"Oh ho ho ho hoho!" Eggman danced around his throne with a diabolical grin on his face, images of Sonic's helpless flailing superimposed on a dozen floating screens before him. Time and again the abominable blue rodent hurled himself against the eldritch god's body, sending fresh peals of laughter from Eggman's lips each time he bounced harmlessly off its chaos infused flesh. Even Knuckles, whose overwhelming strength was the bane of Eggman's own machines, didn't cause so much as a ripple on the Moon Lord's muscular chest with a blazing uppercut.

This was more like it! No fighting to collect chaos emeralds as the furry cretins stole them from him at every turn, no last minute scramble to get things set up after he finally found them all. Just quiet, uninterrupted preparation, everything set up well in advance, and multiple contingency plans in case Sonic somehow evaded death and overcame impossible odds through sheer perseverance and dumb luck, as happened surprisingly often for some reason. And the proof was in the pudding! Thanks to the Super Emeralds, the Moon Lord, avatar of Hastur that, he was fairly sure, was bound to his will as its summoner, was truly indestructible. Even if Sonic somehow managed to evade the wrath of Hastur, make it through the trap filled labyrinth and badniks of his fortress - as he was admittedly wont to do - and save the hostages, both were double agents now.

That memory dulled Eggman's good mood a little. The little fox had smiled that same bright smile as she'd raised her bloodstained gloves, proudly declaring that she'd activated Amy's neural chip permanently. And the pink hedgehog had just echoed Reason's expression to a tee, spoke in the same lilting cadence… Ugh. Had he failed as a father? Was this what his future daughter was into up there on his old battlestation? When he was ruling the planet as its undisputed god emperor he should probably whip up a time machine to go and chat with his offspring and give her the "talk" about proper minion behaviour.

Well, either way the two of them were under strict instructions to shove Sonic into a spike pit at the earliest opportunity after he untied them, and if they somehow failed, he'd be mercifully rid of them either way.

Assuming it got that far. An exploding ball of teal flame burst against the grass beside Sonic, treating Eggman to multiple angles of the surprised hedgehog getting blown up in a shower of rings. Eggman started a second round of the Eggdance. The eye on the Moon Lord's forehead opened, crackling with energy before sending a beam of destructive rainbow light lancing down at his nemesis.

And missed. Sonic rolled into one of his fading rings with the laser hot on his trail, a scorched line burning through the grass as it chased him towards-

The rainbow beam sliced down through the ceiling, heat scorching Eggman's face as he dove aside with reflexes honed by years of battling pint-sized speedsters.

"Not me, you oversized abomination!" He shook his fist through the new hole in his ceiling at the tentacled monstrosity looming above. It gave no indication of even noticing, let alone caring as it turned away, swatting a giant blazing hand at Knuckles as the mighty echnidna tried to yank it from the sky by its exposed vertebrae.

"Uh, Boss?" Cubot spoke up from the corner.

"Not now, you nincompoop! I'm berating." Eggman scowled at the yellow robot, half of his moustache crumbling into ashes unnoticed as he pushed himself back to his feet.

"Boss, you should-" Orbot too raised a mechanical finger before Eggman silenced him with a glare.

Ugh. Even across dimensions he couldn't get good staff. He heaved back to his feet, only to find the floor where he'd been standing woefully absent. For a long moment Eggman flailed his arms, staring down through floor and island both in a smoking chasm that revealed the glittering ocean far, far below before he pulled himself back once more, panting heavily.

"Why didn't you tell me, you incompetent fools?"

"But, Boss-"

"You really should-"

"No excuses!" Eggman straightened once more, this time carefully avoiding his newly ventilated floor as he stared up at the screen.

Wait, based on the angle of the beam as it carved through his throne room, wouldn't it have hit the Master Emerald too? If he had to hire Rouge to stick it back together again because of that overgrown squid head then there was going to be-

Eggman paused, staring into a night sky suspended at the far end of the chasm beside him, a shimmering portal between him and where the Master Emerald had been.

"...What?" He blinked in open mouthed surprise as two fuzzy faces poked out from behind the portal in unison, their severed ropes scattered at the base of the pillars he'd had them bound to. "I don't believe this!"

"He spotted us!" Amy grimaced.

"Run!" Reason echoed her facial expression exactly.

"Don't just stand there you bolt brained buffoons, seize them!" Eggman pointed a gloved finger with a yell.

The pair fled, Amy charging ahead with her hammer, smashing a path out of the room through badniks while Reason followed behind, a smoking machine under one arm - probably the portal generator - and the still intact Master Emerald in the other, Eggman's throne still attached to it.

"My throne!" Eggman stomped the increasingly unstable floor, his face reddening. "After them, you fools!"

Moments later his ex-throne room fell into comparative quiet, rattling gunfire fading down the main corridor, and only the distant sounds of battle coming through his impromptu skylight. Eggman growled in irritation, only mildly cheered up as Sonic was blasted into a nearby mushroom forest by a salvo of giant flying eyeballs, Knuckles nowhere to be seen, hopefully already smeared into paste, though he'd have to rewind the recording afterwards to get the satisfaction.

He didn't even have anywhere to sit now, and there was a chilly draft assaulting him from multiple sources. Eggman frowned as he glanced back at the portal, out at the shadowy landscape far below. Strange glowing lights flitted about in the distance faster than the eye could follow.

Some kind of half hatched escape plan? A rescue for Tails? Not a good plan either way, the portal was clearly unstable, it looked like it wouldn't last out the minute. But perhaps they were just preserving the Master Emerald for their own purposes? If so they'd at least saved his throne. Perhaps he should thank them when his badniks recovered it from them, perhaps only have them shot a little. At least so long as they didn't break it.

A rumble shook the fortress once more, sending crystalline shards crumbling down from the broken roof. Eggman frowned, turning back to his screens. Sonic was leaping over the Moon Lord's oversized hand, pursued by a dozen floating eyes that chased after him with dogged persistence while balls of energy saturated the ground behind him with rainbow explosions. Clearly he was going to have to involve himself in the fight directly, or his entire base was going to fall apart by the time the Moon Lord managed to blast that meddling blue rodent. Perhaps some kind of death robot? He reached into a pocket for his remote.

"Ahem."

"Huh?" Eggman turned, momentarily registering a flash of glittering metal before everything went dark with a crack, one of his teeth tumbling into the chasm below.

Miles dropped to the floor, shaking his gauntleted fist with a frown.

"They're already here." He peered down after the displaced molar. The stone and earth below were already starting to knit back together in an all too familiar display of dentropy.

"Ugh, I think that portal messed up my hair."

Miles turned to the grumbling Zeena as Cream and Sept stumbled through the portal after her, mere seconds before it collapsed in on itself in a shower of sparks. Plenty of time - at least from the other side of the portal.

Miles took a bite of cake, glancing at the screens and then to the rapidly shrinking hole in the roof.

"Ulnah, help them find the way out of here. I've got to help Sonic!"

"Mister Tails! Wai-"

Whatever words Cream had to say were lost in the sonic boom as Miles exploded out through the roof just before negative entropy sealed it shut behind him.