Chapter 6

I am the Eggman

On the edge of a beach, standing as a several stories tall eyesore, was the base of an obese scientist. This scientist, through unknown means had been transported to Mobius at a young age, long enough ago that he hadn't even known it wasn't his home world. Driven by an ego the size of the very planet he wished to conquer and an abused I.Q. of 300, the fat mad man constantly plotted frequent attempts to realize this mad goal. Within this tower base were a labyrinth like series of hallways and rooms, yet at the moment the halls were unusually silent save for one room deeper into the base labeled "workshop X-2" from which all manner of clangs, whirring, and crackles could be heard. It was within this workshop that Dr. Ivo Robotnik, more commonly known by his adopted alias Dr. Eggman worked on his latest destructive creation…that is until a tall humanoid robot came tumbling through the door and scattering the doctors focus.

"DOCTOR! DOCTOR!" The robot cried incessantly.

"QUIET DECOE! YOU'RE SCATTERING MY FOCUS!"

"But doctor! Bokkun just sent a message that Sonic and his friends have experienced something amazing!" Decoe pleaded, now cowering the the rotund shadow of his creator.

"Bah! What am I? Sonic's keeper? Am I to be informed every time that rodent eats another chili dog?"

"w-well doctor, the way Bokkun made it sound it sounded like it was absolutely unbelievable"

"I'm sure it was for him, well whatever! What was it?"

Decoe shrunk back noticeably further, obviously in anticipation.

"Well, he…um…wouldn't say. He wanted to tell you in person"

"WHAT!? SO YOU DECIDE TO WASTE MY TIME WITH NEEDLESS REPORTS!? WHY I'LL-"

"DOCTOR! DOCTOR!" another robot, this one short and silver in color, burst through the door in much the same manner as his taller counterpart had moments before, with Eggman's brow furrowing tighter still.

"I've already told him Bocoe" Decoe snidely told Bocoe

"what!? but I wanted to do it!" Bocoe whined in an infantile manner

Leaning over the the shorter robot Decoe whispered (albeit audibly) "Trust me, you didn't"

"ENOUGH!" Eggman's patience had been spent and he was just about to lash out at his two servants when the third, the strange messenger robo that oddly enough resembled some kind of devil, Bokkun finally burst through the door.

"DOCTOR! DOCTOR!"

"IF ONE OF YOU SAYS THAT ONE MORE TIME IT'S THE SCRAP PILE FOR ALL THREE OF YOU!"

"Sorry! Sorry! Er..says what?" Bokkun hurriedly apologized though clearly he had no idea what for.

"Nevermind that! What is so important that happened to Sonic and his friends that you had to interrupt me?"

"Oh! Right! Well remember how a few months back we fought those metarex guys?"

"Yes Bokkun I remember, obviously! What does this have to do with-"

"And remember how that seedrian girl Tails loved, Cosmo, sacrifice herself to beat them?"

"YES! YES ALREADY! OUT WITH IT!"

"She's back!"

Eggman stood there for several moments, confusion evident on his face.

"...what?"

"She's alive Doctor! I saw her at Tails' house with the others!"

Several more moments passed before Eggman suddenly turned away from Bokkun and readied to resume his work.

"Bah! I knew your processors needed a tune up! You must be seeing things, I'll fix that later"

"No really! She was there! I was watching from a bush and I heard them talking."

Sighing in a manner that sounded more like a pig having a heart attack, Eggman turned back to look at his minion.

"Bokkun you dolt! That's impossible! She was completely vaporized by the Sonic Driver! She couldn't possibly be alive!"

"I'll show you!" Bokkun defiantly retorted moving over to the nearest video console and connecting himself to it. A ding was heard to confirm the connection and moments later, Bokkun's memories of what he had seen played on the monitor like security footage. As this happened, Eggman's facial expression went from anger, to shock, to confusion and back to shock.

"How-how is this possible!? She was dead! Gone! Vaporized! How could she be-!?"

"See!? I told you!" Bokkun responded triumphantly.

Decoe then stepped forward cautiously, speaking to Eggman hesitantly.

"Perhaps the seed that Sonic and Shadow created through chaos regeneration?"

The wheels then visibly turned in Eggman's head as he pondered this for a moment, finally regaining his composure he snapped his fingers.

"Of course! That makes sense! Cosmo's essence was manifested in the form of that seed Sonic found, Tails cultivated it and though the regeneration was something of a delayed reaction due to the severity of the damage, she was ultimately revived! Of course!"

"er…right doctor" Bocoe agreed, having no idea what most of that meant.

"Well! This certainly changes my plans for today! We're going to visit them!"

"Really doctor? We're going to go say hello?" Bokkun asked in his usual naive manner.

"No! We're going to celebrate this occasion by testing out my newest creation!"

"But doctor, Cosmo just came back! Shouldn't we wait a little longer?" Decoe spoke up.

"of course not! With her back everyone, especially Tails will be at their very best to protect her. Fox boy hasn't been much fun since she died, now he and the others will be perfect to test my newest creation."

What is it?" all three robots asked in unison.

chuckling triumphantly, Eggman replied "I was going over some notes and blueprints my grandfather left behind on board the ARK and I decided to create my own personal variant of one of the more…dangerous inventions."

Dr. Eggman then pressed a button on a nearby console and the seemingly incoherent mass of metal and wires suddenly moved to form together forming a slightly cone shaped head with two slim protrusions coming from the back, on the forehead was the typical Eggman logo and the face consisted of no mouth, no nose, and only two completely yellow eyes that seemed to be fixed in a permanent glare. The metallic head then seemed to hum with hundreds of nanobots merging beneath it and forming a red body that resembled a bipedal creature with three fingers on both hands and two toes on each foot. The red body appeared as though it was made of water. As the three robots shrunk back in fear of this angry looking creation Eggman laughed.

"Behold! Egg Chaos Version P-1!"

Meanwhile at Tails' home…

Tails watched with genuine happiness as Cosmo talked and laughed with the others, overjoyed to see her alive and happy once more.

"it's still almost to good to be true…" he thought to himself, "Only two days ago I believed I'd never see Cosmo again, and now here she is. I just can't believe it, she's alive, she's here, and…she loves me! I don't usually believe in miracles, but I'm really glad for this one" As he thought this Tails noticed a tear running down his cheek, however the fox smiled, these weren't the tears of a broken, hurting fox but the tears of a fox who had regained everything. He had regained his love, his happiness, and his drive. Tails' smile grew wider as he thought about how miraculous and wonderful this turn of events were, five months ago it seemed his life had lost all meaning, and now it was that everything had become wonderful again.

His thoughts were broken when he felt a hand on his shoulder, turning he looked up at Sonic who wore a laid back, yet knowing smile.

"you okay there bro?" Sonic asked despite knowing full well the answer.

Chuckling slightly Tails smiled back "Yeah, just…thinking you know?"

"Yeah I know, it's good to have her back huh?"

"yeah, it is" Tails replied turning his head back to look at Cosmo who was giggling with Cream and playing with Cheese.

Seeing the dreamy look in Tails' eyes, Sonic couldn't help but snicker slightly at the sight of his love struck brother.

"It's good that the two of you can finally be together without any war to get in the way, she really likes you bro" Sonic continued noticing Tails' face turn a slight red at the mention of his relationship with Cosmo.

"Yeah, I'm happy we don't have to worry about the Metarex anymore, and I'm really happy she doesn't have to worry about them anymore especially, she deserves to be happy, not worrying about other seedrians trying to destroy the galaxy. I want to be there to for her and now I can be, I LOVE her" Tails answered, putting emphasis on "love" which would be considered a bold move for the normally shy and insecure fox, was done as something of a playful jab at his big bro, who couldn't even say the word. At the same time it was done because Tails was indeed proud, while he wasn't boastful by any means, now that he had gathered the courage to admit his feelings to Cosmo and learned she felt the same way, he was going to cherish and take pride in their relationship.

"W-well, there's no place on Mobius she'd rather be than with you so…"

Sonic started actually caught off guard by Tails' jab.

"And I'm always here for her, and always will be" Tails said with a confident smile.

Suddenly Sonic began laughing almost hysterically. The sudden outburst caught Tails off guard and for a moment he thought Sonic was teasing him about what he had just said.

"Yeah yeah, I know it sounds cheesy but I mean it!" Tails huffed

Calming down a bit, Sonic quickly said "Easy bro! I didn't mean anything by laughing, I'm just happy!"

Tails looked at him with a perplexed expression so he elaborated "I'm happy to see you happy again Tails! Two days ago I thought I'd lost my best bro and now it's like you were never sad at all! I'm happy you're you again!"

Tails was stunned, Sonic wasn't known for his more touching moments much less actually expressing them, he felt tears once again threaten to run down his face.

Seeing Tails' reaction Sonic decided to continue. "um, look you know I'm not good with the mushy stuff, but I really am happy for bro I mean…" sighing, Sonic lowered his head and spoke slightly quieter in a voice that hinted of guilt. "I felt horrible when I thought I failed to save her, and when I handed you her seed and…I've never been more mad at myself, I failed her and you and…"

Tails couldn't believe what he was hearing, was his big brother, Sonic the Hedgehog the famed confident hero of Mobius really standing in front of him openly telling him this? In any case, now it was Tails' turn to be the voice of comfort.

"Sonic, it's okay I mean, Cosmo's back, so chaos regeneration worked! You didn't fail her or me, because it worked in the end. It doesn't matter that it wasn't instant because she's here. Thanks big bro, I couldn't repay you enough for this."

Smiling back, Sonic answered "You don't have to bro! Just be you again and be happy with her 'cause that's all that matters!"

"I will Sonic you can count on it" Tails said, happy that everything was back to normal, no, even better than before.

Unfortunately for them, the moment was broken when a thud was heard followed by a slight tremble in the ground and and all too familiar chortle was heard.

"Ho ho ho ho! Hello everyone! Sorry to drop in so suddenly but I simply couldn't resist!" Eggman announced

Rushing over to the others, Sonic stood front and center as usual while Tails stood protectively in front of Cosmo.

"Yo Egghead! It's been a while! Thought you might of gotten smart and given up!" Sonic said flashing his trademark cocky grin

Eggman tried to ignore the jab to his intelligence though a prominent vein on his head told everyone he'd failed. Despite this he continued as if he hadn't been insulted.

"oh but how could I not come? After all it's not everyday I hear of someone actually coming back from the dead!"

Tails stepped forward "You leave Cosmo alone! She's done nothing to you! Get out of here!"

"My my! Such a rare fire from you fox boy! Of course she's done nothing to me, but since when has that ever mattered to me? The way I see it if I take her, it'll make crushing all of you that much easier!"

Tails was noticeably angrier after the doctor had said that, causing Sonic to briefly glance nervously in his direction.

"if you lay a hand on her Eggman, you'll regret it! I won't lose her again!"

Tails threatened in an eerily low voice, his fangs showing somewhat.

"Ho ho! You've gotten pretty good at threats haven't you? Where was all that power and determination five months ago?" Eggman retorted with a cruel grin on his face.

For a brief moment, Tails was disarmed by Eggman's cruel reminder, but quickly regained himself. He would NOT let Eggman use that against him, especially when he was trying to take Cosmo.

Before the fox could reply Sonic quickly took the fat mans attention in an attempt to prevent any possible reaction from his brother.

"That's enough Eggman! Why don't you just bring out you're latest junk heap so we can trash it and move on!"

Eggman sputtered "HOW DARE YOU! This is my-!"

"Yeah yeah we've heard it a million times! My latest, greatest creation! You'll never beat this! Get some new material doc!"

Everyone began to laugh at Sonic's taunting of the rotund scientist, Tails had relaxed a little at the display of humor.

"FINE! LET'S SEE HOW YOU LIKE THIS!" the enraged Eggman yelled as he pressed a button on his egg mobiles console.

Everyone had failed to notice the strange pod sitting on the ground next to where Eggman was floating, obviously the source of the thud, suddenly the pod started to open a strange cloud of what appeared to be steam or smoke flew out and dissipated and within the pod appeared to be…a strange mechanical head.

"Uh…Doc? I think you're missing the rest of your robot" Sonic said completely dumbfounded by the strange contents of the pod, either Eggman had gone completely senile or he really didn't build robots like he used to.

"Oh but you're wrong Sonic! Just watch!" Eggman answered in sadistic glee.

Moments later the head started to float and small glowing bits started to converge around it giving it a body that appeared to be made of water, once the machine was fully manifested Eggman let out a triumphant chortle.

"Ho ho ho! Behold! The Egg Chaos Version P-1!"

Everyone stood in shock for a moment before Amy spoke up

"Really? That's it? You copied those artificial chaos things from the ark and called it your own? Lame"

"Those were made by my grandfather so it's fair game! And besides, I improved the design, and if I'm not mistaken I seem to recall the artificial chaos giving all of you quite a bit of trouble then. Now! Egg Chaos, ATTACK!"

With that the bulky machine lunged forward, extending it's arms outward in an attempt to strike the group, however everyone managed to get out of the way.

"Alright! Punching time!" Knuckles said as he dove at the Egg Chaos and delivered a hard downward slam on the robots head. Though Egg Chaos was pushed downward by this it's metal plating held and it quickly reformed it's body to slam Knuckled away with several tendrils.

"Take this!" Amy cried out as she swung her hammer right into the side of the robots head temporarily disorienting the machine, it quickly regained it's balance and morphed it's left arm into the shape of a shield which blocked Amy's follow up swing and pushed her back causing her to lose her balance leaving her vulnerable. However as the Egg Chaos morphed into a large hammer and prepared to swing down onto the female hedgehog, it was suddenly pulled upward as Sonic began to run in circles around it, creating a powerful cyclone that halted it.

"Not gonna happen pal! Let's see ya get out of this!"

Meanwhile Tails had taken Cosmo a few feet away from the ongoing battle.

"Stay here Cosmo, I'm gonna help the others"

"Be careful Tails, please" Tails could hear the worry in her voice, so he simply smiled back.

"Don't worry, we've done this a dozen times, and we faced several things like this back when we were in Chris' world. This is nothing."

Cosmo returned his smile, though she was still nervous. "Okay, Go get him Tails"

Nodding Tails turned and ran towards the battle, he would not let Eggman get Cosmo. No, he wouldn't let anything happen to her, never again.

As Sonic continued to rush around the Egg Chaos, the the robot soon began to recede into itself, seconds later it's body burst outward in all directions. Even with his immense speed Sonic was still hit by the attack, being knocked off his feet while the robot reformed itself.

"Cheese get him!" Cream's command was heard followed by an adorable "chao chao!" As the small chao dove at the menacing machine, unfortunately, Cheese's aim was slightly off and the chao simply flew in the nanobot body and became trapped inside.

"Oh no! Cheese! I'll help you!" Cream cried out before flying to save her ensnared chao. Just as she neared the Egg Chaos it suddenly enlarged it's hands and held them equal distance away from each other, intending to slam them together on the young rabbit when she got too close to escape. Cream realized this too late and tried desperately to halt her movement to no avail. Before the robot could attack however, it was hit in the back of the head with a hard swing from Tails' namesakes, allowing Cream to retreat safely. Seeing Cream nearly crushed, Cheese became enraged and took advantage of it's position inside the robot to strike at the vertebrae like part of it's head.

The robot loud a loud droning sound as it's body fell apart suddenly, allowing Cheese to escape and fly back into Creams arms.

Upon seeing this, a light-bulb turned on in Tails' head. "That's it! I've got a plan! Cream! You and Cheese fly around it's head!"

"Right!" Cream replied as she and Cheese flew in circles around the reforming robot's head while simultaneously dodging any attacks it attempted.

"Sonic! Create a cyclone around it again!"

"Gotcha!" Sonic replied as he once again rushed in Circles around the disoriented robot, trapping it in his cyclone once more.

"Amy! Knuckles! Slam down on it's head to keep it from fighting back!"

"On it! Amy and Knuckles replied simultaneously as the both lunged over the Cyclone and slammed the hammer and fist respectively into the robots head further disorienting it.

"Now it's my turn" Tails said as he pulled out a pair of dummy ring bombs from his Tails. Spinning his Tails to get a better altitude for aiming he chucked the dummy rings right into the Egg Chaos' chest just below it's head.

"Everybody scatter!" Tails yelled as he flew back. Everyone responded in kind leaving the Egg Chaos isolated. Seemingly unaware of it's impending doom the robot began to move to counterattack before it suddenly exploded into pieces.

As everyone took a breather, Sonic turned to Tails. "Nice job bro! Way to take control there!"

Smiling back Tails replied in his usual modest way "It was nothing, without Cheese I wouldn't have known it's weak point anyway"

"Chao chao" Cheese chirped triumphantly

"Uh guys?…where's Eggman?" Knuckles suddenly asked

As everyone was looking around they heard a terrified scream.

"TAILS, HELP ME!"

"COSMO!" Tails cried out as he rushed to the spot he'd left her, only to find Eggman getting ready to grab her from his Egg mobile.

"Quit screaming girl! You're coming with me regardless" Eggman snapped

Suddenly something in Tails seemed to snap. The world seem to blur and move much slower. His fangs barred and a hateful scowl on his face, he suddenly rushed at intense speed at the fat man.

With his Egg Mobiles top down Eggman had no shielding against the enraged fox and before he was even aware of Tails' presence, he felt the kit slam into his side, knocking him out of the mobile craft and onto the hard ground where Tails continued his assault with a flurry of irate punches.

"DON'T YOU DARE TRY TO HURT HER! DO YOU HEAR ME EGGMAN!? IF YOU EVER TRY THAT AGAIN I SWEAR I'LL-"

"TAILS STOP!" Sonic yelled out as he and the others rushed up the scene.

However it seemed as if Tails hadn't even heard him as he raised his fist to swing at the obese scientist again.

"TAILS NO!" Cosmo cried, bringing Tails to a complete halt.

Looking back, Tails' rage filled face turned to one of shame as he saw the worried and afraid face of his girlfriend. Lowering his fist and briefly shooting Eggman a murderous scowl, the fox climbed off the terrified scientist.

Eggman, bruised and slightly bloodied, adjusted his broken glasses and wasted no time in scrambling into his Egg Mobile and jetting off into the distance.

Everyone stood completely still as Tails turned to face them, albeit with his head hung in shame. Cosmo rushed over and wrapped her arms around him in a tight and secure embrace.

"Don't ever scare me like that again Tails! I was so worried about you!"

Cosmo demanded from over his shoulder

"I..I'm so sorry Cosmo, I just-just couldn't control myself when I saw Eggman try to take you. I'm so sorry" Tails spoke almost in a whisper, his voice cracking and tears beginning to run down his face.

"It's okay Tails, it's okay. I'm here now, I'm safe. I know you were worried but I know you will always be there when I need you" Cosmo cooed softly into Tails' ear to comfort him.

"Cosmo…I'm sorry for losing control like that…I thought I was doing better."

"Wait Tails, it's alright, like Cosmo said, you still saved her and you didn't do anything too severe." Sonic spoke up, worried where Tails was going with this and attempting to comfort him before he said too much.

"No Sonic it's not alright, I can't just go berserk like that" Tails shook his head as he pulled back to look Cosmo in the eyes.

"Cosmo, I don't ever want to ever scare you like that again, so I think it's time I told you everything"

Looking at her lover with concern, Cosmo asked "What do you mean Tails?"

Taking a deep breath, Tails looked into Cosmo's eyes for strength as he answered.

"Cosmo…I need to tell what happened while you were…gone."

Well, that was something wasn't it? And to top it all off, a somewhat intense ending! Also I have absolutely no experience writing action sequences, so I really hope I did at least decent. SO! Next chapter we get the full truth of what happened the five years Cosmo was dead in all it's tragic, gloomy glory! Until next time! See ya!