Disclaimer: Sonic and co. ©Sega

Onward to battle!

Chapter Seven

Not Fast Enough

1 Month, 24 Days and 9 Hours before Black Egg Armageddon

No more fighting an obese and self-indulged Eggman. No more of that fat man who always commands giant fleets of robots. We're only left with the monster that crawled out of his insane head.

Screaming, yelling and sirens all brewed together within the day's humid air, creating a symphony of dreadful noises. People ran for their lives, calling for help while others lay sprawled on the ground, motionless and dead. Never before has Eggman caused such a disaster that had so many casualties. Usually, Eggman would attack more remote areas, rarely inhabited, or he would attack and enslave some people, but now he's attacking more populated areas. Smoke polluted most of the air that Sonic breathed in, but he didn't care right now. The only thing that mattered the most was taking Eggman down.

Knuckles stood next to Sonic and Rouge, a confused and shocked look on his face. Fighting this new Eggman was scary and shocking at the same time. Rouge was feeling the same way, but she hid her fear she felt behind a serious facade. Moments ago she was afraid she was going to die, but after Sonic and Knuckles joined in, she started to feel a bit more relaxed and the feeling of death at her side diminished.

"What? No heroic monologue to start the fight?" asked Eggman as he looked at Sonic. Eggman could easily see the anger brewing within Sonic and now he was going to harvest it for his own entertainment.
"Come on Sonic, I know you have something to say to me." He stated with a smile.

He couldn't take it anymore and Sonic just burst out with questions. "Why did you kidnap Tails? Why didn't you attack me instead? And where the hell is his other Tail!?" asked Sonic, in a more of a demanding tone.

A happy laugh echoed out of Eggman's mouth as he held his stomach. It was as if he had heard a funny joke. "Finally, you come out with your little questions. First off, I kidnapped Tails, because I was bored. Second, fighting you would've been a bit droll at the time and third," His smile widened as he dug his hand into his pocket. "here's his other tail." he said as he took out a severed tail from his pocket.

The tail definitely belongs to Tails, but it was different now. Small blotches of blood stained the golden-yellow tail and for some reason it seemed a bit torn. At the point where it should have been connected to Tails, a metal cap was applied to make it some sort of keychain.

"I hear that a fox's tail is good look in some places." stated Eggman with a smile.

Right then and there, Sonic found that Eggman has reached the all time epiphany of cruelty. Taking his friend's tail is bad, but keeping one of them as some sort of good luck charm or celebratory trophy is both disgusting and horrifying. There was no way Sonic could keep his rage pent up inside of him any longer, he just let it all out, giving Eggman exactly what he wanted.

"That's it!" roared Sonic before racing toward Eggman.

The smile on Eggman's face remained unchanged after seeing Sonic's sudden outburst of anger. In the small seconds Eggman had before Sonic rammed into him, the doctor easily sidestepped Sonic's attack and watched as the hedgehog ran past him. Sonic skidded to a halt after noticing his failed attack on Eggman. The cobalt hedgehog swung around and ran toward Eggman again, this time he curled his body into his Spin Dash position. Instead of moving out of the way again, Eggman stood still and watched the speedy hero attack. Moments before Sonic could finally ram into Eggman, the doctor drew both of his arms behind his back and threw them forward, stopping Sonic. The doctor started to push harder and harder, making sure that Sonic wouldn't go anywhere. Both of them engaged in some sort of pushing game, except no one was winning.

"Is that it?" grunted Eggman as he continued to halt Sonic with his large arms.

"There's more then one enemy doc!" yelled another voice from behind Eggman. The doctor was so caught up with Sonic, he forgot about the other two nuisances behind him.

Eggman, with all his might, finally pushed Sonic a good distance away from him and turned around, but he was only seconds too late. Rouge flew in, landing a powerful kick on Eggman's face, stunning the man and causing him to take small steps backwards in his daze. Knuckles then rushed the woozy man and jumped up, driving a powerful, rock hard fist into the man's face. The incredible punch sent Eggman flying backwards this time, but it wasn't over yet. Sonic then revved himself up again and rammed into Eggman, driving the brute forward through the wall of a building. Eggman disappeared as the rubble and dust filled the air along with the black smoke that came from the fire. While the doctor lay under the concrete remains of the destroyed wall, the sound of fire trucks erupted into the air, as the fire trucks pulled up near the fires. Firefighters then doused the flames with water and evacuated the remaining injured civilians.

Sonic looked at the pile of rubble, a cocky smile on his face. Rouge stepped up next to him and both of them searched for any signs of movement. As the civilians were saved, a sudden wave of relief hit the hedgehog. Everyone was safe and there weren't that many casualties.

"He's not so tough. Sure, he looks huge, but he can't use it like I can." said Knuckles with a chuckle as he stepped up next to Sonic.

Rouge looked at the mound with a serious glare. She didn't believe his little act at all. "Don't get to cocky you two, he's just playing with us." She said firmly, making both Sonic and Knuckles look at her with shocked expressions.

A joyful laugh erupted from within the pile of rock and plaster. "Good Rouge, very perceptive of you to see through my rouse." said Eggman normally as a figure rose up from under the pile of rubble.

Moments ago, all three of them unleashed a brutal attack on the man, but now he dusted it off as if it was nothing.

Eggman then looked at the shocked Sonic and Knuckles, as a smile crawled onto the man's face. "Come on now, leave those shocked expressions behind and let's have a good fight. Besides, I need to test this new body of mine." said Eggman in a playful manner.

After hearing Eggman's seemingly carefree statement, Knuckles put on a sudden irritated and angered face. Blinded with rage, Knuckles charged Eggman, an angry roar echoing from the echidna. Knuckles was giving Eggman exactly what he wanted, blinding rage, trembling fear, and massive confusion. The echidna caught a flash of Eggman's smile before the doctor shot his fist forward in a punch.

To Knuckles, it was like he was being hit in the face with a large boulder. The punch sent the echidna flying backwards and in through a store window. Sonic watched as the echidna disappeared into the store's burning walls. With a quick turn, Sonic found himself staring at Eggman once again, but this time he had to think. Straight forward attacks would do no good against a beast of such high brutality, so speed and tactic were his only options left. Luckily for the cobalt hedgehog, speed was his forte, and in the treasure hunter, thief sort of way, Rouge had the tactics.

"Go around him and attack from his backside, I'll attack from the front as a distraction." said Rouge, her face a mixture of seriousness and anger.

"I'll be there in the blink of an eye." said a cocky hedgehog as he started to do some warm-up stretches.

Sonic was more confident now. He didn't think that the fight would be that bad. If Eggman wanted to play games, then Sonic would play along. Besides, pretending like the fear wasn't there made Sonic feel as though he would win the fight.

"Three," Rouge was now starting her little countdown until their attack. "Two," The same cocky smile creased across Sonic's face, he was ready. "One, go!" yelled Rouge, before Sonic disappeared in a sudden blur of motion, leaving the bat to charge Eggman alone.

With swift motions that might copy the movements of some elegant dancer, Rouge brought her foot up and kicked at Eggman's chest, only to be blocked by the man's huge arms. After a couple minutes of rapid kicking Rouge abruptly stopped her attack. The sudden halt made a bewildered look wash onto Eggman's face.

"You're still slow." said a familiar male voice from behind Eggman.

Eggman quickly turned away from Rouge, but was too late. His new body and strength got in the way of his intellect and let his enemy attack him with the simplest of attacks. Suddenly, Eggman's sight was awash with cobalt blue color, because Sonic had smashed into his face using his signature Spin Jump technique. The stunned doctor, wobbled backwards, the attack throwing him off balance. All Eggman could see was random blurs and flashes of colors as he slowly stepped backwards. Rouge took another leap toward Eggman, trying to send her kick right between the man's eyes. The battle scene slowed down into slow motion, Rouge's foot only a couple inches away from smashing into Eggman's face and it was still crawling forward. Eggman looked at the incoming foot with astonishment.

"Interesting." said the doctor to himself as he scratched his chin in regular speed.

It was no magic or scientific machine that was altering the pure fabric of time, it was speed. Eggman looked at Rouge, her face still frozen into the serious glare that could make a brave man shiver in terror. Before the doctor could exploit his newfound boost speed, a sudden chuckle was heard from behind him. Eggman knew who was standing behind him, since the person behind him was one of the few people who could attain this speed.

"Not so slow now am I?" asked Eggman as he turned around to find Sonic staring at him.

Sonic chuckled again, things were going from a dull fight to one of great interest for him. Moments before he was angry at Eggman for torturing Tails, but the hedgehog still sees the doctor as weak and as careless as before, the sudden change in events were only a little variable.

"I don't know how you are able to get this fast, but I seriously don't care." said Sonic with his cocky grin before he charged Eggman.

Eggman was now fighting in Sonic's little world. The world where things and people move at a slower pace, and the world where saving the days is easier. The doctor had no idea how he was able to enter this state of pure speed, but he didn't care, he just wanted to enjoy the little moment.

Sonic smashed into Eggman with the force of a train, driving Eggman backwards. With a sudden burst of speed and power, Sonic swept Eggman off of his feet and was now starting to plow the man through building walls. The doctor was new to this world, so he had no idea how to utilize its laws and physics to his advantage. Robnik was impressed though, he knew of Sonic's speed, but never imagined that he was so fast that he could literally slow time. Shadow could achieve this on his own, without a doubt. But if you gave Sonic or Shadow a Chaos Emerald, they could stop time completely. Having entered this world gave Eggman a sense of accomplishment.

As Sonic smashed Eggman threw building walls, the loose bricks and dust remained frozen in mid air, only to move forward at a crawling pace. After smashing the man through at least ten walls, Sonic skidded to a halt, making Ivo fly off and onto the concrete ground. The wall behind Sonic then exploded suddenly, sending bricks and plaster everywhere indicating that both of them left the slow dimension.

"That's a nice trick you have there. How'd you do it?" asked Eggman as he got back to his feet. A bit of dust on his shoulders, but after a quick wipe it was gone.

"It's a little speed trick, that sorta copies the power of Chaos Control. All you need is a huge amount of speed, then boom! Ya got yourself some weird time paradox thingy." said Sonic with a chuckle.

Fear and anger were no longer devouring Sonic anymore. The hedgehog was just imagining that this was just another fight with Eggman, except on different terms. Sonic would get his revenge and all would go well. Eggman wanted to see his rage and fear, so that's why he didn't show any of it. He would show Eggman that's he's still the hero no matter what.

Eggman turned around and about, as if looking for something, making Sonic raise an eyebrow in curiosity. The doctor finally found what he was looking for and set his eyes upon an analog clock on the wall.

"Glad we had this chat Sonic, but I'm running a bit off schedule. Thanks for the little tip on your time paradox anomaly though." said Eggman quaintly as he ran off toward Rouge's location, leaving a gray streak of motion behind him.

The sudden burst of speed from Eggman made Sonic's jaw drop in surprise. Now he actually got a glimpse of Eggman's real speed out of the time paradox thing. Sonic shook the confusion off and started his chase after Eggman, he couldn't let the man get away. At first he thought that Eggman entering his speed world was some sort of fluke made by one of his machines, but it was real, Eggman could achieve a velocity that was almost equal to his. After seconds of running, Sonic was able to match Eggman's speed and was now running next to him.

"Hold it! You're not going anywhere!" yelled Sonic as he continued to run alongside Eggman.

"So sorry my friend, but I have someone I need to kill." said Eggman, not even looking at Sonic.

"Oh no you don't!" exclaimed Sonic as he jumped up and thrust his foot forward.

The little race came to a halt, as Eggman held his arm up in a block against Sonic's attack. The fear was starting to come back now, and Sonic had no idea why. Instead of giving more of his time to think about it, he started his attack instead. Punches and kicks were launched rapidly at Eggman, but none of the attacks hit their intended target as Eggman matched Sonic's speed and blocked each attack instantly. Sweat was now starting to form upon Sonic's brow as he continued to punch.

"Shocking how a man could change in only a few days, don't you think?" asked Eggman with a smile, as he continued to easily block Sonic's attacks.

A seemingly easy day against his foe turned into a difficult one against a new enemy. This was something different then your oblivious Eggman stumbling into an awkward hand to hand combat fight, this was a headstrong monster rushing into a fight with bloodshed in mind. Sonic continued to unleash punch after punch on Eggman, but they never hit his body. After a couple more minutes of senseless punching, Eggman grabbed one of Sonic's incoming punches in his hand and didn't let go. The defenseless hedgehog tried to pull his fist back, but to no avail.

"Like I said, I have someone I need to kill." said Eggman before lifting Sonic off of his feet and throwing him through a wall.

Before Sonic could get back up, Eggman was gone.

Things were starting to calm down now, as the firefighters carefully escorted the wounded from smoldering fires and into the careful care of paramedics. Knuckles was already up and woozily made his way to a confused Rouge. After being sent through seven walls made of concrete Knuckles was knocked unconscious for a while, so he had no idea what had happened minutes before.

"What happened? Where's Sonic and Egghead?" asked Knuckles as he looked around.

"I don't know. One second my foot's centimeters away from Eggman's face, then the next second both of them are gone." replied Rouge with a shrug.

Disappearing into thin air was a new trick for Eggman. In her mind, Rouge could recall all of the failed gadgets that Eggman came up with, like an invisibility cloak, a mind controlling machine or some other machine that failed in its attempt to help Eggman take over the world. But instant teleportation was new, and right now it looks like it's working.

"Maybe Sonic rammed him into a wall or something." suggested Knuckles, trying to ease the nervous bat.

"Probably," sighed Rouge as she turned to face Knuckles. Rouge's eyes met with Knuckles, and she fought the urge to blush.

For a while now, Rouge and Knuckles have kept their emotions hidden from each other under their tough attitudes. Knuckles always acted tougher around Rouge. And the elegant bat, acted the same way. Sometimes they would tease each other with the fact, and at other times they denied it. Even though they hated to admit it, they did love each other they just never admitted it.

"Just leave it alone, Sonic can take down Eggman no matter what tricks he hides up his sleeve." said Knuckles with a reassuring tone. "Let's just get out of here."

Rouge nodded before her gaze looked past Knuckles and her jaw dropped open in shock. "Get down!" Rouge grabbed Knuckles and she pulled him to the side, causing both of them to fall on their backs.

Seconds before, Rouge caught a sudden glimpse of what seemed to be a large object running toward them. But after pulling the dumbfounded Knuckles away from the tackle, Rouge found that it was Eggman. The doctor skidded to a halt once he passed his target and turned around to find Rouge getting onto her feet, as Knuckles looked at the brute.

"That's wasn't nice. I was supposed to ram into both of you and smash you through an untold number of cement walls." said Eggman in an embarrassed tone, as he scratched his bald head.

Knuckles got to his feet, Eggman's playful choice of words irritating every nerve. The echidna then looked at the doctor with a serious glare and took a fighting stance.

"Try it again, and you'll be the one being smashed through walls." spat Knuckles in a cocky manner.

Even though seeing Eggman's dramatic change from fat maniacal scientist, to hulking mass of psychotic muscle, Knuckles was not afraid. After hanging around Sonic for a long time, the blur hero's cockiness and attitude did rub off on him in a way. In some situations, cockiness would be a positive attribute to have, but in others it would be a persons' downfall.

A low, mocking laugh escaped from Eggman's lips as he threw his head backwards in joy. The sudden outburst made Knuckles raise an eyebrow in suspicion.

"If you insist Knuckles, but I can only spare you a couple of minutes of my time. After that I have to kill Rouge." stated Eggman as he stopped his laughter and wiped a small tear from his eye.

The words struck a nerve in Knuckles' heart. He harnessed the anger he felt instead. Knuckles face crunched up and contorted into one of pure hatred for the doctor. Eggman instantly caught on, to the echidna's feeling for Rouge, and now he would begin his mind games.

"Oh! I'm sorry, I meant I was going to kill your girlfriend." The same smile stayed the same, but got even wider in size. His superior intellect would allow him to play some serious head games with Knuckles.

Fuelled with pure rage and irritation, Knuckles charged Eggman, the intent to kill him in his head. Once Knuckles got close to Eggman, the enraged echidna unleashed a flurry of ferocious punches. Each of Knuckles' punches failing to land, as Eggman easily shifted his body side to side to avoid them. Dodging the echidna's attack was much easier, since Knuckles wasn't as fast as Sonic.

"Stand still damn it! I want to beat the crap out of you!" growled Knuckles in an irritated tone.

Even as Eggman dodged the attacks, he was still able to taunt Knuckles with his psychotic smile. "Come on! Forty more seconds! You either land a punch or don't!" taunted Eggman.

"SHUT UP!" roared the echidna before increasing the speed of his punches.

Once Knuckles increased his punching speed, Eggman increased his dodging speed. The anger was just making the battle more enjoyable for Eggman. Ever since he transformed into this brute, fighting, killing and destroying things were much more enjoyable then they used to be. Watching people die and scream in pain was another thing he liked as well, but the dramatic changes did scare him. Eggman was still a man of logic and science and even he could tell that the serum was taking some toll on his mental wellbeing.

Knuckles threw another punch forward, and the fist hit nothing as Eggman dodged the attack. As Knuckles put his weight on his foot, he lost his footing and the echidna slipped. The doctor instantly took advantage of the opportunity and quickly moved in toward Knuckles. In the blink of an eye, Eggman seized Knuckles by the throat and was lifting him into the air. The suffocating echidna tried to squirm out of the doctor's grasp, but failed. Instead of panicking and losing all of his air at once, Knuckles tried to stay calm.

"Let him go!" yelled a female voice from behind Eggman.

Rouge ran forward and jumped into the air, her foot facing outwards in a kick. Before her foot could crash into Eggman's small head, she was caught by the doctor in one big muscle filled arm. Now both the echidna and bat were now within the grasp of Eggman. Rouge struggled to get free, only for Eggman to tighten his grasp, causing Rouge to cry out in pain.

"Now this is the movie moment in reverse." said Eggman with a smile. "Usually it's the boy who selflessly risks his life to save the girl, not the other way around."

"Just let Knuckles go." spat Rouge, knowing that she could at least save one life before she died.

"I will grant your dying wish." Eggman said. He lifted Knuckles up and threw him aside, only for him to skid across the ground like a ragdoll.

Knuckles tried to get up and only saw Rouge try to wriggle free of Eggman's grasp. He got to his feet, but he was too far away to save her and he knew it, but he didn't care. Knuckles started running toward her, and hoped he would get there in time. Speed wasn't his thing, it was Sonic who was the master of it. No matter how hard Knuckles tried, he knew he couldn't save her.

Eggman threw Rouge to the ground, the force breaking some of the bat's bones. Rouge could feel that some of her ribs were broken, and somewhere along her leg there was a fracture. She was hopelessly stuck on the ground waiting to die. The doctor walked toward the bat and positioned his foot a foot away from her head.

"Any last words?" asked Eggman kindly. At least the doctor did have some manners for a psychotic brute.

Rouge looked at Eggman, the fear was gone and was replaced with regret. She would die without confessing her love. But she wouldn't die like that, she wanted to die with no regret in life and that was exactly what she would do. She looked to the side and her eyes met with Knuckles' eyes for one last time.

"Knuckles!" Rouge cried out, as tears started to come out of her eyes.

After hearing her cry out to him, a shocked look came onto Knuckles' face. People always do extreme things in hard times and Knuckles knew that. The echidna also knew that Rouge had feelings for him, but always figured that she would never tell him. To everyone else, Knuckles was always proclaimed to be the gullible or stupid one. Even with these outrageous proclamations, the echidna did know one thing, and that's the fact that he loved Rouge.

Knuckles looked into Rouge's weeping eyes as she said her final words. "I love you."

Eggman plunged his foot downwards onto Rouge's head with the force that could break stones as tears started fall from Knuckles' face as he ran toward him.

CRUNCH!

A wet crunch filled the air around Knuckles, telling him that there was no point in trying to save her now. The maniacal doctor lifted his foot from the unrecognizable form that was Rouge's face and stepped back. A devilish smile made its way onto his face as he looked at the bloody pulp. Bones were scattered amongst the red stew that was Rouge's face, and a single eyeball remained unscathed for the other one was crushed beyond all recognition. Eggman had crushed her head so well that it was as if he had decapitated her. He smiled one more time at his work, before disappearing in a blur of motion, leaving a heartbroken echidna alone with a dead bat. Knuckles raced over to Rouge and picked up her body, even though it had no head. He sobbed as he hugged her limp body.

Minutes later, a blue streak of motion made its way to the echidna. It stopped, leaving a shocked Sonic the hedgehog to gaze upon the carnage that Eggman caused. His jaw dropped open in shock after seeing Rouge's decapitated body.

"I wasn't fast enough." sobbed Knuckles as he continued to cry over Rouge's dead and headless body.

"No Knuckles," said Sonic, making the echidna look at him. "I wasn't fast enough."

I'm the fastest thing on the planet. I could run halfway across the world to save a women from a burning building and I can even carry a crippled man out from a war zone. But I'm wasn't fast enough to save my friend's life and she payed for it instead of me.

This chapter took me some time because I had some people over at my house and it kind of ruined my focus.