The huge, blunt tip came at Shock like a train, and he knew that when it hit, there would be almost nothing left of him. Images of his parents flashed through his mind as he waited, eyes closed, for his end.
Then he felt himself being thrust in one direction, he wasn't sure which. He heard the loud boom of the robot's arm smashing into the ground and there was a slight pressure on his chest. Curiously, he felt no pain and heard the wind whistling in his ears.
The movement stopped and when he opened his eyes, he saw a blue hedgehog grinning at him.
"Sonic?"
"Hey there."
Shock looked around, and discovered he was behind a large rock. To his far right, the robot was pulling its blunt weapon out of a crater as Eggman's laughter filled the air.
His blue eyes turned to the hedgehog again.
"What are you doing here?"
Sonic raised an eyebrow, "Oh, you're welcome."
"Sonic, what are you doing here?" the echidna asked again.
"I came to help ya, what else?"
"Get out of here, this is my fight!"
"You can't beat that thing alone. I know what it's capable of."
"How can you possibly know that?"
"Eavesdroppin'," said Sonic, smirking, "When I heard trees crashing down in the distance, I ran up and saw you talkin' to Egghead. Good thing I showed up, huh?"
"That's great, Sonic, but I said this is my fight. I don't need anyone's help."
The hedgehog put a hand on the echidna's shoulder and his face took on a serious look, "Listen. You can't beat that thing alone. You can't. Let me help you. I'll leave you alone afterwards if that's what you want... but you have to trust me – you need help with this."
For a few short seconds, Shock mulled it over, and then looked at Sonic.
"Alright. Let's do it."
Sonic's grin returned and he nodded.
.
Eggman laughed as the heavy arm of the robot extracted itself from the ground, dirt and debris falling from it. In the rubble-filled crater, there was no movement. The head slowly rotated in a clockwise direction, scanning the area. One full turn later, Eggman clapped his hands together.
"Oh ho ho ho! Not a trace! Well, that's one less nuisance."
"You talkin' about me?" asked a familiar voice.
The Doctor leaned over the control console, glaring.
"Sonic! I should've known you'd show up..."
"So what are you up to this time? Somethin' stupid again, I bet."
"I'll have you know, I just took care of that echidna you were talking with over the last few days."
"Oh, Shock? So, you found out, then?"
"Yes, and now he's done for!" gloated Eggman, then laughed.
"Is that so?" asked Sonic and looked to his right. The grey echidna stepped into view, "'Cause he looks fine to me."
"What?"
"Ready?" Sonic asked.
Shock nodded.
Sonic ran towards the huge robot, evading the surprisingly fast arms. He jumped on the left one and used it as a platform to bounce up to the cockpit. The robot temporarily halted as Eggman reared back in surprise. He gritted his teeth at the hedgehog waving at him through the glass. Before he could react, Sonic leapt back, curling into a ball in mid-air. He slammed into the robot's right arm repeatedly.
"Argh! Stop that!" cried Eggman angrily.
The blue hedgehog balanced on the round arm, looking down at the buckled yellow armour, then up at the cockpit, "Stop what? This?"
With a powerful push of his legs, he jumped high into the air, then came crashing down in ball form at a high speed. He smashed into the arm, breaking off the weakened armour and exposing the circuitry inside.
"Nooo! Look what you've done, you stupid hedgehog!" yelled the enraged Doctor.
"Shock! Now!" cried Sonic.
The grey echidna moved into position and reared back an arm, gathering electricity. Then he thrust it forward, striking the unprotected circuitry with hot electric arcs. There was a bang and a shower of sparks as smoke started emanating from the complicated machinery. Suddenly, half the arm exploded and the two young anthros covered their heads. The robot, Egglectro, almost lost its balance from being forced back by the blast, but due to the expert handling of Doctor Eggman, it was steady again in seconds.
Sonic balled his hand into a fist, "Yes! We can do this! I'll take out the armour and you finish it off!"
Suddenly, the remaining arm swung forward to point at them, even though they were too far away to reach. However, to their surprise, the blunt tip split apart and a multi-barrelled chaingun slid out. As soon as it locked in place, the large, black barrels started rotating.
Without a second thought, Shock jumped in front of Sonic, thrust his hands in front of him and created a wall of electricity. A second later, bullets thudded out of the large gun. Thanks to Shock's quick thinking, all the bullets were harmlessly deflected away.
"Cool..." commented Sonic, watching the show with awe, although he still kept his head down.
The thunderous booming of the chaingun stopped when Eggman realised he wasn't getting anywhere. The gun retracted and the tip merged together again.
"Blast you!" Eggman yelled.
"Nah, ya tried that. Didn't do much," Sonic retorted, grinning.
"Then how about this?"
Eight small missiles shot from Egglectro's back, into the sky. Sonic and Shock's eyes followed them up, wondering what Eggman was doing. Then the hedgehog noticed the missiles turning and heading back down.
"Uh-oh!" he cried. He got his legs moving, grabbing Shock as he passed him, slinging the echidna over his shoulder The missiles followed them, some exploding on rocks and trees, throwing debris into the air. Shock grimaced, covering his face with the back of his hand.
Sonic turned and rushed into a forest, hoping to lose the remaining four. However, the programming running inside them told them that they would have no chance of following their target through the trees, so they shot into the sky again and headed towards the ground, calculating where the hedgehog could be from disturbances in the trees.
Four explosions ripped through the forest as the missiles ploughed into the ground.
The Doctor scanned the trees for movement and readied the chaingun again – there was a chance those two survived.
.
Sonic set Shock back down. The echidna wobbled slightly and held onto a nearby tree for support.
"If you're gonna do that again, tell me beforehand, would you?" said Shock.
"Didn't have time. Sorry."
Shock shrugged and took a look around. They were deep in the forest with the sound of the robot some distance away. Apart from that, it was quiet; all the animals had been scared away by the loud noises.
"Man, that was close," said Sonic. He turned his head towards the mechanical sounds, "That thing's way too dangerous to keep around."
"Then let's wrap this up quickly."
"Now you're talkin' my language!"
The two rushed out of the trees, only to be confronted by the chaingun's barrels. The few short seconds of surprise were enough for the barrels to begin spinning before Shock could react. The hedgehog and echidna each launched themselves behind a couple of trees, gritting their teeth as the bullets fired from the large weapon and thudded heavily into their wooden cover. Bark, leaves and bullets flew around them.
Suddenly, the barrage stopped. The two had barely recovered when Egglectro started swiping away the trees. Shock's tree was snapped in two and the loud rending sound disoriented the echidna. He felt himself tumbling and then found he was lying on his back. staring up at the yellow robot, the chaingun still armed. The huge arm lifted up and Shock scrambled to his feet, glancing over at Sonic, who was getting up, himself.
The grey echidna jumped back as the arm came down and landed just in front of him, giving him a close-up view of the deadly weapon. Moving closer, Egglectro scooped up Shock, using the barrels like fingers.
Eggman grinned and was about to begin firing when the machine shook and the echidna fell to the ground, his black boots hitting the ground heavily, but he was otherwise unharmed. The Doctor grimaced and saw Sonic landing from his attack on the arm.
Without giving Eggman a chance to react, the cobalt hedgehog leapt onto the arm and began running in loops over it, becoming a blue blur. The vibrations from Sonic's antics made the arm shudder and emitted an annoying metallic rattling noise inside the cockpit.
Finally, he jumped into the air and proceeded to bash away at the yellow armour. With a final heavy attack, the armour fell off, landing noisily on the ground.
"My turn," said Shock and gathered electricity. He threw the bolts at the vulnerable arm, sending an extra large surge into the circuitry to ensure its destruction and the entire arm exploded almost immediately.
"Ha! What now, Egghead?" said Sonic.
"You little...! I'll show you what now!" yelled Eggman.
The chest area opened up to reveal a laser turret.
"Oh, you've gotta be kidding me!" exclaimed Sonic, "How many weapons does this thing have?"
The turret aimed at the hedgehog and fired a green laser. Sonic twisted his body to avoid it, although he felt the heat from it as it passed him.
"Man, this is not good," muttered Sonic. He rolled left to avoid another blast and saw the turret swivel towards Shock, who jumped back and then ducked behind a tree to avoid the searing beams sent towards him.
The blue hedgehog took this opportunity to jump toward the weapon, hoping to destroy it with a spin attack. However, the barrel started to point his way.
"Uh-oh!"
Instead of spinning, Sonic landed on top of the turret, lying on his front with his hands and legs on either side. He clung on as Eggman swung him left and right, trying to shake him off.
Shock watched helplessly as the turret flicked its aim up, smashing Sonic against the hard body of the robot.
Before he could be smashed a fourth time, he used the momentum to propel himself up to the cockpit.
"Hey, that really hurt ya know," he said through the glass. Eggman simply smiled evilly.
Looking down, Sonic saw the barrel pointing straight at him.
"Ah."
Quickly, he backflipped off the machine a second before the laser sizzled through the area he had occupied.
"Sonic, look out!" yelled Shock, charging his electricity once again.
Retreating to the safety of the forest, Sonic watched as Shock thrust his hands forward, sending white-blue arcs at the laser turret. Green bolts flew past the echidna, but he ignored them and continued his attack. Smoke began pouring from the turret's blackened casing and the weapon slumped down.
Eggman let out an angry snarl and banged on the control panel. He had no weapons left, but wasn't about to let the echidna, and definitely not the hedgehog, get away – he still had the robot's tremendous weight and the legs were functional.
"Fine! I'll crush you pests!"
However, immediately after his last attack, Shock had began forming a ball of electricity. Egglectro had barely taken two steps when the echidna loosed the crackling sphere at the mechanical monstrosity's still open chest area.
The yellow robot stumbled onto its knees with a heavy boom.
Eggman looked around at his crackling, fizzling control panel.
"Alright, Shock, Sonic, you've won this time! But I'll be back!"
The large scientist grinned and hit the eject switch to uncouple his Egg-O-Matic from the robot. His grin disappeared when nothing happened. He hit the switch several times, but there was no response.
The crackling intensified and Eggman looked around despairingly.
"...Oh no..."
Egglectro exploded, throwing the egg-shaped craft with its similarly shaped pilot up in the air and into the distance.
"Have a nice flight!" called Sonic, giving Eggman a farewell salute.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Shock kneel down next to something.
"What's up?"
The grey echidna didn't respond and picked up the ruined bracelet that held back his dangerous discharges. He stood up, shaking his head.
"Oh yeah. That thing," said the hedgehog.
Shock reared his arm back, ready to throw the device away, but Sonic stopped him.
"Whoa, whoa, hold on! Maybe Tails can get it working, again."
"Are you sure?"
"I wouldn't be surprised if he could. Come on, whaddya say?"
Holding the bracelet, thinking about his parents, Shock's mouth twisted, unsure. He still wasn't used to accepting help, but if there was still a chance to see them again...
He nodded, "Alright."
Sonic smirked and gave him a comforting slap on the back.