Dropping Sebastian instantly, Jack threw himself to the side as a row of teeth came charging down at them. The feline traitor just dropped to the floor and made no attempt to run as the Dragon's mouth opened wide and he was greeted by a torrent of surging fire. Instead, he laughed insanely and with zeal before the flames tore his body to ash and the jaws clamped over him. Brick and splinters of wood went flying as the winged beast tore its way down through the roof, snapping at anything that tired to pass by. The felines were now running for the lives, desperately trying to make it to the exits at the edge of the amphitheatre.

"Sonic Wind!" The blue hedgehog cupped both hands behind him and began focusing the chaos energy abundant within him. Once it had been focused to a single point, he threw his arms forward and a shockwave hit the air. A swirling vortex of a blue energy arched forward and struck the dragon full in the face, forcing it back up through the ceiling with a painful shriek.

"Get everybody out of here NOW!" Blaze called to her guards who were already assisting those who hadn't poured out through the exit's to do so.

Metal Sonic flew up through the gaping hole in the roof to peer across the city skyline and found it completely ablaze. The city was nearly completely engulfed in fire, more flames being poured down as the winged lizards soured overhead in formation; dropping the deadly burning chemicals like bomber craft. The air was thick with the searing heat and the sounds of screams. While the robotic hedgehog cared little for the plight of organic beings, Metal Sonic's patience had been now been tried. He was eager to finish this business and he could not tolerate this present attack. With a loud metal clang he clasped his hands together and arched them back out, lightning bolts trailing from the tip of each finger.

Metal Sonic's body contained millions of small self replicating robots called nano-bots. They not only helped him fix physical damage to his body, but they gave him the ability to asses' enemy tactics and attacks to not only copy them, but to improve on the original. Some time ago, Sonic had been forced to use a Sonic Wing attack against his metallic counterpart and Metal Sonic had had time to develop on the technique. The energy discharge was a refined charged particle weapon that worked in a similar way to Sonic's attack but instead of being fired in single direction, it was a force that burned in a 360 degree arc.

Several compartments opened on the robotic hedgehog's body and large chrome panels emerged; each one glowing bright neon blue before the discharge shot out in all directions.

Their flesh burnt more than their flames could ever hope to, the dragons fell from the sky trailing smoke; their flesh cooked crisp before they slammed into the ground one after the other. Despite those that fell however, more took their place. A huge hole had been carved in the top of the giant glass dome and uncountable numbers of winged reptiles were flooding inside. Unfortunately Metal Sonic's particle discharge was not something he could fire off multiple times and he hadn't half the time necessary to charge up enough energy for second wave before the Dragons came souring at them. Leaping to the side to avoid being roasted, his cape got caught in the flames and was burnt to cinders in seconds.

"Chaos Spear!" Shadow emerged out of a Chaos Control warp already with his infamous energy attack burning between his fingers. The bolts shot out and one by one slammed into the chests of the dragons, throwing them back several feet before they fell ungracefully to the ground. Sonic soured up the side of the building at break neck speed and once his foot toughed the top, somersaulted backwards into the air and used the momentum to go into a spin dash. His body spinning around, he coursed forward and tore his way though a Dragon's body; ripping out it's insides before blasting out the far side.

Using the dying body as a spring board, he threw himself up towards another flying lizard other head. Throwing a kick forward, he broke its neck on the first strike and as it fell to ground, used the air drag from its wings to keep himself air born long enough to launch an attack on another set flying below. "Damn it, they're everywhere!" Rouge hissed, her wings flapping widely to keep her head of the multitudes of snapping jaws.

Well timed kicks to the sides of their heads sent them down by no matter how many they sent crashing down; another hundred seemed to take their place. Okida came souring up with his large wings spread wide, a pair of double barrelled shot guns in his hands. As a gunslinger, Okida was unmatched.

His bullets shot forward and even before they hit their targets, Okida was wishing he'd had the foresight to have brought a Mech with him. The precise shots brought three down, but another five soured right over them to take up the fight. Amy and Knuckles were the last to charge out but there was plenty of action left for them. The echidna's fists saved a young feline as a dragon soured down with claws outstretched to snatch her away.

Grabbing the reptile's tail as it soured past, Knuckles tossed it violently back into the side of a building allowing the cats enough time to make a run for it. Amy Rose's hammer was a spinning deadly cyclone. Her movements done with such acrobatic grave she almost seemed to be dancing, twirling her body around so fast her hammer cracked a Dragon's skull three times in the space of a single second. Bringing her blunt weapon up hard, the pink hedgehog smashed it straight into the underside of a reptiles jaw before swinging it sharply to the side; breaking the wing bone of one of the flying beasts and as it staggered towards the ground smashed it's head in.

"To hell with this! There are too many of them!" Shadow murmured; his back up against Sonic's as the two of them stood on the top of a tall building with Dragons souring at them from apparently all directions.

"Every Dragon on Fellena must be here!" Was Jack's observation as he and Blaze fought their out into the streets, battling with the winged giants as they landed on the ground. Magic, arrows and sword blades helped them fight against the searing heat. The smell of cooking flesh was pungent in the air, burnt corpses lying on ground where they fell.

"You are hopelessly outnumbered." Void told Blaze, souring alongside her; his own sabre appearing in his hand at the flick of a wrist. "You have to get your people out of here. I and my companions will try to hold them off for as long as we can!" Blaze shot her eyes to the side, her teeth barred.

"No. I will not abandon my city."

"Your city has already fallen." Void told her giving the feline a side glance. "Do not let your people fall with it." Blaze shunned the world and closed her eyes, thick emotions of anger; frustrations and overwhelming grief swirled around her, but then were washed away by the obligations to duty she had been raised to honour.

"Fall back!" She ordered to her soldiers as Void soured on. "Bring as many people as you can back inside the fortress walls and brace the doors with magic." Jack shot her a glare. "That's an order." With a great amount of reluctant showing in both his face and in the way he moved, Jack signalled to the others.

"Evacuate the people. MOVE IT!" By now, they were all completely surrounded. With loud thuds that shook the ground, the dragons landed by one, forming a tight circle around them. A multitude of their dead lay around them, and starving some of the still living Dragons bent their necks to tear thick chunks of meet of the corpses. All of them were out of breath, with the acceptation being Metal Sonic as he didn't breath. Scorch marks lanced over their body from close calls with the deadly torrents of fire.

"Any thoughts?" Okida asked, taking the momentary break in the action to reload the bullets into his handgun. Parts of his clothes had been seared by the flames and his fur hadn't done much better.

"I could do with a cheeseburger." Sonic remarked, forcing a smile. Amy just smacked him on the back of the head.

"Now might not be the best time to mention food." Rouge added in, glancing around at the unending sea of hungry mouths full of sharp teeth ready to tear them apart. Several loud shots rang out and two dragons turned just in time to get a round of laser fire full in the face. Their kind next to them; startled by the sudden event started screeching and flew up into the air. Sliding out of the smoke and dust in the air came a mechanized, egg shaped form; its long right arm raised up into the air and from a rifle attached instead of a hand was firing a thick succession of blasts, forcing the Dragons away.

"Omega?" Okida began with a startled expression.

"No." Amy replied, lowering her hammer a little. "I know this one." With the wheels at the back of his large flat feet grinding to a halt, E102: Gamma slid to a complete stop a short distance away.

"Another of Eggman's toys?" Shadow asked clenching a fist, but keeping his eyes on the real, scaly threat around them.

"An old E100 unit." Metal Sonic replied, unclasping the brooch that held the remains of his cape on, letting the scorched remains fall away. "I didn't think he was still using those old relics."

"Can we discuss this later?" Okida asked, looking around as the Dragons seemed to have removed from the sudden intrusion and their hunger was pushing them on.

It looked for a moment as they were all about to be swallowed up by a sea of snarling teeth, when suddenly a loud roar piercing the air, so loud it literally shook the ground beneath their feet. The dragons howled and took to the air in a dazzling show of wings, leaving their wounded behind; all of them flying as fast as they could towards the hole in the top of the dome, scrambling over reach other in a desperate attempt to flee.

"Well that was easy." Sonic remarked, lowering his hands with a puzzled look on his face.

"Did we scare them off?" Knuckles asked, but even as it came out of his mouth it sounded stupid Those Dragons had had them outnumbered twenty to one. There was no way with the odds against them like that they would have intimidated their opponents into running away.

"Oh get real." Shadow replied with a short snarl. By now, the last Dragon had cleared the hole and had disappeared into the sky, the fleet of wings disappearing on the horizon. Everything went very silent. None of them moved a muscle, the thudding of the hearts in their chests more than making up in noise for the missing snarls and roars.
"Seriously bad vibes I'm getting' here." Rouge added, her ears twitching nervously. It happened so gradually, no body noticed the encroaching darkness until the light around them had almost gone completely.

"Gets dark here early," Okida remarked with a short smile trying to lessen the tension in the air, but only served in elevating it. Glancing up, Sonic watched as something with colossal size moved itself in front of the red sun. It was too far away to see what it was from here but whatever it was; it had to rival the size of the Egg Carrier itself.

"What the heck is that?" Amy asked, putting a hand over her brow and glancing up at it with a frown. The suddenly it all became clear.

"You have to be kidding me…" Sonic began with a stunned expression as a giant eye slid open, the pupil contracting to a reptilian style silt. A gigantic head that cast a shadow over the city reared itself up, blocking out the giant red sun with a near complete eclipse. The Dragon was huge. Its head had to be as long as Eggman's ship and as wide as the Blue Typhoon.

Its long neck stretched over three times that distance and the body had a bulk so massive they couldn't see it all. A pair of wings that blanketed the sky were folded either side, a massive claw on the tip capable of carving a city street apart twitched back and forth. The scales were unlike those of the other dragons. A sea of jet black flew down the body, with streaks of crimson red running down either side of its neck and out along the wings.

Slow at first, he raised its wings and spread them out then with a sudden surging movement threw them out as wide as they would go and tore its head back, screeching as its jaws threw themselves open.

The sound was utterly deafening. Those who weren't robots had to cover their ears; the acute pitch of it was painful. The ground shook like never before, cracks tearing open in the ground. Finally, the pitch was so perfect that the entire glass dome above them cracked to pieces. It fell apart above them and became deadly falling glass rain, jagged shards crashing down, some as larger as the buildings and others barely the size of a finger.

It was an utter miracle Metal Sonic acted quickly enough by throwing a force field up around them all, the shards simply bouncing off the protective barrier.

"Why is it always us?" Knuckles asked as the colossal beast put a foot the side of a city block inside the shattered remains of the dome.

"Yes my creature." Black Doom whispered to his giant as it crushed the feline's buildings beneath its feet, the sheer size of its wing span eclipsing the sky. "I have denied you fresh meet for too long. Destroy the felines and reduce this entire island to ashes." More than happy to oblige its master, the beast trampled its way across the stretch of burning city.

-
From the towering citadel at the heart of the city itself, Blaze watched in utter exclamation as the Dragon Lord made his presence known at last. For a long time now there had been stories of a dragon who ruled above all others, their king and overlord; the first warped creation of the Dark one.

A gargantuan creation made for the soul purpose of destruction. As if the buildings were like nothing by dirt beneath it's fleet, it clawed along over them crushing their homes beneath its colossal belly. The arched wings acting as front legs with the tips stretched out behind it. It's black and red body moved like a snake, sliding through the burning rubble towards the feline's last defensive line. Blaze watched from the battlements of the tower, a collection of her soldiers around her. They watched as their doom slowly crawled towards them, jaws capable of devouring an entire Mythology told of a vicious serpent that on the upon the ending of the world would come to consume all before it. The apocalypse incarnate. This was that lizard.

"The Ragnarok." She breathed; eyes wide in terror.

"There's no magic in the world that will keep that thing away." Jack remarked, for the first time Blaze beheld her right hand man as stunned as the rest of them. "What do we do mistress?" Blaze did not answer him, could not answer him.

"Mistress?" Another solider asked. Looking up, she saw the fear in his eyes. The same was reflected in the faces around her, unrivalled terror etched into every facial muscle.
"Gather our family and friends and take them to the Arcanum chamber." She announced, turning to keep the colossal beast in front of her. "Go swiftly. Jack…" The large feline looked up expectedly. "Guard them with your life." Trailing her hand out to the side, the glow from the jewel atop her head glowed brightly and her sword flew out of its sheath by itself and the hilt resting gently in her palm. Now armed, the feline leapt from atop the battlements and began to slide down the tower using the momentum to keep herself from falling.

"I got out of bed in the morning for this?" Sonic remarked, before they broke apart to avoid being squashed by a giant foot as the shadow of the beast fell over them. The black dragon ignored, carrying on as if they were nothing but insects on the ground. Its real prize, the only part of the feline city untouched by the flames, stood towering before it. The ground shook under each foot print.

"Chaos Spear!" Shadow called out, casting the golden bolts. They made such a small impact across the dragon's giant armoured hide it didn't even feel them. It marched on, unhindered. Gamma raised his laser rifle and fired several laser blasts at once directly up as the belly of the giant reptile soured overhead. They didn't even scratch the surface.
"Try ignoring this ugly!" Sonic declared, before spinning his entire body around on a single spot; energy building as the quills spun faster and faster. Rocketing forward with a loud sonic boom the blue hedgehog slammed hard as he could into the back of its hind leg. The dragon felt it this time and shuddered slightly.

The attack seemed to irritate more than hurt and all the beast had to do was bring its colossal tail around sharply and Sonic was sent flying backwards to crash through a wall and vanish into an engulfing cloud of brick dust. Okida's bullets didn't do a thing and the combined attacks of both Knuckles and Rouge only seemed to make it angry. Metal Sonic soured through the melee and latched onto the frill adorning the creatures head and anchored himself down.

The compartments housing the particle discharge weapon all opened at once and the robotic hedgehog began to glow neon blue as he pumped more and more energy from his systems into the single burst. The dragon could see the weight just over its eyes and violently shook its long neck trying to tear the object off itself. Its efforts were too little too late. Metal Sonic's charged particle burst rocketed out in a ball of blue light that engulfed the giant's entire head.
The beast collapsed to the ground, smoke trailing after it. Metal Sonic himself having put as much energy as he could muster into that one burst, fell to the ground with a ground with a rough tumble, bending one of his arms badly out of position in the process. "Alright Metal you did…." Was Sonic's began in praise as he picked himself out rubble; only to find that the dragon was also picking itself back up, shaking the dust and mortar out of its scales before spreading its wings out wide.

Apparently all Metal Sonic had succeeded in doing was getting its attention and making it mad. Smoke rose out through its nostrils with an angry hissing. As if it were going to throw out burning chemicals like its smaller kin, it drew its long neck back and held its head high in the air. Instead of throwing fire forward, several gill like holes on the outside edge of its neck opened up, one by one snapping out. Particles in the air around it began charging, each one glowing bright blood red before being drawn through the gills.

The red streaks along the body began to glow, the light from beneath the scales increasing every moment. Shafts of light lanced out in succession from behind the closed teeth.

"Everyone down!" Okida exclaimed, throwing himself to the ground. Following his lead almost instinctively, the others did the same. Throwing its neck down and forward, the beast opened its mouth and as if released from behind a flood gate came a thick blast of charged particles focused into a devastating attack. It burned the air around, glowing an intense red. The ground was torn up as it shot forward, reducing entire city blocks to dust in a single moment.

Carrying on past the city, it tore a giant hole in what was left of the glass dome, tore the trees out of the ground beyond that and shook the entire flying island. The smaller dragons waiting on the outskirts to see what was happening had to fly like they'd never flown before to avoid being hit. Some weren't fast enough and didn't have enough time to screech before vanishing forever.

Eggman watched in amazement as the shot passed over his Egg Carrier, quickly followed by a loud sonic boom, the sound vibrations shaking the ground beneath his feet. His mug labelled; 'worlds greatest genius'; was jarred from his fingers and broke open on the floor spilling coffee everywhere.

"What in the name of…" He began, watching the energy above him burn before it began to shrink, the beam becoming smaller and smaller before vanishing complete, leaving a thin trailing of glowing red points in the air that one by one vanishing like snowflakes.

"Doctor, what was that?" Becoe asked, watching after it in awe. The Doctor forged a frown and pushed his glasses up off his nose. That blast had been like an attack from his own Egg Carrier's cannon.

"I don't know…" He advanced over to the console at the wall and pressed a button. "Gamma, report." The only reply was intense static. "E102: report!" Still nothing. The unit was out of range of the damaged com-system.

"That's it. I'm taking the Egg Carrier up to investigate myself."

"But Doctor, the repairs aren't complete yet." The robot argued but he could tell his master wasn't listening.

"The engines are working aren't they?" Eggman asked, dragging the goggles on his forehead over his glasses.

"And the weapons systems."

"Then take us up." The order was final, that much was obvious in an instant.

"Doctor, if we get hit by a blast like that we won't stand a chance." Eggman paused for a moment. Of that fact, he was more than aware

.
"We just won't get hit then."

The blue hedgehog hoisted himself out of the brick dust now covering them all and watched in utter amazement and horror at the devastation around him. He was now sitting before a gorge carved into the city, through into the jungle beyond and out to the very edge of the island itself.

"You have to be yanking my chain!" Sonic exclaimed as the others sat up themselves. The gills lining the dragon's neck snapped shut all at once, restricting the flow of the smoke from within so instead it channelled out through the mouth. Deciding it had made its point to the irritations, it turned around to face its true quarry. It could easily vaporise the felines in an instant but it was hungry enough as it was and reducing their molecules to nothing would deny him the chance to feed.

"That was a charged particle blast." Okida announced, hoisting himself back up. He had used his large wings to shield Knuckles, Amy and himself from falling mortar. "But that's impossible! Charging particles requires hyper matter. A living creature can't charge develop that."

Metal Sonic tossed a fallen wall off his body and stood up. His arm had been mangled and was now utterly useless. Holding it upright, he focused his attention on the nano-bots inside his body. He barley had enough energy left to get them moving.
His metallic armour rippled like the surface of water, before parts of it liquefied completely and moved spreading up along his arm; repairing the damage as it went. Once the metallic limb was as good as new, the liquid metal moved part into place and hardened.

"I'm detecting traces of hyper matter inside a protective bladder inside the creature's chest cavity." He announced, his eyes glowing blood red. "It was channelling that up through channels in its throat where the particles charged enough for it to fire." Shadow growled angrily in response, shaking himself several times to dislodge the dust from between his quills.

"That's almost exactly how the Eclipse Cannon works."

"Great, just great." Sonic sounded irritated. "Now we've gotta stop a giant dragon armed with a mini Eclipse Cannon." Exactly how they were going to do that Sonic had no idea. Some of their best attack hadn't even slowed it down, and Metal Sonic's show stopper blast had only succeeded in annoying the beast. "What I wouldn't give for a Chaos Emerald right now." Well if annoying it was the best they could do, they were going to be one hell of an annoyance.

Racing forward, Sonic shot through the charred rubble; dodging between the blackened remaining of buildings before he caught up with the winged giant. Darting up along its tail, the blue hedgehog raced along until he reached the point between the wings.

As this creature was about a size of a quarter of the city itself, the width of its shoulder was well two blocks wide. Its shoulder blades connected here and if there was ever a most irritated place to get an itch, this was it. Reaching the exact middle, Sonic started spinning around on the spot; going faster and fist, his quills tearing into the scales. It was by no means enough to hurt the dragon, but it did make it very uncomfortable.

The blue hedgehog was drilling on the top of a collection of nerves responsibly for the control of the wings and they were sending back powerful messages of irritation. The dragon staggered back, trying to bend its neck to swat the hedgehog away; but the position on its back was just out of reach. Sonic kept going, trying the beast to distraction. Swinging its tail back and forth, it knocked buildings over and left huge gorges in the ground. "Ride 'em cowboy!" Sonic called out as the dragon kicked back its hind legs. Sonic had succeeded in annoying it. Now it was fuming with rage. It had been content to let these irritants go as long as it got its meal. Not so anymore. With a sickening snap, each gill on its neck opened up and red points of light began being drawn in through each one. This was the precise moment Shadow had been waiting for.
"Hold him right there Sonic!" Shadow called over, dragging a hand back by his side and clenching the fist. Skating forward, the black and red hedgehog began building up whatever internal energy he had left. This was only attack he hadn't tried yet and he knew it was going to require a lot of effort on his part. "Chaos…." He began, his outline starting to burn bright blood red. The dragon was too distracted with Sonic on its back and charging its weapon to notice the approaching danger. "BLAST!" By the time the beast did notice the red glow it was too late, Shadow had slammed a punch straight into its colossal chest.

The unleashed attack Shadow had put every ounce of energy he could muster into it and it left him more drained than he'd ever been in his life. Shockwaves crashed through the air knocking over whatever buildings were left standing. The attack, coupled with the charging particles produced a devastated blast that pushed up and out like a mushroom cloud. The dragon vanished for an instant in a red haze, before it was seen flying backwards to crash across the ruined city.

Rubble collected on top of the beast and it vanished beneath the dust and ruins. Sonic reappeared out of the Chaos Control warp he had escaped in to avoid the attack. He staggered about for the minute, knocked a little dizzy by the inertia.

"Oh I'm taking a bath on this." He muttered, shaking himself to restore feeling to his numb skin.

The ground began to shake as if a thousand jack hammers had been taken to it as a long jet black neck began to heave itself out of the ground, trailing shards of rubble and clouds of brick dust. "Oh now this is just not fair." The blue hedgehog commented, his arms falling to his sides as a pair of massive wings spread out after it, breaking open the ground as they did so.

There was a brief flash of light nearby and Shadow repapered. The black and red hedgehog stood staring up at the dragon for a moment, before whatever was holding him up gave way and he collapsed to the floor.

"Shadow!" Tikal cried racing over. The ultimate life-form was barely conscious, his eyes closed and struggling for breath. He was almost completely drained of energy; whatever had been able to amass had been forced into that one attack.

"I….I can't get up." He managed to breath. "Sorry. You'll have to fight this one without me." With that he collapsed completely, his eyes falling shut with him tumbling into unconsciousness.

"Shadow… come on Shadow napping right now is not a good idea!" Okida began, trying to shake him awake but the kind of Sleep Shadow had fallen into was not one someone woke up from lightly. "Out cold." The major added, before glancing up as a towering shadow fell over them.

The dragon was now more than annoyed. All they had succeeded in doing was irritating it beyond belief and now it was angry. Apparently these creatures were far too stupid to get the message that compared to the beast they were insects. With a loud snap it spread its wings out as far as they would stretch, shadowing half the city in their shadow. The red streaks on the leathery outside edge began to glow brightly as they absorbed the warmth from the sunlight.

The gills lining its throat snapped wide open and the particles in the air began to charge again, becoming bright red orbs of light that one by one began to get sucked in through the holes and into the throat itself. Shafts of light began to lance through the gaps in the razor sharp teeth as power began to accumulate.

"How does it keep doing that?" Amy demanded. "It's like Krish all over again."

"How can any creature be that powerful?" Rouge was next to ask, stating the question on everyone's mind.

"It's not, that's the answer." Metal Sonic replied, his eyes glowing blood red; the scanner in his optics working. "The hyper matter inside its gut is what makes it pack a wallop. See those wings?" He jabbed up with a talon to the spread limbs that one would have to be completely blind to miss. The glow read streaks had spread across the wings and down the side of the neck. "It's channelling the thermal energy from the sunlight and using it as a catalyst to ignite the hyper matter and the charged particles."

"So that's it little secret." Sonic began. He had no idea what Metal Sonic had just said but at least they were getting somewhere. At the moment it seemed the beast was about to hit them with enough charged particles to reduce the entire island to cinders. Shadow must have made it real mad. "Think you can come up with a plan to stop it in the next 30 seconds? 'Cause that's how long it'll be until it fires."

"We have to pierce the gland that producing the hyper matter." Okida answered for him. "Once exposed to the air, hyper matter ignites rapidly. The way that things been firing off charged particle blasts, there's got to be enough hyper matter in there to fill a pool."

Suddenly a loud shot rang out, before the dragon could fire its own blast. An energy shot came directly from behind and struck it between the gasp on its wings, forcing them to close rapidly. Without the sunlight to help charge the particles within the beast was forced to fire the attack premature, the result being it missed Sonic and the others completely and carved through the ground sending dust clouds into the air.

"Fire missiles!" Doctor Eggman proclaimed; jabbing a finger forward as the Egg Carrier's cannon began to close, lightning sparking around the need inside. Half of the turrets on both the underside of the ship and along the colossal wings rose up and rotated their barrels around to aim directly at the dragon as it turned around to face this new threat.

"Nice decoy." Sonic remarked. As long as that thing took it's frustrations out on Eggman and not them he was happy enough. "Just where is that gland? I'll slam a spin dash right through it!"

"I doubt it." Metal Sonic stated with his scan of the dragon already complete. "It's just below the heart, near the hip. The scales around its middle are thickest of all. You'll never punch a hole through those."

"I can try." The blue hedgehog replied, smacking a fist into his open palm.

Eggman didn't know what this creature was, but if it could generate a charged particle beam that made it a significant threat and the Doctor was not in the habit of simply ignoring those. This beast had to be destroyed. Explosions rang out across its body as one by one the missiles impacted on the scaly skin, forcing it back through the burning ruins of the city below.

"The missiles aren't having much effect Doctor." His golden hence-bot told him, reporting flashing up on the main screen to show that the hard scales were like anti-artillery armour; absorbing the shockwaves from the missile impacts. The only thing the barrage seemed to be doing was forcing the creature to back up.

"They don't have to." Eggman replied. "How much longer until our main cannon is recharged?" There was little that could withstand a direct attack from the Egg Carrier's main hyper matter cannon. It was, after all, based on Prof. Gerald's own Eclipse Cannon design. Then again if the Dragon was allowed the time to charge up its own main weapon they would be sitting ducks.

"Another two minutes Doctor." Becoe replied. "But we'll run out of missiles before then." The percentages of the ammunition supplies were dropping rapidly. At this rate their entire missile supply would be exhausted in just over a minute and a half. All the dragon needed was the extra thirty seconds to blast them out of the sky.

"Dispatch the Flight-adapted Dreadnaughts." The doctor commanded. He'd been attempting to re-equip his land based robots for use in the air based combat for some time now.

"But Doctor, the range is still is BETA testing." Both robots reminded him at once.

"If I can't design a robot that lasts more than thirty seconds I'm hanging too belt." Eggman replied. "Have them readied for launch and dispatched as soon as we run out of missiles."

"Yes Doctor."

In the hanger bays lining the underside of the Carrier, the Dreadnaughts robots assembled responding to the call to action. Once at the launch point they were equip by other robots with attachments to their backs that once welded in place, produced to plane like wings either side that fitted onto the outstretched metallic arms perfectly.

"All unit, prepare to assault drop." The Doctor's voice announced through the intercom system. "Stand by on my command. Gamma…" The E100 unit stood almost rigidly to attention as the voice of his creator began to hum through his internal speaker. "My forces are about to be deployed. You will lead the assault against the creature. You are to occupy its attention for a single minute to give me time to recharge my cannon."

"Roger." Gamma's mechanized voice replied, before he dropped down into mobile mode and raced off.

With her sword blade in hand, Blaze darted through the ruined streets towards the giant in the distance. This was all her fault. As a leader, it was her duty to keep her people safe from harm. She had failed dismally, half the population of the felines had already been reduced to smouldering piles of ash. The stench of burning flesh was thick in the air.

More than that, she had let herself be fooled into thinking that all her life she had been helping her people escape the Dark One, when in reality she had simply been a puppet. She had kept them cooped up here in this city, believing with a zeal that by doing so she was ensuring their safety. Nothing could have been further from the truth.

Everything Sebastian had ever told her had been a lie. A script given to him to say by the Dark One; and she had believed every word. A deep self loathing was writhing within her, burning like a forest fire ignited by her stupidity.

She could still remember the day her father left control of the city and the charge of the feline throne. He had died fighting the dragons, never knowing he had been used as a pawn in a game; an insignificant part of an experiment. A role he was passing onto his daughter, along with the mistaken belief that she mattered.

Nothing she had ever done, or could have done would have saved her people. They had been doomed from the moment the Dark One arrived.

"I thought I told you to pull back to the fortress?" Void asked as she drew level with him. He had been attempting to call Maginaryworld to ask them for assistance but something was cloaking his telepathic communication. Apparently this 'Dark One' had dimensional powers stronger than his own and, as he had anticipated; had been watching them from the moment of their arrival.

Now Void knew the Dark One considered them a security risk of sorts and this dragon attack was his way of destroying whatever criminating evidence had been left. With everything incinerated around him, there was probably nothing left to tell them their new enemy's identity or anything about the nature of his experimentation.

"This is my fight and my enemy." Blaze replied without glancing at him. The two of them darted through the crumbling and burning buildings, the feline moving with acrobatic grace through the collapsed rubble and Void slipping through the air as if he was swimming. "This is what I have been fighting against my whole life." With a wrench, she tore the small red jewel from her forehead. How could she have been so stupid to believe this had had any worth?

She and her people had been so desperate to believe in something during the rise of the blood they had played right into the Dark One's hands. Angrily, she crushed the gem stone between her fingers and let the red dust fall away. "And I'll be damned if I intend to stop now."

Void was silent for a moment, before a brief smile crossed his face.

"Then let's save your people." He stated, wielding his sabre in one hand before flying on.