Sonic glares at Eggman as thunder continues to strike from outside. "I don't know how you got back, but you made a big mistake coming here."
"Au contraire, mon frere," Robotnik slowly shakes his head. "The mistake was thinking you and your little girlfriend won. But that was just a prelude, an hors d'oeuvre, an paeritif, an amuse-bouche-"
"I get it," Sonic growls out and Sophia slowly walks down the steps, being far enough to see them, but they don't see her. She gasps quietly as she sees Robotnik in the doorway of her own house. She grips the staircase as she gets a good look at him.
"Robotnik..." She murmurs to herself, trying to form a plan.
"Heh heh heh...I don't think you do. But you're about to. And so will that idiot sheriff and his wife. And that pink rat," Sonic grits his teeth at that insult, telling Robotnik that she is still a hedgehog. "Oh, delightful, the serum I have her still works. I didn't think otherwise."
Sonic's hand glows blue and Sophia figures to jump him at the same time that he attacks since she has the upper hand right now. She watches his hand closely as she has the element of surprise. "And your little dog too!" Sonic leaps forward and Sophia spin dashes down the stairs, using the last step as a platform to jump off of. Both of them head straight for Robotnik...who then moves out of the way so that the red echidna can jump in from behind, his fist raised. The two look back in shock, leaving them no time to react as they crash through the wall, into the TV, and land on the couch. Feathers fly around them as the blow weakens them a bit and the TV falls.
The two take a minute to catch their breath, trying to get their vision back. They look through the hole that they made to see the red echidna staring them down. "Pitiful," He grunts as he walks around.
"What? Who are you?" Sonic wonders as Sophia grunts in pain, trying to sit up. Robotnik then peeks in through the wall.
"Where...are my manners?" The two walk around to face them, the hole sparking from the wires. "Sonic, Sophia, meet Knuckles," He points down to the echidna, who just glares at them. "My new bffae. Bestest friend forever and ever!" Knuckles narrows his eyes as Sonic helps Sophia down.
"Look, Robotnik, we don't care who you brought to help you," He hooks the bag of rings around him. "You're never gonna get our power."
"And there's no way we'd let you get away with this either, so get out of our house! Just because you gave me this body and power doesn't mean I won't use it," Sophia threatens him, seething with anger that he broke in, pink energy flying from her body, not unlike Sonic when his emotions got to the best of him. Knuckles raises a brow as he wonders what she means, but ignores it.
"Do I look like I need either of your powers?" Knuckles holds up his fist, who glows red with energy, similar to both hedgehogs. They speed up towards Knuckles, bursting with blue and pink energy. However, Knuckles punches the both of them through the wall and they roll to a stop outside on the grass.
"Ow," Sophia winces in pain as they try to recollect themselves, but Knuckles is a fitting name because his punches hit HARD. And she is invulnerable, but his gloves seem to be the exception, seeing how she's gotten hit twice and felt it both times. He lands a few feet away from them in front of the hole he created through the house. He punches his knuckles together.
"So nice when diabolical evil lives up to the hype," Robotnik brags while inside the house, holding the bowl of popcorn the hedgehogs had before.
"Sunshine, take cover. I can handle him," Sonic whispers to her as he helps her up. She snatches her arm back, staring at him in the eyes.
"And leave you to get your butt kicked? No way!" She argues back and he smiles weakly. Even though they're two to one, they clearly aren't winning this fight. But he thought it was admirable that she wasn't going to let him fight alone.
"Where is it?" Knuckles demands the both of them.
"Oh, you want it?" Sonic wipes off his cheek with the back of his hand. "Here it comes," His quills glow blue, Sophia's glowing pink as they clench their fists.
"In full circle," She growls at him.
"I was expecting more of you both. You're unskilled," Knuckles dismisses, not taking them seriously as they power up. "Untrained." They bend down in unison, touching the grass as they scowl up at him. "And unworthy!"
Robotnik just snacks on popcorn, watching in delight at his enemies losing. "You forgot one. Unstoppable," Sonic brags and they charge forward at the same time towards Knuckles to knock him out with a spin dash...but then he stares them down as he holds both of them back with his hands while they're spinning. He pushes the both of them backwards while walking slowly. He then grabs the two hedgehogs and slams them both into the ground. This causes a huge vibration, knocking Robotnik's popcorn all around. The two float above ground for a few seconds before the echidna slams the duo into a tree, holding them above the grass. Sophia gasps slightly as she claws at his hand, but it's too strong.
"It is my destiny to do what my ancestors could not...to restore the ultimate power to the home of my people." Robotnik looks on as he hears that, intrigued by what Knuckles means by this.
"Ultimate power?" Sonic is just confused since they've never heard of it. "We don't know what you're talking about. You've got the wrong people."
"We've never even met before until today! I'd remember something like that," Sophia breathes out, coughing a bit.
"Let her go!" Sonic grunts out, trying to break free.
"Ultimate power?" Robotnik slowly steps towards the lawn. "Now you're speaking my language."
"Don't play dumb with me, apprentice of Longclaw and...acquaintance of apprentice," Knuckles presses them harder against the tree. Sophia's eyes widen at the name, glancing at Sonic.
"You knew Longclaw?" He's equally surprised by this.
"Longclaw and her people were the sworn enemy of my tribe, the echidna. We fought and died at their hands, and now you two will die at mine," His hand glows from his right hand that's holding onto Sophia and she struggles.
"Wait! That has nothing to do with us, just listen!"
Before he could finish her off, a police car siren is heard, and they look to see the car breaking through the fence. Knuckles drops the two in favor of dealing with the vehicle, but instead it just knocks him into a shed. Robotnik's mouth opens in shock and then he makes a few buzzing sounds as he's baffled by what just happened.
The yellow fox from before peeks his head out from the car. "Come on, both of you. Get in! I'm on your side."
"I'm sorry, who are you?" Sonic looks up at him in confusion.
"And how did you know to show up just now?" Sophia coughs a bit from Knuckles' previous grip. They hear groaning, looking up to see Knuckles laying on the ground.
"You know what, it doesn't matter!" He grabs his girlfriend's hand and jumps in with her into the car. Robotnik jumps onto the front of the car to stop them and they all scream in alarm. "Get us out of here!" He uses a device to connect a node to the accelerator, which was how he was controlling the car. "Go, go, go, go, go!" As they drive off, Robotnik laps at the window like a dog while still on the window. "Ahh, he's gone rabid!"
"This is just really weird, I don't need to see this!" Sophia looks away uncomfortably at Robotnik.
"Gross!" The fox says in disgust. "Is he licking it? See ya!" He swerves and gets the man off the car. He lands hard on the grass.
"Make sure to get your shots, Eggman!" Sonic calls out as they drive away.
"See ya never, sucker!" Sophia shouts to him. "And don't think I'll forget you trashing my house!" Knuckles grunts as his eyes glow red, staring after the car. He then speeds after them at the same speed as Sonic. Tails swerves to the left, causing them both to scream, hugging the front seat tight. The blue hedgehog looks back to see Knuckles catching up to them.
"Wow! Okay, let me just say it is an honor to finally meet you, Sonic and Sophia," The yellow fox gushes, bouncing up and down. The two just stare at him. "Is it okay if I call you Sonic and Sophia? Everyone calls me Tails. You're probably wondering why."
"Let me guess. Because of the extra tail," Sonic deadpans, earning a hard jab at his arm from Sophia. "Ow!"
"That's right. I should've known you'd get that."
"Cool. Also, what is going on?" He starts to panic. "Robotnik's back? And who is Clifford the big red rage monster?" He gestures to Knuckles behind them.
"I think he's just trying to piece together what's happening here," Sophia tells Tails calmly, biting her lip. "But yeah, that guy is back?!"
"That's Knuckles," Tails ignores both questions about Robotnik. "The last of the echidnas and the most dangerous warrior in the galaxy. He's obsessed with finding the Master Emerald."
"Are you serious? The Master Emerald?" Sonic asks in disbelief, Sophia blinking in confusion. "That's just a bedtime story."
Since she's not from Sonic's previous home with Longclaw, she has no idea what they're talking about. "What's the Master Emerald?" She raises a brow at the both of them.
"Well, he believes it's real," Tails doesn't answer her question and she gives a blank look. "And he must think you guys are the key to finding it."
"But I don't even know what that is! And even then, why would I have anything to do with it?" Sophia exclaims in disbelief, Sonic looking to see a red light as they're now on a normal road.
"Red light! Red light! Give me the wheel!" He lunges forward, grabbing it.
"Hey, what are you-"
"Move your foot!" Sonic instructs and Tails stares at him before Sophia recoils back in alarm.
"Truck! TRUCK!" She screams at the top of her lungs as a green truck is driving past. Sonic yelps and manages to swerve around it just in time. They look in the rearview mirror to see no sign of Knuckles. The duo then sigh in relief.
"I think we lost him..."
However, Knuckles jumps through the truck using his strength, landing and rushing after them. He leaps a far distance and lands on top of the car. Sophia ducks her head as he punches through the roof right between Sonic and Tails. "We did not lose him! We definitely did not lose him!" Sonic yells as Knuckles rips off a car door. They come across a sharp turn and Tails stumbles, looking down to the side.
"We gotta travel to the point where he can't follow us!" Sophia looks up at Sonic.
"I've got an idea. Do you trust me?" Tails glances back at them both.
"Of course not! We literally just met you!" Sonic retorts back.
"Just let me," Tails grabs the wheel, Sonic trying to get back control. "Come on!"
"What are you doing?" Sonic hollers...and Tails drives straight to the right.
"Oh, don't you DARE!" Sophia warns as she also tries to grab the wheel, the two hedgehogs screaming as they drive the car off the road. While doing so, Tails uses...his tails to fly, grabbing them both out of the car. Knuckles jumps and lands on the side of the cliff, using his glove to stop himself from falling further. The car then crashes down below. Sonic has his eyes closed, still screaming. "Blue bear, you can open your eyes now."
He does so, and notices that Tails is holding onto them. "We're flying...uh, did your butt just turn into a helicopter?"
"Sonic!" Sophia exclaims at him.
"What?" He asks innocently, but earns a laugh from Tails.
"A butt-copter!" Sophia just rolls her eyes silently. "Oh, only Sonic the Hedgehog could come up with something like that," He flies off with the both of them to escape.
"Oh boy," Sophia murmurs to herself, hoping that she won't have to deal with this for however long this was gonna take. Robotnik comes up to the road on a mower, kicking it once he gets off of it. He approaches the cliff, looking up to see his enemies get away with Tails. He just chuckles at this.
"Foxy move..." He looks to his glove and starts tapping on it. "Want something done right, you'll have to hire someone you can push around. All-caps," He then stops tapping on his glove as he's calling in for back-up...