Right… Seems I'll just be writing whenever I get flashes of inspiration…

Sorry this took so long, guys. Really.

"Hey, is this the place?" Clover asked. She and Zack had recovered just enough that they didn't need to use each other for support anymore, though they were still limping slightly, as was Jumba. Zack nodded in affirmation.

"Yeah, saw some people walkin' through here earlier, so I figured it might be a safe zone, or somethin'."

The place they were referring to was a nondescript three-story building at the edge of the city. Other than being spared the worst of whatever demolished the town, there was nothing special about this place that could be easily discerned. Well, other than the large metal double doors

"Well, what are we waiting for? Masked creature to come back and finish job? Let's go inside," Jumba said, sounding slightly impatient. Zack nodded, before slowly making his way to the large double-doors. Slowly, he raised his fist to it, and knocked.

…

Nothing happened. Cautiously, Zack reached for the doorknob…

"You're takin' too long!" Clover declared, walking right past him and throwing the door open herself and strolled right in.

Well, she would have, had there not been another door inside. And this door was held tight by some unknown locking mechanism, and Clover instead wound up walking into it with a loud metallic "CLANG!", and fell on her ass.

"…Ow."

Jumba looked over at Zack, who noticed and returned the look.

"What?" The yellow experiment asked, sounding defensive.

"Is 625 not helping girlfriend?" Jumba responded. Before Zack could respond, he heard something approaching. He tensed up.

"Who's-" He started, only for a familiar, and much more welcome, voice to interrupt.

"Reuben!?" Stitch yelped in surprise. He and Sonic, having just torn Eggman's factory to pieces, had returned to the Resistance HQ when they noticed the odd trio standing outside. Everyone turned to look at Stitch.

"Ah, 626," Jumba said, grinning. "Good to see that you are in good shape."

"Huh? Hey, Stitchie!" Clover grinned, waving at him. She then noticed Sonic and blinked, puzzled. "Who's this guy?"

"Could ask you guys the same thing," Sonic said, before looking over at his partner. "You know these guys?"

"Ih," Stitch confirmed. He then looked at the three of them, and his eyes widened when he noticed how beat-up they looked. "What happened to you?"

"Well…" Zack/Reuben hesitated. "We ran into this freak in a mask earlier…"

Sonic and Stitch both looked at the three of them in alarm.

"A freak in a mask?" Stitch repeated.

"Alright, we gotta talk about this," Sonic decided. Clover, Zack, and Jumba all did a double-take when Sonic suddenly disappeared and reappeared in front of the door. "C'mon in, guys."

"You ran into that monster as well!?" Aurora gasped, holding her paws to her mouth.

"'Fraid so," Zack sighed, leaning back against the wall. He, Jumba, and Clover had been quickly treated for their injuries which, thankfully, were mostly superficial.

The minor limping aside, anyway, though they assured everyone that wasn't too serious, either.

"Clo here," He jabbed his thumb at Clover ("Hey!" She yelled). "Somehow got me to pick up a blaster and try to fight 'em, even after we saw him blow up a buncha soldiers."

"To make matters worse," Jumba added. "Masked creature stole Jumba's experiment database. Fortunately, I have spare computer."

"Oh, oh, no…" Angel started, her ears drooping. "That means Eggman-"

It was at this point that Clover fell over, laughing her ass off. It didn't take long for Zack to follow suit.

"Hold on! Eggman? For real!?" Clover managed to get out between roaring fits of laughter.

"What is he, a giant talkin' egg?" Zack snickered.

"Guys, can we just-" Amy started to try to calm them down, only for Sonic to interrupt.

"I prefer to call 'em 'Baldy McNosehair' now," He said with a grin. For a few seconds, time seemed to freeze. Everyone turned to look at Sonic.

"I-I'm sorry…?" Aurora started, her eyes wide.

"What did you just say?" Zack asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Baldy McNosehair," Sonic repeated, giving a big, mischievous smile.

Almost the instant the words escaped his mouth, the room exploded into chaos.

"What!? Why didn't you tell us that!?" Vector threw his head back in uproarious laughter. Espio sighed.

'Here we go…' He inwardly groaned, cursing Sonic's sense of humor.

"BALDY MCNOSEHAIR!?" Stitch, Shadow (598), Clover, and Zack shouted all at once before falling over with laughter. Angel, who had looked concerned a moment prior, now was shaking with laughter. Aurora had a paw to her mouth, trying to hold back her ladylike giggling. Even Lady seemed to be laughing, if a bit more nervously than anyone else.

Slang snickered. "Okay, THAT, I have to admit, is kind of funny."

"Guys," Knuckles tried to shout over the commotion. "We need to-"

"Funny!? That's MORE than funny! That's hilarious!" Charmy laughed, buzzing around the room.

"Is the best thing Jumba has ever heard!" The large alien scientist roared. "Will be having to write that down!"

"Everyone!" Amy shouted. "We can laugh at Eggman's moustache later! We've got something more important to focus on!"

When she was ignored in favor of the increasingly rambunctious laughter, Amy growled, whipped out her hammer, and slammed it into the ground. Hard.

The ensuing shockwave proceeded to throw everyone off their feet, leaving them all in a heap on the floor.

As everyone looked around, dazed and surprised, Amy put her hammer away and ran a hand through her quills.

"Come on, guys," she sighed. "We've got a problem."

She looked at Jumba, who was starting to get back up. "You said that the guy in the mask took your computer, right?"

"Yes," Jumba nodded in affirmation.

"T-T-T-That's n-n-not g-good…" Lady stammered. "T-That computer h-h-has information o-on all of us e-e-e-e-experiments…"

"Meaning…?" Knuckles asked. Rouge sighed.

"It means that Eggman knows about their strengths and weaknesses now," She replied, sounding exasperated. "Whatever element of surprise they may have given us is gone now."

"Oh, that's great," Slang spat, crossing her arms. "Now Eggy-McNosehair has dirt on all of us."

Ignoring the snickers Slang's new nickname for Eggman elicited, Espio crossed his arms and frowned.

"As much as we would have enjoyed the element of surprise, it was likely to have meant nothing against the masked one."

He turned to Stitch, Angel and Aurora.

"You three had an encounter with him, correct?"

"And that battle didn't end in our favor," Aurora confirmed in a sigh. Espio then turned to Zack, Clover, and Jumba.

"And the same goes for you, then, correct?"

"We probably did worse than those guys, really," Zack confirmed.

"Jumba could not see masked creature moving," Jumba added. "Also got unusually contradictory readings from him."

"Contradictory how?"

"Well-" Jumba was interrupted by a loud beeping noise. "What is annoying noise?"

Amy quickly ran over to the computer and started striking keys. She gasped.

"What is it?" Sonic asked.

"Something's attacking inside the Mystic Jungle!" Amy shouted. "Silver is fighting him… or it, or… whatever! Just hurry!"

Suddenly, a familiar and extremely unwelcome sound began to emanate over the commlink.

"Guys!" Silver shouted, sounding urgent. "It's him!"

"Lemme at 'em!" Clover suddenly jumped up. "I'm gonna take that mask of his, and I'm gonna – ow…"

Zack grabbed Clover's arm and tugged on it, dragging her right back down to earth.

"Yeah, BAD IDEA. Remember what he did to us, y'know, an hour ago?" He reminded her. Clover stuck her tongue out at him in response.

"Blah!"

"He has a point, Clover," Angel said, walking over to her twin. "We got crushed, and so did you. I don't think anyone's really in any shape to-"

"I'll go," Sonic grinned, punching his fist into his hand. "I'm lookin' forward to a second round with THIS guy."

Angel turned to reprimand him, holding her finger up, only for Sonic to suddenly blast out the door in a streak of blue. Angel's finger promptly fell as her words, once more, died in her throat.

"…Seriously?" Was all she could get out. Stitch, on the other hand, grinned.

"I like this guy."

"Eggman's forces are scattering bombs like confetti!" Knuckles shouted over the commlink.

"We can't go on like this!" Amy yelled.

Sonic grit his teeth and clenched his fists. A blue aura exploded around him as he accelerated forward, wind whipping around him.

"The whole place is goin' up in flames," Sonic added, barrelling through several squadrons of Egg Pawns. "Not the kinda fireworks I like!"

Blasting through several dash panels, Sonic noticed several purple-colored Badniks attempting to run away from him. Egg Walkers, he thought they were called.

With a smirk, he sidestepped to the left and proceeded to blast through them, sending them flying. Noticing another group of robots, he repeated his movements, this time to the right. The badniks were sent careening into a tree and exploded.

"Those are the kinds of fireworks I like," He grinned.

There was a long stretch of Rings on the path before him, something he swiftly took advantage of.

"Scattering bombs in the forest? Really!?" Angel could be heard gritting her teeth.

"Yeesh, sis!" Clover yelled. "Calm down there before ya blow a fuse!"

"I-Isn't he b-b-building something t-t-there?" Lady squeaked. "W-Wouldn't that b-b-b-be h-h-his l-loss?"

"Yeah, I don't understand that guy either," Vector agreed.

There was another series of dash panels ahead, which Sonic used to blast forward. Drifting along a turn, he noticed the ruins to his side were lit up with bright, neon lights.

"Is McNosehair building another casino?" He sarcastically asked, not once slowing down as he ran over a small line of Egg Pawns, all of whom he seemed to take by surprise.

"Whaddya mean 'another'?" Zack asked. "Is this guy a gambling addict or somethin'?"

Sonic chuckled even as he ran past the ruins. He'd never thought about that; he'd just torn through the places without a second thought.

"Wanna bet he rigs all the games so that he wins every time?" Clover joked.

"Probably," Said basically everyone. Sonic could almost see Clover's ears droop.

"Buzzkills."

Noticing a trail of Rings in the air above him, Sonic jumped, grabbing the Rings and landing on a floating platform. Taking a moment to scope out the area, he swiftly noticed several rockets flying towards him. Thinking quickly, he leapt forward, curling into a ball as he did so. With record speed, he homed in on the Egg Walkers firing on him and slammed into the nearest one, causing it to explode on impact.

Landing, he saw several more robots aimed at him. Without skipping a beat, he Boosted once more and tore through them before flying up a steep ramp behind them.

"Not bad," Shadow (598) commented. Slang 'hmphed' in response.

"What a fascinating display," Jumba said, sounding excited. "Am interested in learning more about blue spiky one's abilities."

"Hey, you too Doc? I wanna know how he does that super speed thing! Y'know, the one where he just blasts through those robots?"

"I don't know if-" Aurora paused, before continuing in an uncertain tone. "Well, I don't know… maybe it'd suit you?"

"Well, he kinda showed me how to do it," Stitch said, before adding, "Sorta…"

Sonic noticed several rotating platforms ahead of him and rolled his eyes. Who had time for that? Continuing his Boost, he jumped. In a streak of blue, he easily cleared the platforms. There was a squadron of Egg Pawns awaiting him at the other side of the platforms. He swiftly and without any fanfare ploughed through them.

Continuing his charge, Sonic leapt over another small gap in the road before leaping off of the platform. He then stomped downwards, descending to the ground as a blue meteor, crushing an Egg Pawn beneath him. Before the others could react, he blasted forward again, sending all of them flying into the air.

Passing through a couple of Save Posts, he ran through a few caution fences before charging into a jump panel and was launched onto a gargantuan stone half-pipe.

Once more, and with a grin, he Boosted. In an intense surge of speed, he blazed forward, mowing down Egg Pawns, Egg Walkers, and more caution fences. He noticed some thorny brambles in his path, however, and swerved out of the way, directly in front of some more brambles. Without missing a beat, Sonic jumped, backflipping in mid-air, before seamlessly landing and continuing his charge.

The half-pipe eventually led to a large collection of springs, which launched him into the air and over a bottomless pit. Thankfully for Sonic, there was a group of Egg… actually, Sonic didn't know WHAT Eggman called them, but there was a large group of them floating in the air above the pit. A few well-placed Homing Attacks put him past the pit.

He noticed, however, that the group continued past where the solid ground began and decided to keep going, eventually noticing a lone Egg Pawn standing atop a smaller cliff, doubtlessly waiting for him to have scaled the cliff the normal way.

"Not today, pal!" Sonic homed in on it, instantly destroying it. There was a Save Post right behind this robot, which Sonic ran through. This was followed by another trail of Rings and a larger squad of Egg Pawns, which Sonic Boosted through.

Behind those was a jump panel that sent him hurtling towards another stone halfpipe.

"We're doomed! We can't hold any longer!" A soldier shouted over the commlink.

"You've done plenty!" Sonic yelled, boosting down the halfpipe, tearing through hordes of Badniks. "Great job!"

"We've located that unknown enemy," Amy said as Sonic swerved to avoid a thorny bramble and charged into an Egg Walker, sending it flying. "They're in the ruins up ahead."

"Great, Amy! I'll make sure everyone's efforts weren't in vain!" Sonic grinned, blasting through a horde of Egg Walkers and sending them flying in every which way.

"Kick that guy's ass!" Clover cheered.

"Just don't get yourself killed!" Angel added.

Sonic rolled his eyes. Like THAT wasn't obvious.

Drifting down a turn in the pipe, he accelerated forward and kicked off yet another set of dash panels. As he flew through the air, however, a dark shape suddenly burst from the ground.

"Unidentified lifeform detected on the radar!" He heard Amy shouting. "Something from the jungle!?"

That something was a giant snake. The monster opened its mouth and gave an ear-splitting roar. It kept its mouth open, clearly intending to snatch Sonic from mid-air.

Yeah, no.

Sonic curled into a ball and with a burst of speed, changed trajectory, smacking the monster square in the jaw and sending it reeling. He landed on the snake's body and kept running, even as the snake began looping and curling in an effort to throw him off.

"Looks like all the explosions riled it up," He guessed. "Looks like we won't get past without a fight!"

As he spoke, the snake suddenly lifted the part of its body Sonic was running on, sending the now slightly surprised hedgehog into the air, where the snake proceeded to snap him up. It roared triumphantly.

"Oh, you're SO gonna regret that," Came a muffled voice from within the snake. "Hedgehogs don't make good snacks."

The snake neither understood or cared about what Sonic said. To it, he was lunch. Nothing more.

…That was until it's body suddenly and painfully jerked to the side in a flash of blue. Then another, on the other side. Another side on the front, and then, finally, another one to the back.

The monster roared in agony, before Sonic came flying out of its mouth. It then collapsed to the ground with a loud, thundering boom.

Sonic flew from where the snake had spit him out before landing. Seeing what looked like a base ahead, he darted forward, ready for his rematch with the freak in the mask.

"Experiment 626," The computer chimed, displaying a crude image of the experiment in question. "Primary function: Destruction of heavily populated areas. WARNING: Extremely dangerous."

Eggman scratched his chin, his eyes narrowed at the computer. Almost every experiment he had examined in this computer had some sort of major flaw, be it in their design, such as experiment 101, who was extremely physically strong but physically and mentally slow, or in their programming, such as experiment 544, who was best described as… "unique". In the most horrifying way possible.

Eggman shuddered. If there was any experiment he didn't want to have to fight one-on-one, it'd be that one. He almost felt pity on 524, whom the computer said 544 was apparently obsessed with.

Some of them were plain unstable, such as experiment 591, who was extremely powerful, but seemed to be an extremely young child and thus had no control over her powers.

Well, it was to be expected. They were genetic experiments, after all. There were bound to be some failures. Though, given how this "Doctor Jookiba" described them, it seemed that they were also bio-mechanical to some extent. Eggman smirked at the thought. Mechanics. His specialty.

Of all of the experiments he had seen so far, however, 626 had caught his attention. He recognized him from before; he was the blue one who had tried to fight Infinite along with experiments 624 and 585. He had lost, badly, but had put on a rather impressive showing compared to the other two, particularly at the end. And that fascinated the rotund scientist. So, Eggman struck a few keys on the database.

"Give me the details on this experiment."

"Experiment 626 possesses three venomous spines along its back, along with claws on all six limbs able to tear through enriched alloys. The experiment is resistant to blunt force trauma, as well as extreme heat, and is immune to gunfire. It also possesses the ability to think at speeds greater than an alien supercomputer, being able to acquire, store, and utilize any information it comes across."

Eggman whistled. He had to admit, this was highly impressive. Doctor Jookiba had most certainly impressed him. If he was trying to create a perfect weapon, experiments 626 and the so-called "ultimate super-weapon" 611, the latter of whom didn't seem to have much written about it on the computer (to Eggman's dismay) certainly seemed to come close.

"Experiment 626 possesses enhanced physical strength, able to lift objects up to three thousand times its own body weight, and possesses heightened speed and agility. Due to its molecular density, experiment 626 cannot swim," The computer scratched his chin again. That… didn't seem capable of standing up to Sonic or Shadow, but, perhaps…

An evil grin split the mad scientist's face.

"Yes, I believe I can do something about that."

…Well, that's not good.