I've found a cover for this story that I'd drawn a while ago. I'll scan it once I've touched it up a bit!
Ta again for your lovely reviews!

Chapter 18

Shadow was still lying on Amy's sofa. He'd fallen asleep a few hours ago. But then he was awoken with a start by the sound of a crash. He sat up quickly, ignoring the pains from his bruises.

"What the-?" he said and got up from the sofa.

He ran outside and found Amy.

"What was that noise?" Shadow asked her.
"I don't know but it sounded like it came from outside and that's where Ray is!" she answered, beginning to become emotional again.

Tails and Knuckles ran to them.

"Guys! Did you hear that?" Tails yelped.
"What do you think? It was loud enough." Shadow said.

"Sonic's out there too. He went to talk to Ray!" Knuckles said.
"Let's go investigate." Shadow said, removing the bandage from around his head.

…

Ray shook the dirt from his head, after having just landed on the ground. He could hear the loud sound of engines above his head.

"Uncle Sonic? Are you OK?" Ray called out.
"I'm alright!" Sonic yelled back from amidst the dust in the air.

The dirt and dust cloud began to settle and Ray could now make out Sonic lying a few feet away. Sonic stood up and looked around him. His vision went straight to the robot, hovering above him and Ray.

He gasped as he recognised its design.

"The Egg-Destroyer 3000…Eggman's Ultimate Weapon!" he said quietly and nervously, under his breath.

Just then, a voice was projected from the robot. It was Eggman's.

"There you are Sonic! And little Ray too." He said, laughing loudly.

None of the hedgehogs replied. Suddenly a voice yelled out.

"What the heck is this!" it cried.

It was Knuckles. Sonic and Ray blinked and turned to see Tails Knuckles and Shadow standing there, having just come out from underground. They ran to Sonic and Ray.

"You guys OK?" Shadow asked.
"Yeah don't worry. We're fine." Sonic replied. "But we won't be for much longer if we aren't careful!"

Just then the Egg-Destroyer 3000 transformed its arm into a large machine gun. Eggman's demonic laughter could be heard as the gun was fired at the Freedom Fighters.

"RUN!" Sonic yelled.

Immediately, the group leapt out of the way, in various directions. The bullets hit the ground, narrowly avoided by the gang.

Shadow landed just by Ray and they both lay down to avoid being caught by a stray bullet. Shadow held down Ray's body with his hand, not violently but protectively.

The others stayed down too.

"Man this looks pretty bad!" Sonic said, who'd landed just by Knuckles.

Knuckles looked up briefly and gasped as he saw the glowing colours of the chaos emeralds from the Egg-Destroyer 3000's head.

"It has the chaos emeralds!" Knuckles yelled.

Everyone blinked.

"What? Why didn't you bring them back with the Master Emerald?" Shadow yelled.
"I thought that they'd eventually split up, without the Master Emerald maintaining their power!" Knuckles answered back.

"Come on you cowards!" Eggman yelled again. "Come out and fight!"

Ray couldn't take waiting around anymore. He leapt up from the ground, pushing Shadow's hand out of the way, and charged at the robot. He clenched his teeth.

"Ray!" Shadow yelled after him.
"No wait!" Sonic called eagerly.

But Ray didn't stop. He leapt at the robot, firing up a chaos spear attack in his unclenched hand.

He yelled aloud and fired the onslaught of chaos spears and the robots head. As the spears hit the Egg-Destroyer 3000, smoke arose. Ray landed on the ground and caught his breath. But the smoke simple faded and there wasn't even a scratch on the Egg-Destroyer 3000's body.

Ray froze with shock as the robot lifted up its arm. Before anyone could do anything, the Egg-Destroyer 3000 swung its arm at Ray's side and a horrible crunch like sound could be heard. Ray yelled aloud in pain and was flung into a large tree.

Shadow ran to him.

"Ray!" he called as he reached his son.

Ray was still conscious but had a nasty gash on the top of his head.

"I'm ok…" he said.

"What are you playing at Ray?" Sonic yelled. "This thing is far more dangerous than you know!"

"You've obviously seen this thing before Sonic. Why don't you stop shouting at us and explain what it is exactly and how we can beat it!" Shadow yelled back.

Just then Eggman's laughter rose up again and the robot began to fire again.
Everyone ducked back down beneath the trees.

"I will but we'll have to get to a safer place first!" Sonic yelled out.

"This is getting boring! You fools better come out here now and face your fate! Or else I'll force you out!" Eggman shouted over the loudspeakers.

"Come with me back underground. We'll hide in the shelter until this thing calms down a little." Sonic said, ignoring Eggman's demands.

"But Sonic-" Tails started.
"He can go wreck the ruins first. That'll get his anger out. Now come on!"

Sonic then bravely stepped out toward the Egg-Destroyer 3000, which had now stopped it's fire.

"Eggman! We'll fight you but you gotta let us prepare for a bit first!" he yelled out.
"Who do you think I am hedgehog?" Came Eggman's reply.
"You want a fair fight, don't you Doctor?" Shadow said, stepping out beside Sonic. "You should be the bigger man here and give us some time. You'll beat us anyway so you may as well."

Eggman pondered on this.

"Very well! You fools may have 30 minutes to prepare yourselves. At least then you'll feel a little better about yourselves when you die!" he yelled.

The boosters on the Egg-Destoryer's back began to fire up and Eggman zoomed off into the sky. Everyone, especially Tails (who always hated confrontations) sighed a deep sigh of relief.

"OK that gives you 30 minutes to explain this Sonic." Knuckles said.
"Alright already! Let's go to the shelter first. We can warn the others to stay there too, while we're there. We can't let them get hurt."

With that, Sonic turned around and walked back toward the underground base, the others following shortly after.