sol Dimension, Venom's Lair-
The sound of screeching metal echoed through the interior of the mysterious building as the entrance was forcibly unlocked, before sliding open and allowing Blaze and Silver access, the latter having opened the door with his psychokinesis. The pair looked around at the spacious lair, noting the various halls in the vicinity. And that wasn't even mentioning the number of floors the place had...
"This place is pretty big. Exploring the whole thing could take a few days." Silver remarked.
"We don't need to explore the whole thing, thankfully. We can start by finding out whether this is really her base of operations." Blaze replied, already prepared to explore the lair.
"Okay. So what should we look for?" He asked.
"Evidence of the mech's construction, ideally. Let's see if she kept any materials somewhere." Blaze said as she continued onwards, leaving Silver to follow as she kept an eye out for any storage rooms...
-Sonic's Dimension, Eggman's Lair-
As the pair explored her lair back in the Sol Dimension, Venom was currently overseeing the construction of another Egg Tyranno mech alongside Eggman himself, the doctor having decided to upgrade the base design with additional armaments and a reinforced underside.
"Quite the imposing robot, Doctor. I'm certain this one will fare much better than the last." Venom praised, watching the process with rapt attention.
"Indeed. The only issue is, we'll need a bigger power source. And some fuel for the flamethrower." The doctor replied. As if on cue, the machinery began to weld a cannon-like barrel into the mouth of the Tyranno. While this was happening, Venom took the opportunity to look at the blueprints to the mech.
"Let's see... 'Egg Tyranno Mk II'?" She asked, noticing the name of the mech.
"The name is shorthand. The full designation is 'Eggman Industries Combat Mech Tyranno Model Mk II', but... well, try remembering that in the middle of battle." He explained.
"I see. And the design seems to facilitate greater power and agility." She replied, an idea already forming in her head. "If you wouldn't mind, I'd like to experiment a little with it."
"Experiment?" He asked, head tilted in curiosity.
"Yes. Let's just say I know a way to kill two birds with one stone, so to speak." She replied.
"Well, go ahead. Show me what you can do." Eggman responded. With a smile, Venom took a device from beside her and approached the mech, eager to give it the burst of power it needed...
An hour later...
-Emerald Town-
"Alright, sugar, that should be the last one!" Bunnie said, moving the last of the cars back into place, she and Antoine helping the townspeople get back after the interruption earlier today.
"Oh, thank you so much, Ms Rabbot! We can't thank you enough for helping us out with Eggman!" One of the humans standing by, a woman, replied gratefully with a smile.
"Aw, ain't no problem! Just wish Egg-Butt wouldn't make such a darn mess all the time." The half-robot Mobian replied. She looked down to notice a young girl hiding behind the woman's dress, staring at Bunnie's cybernetic arm. Bunnie shifted to hide her arm behind the rest of her body, and the girl's father seemed to notice, clearing his throat.
"...Anyway, we'll be going now. And, again, thank you both." He said as they began to leave.
"Not a problem, monsieur. Happy to help." Antoine replied, before noticing Bunnie's discomfort. "Bunnie? Is something wrong?"
"It's nothin', really." She said, trying to hide her thoughts as she began to rub her hand against her robotic arm, a motion Antoine recognized as a sign that something was bothering her.
"Are you sure?" He pressed. Bunnie sighed and sat down on a nearby bench, with Antoine taking a seat next to her.
"That little girl... She looked so scared of me. Like I was just another of Eggman's bots to her." She admitted, staring down at her robotic arm.
"Oh. I'm... sure she did not mean to." Antoine replied.
"Maybe. I keep forgetting how different the big city is from Knothole. I ain't used to the awkward stares." Bunnie continued, running her thumb against the palm of her cybernetic hand. "Makes me feel... broken."
"You are not, though!" Antoine retorted fiercely, causing Bunnie to look at him in shock. Antoine stammered and rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment. "Ah, p-pardon, I did not mean to yell."
"It's fine, hun." She replied with a smile, moving a little closer to him. "And... thanks for lettin' me vent."
"Anytime, Bunnie." He replied, smiling as he sat by her... only for Bunnie to noticed something that cut the tender moment short.
"The heck is that?" She wondered aloud, prompting Antoine to take a look for himself. What he ended up seeing was another Egg Tyranno heading towards them, equipped with more armaments than the last one.
"Oh, tu dois de moquer de moi!" He exclaimed in frustration and shock.
-Angel Island-
"So, what did you want to speak to me about, Knuckles?" Sally asked. The echidna had taken her to the temple built on Angel Island through his Warp Ring, all for the purposes of a private discussion.
"I'm curious. Did you come across any of the Chaos Emeralds before coming here?" The red echidna asked, prompting the princess to tilt her head.
"You mean when I was still in Knothole? No. Why do you ask?" She answered.
"Well, Sonic told me how you were able to pull off a successful Chaos Control teleportation on your first try. That's a difficult thing for a first-timer." Knuckles replied, arms folded.
"...Didn't Sonic also do that on his first attempt as well?" Sally asked, having remembered his account of the adventure a few years ago where he met Shadow.
"Yes, but he'd already been around the Emeralds at multiple points. You haven't." Knuckles responded, himself trying to determine the origin of her unexplained aptitude if exposure to the Chaos Emeralds wasn't possible. "Is there anything you can think of that might have been empowered with Chaos Energy?"
"I'm not sure. The only things I can think of are the Power Rings and the Deep Pow-" She started to explain before she gasped in sudden realisation. "Wait, what if... could that be it?!"
"You thought of something?" He asked.
"Yeah. Back when Sonic and I fought Robotnik for the first time, we used this artefact called the Deep Power Stone to power ourselves up. Do you think that might have been linked to the Chaos Emeralds in some way?" She wondered. Knuckles thought for a bit as he crossed his arms.
"This is the first I've heard of this Deep Power Stone, but it's certainly possible. My guess is it's either a solidified offshoot of Chaos Energy or it uses it as a residual energy source." He theorised.
"So that's why the power from the Emeralds felt so familiar." Sally gasped. "And... what does that mean for me?"
"It means that you may have a higher aptitude for harnessing Chaos Energy than normal. Just like Sonic." He replied. Before she could ask any further, her communicator started beeping, and she went to open it.
"Guys, we got a problem!" Bunnie shouted as soon as Sally accepted the call.
"Bunnie? What's wrong?" She asked.
"Another Egg-Bot! Me an' Antoine managed to get its attention, but- WHOA!" The rabbit replied, currently engaged in battle from the sounds of it. "Land's sakes, it's a fast one!"
"I'll be right there!" Sally replied as she closed the communicator. "Sorry, Knuckles, we're gonna have to pick this up another time." She said, jumping through the Warp Ring Knuckles set up and leaping into the fray, landing on a rocky hill away from the city. She could see Antoine and Bunnie fight off another Egg Tyranno, similar to the one from earlier but with a few modifications - a pair of energy cannons mounted on the sides, a segmented tail that seemed capable of rotating, and a cannon-like port built into the mouth. Not too long after, Sonic skidded to a halt next to her.
"Hey, I got Bunnie's message, what's the-" The hedgehog asked before he saw the Tyranno Mk II, and sighed. "Another one? Really?" He remarked before racing towards it, dodging the Tyranno's laser fire and dashing into the mech. With the robot occupied, Sally dashed under the mech and slashed at the underside with her Ring-Blades, only to find that there was barely a dent left behind. Almost instantly, the Tyranno shifted and tried to crush her underfoot, and Sally swiftly dodged the attempt. When the others went on the offensive, the Tyranno swept them away with its tail before letting loose a torrent of flames from its mouth, causing the group to back up.
"Okay, it can breathe fire! That's new!" Sonic shouted before the Tyranno dived at him. The hedgehog dodged to the side before the robot fired a volley of missiles at him. This time, the missiles were much more powerful, and the explosions eventually knocked Sonic back, leaving him vulnerable as the Tyranno lunged at him again... only to be interrupted as Amy slammed into the robot's face with her hammer and pushed it to the side, while Sally rushed to Sonic's aid and picked him up.
"Bad news: The underside's been reinforced. We'll have to find some other way to take it down." She said as she helped Sonic to his feet, with Bunnie and Antoine ready to help as the Tyranno stared them down, ready to fight...
-Sol Dimension, Venom's Lair-
"Found anything yet?" Blaze asked as she and Silver rummaged through one of the many storage rooms, searching for any evidence to confirm that their assailant was here.
"Not metals, but..." He said, pulling out a box containing various blueprints. "I did find these blueprints. Maybe we can find out what she was building." The two then began to sift through the papers until Blaze opened one that contained a picture of the mech.
"Here." She gasped. "There's no mistaking it. That's the mech that attacked us. We're in the right place after all."
"Looks like she was building something else as well. Looks like a portal of some kind." Silver replied, placing down a blueprint of the portal in question, with a particular area possessing a symbol that looked like a Sol Emerald.
"Was she... trying to make a portal to other dimensions?" She wondered aloud, before standing up. "...Okay, at least we know what to look for next." She said. Perhaps this device would help them catch up to her...
-Sonic's Dimension-
Meanwhile, the battle against the Tyranno Mk II wasn't going very well, as the robotic beast swatted Bunnie and Antoine away with its tail before taking another swing at Sally, who dodged the attack and drove one of her blades into the tail's tip. Upon ripping it out and jumping back, the tip began to spark before exploding, disabling the robot's missiles. Undeterred, the Tyranno's tail began to spin like a drill before swiping at Sally, the princess dodging the attack as Sonic and Amy dived back into action and attacked, causing it to stagger. The robot let out a jet of flames that the group dodged, while Sally struggled to find a weakness in the mech.
"Sally, a moment?" Nicole said from her handheld form.
"What is it?" Sally asked as she continued to weave her way through the robot's attacks.
"I've noticed the temperature of the mech appears to be constantly rising and falling. The decrease appears to correlate with it discharging its flamethrower." Nicole explained.
"So... it's overheating?" She replied in surprise.
"It seems more like it's venting excess heat to prevent that from happening."
"Then we can use that to our advantage. Bunnie, Amy! Try to jam its flamethrower!" Sally commanded. With a nod, the pair darted around the mech, looking for an opening as the Tyranno continued the onslaught of deadly attacks. The Tyranno soon tried a tail swipe against Bunnie, only for Antoine to jump in front and attempt to block the strike with his sword. He was able to hold it off for a few seconds before the tail whacked him away into a rock wall.
The coyote struggled to get back onto his feet as the Tyranno stared him down and readied its flamethrower, with Antoine visibly shaking but undeterred... only to be interrupted by a furious Bunnie ramming a boulder into the Tyranno's mouth, promptly followed by Amy swinging her hammer into it, resulting in the boulder shattering along with the flamethrower port.
In less than a few seconds, flames started spilling from the mech's body, and began to dash desperately at the group. Sally intercepted and dived onto the side of the Tyranno's head, ramming one of her blades into the robot's optic, the mech attempting to shake her off as it stopped its charge. Sonic took the opportunity to Spin Dash into the remaining optic before the Tyranno shook them both off and charged. The pair slid underneath the mech, causing it to miss and crash into the rock face behind them. The mech started to shake violently as jets of flame spewed from the cracks forming on its body, before a burst of fire erupted from the Tyranno's body, which then collapsed lifelessly onto the ground. Sonic breathed a sigh of relief before pumping his fists victoriously.
"Hah! Take that, Eggman!" Sonic cheered, before turning to see Sally scanning the robot's remains via Nicole. "Uh, Sal? Whatcha up to?"
"I want to find out what made this robot stronger than the one from earlier." Sally replied, and a few seconds later, the scan concluded. "Anything of note, Nicole?"
"Aside from some new additions to the frame, I can't detect any major alterations to the base model." Nicole reported, much to the surprise of both Sally and Sonic.
"That thing was twice as fast as the last one and had more than three times the firepower. How is that possible?" Sonic asked incredulously, while Amy, Bunnie and Antoine all gathered around the fallen robot.
"I'm more curious as to how it was able to operate a flamethrower without an apparent fuel source." Nicole replied, almost nonchalant.
"...We'll need to have Tails and Rotor look at it. They'll know what to make of it." Sally finally replied after a moment of silence, understanding that this was raising more questions than answers...
-Eggman's Base-
Meanwhile, both Eggman and Venom surveyed the Tyranno Mk II's performance from inside Eggman's base, the feed having cut off when the mech overheated and self-destructed.
"Hmm... If it wasn't for that little overheating issue, those Mobians wouldn't have stood a chance." Venom remarked, not bothered in the least by the results of the battle.
"Agreed. Still, to think that all it took was an infusion of Sol Energy... it's extraordinary." Eggman replied, impressed by how effective the Sol Energy was at amplifying the robot's potential.
"If you think that's extraordinary, wait until you see this." She said, taking the device from earlier and attaching it to the main computer. The monitor began to show that the extraction rate of the device was sitting at a mere 5%. "I've only been able to extract Sol Energy from the Emeralds at a 5% efficiency rate. What you just saw was the result of only a small volume. Imagine what we could do with more."
"And I take it you want me to help you increase the efficiency?" Eggman concluded.
"Well, I understand you were able to draw out the power of the Emeralds in this dimension. Repeating the process with a different set should be no problem." She replied, turning around to leave. "I'll leave you with that. In the meantime, I have some other experiments I'd like to conduct." She said before the doors closed behind her, leaving Eggman alone with the extractor.
"...Hmph. Let's see what we can do..." He said as he looked down at the device, the Sol Emeralds glowing from within.