As I said, here's Part 16 of the Ebony and Lavender. Thank you, everyone, for reading my story, like seriously, you guys rock! Getting started on Part 17 very soon, but before I do that I'd like to make a Christmas one-shot for my one-shot collection. A huge possibility that it could be a Shadaze, but if y'all want something else then I'll take consideration to it. Sonamy was requested for the one-shot, so don't worry I haven't forgotten about that.

Anyway, thank you guys for reading my story again. Tell me what you think in the comments and as always I hope you enjoy!


The smoke was clearing in the air. The sound of metallic objects falling to the ground and the static charges from destroyed wiring could be heard throughout the whole area. The Chaos beam has created a shockwave that decimated the area it was shot towards. A large hole was made in the walls, and the starry, night sky could be seen through the holes.

"Woah," a shocked Eggman Nega stares in awe of the whole destruction that was caused in front of him. "This power... is more magnificent than I could ever imagine."

Eggman turns his gaze to the speechless Nega with a huge smirk on his demeanor, "Would you say that the Master Emerald's power can rival that of the Jeweled Scepter in the Sol Dimension?"

"In terms of raw power alone... no, but this power is still sublime nonetheless," Nega responds, eyes still glued to the scene in front of him. "Such destructive power. We will defeat those little nuisances and complete our goals once and for all! Hahahahahahahaha!"

Both of them were cackling while getting the Egg Dragoon to mobilize itself from where Shadow slammed the body into the wall. Far in the distance, a flash of light appears shielded by a torn up platform that's been ripped upwards; not visible to the Eggmen's view. Shadow, Blaze, and Eclipse appears out of the flash of light. Shadow breathes in and out from exhaustion, while Blaze and Eclipse looks off into the distance at the collateral damage caused by the enormous beam of Chaos energy. The shockwave from it caused the whole area to shake as if an earthquake was made in the area. A lot of robot scrap on the laying on the ground lifeless from the attack. A bunch of metallic objects and rocks were falling down from above. Lastly, the giant hole that was made from the beam of Chaos energy. The starry, night sky could be seen from deep inside the volcano through the giant holes that were made. Bits of lava could be seen flowing through some of the craters made, melting whatever comes within its touch.

Eclipse stare at the scenery in front of him with an uneasy feeling in his gut. He turns to the fiery cat, who was also staring at the damaged area in shock, "This is just great. We're dealing with a machine that can utilize that much power from the Master Emerald." He turns his gaze to his brother who was sitting quietly to himself. "This is a lot more difficult than any of us could have anticipated."

"Yes, it has proven to be much more trouble than we've bargained for, but surely we can still win," Blaze spoke, then shifts her amber eyes to Shadow's intense, crimson orbs. She looks at him for reassurance, "Right?"

Shadow remains silent for a few seconds, getting an understanding of the whole situation. Shadow wasn't shocked that Dr. Eggman has betrayed his word since it's Eggman that he's thinking about. He's manipulated Shadow so many times in the past that he refuses to let that ever happen again; now here he has having fell into Eggman's trapped, like a cornered animal clawing at its hunters. The dark hedgehog curses to himself quietly for ever believing the doctor in the first place. Now they're in a situation where his friends and he won't leave unscathed, and regret will hit him hard if he lets anyone get hurt or worse.

"Shadow?" A feminine voice snaps Shadow back into reality, then he looks up to meet a concerned Blaze staring at him intently. She continues, "Are you alright?"

Shadow nods his head quickly and rose to his feet, "I'm fine."

Eclipse eyes him with an unreadable expression, convinced that something was bothering him, but he decided not to probe. Shadow walks over to join Blaze and Eclipse to observe the destruction that was made in front of him. He takes in the burning scent of the air around him before exhaling. The increase in temperature was noticeable towards the dark hedgehog due to the radiation from the Chaos beam and the imbalance of the lava flows. He closed his eyes to think to himself, leaving Blaze to stare at him in worry. Eclipse looks in the direction of the Egg Dragoon around the torn on debris to see what they were doing right now. It seems that they are currently searching for the trio, as they were moving debris around with quick haste. The sound of the Eggmen's voices could be heard as they search for the trio, eagerness weighing in heavily on the tone of their voice.

Eclipse scrunches his face in disgust, "Annoying bastards. They think they've won this battle."

"That's how they are when they have the upper hand," Shadow spoke matter of factly.

Blaze clenches her fists tightly while glaring at the Egg Dragoon, "Well, this battle is far from over. We're not losing either."

"So how exactly are we going to do this? They have a weapon of mass destruction with a couple Chaos Emeralds, the Master Emerald-," Eclipse began.

"And my Sol Emerald." Blaze cuts him off. Eclipse scoffs a little. Blaze continues before Eclipse could speak again, "We know their weak points, so let's go out there and finish them."

"But Blaze, that Sol Emerald is not-," Blaze ran off before Eclipse could finish his sentence. Eclipse facepalms himself in aggravation. He turns his yellow iris towards Shadow, "What are you going to do about her?"

Shadow sighed in response, "I'll have to tell her before Dr. Eggman uses the power of the Sol Emerald."

"What do you mean?" Eclipse questions.

"Tails told me some extra information about that emerald before we left to get into position," Shadow says, as he recalls the conversation he had with Tails before they left to save Blaze:

Their debrief was just finished. Everyone was just about to separate and get into their positions as planned. Just before Shadow could leave with Infinite and Eclipse, Tails pulls him to the side quickly before the dark hedgehog could leave. Shadow stared at the genius fox in confusion. In Shadow's mind, there's no time to have side conversations. Blaze was the only thing that was on his mind.

Tails began to speak, "I forgot to tell you this extra information about the Sol Emerald."

Shadow raised an eyebrow, "Care to share that information?"

Tails nodded his head in response, "You see, the Sol Emerald may have the same power and wavelengths as the original Sol Emeralds, but it has a catch to it. You see, if Eggman Nega attempts to harness the power from the mock Sol Emerald, then it will explode upon usage."

Shadow widened his eyes in shock, "You have this thing rigged to explode?"

Tails chuckled to himself, "Yeah, this is a fail-safe basically. I'm almost certain that Eggman Nega will have some sort of machine that will be powered by the Sol Emerald's power, so once he uses it, then kaboom! He's machine will be history and we can get home safely."

Shadow smirked at the twin-tailed fox, "Impressive. What's the blast radius of the explosion, and will it destroy the Chaos Emeralds he has in his possession?"

Tails shook his head, "The blast radius is similar to a grenade. About 15 meters or 30-35 feet in US measurement. It will be much stronger than a grenade obviously because its properties are similar to a real Sol Emerald, but the explosion itself won't be powerful enough to inflict any damage to the Chaos Emeralds."

Shadow nodded his head in agreement, "Understood. I'll keep that in mind. Now let's get in position and commence the mission."

Tails nodded his head and ran towards his Tornado quickly with Rouge sitting in the passenger. She turned her head to see Tails running over to her, then stole a glance from Shadow. She winked at him when Shadow caught her glance. He smirked before leaving.

End of flashback.

Eclipse stares at Shadow with an unreadable expression, "So that thing explodes if they use it?"

"Correct," Shadow confirms quietly. "Now let's help Blaze. We can't leave her to fend for herself."

Eclipse nods his head, but before Shadow can move forward; Eclipse pulls him back quickly.

Shadow glares at him, "What?"

"You need to tell her about that fake emerald soon. Before that thing explodes and she becomes upset." Eclipse states sternly at the dark hero.

Shadow yanked his arm away from his brother, "Let me worry about that. Now let's assist her."

Eclipse grumbles to himself as he watched his brother move around the torn up platform to fight the Eggmen, "' Let me worry about it,'" he mocks Shadow quietly. "Last time I'd give advice to that stubborn, overgrown hedgehog about his relationship."

Eclipse chases after the dark hero quickly, without falling too far behind. Both brothers see Blaze heading right towards the Egg Dragoon head-on with no fear. A trail of fire being left behind in her wake.

The mech turns around to the direction where the trio of heroes is coming from. Eggman looks at them eagerly, "Ah, there you three are!"

"Blaze, slow down!" Eclipse calls out to the royal feline, but she did not comply. "Damn it, you guys were made for each other!"

Shadow gave his brother a side-eye look, while not losing any pep in his step, "What are you implying?"

"That you two are basically the same, idiot." Eclipse spat.

Shadow rolls his eyes, 'Now is not the time to bicker Shadow.' He thought to himself.

The fire began to form quickly in front of him which caught Shadow's attention. Blaze was forging flames together in her hands. She wasn't slowing down at all as she initiated her attack.

"Well, if you're in such a hurry to die, princess, then why didn't you say so!" Eggman Nega grind maliciously at the lavender cat.

"Tch, I don't plan on dying anytime soon Eggman Nega!" Blaze roars loudly.

"We'll see about that!" Eggman Nega maneuvers the controls in his pod. The robot complies with his command and throws the drill arm right at the fiery princess from upwards.

Blaze makes a quick sidestep, then jumps away from the drill arm. The drill slams into the ground tearing up the floor in the process. Blaze runs closer to the body of the Egg Dragoon near the lower half of its body.

Eggman quickly catches on to her plan, "Oh no you don't!"

The nefarious scientist presses a button, then a bunch of turrets pops from the chest area, shooting chaos attacks at her. To Blaze's surprise, Shadow and Eclipse randomly appear in front of her and deflect that blasts with their Chaos powers.

'Shadow! Teleport Blaze into the weak point!' Eclipse advises quickly.

'On it!' Shadow grabs Blaze which made her raise an eyebrow. Shadow teleports both Blaze and him right in front of a weak point. "Do it now Blaze!"

Blaze catches on and aims at the green-lit area, "Take this!"

The flames made their way towards the weak spot of the Egg Dragoon, but it appears to be doing nothing. Blaze stares in shock while Shadow clenches his teeth. The fire ceases and a powered shield was covering the weak point.

"Hehehehe! Did you really think I'd let you do that again now that I've let you get a good hit in earlier!" Eggman Nega snorts at the Shadow and Blaze.

Shadow snarls at Nega, "This won't be enough to stop us!"

"How about this!" Eggman yells loudly.

The Egg Dragoon aims its arm cannon at the duo and shot a blast quickly at point-blank. Blaze's eyes grew wide as the blast was right near her face. Shadow runs in front of her, harness his Chaos energy, then releases the Chaos energy around him as a shield. Shadow's Chaos Burst clash against the energy shot from the Egg Dragoon. After a few seconds, the energy shot was beginning to overwhelm Shadow, as his Chaos Burst was beginning to crack against the immense power.

"Shadow!" Blaze ran to his aid and attempts to push the energy blast into another direction with her powers.

"Ohohoho! Don't think we'll just let you help him!" Eggman Nega moves the Egg Dragoon's turrets right in her direction.

Blaze looks at the turrets as she continues to help Shadow escape from the energy blast. The turrets have red dot sights pointed right at the gem that was in the middle of her forehead. Eclipse looks around for something to give him an edge to the situation quickly. He sees a tall metal beam on the ground right next to him, then he thought of something. Eclipse grabs the metal beam and charges in the right flank of the Egg Dragoon. He jumps up towards the right side of the Egg Dragoon, then slams the metal beam right on its side, knocking the Egg Dragoon back away from Blaze and Shadow.

"Argh, you alien pest," Eggman glares at the dark alien, who was attempting to attack again. "That won't work a second time!"

The Egg Dragoon's drill arm transforms into a metallic hand, then lunges at Eclipse. Eclipse was caught off guard by the sudden change, then found his body gripped tightly in the Egg Dragoon's grasp. Eclipse struggles against the metallic hand, but it made no difference to better his debacle.

"Hehehehehe! Well done Eggman! I'll take it from here." Eggman Nega resumes control over the metallic hand and tightens its grip on the dark alien.

"Aaaaaagh!" Eclipse howls in pain. The hand was basically crushing his body.

"I'm going to crush you like a grape, but first," Eggman Nega turns his attention towards Blaze who was still trying to aid Shadow. Shadow was beginning to lose concentration now that his brother was in peril. Eggman Nega laughs at the distress of his enemies, "I told you didn't I, princess! Nothing, absolutely nothing was going to stop us!"

Blaze glares at the nefarious madman harshly, "Don't think you've won just yet!"

"Oh my, still have that fiery fighting spirit! Good, because once this is over, you and your friends will be no more! All the hope that everyone had in you vermin will be gone. And no one can protect your Gardon away from me," Nega spat viciously at the royal feline. Blaze's pupils grew smaller at the last thing Nega has said. Nega notices and smirks, "Yes that's right. You're Gardon will be distraught and heartbroken once I tell him your fate was sealed. Then, I will torture him over and over, until he can't continue to move forward ever again!"

Blaze clenches her teeth at Nega, "As if I'd let you do that. You won't hurt him, or anyone in my kingdom!"

"Humph, alright I'm done entertaining this," the Egg Dragoon aim its arm cannon directly at Blaze. It charges its Chaos attack right at her.

"Blaze!" Shadow calls out to the lilac cat, simultaneously losing focus on his Chaos Burst, which caused the energy shot to break through Shadow's defenses. Shadow's eyes widen as a reaction. The blast engulfs his body and the impact blows him away from Blaze and the Eggmen. The impact resulted in Shadow dropping his Chaos Emerald as he rolls over the ground like a ragdoll.

Blaze darts her eyes at the ebony hedgehog in distress, "Shadow!"

The energy shot wasn't a regular energy shot. Shadow was still engulfed by the energy and he couldn't move as the pain was visible on his face. He was trying to fight it by standing, but he would just collapse back onto the floor. Blaze began to run towards the dark hero, before an energy blast was shot a couple of inches in front of her, causing her to stop. She turns back to face the Eggmen that stood between her and the weakened dark hero. Hatred seething fiercely off of her golden eyes.

"You really should worry more about yourself than your friends, my dear princess." Nega stares at Blaze with a condescending expression painted over his face. The arm cannon was still pointed directly at her. Sweat was dripping from Blaze's forehead as she was finding a way to assess her situation. Nega continues, "I wouldn't worry about him though. The shot that hit him will slowly kill him by draining the Chaos energy out of his body. He'll be dead in minutes."

"Graaaaagh!" Blaze turns her head to see Eclipse still pushing against the pressure of the metallic hand around him.

Nega turns to Eclipse in an aggravated expression, "Silence you dirty slug!" The metallic hand tighten its grip even more on the dark alien.

"Bla- agh!" Eclipse could feel his body breaking against the pressure.

"Eclipse!" Blaze's eyes widen in terror, as she watched a friend she's only known for less than a week get crushed by her longtime enemy.

She jumps to the metallic hand in efforts to save him, but the metallic hand moves out of her reach quickly and swats her with the back of its knuckle to the ground. Blaze went to get up to make another move until she realized how close the arm cannon was to her face; all charged up at full force as the green light illuminates her face.

Nega smirks in triumph at an achievement he wished to accomplish ever since Blaze and his rivalry, "Hohohohohohohoho! Out of all the years to come. You and I, fighting each other over and over, and yet somehow you managed to come up on top. You always managed to be the victor in every battle we've ever had, and I always said each time that you may have won the battle, but not the war. You would always shrug it off whenever I had said that, but look at how things are turning out now. Your alien friend here is getting crushed to death, your boyfriend is dying very slowly, and you are finally at my mercy!"

Blaze remained silent. She was flustered on the inside because she wasn't sure what to do. On the outside, she seemed calm although there was more sweat dripping on her forehead. She was thinking about making a move now since Nega decided his voice needed to be heard, but the other Eggman was there in case she does something which stopped her from doing so.

She clenches her teeth and scrunches her eyebrows in frustration, 'What can I possibly do!?'

"I knew this day would come when I would finally beat you in this little game of ours. Now then, any last words, Princess Blaze?" Nega's evil grin was widening more and more at his victory.

"Yeah, I got a few words!" A voice sounds off in the background.

Eggman and Eggman Nega both jump at the sound of the voice and began looking around for the origins of it. Blaze was standing there shocked and confused as to who else was here.

"Well not just me, but my friends also got some words for you two Eggheaded losers!"

Eggman recognizes the voice immediately after the 'Eggheaded losers.' "Sonic!?"

Blaze and Nega's eyes widen at the name of the Blue Blur, "Darn it, I thought we had more time! Well, this is a farewell princess!" Nega attempts to finish the royal feline quickly.

Blaze gasps and raises her arms to shield herself from the arm cannon.

WHAM!

"Whhhhaaaaagh," the Egg Dragoon's arm cannon was punched hard enough to divert its aim on Blaze. The energy blast was shot at a wall away from Blaze.

A blue blur zips passed and boost into the center of the Egg Dragoon. The impact from the force caused the Egg Dragoon to get pushed back a good distance away, which also caused the metallic hands to release its grip on Eclipse, then the Egg Dragoon was met with a bunch of objects that blocked the Eggmen's view. Suddenly, small explosions were being made around the Egg Dragoon. Someone was throwing explosive projectiles and bombs at the Eggmen, disorienting than in the process. Once the random sounds were ceasing, Blaze slowly opens her eyes and moves her arms, then began to smile warmly at the sight in front of her. Silver was standing in front of her while holding objects with his telekinesis, Infinite, Knuckles, and Tails stood tall next to him with confidence, Omega and Amy stood next to each other prepared for battle, then Sonic appears in a flash with a cocky smile painted across his muzzle.

"You really didn't think we'd let you hurt our friends, did ya?" Sonic says while smirking.

"Why you cursed hedgehog, why must you ruin everything!?" Nega roars loudly in anger.

"Because I would not want to miss this awesome party," Sonic darts his eyes to see Eggman sitting next to Nega in his pod quietly. Sonic's signature smirk turns into a small frown, "So, I was right to trust my gut after all."

Knuckles follows Sonic's gaze to see their Eggman inside the Egg Dragoon. Knuckles raises his fist in fury, "Why you lying little jerk! Sonic was right after all!"

Nega raises an eyebrow, then turns his gaze towards his counterpart, "What are they going on about?"

Eggman shook his head, "Nothing major. I've tried to trick them into a trap, but it didn't work. Nothing more, nothing less."

"We'll get you two for this!" Knuckles roars, a blood vessel seeming to appear on his forehead.

Amy walks over to Blaze in worry, "Blaze, are you alright?"

Blaze stood motionless and quiet. Her mouth slightly open as she saw her friends stand in front of her to assist.

"Blaze?" Amy's voice snaps Blaze's attention to her. "I was worried about you Blaze. Are you alright?"

Blaze warmly smiles at the pink hedgehog, "I'm fine Amy. I'm just glad you guys got here sooner than I've hoped."

Amy beams with happiness, "I'm so glad to hear that." Amy turns to see Eclipse being helped to his feet by Silver and Infinite. The dark alien seemed a bit banged up, but he doesn't seem too damaged. Then a black hedgehog came to her mind. Amy turns back to Blaze, "Where is Shadow?"

Blaze's eyes widen, fear taking over her irises, "Shadow!"

Blaze turns around to see the black hero still engulfed by the energy from earlier, remaining motionless in the ground. Blaze darts towards the ebony hedgehog quickly. She nearly trips on her own feet, due to her emotions being driven into a frenzy. She halts right next to him and drops to her knees. She was breathing in and out abnormally as she watched the dark hero seeming somewhat lifeless in front of her. Blaze tried to touch him, but the energy snaps back at her hand quickly. Desperation was getting the better of the lilac cat.

"Shadow!" Blaze calls his name out, hoping he would respond. "Shadow, please! Wake up!"

There was no response from the ebony warrior as he laid motionless on the ground.

The others made their way towards Blaze and Shadow to see what was going on. Sonic knelt next to Blaze and eyes the energy surrounding him, "How do we get this off of him!?"

Everyone seemed uncertain about the answer. They were clueless as to what they could do to assist the dark hedgehog. Sonic turns back and grits his teeth in worry.

Eclipse walks up to his brother, "I may have an idea. Give me some space."

Everyone complies and backs away from the two brothers. Eclipse closes his eyes and puts his hand near the energy surrounding Shadow. Eclipse focuses his energy onto his hand and breathes in slowly. The energy surrounding Shadow began to move towards the dark alien's hand until the energy around Shadow was completely gone and in Eclipse's hand. The dark alien aims the energy away and shot it at the wall. He collapses to his knees and breathes heavily as that much energy was draining his stamina. Everyone went back to help the dark alien, while Blaze and Rouge went towards Shadow. Blaze sets Shadow's head on her lap and attempts to wake him by lightly tapping his face.

"Shadow, wake up," Shadow was still unresponsive. Fear was beginning to engulf the lavender feline, "Shadow! Wake up, please!"

"Check to see if he's breathing," Tails advises quickly.

Blaze nods her head, then puts her ear near Shadow's muzzle. A slight pant could be heard from his lips. It was a very slow pace, but he was breathing nonetheless. Blaze looks up at the others with relief, "He is still breathing. Thank Sol."

Sonic walks up to Blaze, "What happened to him?"

Blaze thought for a few seconds, then remembered what Nega stated earlier, "That energy drained Shadow of his Chaos energy."

"Including his Chaos reserves," Eclipse walks up to Shadow's motionless body and kneels down next to him. "Nega must have been waiting to use that against Shadow and me."

"IT SEEMS SHADOW HAS DROPPED HIS CHAOS EMERALD, " Everyone turns their gaze to see Omega holding Shadow's Chaos Emerald in its hand.

"Good thing you swiped it before the two bozos could get to it," Rouge smirks at the E-123 Series.

"Here," Eclipse raises his hand. "I'll use the Chaos Emerald to replenish his Chaos energy."

Omega hands the Chaos Emerald to the Darkling. Eclipse turns his gaze back to his brother and places his palm on Shadow's forehead.

Eclipse turns back to the others, "Keep the narcissistic creeps away from us so I can focus on Shadow."

"That can be arranged," Silver stares intently at the Egg Dragoon.

Sonic taps the tip of his shoe against the ground with anticipation, "Hehe, let's go, guys. We've got two omelets to fold!"

"And I'll definitely have fun folding them!" Knuckles crack his knuckles, ready to rumble.

Sonic dash towards the Eggman in a blur, "Hey Eggheads, over here!"

"I will enjoy crushing you, you annoying little hedgehog!" Eggman yells loudly.

Sonic smirks then dash around the Egg Dragoon. The Egg Dragoon shoots energy shots from its arm cannon, but Sonic was too elusive. Sonic jumps over the energy shot, then boost into the center of the Egg Dragoon. The mech reacts quickly and move its mechanical hand in front. Sonic jumps into the air away from the metallic hand then stares right at the two Eggmen. Sonic aims right at the two Eggmen in the capsules and moves quickly. He homes in and hits the head of the Egg Dragoon with large amounts of strength.

"Aaggh!" Nega yelps against the impact. He glares at the cobalt hedgehog, "You pest!"

The Egg Dragoon attempts to grab Sonic with its metallic hand. Sonic turns his body while airborne, and dodges out of the way of the hand. Sonic grabs onto the cable of the arm and balances himself on it. Then he starts running quickly across the cable and closer to the Eggmen for another attack.

"Oh no, you don't!" Eggman roars.

Multiple turrets pop up from the shoulder of the mech.

"Huh!" Sonic slows himself down as he sees the turrets.

"Eat this!" Eggman presses the button quickly.

The turrets began shooting at the cobalt hedgehog. Sonic quickly maneuvers around the bullets and jumps in the air for another homing attack. He dashes quickly at the Eggmen again. Suddenly, the blue hero is clashing against an energy shield covering the Eggmen. Sonic bounces off of the shield then land on the ground.

Sonic raises an eyebrow, "Hey what gives?"

"Hohohoho, you didn't think I'd let you do that over and over, did you," Eggman smirks deviously at the azure hero. Eggman chuckles to himself, "We've made this Egg Dragoon have a defense that can never be broken. You'll never win this battle if you can't break through our defenses!"

"Hehehehe, you may as well give up now Sonic," Nega spoke monotonously. "Sure you have the other five Chaos Emeralds, but we still have two of them, the Sol Emerald, and the Master Emerald in our arsenal! Thank you for the gift by the way echidna."

Knuckles glares at the nefarious scientist, anger radiating off of his violet eyes, "You are going to regret stealing the Master Emerald!"

"We'll just have to see about that!" Nega spouts arrogantly.

The Egg Dragoon's turrets aim at all of the heroes in its vicinity and began shooting energized bullets at them. Silver charges in front of the others and raised his hands up. He puts up a force field with his telekinesis and protected everyone from the bullets.

Silver looks back at the others, "Is everyone alright!?"

"We're fine Silver! Pay attention to the enemy!" Blaze advises sharply.

Silver looks forward, "Right!"

"Hey Knuckles, Tails! Let's go on the offensive!" Sonic calls out to his best friends.

"Got it!" Knuckles and Tails responds quickly.

Sonic, Knuckles, and Tails dash around the force field and ran fast towards the Egg Dragoon. The Eggmen noticed and turn the turrets on the arm at Team Sonic. Multiple rockets were shot at the trio. Team Sonic maneuvered swiftly around the rockets and closed the distance between the Eggmen and them more. The Egg Dragoon switches its aim of the arm cannon at the trio and shot volleys of chaos blasts at them.

"Knuckles, think you can break through that shield, " Sonic slides under an energy shot.

"I can try, " Knuckles hops over an energy shot, then caught his footing.

"We have to figure out what is powering the shield, " Tails spins away from one.

"Sonic, didn't you face this metal scrap before!?" Knuckles queries while deflecting a few blasts with his powerful punches.

"Yeah, two times I think, " Sonic spindashes into a blast, deflecting it away.

Knuckles looks over to the azure hedgehog, "Then think! You might remember how to get rid of that shield!"

"Whaddya think I've been doing knucklehead!" Sonic yells back.

Knuckles growls to himself, then mutters quietly. Sonic began to think back to his battles with the Egg Dragoon. He fought the mech back when time clashed and he met his younger/classic self. All he did mostly was attack the head where Eggman was controlling it. Usually, that does the trick but Eggman actually smarter up for once, so attacking the bead isn't the solution.

'Gotta remember further than that, ' Sonic thought to himself as he dodges more chaos blasts.

Deeper and farther back. Three years further back to when he first fought the Egg Dragoon as the Werehog. Sonic remembers doing the same maneuver but attack the stomach of the mech, but from it seems there's a shield protecting it too. What did he do that significantly weakened the Egg Dragoon? Sonic looks up and everything began to move slower for him. He moves around the blasts to stare at the Egg Dragoon. Two noticeable things are sticking out to the blue blur. Two metal stick-like things that are lit the same color as the shields protecting the mech from damage. Sonic's eyes widen as he remembers Sonic ripping both of those things out if the Egg Dragoon as the Werehog. Sonic grins a little then began slowing down to normal speed with the others, then everything around him moved at normal speed again.

"Hey guys, " Sonic calls out to his best friends. "Those things sticking out that are the same color as the shield!"

Tails looks up at the Egg Dragoon, then notices what the blue blur is talking about, "Sonic, you're genius is showing!"

Knuckles smirks, "Sonic and genius in the same sentence? Don't make me laugh!"

"Hey now, you're not so smart yourself," Sonic barks back.

"He's unto something! If we destroy those things, then maybe that takes the shield away, which will leave them exposed!" Tails points out quickly.

"Well, what are we waiting for!?" Knuckles roars.

"Let's do it to it, " Sonic exclaims. Sonic grabs Tails and Knuckles then sped down to the Dragoon.

"Those rodents are getting closer!" Nega grits his teeth.

"Switching back to the drill!" Eggman presses a few buttons quickly.

The metallic hand began changing its form back to the drill. The Egg Dragoon turns its torso, then drives the drill right at the three heroes. Sonic takes a leap and jumps over the drill.

"Knuckles, aim for the two beams!" Tails yells loudly.

Knuckles nods his head, "Got it!"

Both Sonic and Tails curl up into a charging spindash. Knuckles winds himself up, then spike both Sonic and Tails hard in two different directions.

"What the-, what are they doing!?" Nega clenches his fist in frustration.

Eggman scrambles across the controls in his capsule, already assuming what they're going for. The arm cannon of the Egg Dragoon moves quickly to guard itself. Eggman was successful at guarding the side Sonic was attacking, but he came up short.

SMASH!

Tails rammed right into the beam and destroyed it. Their attack was successful.

"Alright!" Knuckles exclaims happily as he lands on the ground.

Tails uncurls then steps away from the Egg Dragoon. He looks up to see the shield protecting the mech has dimmed slightly, which means that it's significantly weaker.

"Sonic was right! We have to get rid of those things!" Tails ran towards Knuckles.

Sonic sped through and stop next to them, "Told ya I could come up with something!"

"Yeah yeah I know." Knuckles grunts in response.

"How did they figure out how to take down the shields, " Eggman Nega grits his teeth. He was fuming a lot. A vein could be seen squirming in his forehead.

Eggman is a lot calmer, but he's visibly agitated, "Don't ask me!"

"Tch, good thing you had the reflex to protect the other reactor, " Nega grunts in annoyance. "We still have the deflective shield running but it is not as strong as it was before. We must protect our last reactor at all costs to win."

Eggman remains silent. He turns his gaze back to Team Sonic. It seems like they are getting ready to attack again. Eggman taps a few buttons with Nega watching his every move. Nega was not sure what he was doing until he caught onto the pattern of Eggman's movement.

Nega looks at Eggman with a grin, "Plan on using the max output of the Egg Dragoon, eh?"

Eggman shook his head slightly, "Only using the Master Emerald. We'll save the usage of the Sol Emerald and the two Chaos Emerald's for later."

Nega raises an eyebrow, "And why is that?"

"By my calculations, if we use all of the power it could overwhelm the Egg Dragoon which could cause it to implode, and we don't want that," Eggman spoke with caution hinted in his voice. "We'll only use the Chaos and Sol Emerald's power as a last resort while simultaneously further using the Master Emerald's power at the same time. We just need to wait for the right opportunity."

"But we designed this to control all the Chaos Emeralds, the Sol Emerald, and the Master Emerald, " Nega stated, not convinced completely.

Eggman looks up at his dimensional twin, "Even so with the power of all of it together is still too much. We can't risk it. What's the rush anyway, we won't need them with these runts anyway!"

Nega eyes Eggman some more, then look towards the heroes making their way to them, "I suppose I can't argue against that. We'll destroy these rodents all the same anyway."

Sonic and the others race quickly towards the Egg Dragoon.

"Remember everyone, destroy that reactor means no shield! No shield means smashing! Got it!?" Knuckles asks loudly.

"Got it!" Everyone complies with the same intensity, charging directly at the Egg Dragoon in hopes of winning this battle.