Chapter 13

Death Egg

"So how do we take this thing down?" asked Tails as he and Sonic, now decharged, walked along one of the thousands of corridors that made up the inside of the Death Egg. Sonic shook his head as they continued to walk.

"I'm not sure Tails. This thing is so huge. I don't even think as Hyper Sonic I could take down this whole thing," said Sonic. The four flickies, perched on top of Tails head, began to speak to each other in their own language of tweets. Tails looked up at the flickies wondering what they were saying. As if they knew what he was thinking, the biggest flicky looked down at the two Mobians.

"We think there might be a way to stop this thing," it said. Sonic looked over to the flicky, ready to hear what it had to say. "If we can cause an overload in the power core, it just might be enough to cause the whole reactor to explode, and it would take the whole station with it."

"Sounds like a plan to me," said Sonic. As he turned around, the flicky flew off of Tails head and flew in front of Sonic.

"But you don't understand. In order to cause such an overload, it would require a tremendous amount of power, which we don't have," it said.

"So how do we destroy it then?" asked Sonic. The flicky hovered for a few seconds, as if thinking.

"If we can breach the core, that might cause the overload in the system that we need. The problem is that the core might be shielded against your attacks. This Robotnik guy sounds like he has that kind of technology at his disposal," said the flicky. Sonic sighed. The flicky was probably right. Robotnik would have made sure ahead of time that the core would be protected against his spindash, and he was sure it would also be insulated from electrocution.

"Well, it's still the best plan we have to go on. We'll improvise as we need to," said Sonic. They started walking along again, but as they turned a corner, a floating robot with a spiked ball swinging around underneath it spotted them. Sonic saw it at the same time, and yanked Tails out of the way as it swung the spiked ball at them, just barely missing them.

"Great. They know we're here," said Sonic as he leaped back around the corner and spindashed the robot before it could swing its ball again. The robot fell to the ground, a huge gash cut in its side, wires smoking. "Come on." Tails ran out and followed Sonic, the flickies still perched on his head.

**********

"How does this keep happening?" shouted Robotnik as he watched the monitor of where the security measures had been activated. He saw Sonic whiz by on the screen, followed closely by Tails, with two Swatbots giving pursuit. He walked over to the control console and started typing in commands. All over the battle station, alarms started to sound as the entire station was alerted to the presence of intruders. Robotnik looked back at the monitor, which now showed Sonic dodging a blast from a Swatbot, while Tails was flying above the line of fire. "This time Sonic, you won't get away."

**********

"Could things get any worse?" asked Tails as he and Sonic rounded another corner, a laser blast exploding against the wall behind them.

"Yeah. We could be sucked out into space," said Sonic. They rounded another corner, another door opening as more Swatbots poured out into the narrow corridor. Sonic didn't even slow down as he spindashed through them, knocking them to the ground as he and Tails shot past.

"So what's the plan now?" asked Tails. Sonic looked over his shoulder, seeing the Swatbots fall behind as they tried to climb over their fallen comrades.

"Run for now. There's got to be somewhere where we can take a quick rest," said Sonic as he rounded another corner, which lead straight into a giant hanger filled with all kinds of robotic jets and planes. Sonic reached over and slapped the door control shut. He listened with his ear against the door as he heard the sound of metal striking metal as the Swatbots, not realizing how close their target was, continued to run further into the station, totally passing the room they were in.

"Well, I think we lost them for a little while," said Sonic as he took his ear off the door.

"That's good. I was getting tired," said Tails. They started walking through the hanger, which looked like it was large enough to actually allow a plane to fly around inside it, looking at all the various jets that were armed to the teeth with weapons.

"Man. Looks like Robotnik's planning an invasion force," said Sonic as he ran his hands on the hull of one of the machines. He looked over to see Tails with his head down in one of the cockpits, looking at all the various controls.

"These things are complicated," said Tails as he took his head out of the cockpit. "They seem to be remote jets, probably hooked up to the Death Egg's computer system."

"So Robotnik can control these things from inside the Death Egg without having to leave it," said Sonic. All of a sudden, the plane they were examining shuddered. Sonic and Tails jumped back as the plane's engine fired, fire blazing from the back end as it turned towards them.

"What on Mobius…" cried Sonic as the jet started to spray the area with bullets. Sonic grabbed Tails and ran out of the way as the shots bounced off the floor, ricocheting around the room.

"Robotnik must have found us!" cried Tails as the plane sped away from them, taking off in the hanger. While the hanger wasn't really made to allow planes to fight inside it, it was still big enough to accommodate the small plane enough room to fly around and do evasive maneuvers.

"Stay here, Tails. This one's mine," said Sonic as he ran out into the middle of the hanger as the plane turned around to head back towards him. "Hey Robotnik! If you can hear me, I must say that that plane's the ugliest thing I've seen." As if it was answering, the plane shot off more rounds of ammo at Sonic, who easily ran out of their way as the plane flew by overhead. The plane turned around, this time arming both of its laser cannons on its wings. Sonic, thinking that it was going to shoot at him again with bullets, watched the jet turn around and head back towards him. He then leaped to the side to avoid the bullets. But unfortunately for Sonic, that maneuver put him right in the way of one of the laser cannons. He realized all too late his mistake as the laser struck him in the left leg and he fell to the floor, pain shooting through his left leg.

"Sonic!" cried Tails as he saw Sonic go down. Thinking fast, he took the Chaos Emeralds from his pack and struck them together, his color flashing to a glowing yellow, the Power Flickies' yellow color returning with a rush. By now, the plane had turned around again and was within seconds of blasting Sonic. Tails flew out and scooped Sonic up off the floor as the plane fired again, charring the floor where Sonic had been only a split second ago.

"Get that thing!" Tails cried to the flickies. They each nodded and flew up at the jet. The jet, its radar too under-powered to pick up the small birds, was caught completely by surprise as the tiny super charged birds flung themselves into the jet's front end. The engine whined as the flickies invincibility flooded the jet's systems. The little birds then grasped onto the tail of the jet with their talons, hanging on as their invincibility overloaded the jet. The engine coughed once, then died as the jet started to spin wildly out of control. The flickies let go and watched as the plane flew down and exploded into several other planes, causing them to explode as well. They then returned to Tails.

"Sonic! Are you okay Sonic," cried Tails as Sonic slowly sat up. He cringed as a wave of pain shot through his leg. "Don't move too much." Sonic, although in extreme pain, managed to sit up in a full sitting position.

"Well, that wasn't very smart," said Sonic, smiling weakly.

"Neither was your choice in coming in here, hedgehog," said a familiar voice. Sonic turned his head around to see Metal Sonic standing on the other end of the hanger. He was decharged now, his hull back to its normal blue. "You are quite the nuisance, you know that?" Sonic tried to stand, but his legs wouldn't hold his weight. He might not have been able to run or even stand, but he still hadn't lost his attitude towards the Mecha bot.

"What can I say? I'm just that kind of hedgehog," said Sonic. Metal Sonic shook his head as he started walking towards the two of them.

"Always the cocky one, even to the end," said Metal Sonic. Sonic merely shrugged. "Well, in a few minutes, your cocky attitude will be no more." Metal Sonic then saw Tails standing behind Sonic, his fur glowing yellow with four birds flying around him, and Mecha stopped. Tails smiled slowly as he took a step forward, the four flickies stopping their orbit to fly with a pair of themselves on either side of Tails head, looking Metal Sonic right in his robotic eyes.

"You know Metal Sonic," said Tails as he placed his hands on his hips. "You are nothing but an overgrown toaster with an attitude." Tails then pointed towards Mecha, signaling the four flickies to attack. They took off towards Metal Sonic, slamming their bodies into the blue robot, forcing him to retreat backwards from the assault. Tails, in the meantime, lifted Sonic to his feet.

"Come on. The flickies can keep him back for a short time, but he'll eventually get by them," said Tails. Sonic could only nod as another wave of pain shot through his leg. He gritted his teeth and closed his eyes tight, but motioned with his hand for Tails to stark running. A look of worry passed over Tails face, but he nodded and started to run slowly, Sonic barely able to keep up.

"Get off me you little feather dusters!" cried Metal Sonic as he swatted one of the flickies, shocking himself in the process. While the little things didn't possess as much shocking power as Sonic or Tails did, it was still enough to cause Metal Sonic pain as he was driven further back into the hanger. He didn't have time for this. Firing his engine, Metal Sonic shot forward, blasting past the four flickies and out of the hanger as they followed. When he got out into the corridor, he couldn't see Sonic and Tails, either visually or electronically. He cursed under his breath. The blasted birds had shorted out his radar system. He looked back to see the four flickies flying right at him, trying to get in a few more blows. Suddenly, the entire gravity of the battle station reversed, causing Metal Sonic and the flickies to go flying into the ceiling upside-down. Metal Sonic sat right side up, as did the flickies. But then the gravity suddenly switched back, causing all five of them to crash to the floor again. The four flickies were up first, but Metal Sonic was able to roll into a transport tube and was carried up ten floors to the command room.

"What was that all about!?" snapped Robotnik as Metal Sonic stepped out of the tube. Mecha shook his head at the question.

"I'm not sure, but I'm willing to bet that Sssonic was messing around with the gravitational controls," said Metal Sonic. Robotnik fumbled with his mustache, then turned to a sound of a beeping monitor. He reached over and pushed a button. A picture of a Techbot appeared on the screen. It saluted to him.

"Sir. The Master Emerald has been installed like you ordered. Your newest machine is ready to go," said the Techbot.

"Excellent. I will be there shortly," said Robotnik, turning off the monitor. He turned back to Metal Sonic. "This time, that hedgehog is ours."

**********

"You can stop now Tails. Mecha isn't following us," said Sonic as he limped along beside Tails. Tails stopped and let go of Sonic, who slumped down against a wall. "That was good thinking little bud." He looked over at Tails, who was looking at a control panel.

"Hey. What's this switch do?" asked Tails as he flipped a switch on the panel. Suddenly, their whole world was upside down as the gravity shifted into reverse. Sonic fell on his head, as did Tails. It didn't hurt Tails since he was still super, but Sonic got a fairly good sized bump on his head. "Sorry," said Tails as he flew down and flipped the switch back again, this time catching Sonic as he fell.

"Please don't touch that again," said Sonic, rubbing his head.

"Hey! Here come the flickies," said Tails as he saw the four flickies round a corner and fly up to him. "Did you guys get him good?"

"We were able to keep him busy, but I don't think we caused too much damage," said the lead flicky. Another flicky perched itself on a railing in between Sonic and Tails.

"I sense the presence of the Master Emerald real close by," it said. Sonic and Tails both jerked their heads up as they heard this.

"Really!? Where?" asked Sonic.

"Down this corridor and through that door, I think. At least that is where I can sense the Master Emerald's power coming from," said the flicky.

"Well, let's get going!" said Sonic as he stood up, instantly stumbling back to the floor in pain as he stepped onto his injured leg.

"Sonic. You're going to have to go hyper. You can't take on whatever is guarding the Master Emerald like this," said Tails. Sonic sighed and nodded. He had hoped he wouldn't have to use the supers up here, but Tails was right. He was in no shape to fight without them. He pulled them out of his pack and smacked them together, his quills bursting into a rainbow of flashing colors as the energy stars circled his body, some hitting the ground and disappearing with a hiss.

"All right. Let's go get the Master Emerald back," said Sonic as he and Tails walked down to the door that the flicky had indicated. Sonic opened the door and peered inside. It was another hanger, even larger than the one that housed the jets. There were a few Swatbots walking around, their weapons at their sides. They obviously weren't paying all that much attention. This worried Sonic. If the Master Emerald was in this room, why would there be so few guards? He shook of the thought and burst through the door, Tails right behind him.

"Hedgehog. Priority One," said the Swatbots in union as Sonic slammed headfirst into three of them gathered close together. Tails and the flickies went after a pair of Swatbots that were trying to shot them down out of the air. But Tails tackled one to the floor and held on, shorting it out, while the flickies corkscrewed through the other one. Within thirty seconds, all the Swatbots were either destroyed or off-line.

"Well, that was easy," said Tails. Sonic nodded slowly as he looked at the hanger door.

"Yeah…A little too easy," he said. Suddenly, giant spotlights shimmered to life, aimed up at something. Sonic and Tails turned around to see two giant metal feet sticking out at them. They both flew back a few meters and looked up.

"By the gods of Mobius…" said Tails, his eyes wide with terror.

"You sure said it," said Sonic. Standing before them was a giant robotic version of Robotnik. It had to be over ten stories tall! Sonic and Tails just stared at it, too awe struck to move. Then Sonic's hawk-like vision saw him and he gritted his teeth. In the cockpit of the monstrous machine was none other than Robotnik himself.

"Hello Sonic," boomed Robotnik's voice over the robot's speaker system. "I'm so glad you're here to witness my greatest victory ever." Laughter was heard after this, and Sonic took a step forward.

"What makes you think we won't stop you Robotnik?" asked Sonic. The giant robot lifted its left foot and slowly moved it over the heads of Sonic and Tails. They both flew back and out from underneath the foot as it impacted the floor, causing the whole station to vibrate slightly.

"You foolish hedgehog. There is no way you can stop this machine. I designed it to be able to withstand your little buzz saw attack. And it cannot be electrocuted," said Robotnik's voice. Sonic didn't believe a word of it. He shot forward, aimed right at the chest area of the giant robot. He curled up into a spindash and struck it squarely. But the giant robot didn't even flinch. Not even a dent was put in it. Sonic stared with disbelief. Could it be possible that even as Hyper Sonic he was no match for this thing? He suddenly caught some kind of movement out of the corner of his eye and dodged to the left, just missing a swing from one of the giant hands. Tails flew up next to him.

"Any ideas Sonic?" he asked hopefully. Sonic nodded.

"I have one. I'm going to try and break through the cockpit window. I might be able to do it," he said as he flew up and stopped in front of the face. He could see Robotnik in the cockpit, shaking with laughter. Sonic clenched his fists together and shot forward in a spindash right at the cockpit window. He slammed full force into the window, but it held strong against him. Suddenly, a blast of fire came from the nose, knocking him back. He was shaken, but unharmed as he floated back to look the thing over. There had to be a weak spot somewhere on it. But he didn't see any.

"Tails, any ideas yourself?" asked Sonic as Tails flew up next to him. Tails just shook his head, but one of the flickies flew forward.

"Yes. I have one," it said. "I figured out where the Master Emerald is being kept. It's inside that giant robot. I can feel its power being used to power the machine. If you are able to get it out from inside, it won't be able to run." Sonic shook his head.

"But how do I get to the emerald if I can't break through its hull?" asked Sonic.

"Sonic! Look!" cried Tails. Sonic turned to see that the mouth of the robot was opening. And there it was. Glowing brightly inside the mouth was the Master Emerald.

"All right!" said Sonic as he started to fly towards it. But he suddenly changed his mind as he saw what it was attached to. "Get back and grab onto something!" he cried. He dove down, Tails and the flickies following as the robot fired a giant laser beam from its mouth. Sonic grabbed onto a thick metal pipe and held on, grabbing Tails hand as he flew down next to him. The laser beam cut through the hull of the Death Egg like a hot knife through butter, blasting a gapping hole in the hanger door.

The air suddenly gushed forth out of the hole and into space. Sonic held on for dear life as the vacuum of space filled the hanger. Sonic found out right then that the supers had the power to allow him to breath no matter where he was, but Tails wasn't so lucky. The Chaos Emeralds only partially protected him from the effects of the vacuum. The air was ripped from his lungs as he went limp in Sonic's hand. Sonic looked down to see the now unconscious Tails in his hand.

"Tails? Tails!?" cried Sonic. He then saw the four flickies fly down to them, chirping like crazy.

"We must help," said one of them.

"Yes. Let us combine our strength," said another one. Sonic watched as the four flickies started to orbit Tails' head, spinning faster and faster as they went. Sonic then noticed that a faint blue glow was surrounding Tails. Slowly, the young fox opened his eyes and let out a gagging cough.

"Tails!? Are you all right?" asked Sonic. Tails looked up at him weakly and nodded.

"I'm okay," he said. He then looked at the flickies. "Thank you."
"You are welcome, Tails," said one of them. By now, all the air had flooded out of the hanger, leaving only the vacuum of space left. Sonic and Tails flew back up to the head of the robot. Sonic saw Robotnik cursing to himself over blowing a hole in his own battle station without even hitting Sonic.

"Hey Robotnik!" shouted Sonic. Amazingly, Sonic was able to hear himself, as was Tails and Robotnik. Another thing about the emeralds was their ability to allow you to talk in vacuum. "I bet you couldn't hit me with the broad side of this station with the at beam of yours!" Sonic saw Robotnik shake his fists at him, then turn the robot towards him. Sonic floated along slowly, letting the robot track him as he made it do a complete 180 in the hanger. He then stopped moving. He then waved to Robotnik, and the mouth of the robot opened up again as the beam started to power up. Still Sonic floated in place, watching the beam charge. The beam fired, and Sonic dodged it at the last possible second. The beam blasted through the heart of the battle station, slamming into the power core, causing it to explode. Sonic shot forward into the mouth of the robot. Shrapnel flew from the mouth as Sonic blasted out of the back end, carrying in his arms the Master Emerald. The robot's electronics died as the emerald's power vanished.

"Score one for the good guys," said Sonic as he landed next to Tails, placing the Master Emerald onto the deck.

"And score one for me," said the voice of Metal Sonic, his built in systems allowing him to communicate in the vacuum. Sonic and Tails turned to see Metal Sonic standing in the door way of the hanger, his arms across his chest.

"So, you want to try your luck against me, Mecha?" asked Sonic, taking a step forward.

"Yes. As a matter of fact I do. And I have something here that will even the odds," said Metal Sonic, raising his hands into the air. Sonic's mouth hung open as he realized what Metal Sonic was talking about. In Mecha's left hand was the miniature Master Emerald. "Now the ball is in my court, Sssonic." With that, Metal Sonic struck his other hand against the glassy surface of the emerald. Light flooded the hanger as Metal Sonic's blue hull changed to a glowing gold color, his pupils pulsating with red light.

"Tails. I'm going to need your help on this one," said Sonic. Tails nodded and flew up next to Sonic. Metal Sonic laughed evilly as he rose into the air, his engine giving off a golden glow. He shot straight at Sonic, claws out stretched to slash him. But Sonic dodged to the left and kicked his foot into Mecha's side. The robot was knocked a few feet down, but he quickly shot up. Tails ordered the four flickies to help out, and they went flying into Metal Sonic, but just bounced off harmlessly.

"This is stupid. We're all invincible. No one's going to win this fight," said Sonic under his breath. But little did Sonic know that Metal Sonic's intentions weren't to win. They were merely to keep the two Mobians' attention occupied. Metal Sonic took a quick glance to see Robotnik fly out of the head of the now dead robot inside a cargo craft. It moved noiselessly down, the vacuum making the engines give off no noise, as it scooped up the Master Emerald into its cargo bay. Then it turned and flew out of the hole created when the laser cannon had blasted through it. Metal Sonic turned his attention back to in time to dodge a spindash from him. He then flew up to the hole in the hanger and laughed.

"What's so funny, Mecha?" asked Sonic. Metal Sonic merely clapped his hand on the Master Emerald miniature, changing back to normal. He laughed again as he threw the miniature out the hole. Sonic gasped and shot forward to grab it, but it was too late. Sonic only caught a glimpse from the sun shining off the glassy surface as the miniature disappeared into the blue background of Mobius. Sonic turned back to Metal Sonic.

"What was the point in doing that?" cried Sonic. Metal Sonic laughed again.

"You foolish hedgehog. You don't even realize you've lost what you came here for," said Metal Sonic. Sonic suddenly realized what had happened. He turned around and looked at where he had left the Master Emerald on the deck. Only now, there was no emerald. Metal Sonic took his chance to escape to its full advantage and flew out of the hole and back towards Mobius.

"No!" cried Sonic as Tails flew up next to him. "How could I be stupid enough to let him get the Master Emerald twice!" Sonic turned to Tails, who noticed the fire burning in Sonic's eyes. "Tails. Take the flickies and go back to the island. I'm going after Robotnik." Tails nodded, then he and the flickies flew out of the hole and back towards Mobius. Suddenly, Sonic's attention was turned to the center of the Death Egg as the damaged power core blew. A fireball of immense proportions shot through the entire battle station. Sonic quickly flew up and out of the hole as the fireball raced through the hanger, burning everything in sight.

"Man that was close," said Sonic as he flew away from the dying station as fast as he could. When he was a safe distance away from the Death Egg, he turned around just in time to see it explode from the inside out, molten metal fragments flying in all directions, quickly freezing in the cold of space into shapeless forms of twisted metal. Sonic breathed a sigh of relief. Mobius would be safe now that the Death Egg was destroyed. But he still had one job left to do, and he wasn't going to stop until it was done. His eyes were scanning space when he spotted the one thing he was after. Robotnik's ship, making a getaway with the Master Emerald.

"This is it Robotnik," said Sonic under his breath as he looked down slightly, keeping his eyes on the speeding cargo craft. "This time, you won't get away from me. Even if I have to chase you to the ends of Mobius and back."

END OF CHAPTER 13