(Boy this is a long Saga: I do not own Sonic X, etc.)

Flip Card 2:

Name: Dr. Eggman

Age: 45

Sex: Male

Species: Human

Job Description: An official evil genius. Doctor Eggman's lost life ambition is to rule the world, on the throne of his Empire, but his various schemes have been constantly thwarted by a certain blue hedgehog.

"This could be going better." Sonic commented, wiping a thin trickle of blood from the side of his mouth with the back of a glove. He knew he had to take this fight away from the X tornado before Emerl tore it to pieces. Only problem was, right now Emerl couldn't even be touched let alone tackled over the edge of the plane. And with the Egg Carrier 3 looming behind them, the blue hedgehog was quickly to realise the seriousness of the situation. He really could use Shadow's help right about now, but at the moment the black and red hedgehog was unconscious in the passenger pod, recovering from the massive bolt Emerl had dealt him a few moments ago. Suddenly an idea sprung to mind. At the moment however, Sonic did not have the necessary energy to pull it off.

Pushing himself up, Sonic turned to confront the super powered robot. Cream was screaming at her friend, trying to bring back his reason. Her words were wasted. Eggman's control over him was now far too powerful.

Tails finally connected the last wire and everything was ready. He had a collection of six rings on board the X-tornado, and if this didn't work there was little else he could do.

Chuck hit the button and the energy of two rings was sent flying directly into Emerl's body. But not to make his stronger, instead its purpose was to find the control program Eggman was using on him and weaken it. Emerl paused, its red eyes turning blue. Unfortunately, the power of a ring is nothing to the power of a chaos emerald. Emerl's three eyes turned red again. It failed miserable to free Emerl, but it did manage to loosen the shackles for the Emerl inside to slow the punches his body was throwing.

"Well that didn't work." Chuck began, seeing that Emerl was still fighting regardless of their efforts. "I feel a change is strategy is called for." Tails hurriedly put together another plan. If the rings couldn't free Cream's friend from Eggman, they would just have to work their usual magic with Sonic.

"Sonic think fast!" Tails shouted from the front and instantly the blue hedgehog felt new strength fill him. He looked back to see that the Tails and Chuck had attached four Rings to the X-Tornado's power amplifier, that they were directing directly towards him. Tails had done a similar thing when they had first taken the X-Tornado out to fight Eggman satellite devouring robot.

"Thanks, just what I needed." He replied, clenching his fists, his reserves of strength completely recharged. Now he had the energy he needed to work his plan "Once I disappear, get out of here as quickly as you can, go it?" Tails paused for a second, hesitating. Then he nodded. Before Amy could argue, Sonic charged forward, tackling Emerl around the waist. The robot raised a fist to strike the blue hedgehog, but before he could do son, the two of them disappeared in a bright green flash.

At the tip above the cannon of the Egg Carrier, the air rippled as both Emerl and Sonic were thrown from the hastily activated Chaos Control warp. The robot back flipped through the air and landed on his feet, while Sonic rolled for a while before righting himself.

So, now they were off the X-Tornado, putting the others out of immediate danger. Only problem being now that Sonic lacked any long term plan to defeat Emerl now. With three Chaos Emeralds inside his body, his strength and speed had been augmented.

"Come on Emerl, I know you're not really like this. Metal Sonic broke free, so can you!" Emerl lunged forward, striking the hedgehog across the face, knocking him to the metal floor. Sonic was sure his tooth had been dislodged that time and his head was pounding. Emerl came forward again, trying to finish Sonic with another punch, but Sonic rolled to the side just in time before righting himself with a flip.

Emerl swung around with a kick, Sonic dodged it before swinging one of his own. The blow barley made the robot flinch, before he threw another super strong punch forward. Sending Sonic flying into the air, spiralling dangerously out of control before landing dangerously close to the edge of the Egg Carrier. Back flipping up to his feet, nearly tipping himself over the edge, Sonic raced forward and a fist drawn back. Emerl prepared a block, only to have a double kick come his way instead. The robot staggered back a few feet, before swinging forward. Sonic dodged the blow, somersaulting backwards. Emerl came forward again with a lightning fast kick. Sonic caught his foot and held onto it for dear life, that if until Emerl lifted his leg into the air, dragging Sonic along with it, before slamming it down again on the ground.

Emerl came in for the kill, but without warning there was a green flash and Shadow came hurtling out of nowhere, delivering a Chaos Spear straight against the back of his head. Emerl crashed to the ground.

"Sorry I'm late. Just woke up." He said, looking back over his shoulder towards the blue hedgehog as he pushed himself up.

"About time too." Sonic commented. "I could use your help. But remember, we can't destroy him."

"Say what?"

"It's not his fault. Eggman's controlling him." Shadow narrowed his eyes. Prof. Gerald would be ashamed to see the kind of tactics his grandson was employing. "Ok buddy, I know you're in there." The blue hedgehog shouted over. "You're Cream's friend. Don't forget that." Emerl paused and it looked like his eyes were about to change from red to blue. That is until he charged forward, landing a blow against into Shadow's chest, winding him. Sonic used the opportunity to curve his entire body around in an arch, rocketing his spin attack straight at the robot.

Emerl spun around and used the thick armour on one arm to absorb the physical blow as the other arm swung around and batted the hedgehog into the metal ground.

"CHAOS SPEAR!" Emerl shot back around as several golden yellow spikes of chaos energy collided with his body, knocking him sideways. Shadow tried to move in to assault him again by someone laid a line of missile fire straight across his path. There was a loud rumbling and a large, tank like robot burst out from a side door in the Egg Carrier. The words: E1003, Tau engraved in its chest plate. "Out of my way." The black hedgehog demanded. Tau, who had no intention of obeying orders from anyone but Eggman, simply fired another barrage of missiles at him.

Struggling to right himself, Sonic realized that this was a fight he had little to no chance of actually winning. Emerl was now as strong as Knuckles, as fast as him and was under Dr. Eggman's direct control. He looked up, Emerl was not standing directly over him, all three eye glowing bright red.

"Emerl…" He began weakly. "Fight it…" A loud whirring sound filled the air and a flying robot that looked like a large television screen flew next to them. The screen flipped on, showing Eggman himself. His grin couldn't have been wider.

"You look depressed Hedgehog. Don't sulk, I mean, someone had to win." Sonic bared his teeth and tired to get up, but hic arms gave way, causing him to collapse. This was embarrassing. Emerl had only landed a few blows and already he felt like he'd gone one on one with Metal Sonic for three hours. "And now Emerl, finish off the job." Obeying the order, the robot took a step forward and lifted a metal fist up, pausing for a moment to gather the strength to crush Sonic's head into a bloody pulp.

The blue hedgehog was trying his best to get up and move, but by now it was too late.

A short image of Cream flashed up on his internal screen and Emerl came to realise the true importance of a single word.

No. A simple two letter word.

But for Emerl, it took all his will power just to act upon it. He had let Cream down too many times, now would not be one of them. His eyes faded from red to blue and slowly he turned to face Eggman's face. He shook his head. The smile on the scientists face shrank very quickly into a frown. "I gave you a direct order Gizoid, finish the Hedgehog now!" Again Emerl shook his eyes. Eggman narrowed his eyes in anger. "How dare you disobey my orders. I never should have rebuilt a defective piece of junk like you. Perhaps, once the rabbit I saw in your memories so much is destroyed, you'll start behaving properly." His face turned off screen towards the two hence bots in the Bridge. "Prepare to fire the Cannon at the X-Tornado."

"But Doctor." Decoe began, looking up. "We can't, you transferred the Chaos Emeralds that we have to Emerl. There isn't anything left to power the cannon." Eggman clenched his fists, realizing his mistake.

"There should still be enough residual energy left for one final operation. More than enough to wipe that plane out of existence."

"Eye Eye sir."

Sonic felt the ground beneath him shake and the two halves of the door that concealed the Egg Carrier's cannon before to pull open. He was going to fire it! Sonic looked back over his shoulder to see that the X-Tornado, while it had cleared some distance, was no where near out of firing range yet. He had to stop the cannon from firing. A loud buzzing began to hang in the air as the needle point within the cannon itself began to heat up with whatever energy the Egg Carrier had gathered from the Chaos Emeralds it had had on board.

As he tired to push himself to his feet, Emerl grabbed him by the scruff of his neck and without a moments hesitation tossed him over the edge of the ship. Sonic just enough time to look back, to see that Emerl's eyes was blue not red, before he disappeared, falling towards the ground. He was there only for a moment before whatever energy had had left was used up in a Chaos Control.

Emerl watched him disappear, before turning back to look down at the cannon. It was gathering strength, and by now Eggman probably had their plane in his cross-heirs. He knew what he had to do to stop it and save his friend, but he was…afraid to do it. He shook his head. No, he couldn't be thinking like that now. He had a purpose and he had to fulfil it. Before taking off, he took the time to do something he should have done a long time ago. Using the power of the Chaos Emeralds inside him to boast his free will, he deleted Dr. Eggman's control program.

Shadow slid to the side, using his speed to put himself well beyond the touch of the Tau robot. Compared to him it was slow and cumbersome, not to mention easily dealt with.

The robot fired several missiles in his direction, all of which Shadow skated around before advancing forward in a second and landing a chaos spear straight against the arm on one side, severing it from the metal torso. Realizing that dragging his fight out was not a smart thing to do in the present circumstance, a simple Chaos Control put him behind it and a Chaos spear right down its back, severing its large metal torso from it's tank like bottom finished the job.

"What the heck is going on?" He asked out loud, standing over the wreckage as the ground beneath his began to rumble and shake. A dangerous amount of Chaos energy he could sense was building up at the front of the ship. It was too dangerous to stay here any longer. Something very bad was about to happen. Chaos Control consumed his body and he disappeared, warping through space to arrive directly back on the X-tornado, a considerable distance away from the ship itself. Sonic was already here, covered his bruises and being fussed over by Amy. From here, he could see the front end of the giant vessel had spilt in half, revealing a large needle that was pointed directly at them. A large amount of energy gathering inside it. He shuddered, a miniature Eclipse Cannon.

It was almost a certainty that this plane was that weapons target. Cream looked up, seeing Shadow's arrival.

"Where's Emerl?" She asked, her eyes filled with fear.

Standing inside the core of the cannon, Emerl could see the giant needle gathering energy and preparing to fire. Purple bolts of lighting dancing from the needle to the outside wall and back again. All so Dr. Eggman could control him. He would not allow that. He was free now, and he was going to make sure that his freedom did not come at the cost of his friend's life. With three Chaos emeralds inside him, the blast he could create would be more than enough to end this. Turning inwards, his began the countdown, setting it at a delay of ten seconds.

During that time, he marched down the service catwalk towards the very heart of Eggman's weapon. He knew that the Doctor would not be able to produce another of this weapon when it was destroyed. The technology was far too complex to duplicate more than once. And for some reason, that thought made him feel satisfied. He could feel it coming on now, the energy gathering inside his body, reaching critical levels. His metal frame couldn't contain it anymore and parts of it began to break off, large streams of light lancing out of the wounds. His entire body glowing a bright red that was steadily increasing.

Only several seconds left. Emerl looked back one last time towards the X-Tornado in the distance that carried his friend. One second left, he crossed his arms and then shot a contempt full glare upwards the cannon, his body burning with white hot uncontrollable chaos energy. And then, it happened.

Cream looked back from the X-tornado to see the front of the Egg Carrier explode in a fire storm. Both doors that covered the cannon was blow completely off by the blast, the giant metal pieces falling to the ground in flames. Thousands of robots that formed the crew of the ship were thrown out from the giant wound, falling like metal rain.

The entire ship shook violently. As the back feed through the cannon systems destroyed most of the weapons interior, the shock wave from the explosion reached the plane, learning making Tails loose control of it. The three Chaos Emeralds, now free from Emerl's body, were flung through the air, hurtling like asteroids through the atmosphere. All heading in an opposite direction from each other, disappearing on the horizon with a loud sonic boom.

As the chain reaction shot back through the Egg Carrier, one of it's wings that was tucked at it's side was thrown clear off, landing on the ground with a deafeningly loud thud on the swamp ground below, sinking nearly completely. It's balance upset, the Egg Carrier seemed to lurch to one side, looking like it was going to tip over and crash into the ground at any point.

"The cannon had been completely destroyed Doctor." Becoe reported, the only sensors now working on the ship flashing up on his terminal. "And the Egg Carrier's hardly keeping in the air as it is. All systems are at critical tolerance levels." Furious, Eggman smashed his fists into his arm rests, denting the metal. Screaming out load. "We have to retreat and repair the ship sir." Decoe added. Eggman just kept cursing into the air and the two robots just punched in the orders anyway. The ship, bleeding from its front end, turned away as fast as it could, almost limping away as it turned and fled back into the clouds.

Huge pillars of smoke rising from the wreckage it had left behind, tall black columns reaching into the sky, intense fires burning below. The Egg Carrier hadn't been defeated, but it had been destroyed, but it had been severely damaged and Sonic guessed that was the best result they could hope for. No doubt by now Eggman was tearing hair out of his moustache.

"Where's Emerl?" Cream asked again. Sonic, with an aching back and arms looked back, hesitating. He'd know exactly what Emerl had been planning to do when he tossed him off the edge of the Egg Carrier. It hadn't been to attack him, only to keep him safe when the robot self-destructed. And with three Chaos Emeralds fuelled the explosion, Emerl must have known it was the only way to stop the cannon from firing. "He's gone isn't he?" She asked, finally spotting the glint of truth in Sonic's eyes. Sonic paused only for a moment, before nodding. Cream was deadly quiet, her face not showing any emotion what so ever.

"I'm so sorry Cream." Amy said, putting a hand on her shoulder.

"Chao Chao." Cheese added in agreement. Cream remained silent for a single second only, before she finally broke down crying.

(In Chris' Voice.)

Poor Cream. She's lost Emerl twice now, or has she? Find out what happens next time on Sonic X the End of the Emerl Saga, The Final Twist. Don't miss it!